"That was actually the piece that prompted me to give up academia and pursue film music. I worked very, very hard on that piece and I worked very hard on pushing it around, sending it to all kinds of people, working very hard to finally find an orchestra to play it and a place to perform it. I went to Indianapolis and pushed them very hard to get rehearsal time and after all that work they perform it for one evening, and you say, "Now what?". It gave me such a feeling of having had an impact only on the immediate four hundred people in the audience. It was very well received but it didn't have any impact -- I couldn't get another performance. It was too expensive because it was a big orchestra piece, and it's a modern piece and there were a lot of things that were going against writing modern pieces. At that point I just said the only place where I could really write music is in films. Nowhere else do you get the opportunity to write something, and four weeks later stand in front of the best players in the city and hear your work. It's the best learning experience in the world."

-- James Horner, from Cinemascore #10, 1982.

"Sometimes, of course, the producers are taking a chance on me, and the music budget is $200,000, and they say to me they want such-and-such a score, and I say, well, that score's been done, let me give you something different; they say give us something different on our next film, this is the kind of score we want for this film. That is very often what one is up against, where a producer or director has seen the movie and has temp-tracked it with someone else's music, has fallen in love with that score, and says this is what we want, period. You try and fight against that a little bit, but sometimes you can't. I've been told very amazing things where they say we want exactly that kind of score, we want that exact kind of cue -- just put it in your own language, but that's exactly what we want..."

Horner was ultimately unhappy with the recording of the score --the sound quality was poor and the LP release sounded very substandard. It was released on a 500 copy bootleg along with Humaniods from the Deep in 1998, and finally realized a commercial release a few years later.

This score is a standing example of the purity inherent in an artfully executed film score; in this music is not an ounce of manipulation, not a moment of reductive melodrama, but only simple consistency and sincere emotional conveyance. Horner here sets aside his orchestral pointing tool and writes real, decent music for a small folk ensemble. The music is there, in the film, integrally; not carrying us along, sweeping us across dramatic scenery, but patiently feeling with us, identifying with the simplicity of human essence, inherent to young Arnold (Jason Presson), who struggles to contain his deep sadness and regret at accidentally killing his older brother; inherent to Joe (Robert Duvall), who retreats into his world of doing work and getting things done, but who equally, on a deeper level, truly longs to love his son; inherent to Ruth (Glenn Close), who lacks the strength to offer motherly tenderness but who truly desires the happiness of her entire family. The basic humanity which exists at the core of each, despite their stone cold surface, is the same. It just takes the attitude of a wise child, that of grandpa George (Wilford Brimley), to realize it on all levels."

-- Mark So, The Horner Letter, 1995.

The original recording consisted of authentic Irish folk music, with special musicians flown to L.A. for the recording sessions to perform the fife, tin whistle, Bodhran drums, Hammer Dulcimer, Bagpipe and Mandolin. Horner was very disappointed that this score was rejected, but stuck with the project anyway (switching to a 50-member orchestra, mostly strings). Tri-Star wanted a Mozart-like approach, and refused to use anything related to the Irish theme. Although a compromise of sorts was decided upon, Horner and Dinner were both very distraught by the end of the project.

The most memorable material from the film is Loreena McKennitt's "The Mystic's Dream." Used repeatedly during the film and during the end credits, "The Mystic's Dream" is available as the first track on McKennitt's popular CD, The Mask and Mirror. This choral song fits very well with the dark mood of the film and is usually what people are referring to when inquiring about Horner's involvement with the project. Also used in the film is Igor Stravisnky's "Le Sacre Du Printemps" ("Rite of Spring"), "Isn't It Romantic" and "Where Or When" by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart, "Last To Know" by Pat Metheny, and "Pau Rolou" by Egberto Gismonti.

Rumour has it that there was a disagreement between Horner and the producers of the film, resulting an an enormous raise in Horner's earnings (some place it as high as $3 million) for scoring the film, even though he wasn't happy when he finished. The score he produced for Jade, in my opinion, isn't worth half the attention that people pay to it. It consists of an excess of banging percussion music (a la Jumanji), some of which contributing to the sick-to-the-stomach feeling get while watching the film.