The World of James Horner Tribute Blu-Ray

Last year movie score composer James Horner died in a plane crash. For Star Trek fans he is most known for his score to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and possible for Search for Spock. I think his very best music was the score for Glory (which is not available for digital purchase that I can find). However, most may know him for his '90s and '00s work which includes Braveheart, Avatar, Titanic, Apollo 13, and A Beautiful Mind. Other scores I recommend include Search for Bobby Fischer, Field of Dreams, Bicentennial Man, and Casper. His last work will be for The Magnificent Seven coming out in a few weeks.

If you are a fan, you might be interested in the new Blu-ray "Hollywood in Vienna: The World of James Horner". Recorded in 2013 as part of the concert series in a tribute to the works of James Horner. Conducted by David Newman, it includes music from many of the recommendations above but also from Willow, Aliens, The Mask of Zorro, The Rocketeer, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, and more including a long interview with the composer about his work. Full details at Amazon, trailer below.


From TrekMovie about composing Wrath of Khan:

Tabbed by Nicholas Meyer to write the score to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the then 27-year old composer only had seven previous credits to his name at that point. Dreaming of becoming a classical composer, Horner actually looked down on a career in film scoring; all of which changed with Wrath of Khan. Meyer wanted to distance this new film from the previous Star Trek: The Most Picture, which also meant not reusing any of Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic music from the movie.

“The film needed a powerful score,” Horner explained to Starlog Magazine’s Tom Sciacca in 1982. “The score is designed to help create a feeling of tremendous speed and power for the Enterprise.”

“Spock never had a theme before, and I wanted to give him a theme to tie the whole of Genesis and Spock by the end of the film,” Horner added, “so that it would all mean something. The theme for Spock, incidentally, is actually heard at the Leaving Drydock sequence.”