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Titanic: (James Horner) From the perspective of an
average, unbiased moviegoer, it may be difficult to recall exactly why
the 1997 mega-blockbuster
Titanic was so outrageously popular.
The production had its successes and failures, but beyond the impressive
technicalities of James Cameron's film, there was an intangible sense of
hysteria that floated the doomed ship for a whole new generation of
hopeless romantics upon the spectacle's release. Sweeping through box
office records and collecting more Academy Awards than any other film in
the modern era (at the time),
Titanic was a genuine phenomenon,
and to adequately explain the reasons for its immeasurable allure now
would inevitably fail to address the countless reasons for its success.
In general, however, the three-hour epic managed to merge two typically
incongruent genres in film: the historical tragedy with immense displays
of special effects and the compelling story of two unlikely young
lovers. Cameron's obsession with the sunken ship has since sent him on a
journey to the farthest depths of the ocean and, in the meantime, to a
3D version of
Titanic that earned countless more millions of
dollars during its early 2012 theatrical release (to coincide with the
100th anniversary of the ship's demise). Of equal hoopla was, once
again, the soundtrack for
Titanic, a pivotal part of the film's
success. Only once in a rare moon do the stars of the universe align so
that a film score bursts into the consciousness of the mainstream with
such overwhelming appeal as
Titanic had in early 1998. The same
seemingly disparate elements of disaster and romance (along with period
authenticity) that occupied the film demanded an atypical soundtrack
from the start, for the narrative of the doomed ship's maiden voyage
required a larger-than-life musical identity completely separate from
the love story involving the two primary characters. The exact
circumstances by which Cameron searched out and settled upon a
distinctive style of music to merge these two halves of the story into
one fluid musical identity have remained elusive, though several facts
are known. The score that Cameron sought for
Titanic was
radically unconventional, bypassing the usual orchestral weight that
would be expected for a period drama of this magnitude. Massive brass
fanfares with sweeping string interludes were exactly what he did not
want.
Instead, when approaching the music for
Titanic,
Cameron concentrated on accentuating the love story and Irish undertones
of both the Jack Dawson character and the ship's origins by choosing the
new age, Celtic sounds popularized by Enya, Clannad, and several other
artists popular of the 1990's. The resulting temp track for several
portions of
Titanic would feature the music of Enya and, most
specifically, the song "Book of Days" that had not only been released on
her album, "Shepherd Moons," but had been featured successfully in Ron
Howard's 1992 film
Far and Away. There has always been
speculation about the method by which composer James Horner came to
receive a seven-figure salary for the composition and recording of the
score. There were unconfirmed reports that Cameron had approached Enya
directly to provide vocals for the score, though the same reports
indicate that she withdrew from the process after learning that Horner
would be writing the material (rather than Enya being allowed to write
her own score). The more interesting aspect of
Titanic for film
score fans was the apparent reconciliation between Horner and Cameron,
who had not parted on good terms after the testy post-production
disagreements of
Aliens a decade before. Their shared success
with this project encouraged them to reunite with impressive results for
the arguably underrated
Avatar more than a decade later. Horner's
track record of writing scores saturated with the tones of both Ireland
and Scotland in the 1990's was well known, with an apparent obsession on
the cultural influence forcing the tones of uillean pipes and whistles,
among other instruments, into scores that didn't really require their
contributions. While this somewhat tiresome habit by Horner severely
bothered many of the composer's detractors, Cameron must have seen a
perfect fit with his intended Celtic, new age sound and instructed
Horner (who reportedly agreed with Cameron on the unconventional
direction of the music) to follow the guidelines of the temp track.
Horner was also skilled in the adaptation of existing music into films
with just enough variation to avoid legal troubles, though he does
remain one of the few major composers ever to be sued for plagiarism. He
succeeds at this task with better efficiency in some projects than
others, with perhaps the most laughable adaptation coming over the
credits of
Red Heat.
Horner's score for
Titanic would sound very much in
parts like Enya's music, and despite significant talk at the time about
a possible lawsuit and settlement between Enya and Horner, no such event
has been officially confirmed. There remains much speculation about
whether Eithne Patricia Ni Bhraonain (not quite as marketable a name as
"Enya") could have received damages from Horner for copyright
infringement in
Titanic. Enough mainstream viewers were duped
into thinking that they were listening to Enya during the film that a
case might have been merited. The chart-topping new age artist was
referred to by agents at the time as "the plaintiff," and while she
would not receive the public recognition for inspiring the soundtrack
for
Titanic that she deserved, she would eventually be nominated
for an Academy Award herself for the song in the first
The Lord of
the Rings installment (though she would, in an act of sad but
appropriate justice, lose to the long overdue Randy Newman). For Horner,
Titanic would net him the only two Oscar wins in the first three
decades of his career (for both the score and accompanying song), and
backstage after his win, he answered a media question about Enya by
stating that he was simply inspired by the same genre of music rather
than by Enya herself. With that comment, he brushed aside the
controversy and has been estimated to personally profit to the sum of
$30 million from the immense popularity of the initial two albums for
the soundtrack. The first album accompanied the film's late 1997
release, and, naturally, a sequel album was assembled to accompany the
video release of the film in August of 1998. The first album hit #1 on
Billboard's "Top 200 Chart" for the weeks of 1/24/98 and 1/31/98,
staying on pace with the film's continued earnings records for the same
weeks. Sony Music Distribution reported that they shipped more than
969,000 units in the first nine weeks of the album's release, making it
the fastest-selling score soundtrack and classical album of all time.
Sony then reported that an astounding 665,000 additional copies were
sold in the tenth week (ending 1/25/98) alone. It also set Sony records
for the most orders in a single day (January 20, 1998). By remaining at
the #1 position with Billboard during the week of 2/7/98,
Titanic
passed Vangelis' strangely endearing 1981 score for
Chariots of
Fire as the top score soundtrack of all time in cumulative
sales.
During the initial weeks of stunning popularity for
Titanic, the Horner song for the film, "My Heart Will Go On,"
performed by Celine Dion, was ranked as "the most popular radio song"
according to national broadcasting summaries, receiving more airtime
than any other song of any genre of music. The first
Titanic
album remained at the top of the Billboard charts all the way through
Oscar time in late March, weathering competition that included new
mainstream releases by Celine Dion and Madonna. Sony eventually sold 26
million copies of the first album overall (and an additional 3 million
copies of "Back to Titanic"). Such performance from a film score album
has not been seen since, not even from
Gladiator or
Pirates of
the Caribbean, the two most popular film score CDs in the following
decade. For Horner personally, the cumulative sales of the first
Titanic album, as well as the popular 1995 duo of
Braveheart and
Apollo 13 CDs, would make him the highest
selling contemporary composer, surpassing John Williams. When you factor
in the more substantive score for
The Mask of Zorro the following
year, Horner distinguished himself as the most dominant composer in
Hollywood during the middle to late 1990's, defining the decade of film
music as being led by his efforts. But did he deserve it? The scores for
Braveheart,
Apollo 13, and
The Mask of Zorro, among
several others, were far more embraced by the film score community than
Titanic, which was seen as a pandering to screaming young girls
rather than a gesture towards the seasoned film score collector. For the
mainstream, there seems to be a lingering soft spot for
Titanic,
not anywhere near as positive as it once was, but avoiding the extreme
discontent that a large section of the film score community still
extends towards
Titanic. For these listeners, the score was a
necessary evil, bringing attention to the usually neglected genre of
film music, but at an artistic price. For the remainder of film score
fans, the score went through three distinct phases during its history.
First, the hysteria that captured the mainstream in December of 1997 was
mirrored by many soundtrack collectors. Then, for almost the entirety of
1998, a substantial backlash against the score and Horner followed. In
the years since, the score still receives its share of disdainful
criticism, though there is a begrudging recognition that it was an
understandable product (and triumph) of its time.
The merits of the score itself are often overlooked
because of all of the above factors. The most interesting technical
aspect of the music for
Titanic is the fact that it is
frightfully simple in construct and execution. Horner can often infuse
substantial intelligence into his epic scores, but
Titanic seems
to have been built specifically with the intent of toning itself back to
coincide with the somewhat flat characters (and their often
poorly-worded conversations) and the primordial nature of the horror
that accompanies the ship's demise. In short, it's a harmonically
simplistic score for a thematically simplistic film. And while the film
score collector looking for creativity in the remote corners of the work
will find less than he or she will discover in a score like
The
Rocketeer or
Legends of the Fall (or even
The Spitfire
Grill, for that matter), the straight forward techniques by Horner
are exactly what the film needed. For a movie with so much narrative,
including an excess of characters, it may be surprising to note that
Titanic only features two major themes. One of the greatest
strengths of Horner's conceptual endeavors for the score is the
memorability of both themes. They build off of each other with
outstanding development throughout the score and the attractive
statements of both themes likely contributed to the success of the
score's two albums. The first theme is for the ship itself, offering
smoothly gliding progressions and vocal effects that would be the cause
of concern for Enya. The connections between this theme and the melody
of "Book of Days" are unmistakable, though Horner does distinguish its
performances with a forceful level of power never really evident in
Enya's work. Also to consider is the fact that there is a secondary
theme for the ship, a whimsical, more traditional Horner-style interlude
(dating in style back to his outstanding music for the animated
children's film
The Land Before Time) that breaks up the primary
statements of the theme with more flighty, optimistic hope. This
secondary sequence within the major performances of the ship's themes
would be adapted far more often in the second half of the score by
Horner, seemingly representing the ship during the scenes taking place
in the present day. The other theme in
Titanic is, obviously, the
love theme that follows the character of Rose through the story and
serves as the melody for the Dion-performed song. Within this theme are
two adjoined melodies that often exist separately when adapted into the
score.
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For a score of this magnitude, a track-by-track analysis is warranted,
and so the following portions of the review will first discuss the 1997
album before diving into the supplemental material released the next
year on "Back to Titanic." The first album mostly presents its music in
chronological order, though Cameron liberally moved parts of cues around
in the film and it is thus impossible to match the album to the film in
some sequences. Like the film, the first album can be divided into three
sections: the early ship and romance scenes, the lengthy sinking
sequence in the middle, and the scenes with the older Rose character at
the end. The first cue of the album is "Never an Absolution," which
opens immediately with solo pipes performing the second phrase of the
ship's theme. After a minute, solo horn and woodwind (a recorder,
perhaps?) are joined by the voice of Norwegian performer Sissel
Kyrkjebø to introduce the love theme in slowly deliberate and
eerie fashion. Sissel's voice would serve as Rose's musical identity
throughout the film, and the only part of her performances more
remarkable than her singing resemblance to Enya is the physical
similarities between them as well. The first track concludes with
continued exploration of the second phrase of the ship's theme by a
synthetically altered boy's choir. At the outset of "Distant Memories,"
Horner provides a motif that would follow the older Rose's character as
she remembers the ship. This light, floating motif tingles effortlessly
as it does in
The Spitfire Grill and
The New World,
leading here to a minor dramatic motif on strings for the same
character. This material would be expanded upon in "An Ocean of
Memories." The interlude of the ship's theme is fleeting on horn before
the traveling scene to the modern exploration and discovery ship offers
a restrained, but buoyant version of the same theme. The following
"Southampton" cue is preceded by the sounds of someone giving stage
directions during the recording (it's actually contained at the end of
"Distant Memories"), possibly Horner himself. It's barely audible, but
for those with larger sound systems, it could be an annoyance. It's
difficult to imagine that it made the album by accident. The pivotal
"Southampton" opens with a phrase directly lifted from the launch
sequence of
Apollo 13, building to the famous statement of the
ship's primary theme during its introduction. This cue is a surprising,
immediate tip of the hat to Enya's "Book of Days," with the same
pulsating bass rhythm and chord progressions very similar to the popular
Enya song.
The voices used in "Southampton" and subsequent cues are
electronically altered to give them an element of fantasy, a
controversial technique for Horner fans but one that would prove to
create a timeless atmosphere in which the ship and the love story could
intertwine. This cue alternates between these blatant pulls of "Book of
Days" and the secondary phrase of ship's theme for more traditionally
dramatic string layers. The following track, "Rose," would actually
receive its most prominent placement in the last scene of the film. A
short concert suite of sorts for the love theme, this cue was chopped
into two pieces by Cameron and combined with "Unable to Stay, Unwilling
to Leave" and placed over the finale of the film (in which Rose dies and
her spirit rejoins those aboard the sunken ship). The solo voice of
Sissel is joined by piano, electric bass, and various solo woodwinds
during the course of this easy, romantic, and sentimental cue. The
unexpected truncation of the theme at the end of the cue is an
interesting acknowledgement of a love affair cut short. The following
two cues are the actual accompaniment to the beautiful scene in which
the ship departs. One of Horner's more intelligent motifs in
Titanic is the use of an electronic pulsation effect, almost akin
to the dull tapping of a piano wire, for the purpose of imitating a
telegraph signal. This effect opens "Leaving Port" and would play a
prominent role in "Hard to Starboard." In "Leaving Port," however, the
percussion section (and namely the chimes and some large cymbal rolls)
would lead an extended treatment of the ship's primary, Enya-like theme.
Deep male voices, similar in ethnicity to the kinds you might hear in
The Lion King, offer creative puffing, exhaled accents to the
pulsating electric bass in this cue. Once again, the secondary phrase of
the ship's theme exists on strings in interludes. The same format from
"Leaving Port" continues into "Take Her to Sea, Mr. Murdock," though
Horner collectors will enjoy (or be plagued by) the standard Horner
crescendo of chord progressions at 1:05 into the cue. In a score that
has relatively few blatant self-references, instances such as this one
stand out even more than a listener might expect. The very dry synthetic
effects in this cue, however, are better aided by the orchestra, which
exuberantly accompanies the new age rhythms with more colorful brass
solos. The album then fast forwards to the action; in "Hard to
Starboard," the soft, synthetic tones of the love theme are overtaken at
the minute mark with the resumption of the tapping telegraph effect,
signaling the problem dead ahead.
The rhythm of Horner's telegraph effect in "Hard to
Starboard" leads to a frightful ensemble blast assisted by a single
groan from an electric guitar, much the same way Horner had accomplished
a sense of panic in
Courage Under Fire. The following minute of
frantic action by the crew is accompanied by some of Horner's best
action material for the film, adding the clanging of an anvil to the
standard suspense rhythms transferred directly from
Apollo 13's
"Master Alarm" cue. A minor motif for the concept of death is performed
on brass at 2:45 in "Hard to Starboard," and this idea would occur
several times through the sinking sequence. The percussion section's
movement in these cues, including both the drums and piano, resembles
Jerry Goldsmith's much earlier score for
Capricorn One, with a
very obvious reference to the Goldsmith score in the bass region at 3:05
in "Hard to Starboard." After a few moments of quiet string and brass
movements that sound like a precursor to similar ideas in orchestrator
Don Davis' own
The Matrix, Horner revisits familiar ensemble
strikes from
Courage Under Fire. A solemn brass statement of the
death motif closes the cue under a distant trumpet call for help. The
rhythmically compelling "Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave" cue is
brief relief from the panic, existing for the compelling scene when the
two lovers refuse to separate via lifeboat. The pretty, synthetic rhythm
leads the love theme to a duet for recorder and Sissel's voice that is
downright gorgeous. The explosive rendition of this theme at 1:40 into
the cue adds pipes and a synthetic effect that raises memories of
Vangelis' echoing
Chariots of Fire rhythm-setter for the
emotional highlight of the score. This is the piece that would be
re-used for the descent during the finale of the film. After the love
theme's full burst in "Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave," the cue
quickly lets reality sink in. A strong segue into
Courage Under
Fire action territory finishes the cue and prepares the listener for
even more violent passages in the thirteen minutes of "The Sinking" (as
the ship is still upright at an angle) and "Death of Titanic" (after the
ship breaks in two and its stern starts to descend). While these cues
represent the weakest parts of the
Titanic score, they are
interesting in that they offer the best merging of the orchestra with
the synthetics. Horner lets the two elements engage in open warfare in
"The Sinking," with the chime-banging, snare-ripping orchestral suspense
often presented at dissonant odds with the softer synthetic effects that
had previously defined the ship's identity.
The fragmented synthetic elements attempt valiantly to
maintain their harmonious structures in "The Sinking," though they jump
chaotically from their intended thematic base, an intelligent move by
Horner to musically signal the death of the ship. As the panic turns to
obvious tragedy in the eyes of the survivors in the lifeboats, Horner
begins a swaying movement of ocean waves that represents the frigid
swells quite well. Not only does this technique resemble the rescue
sequence of Basil Poledouris'
The Hunt for Red October, but the
same general idea would reappear in
A Perfect Storm and Joel
McNeely's typhoon cue in
Virus a few years later. Pounding piano
crashes recall
The Pelican Brief and
Apollo 13. In the
other action cue, "Death of Titanic," Horner continues the battle
between synthetic and orchestral elements, with the higher-pitched
electronics almost seeming to cry for help. At 3:45 into the cue, Horner
returns to the original panic rhythms of "Hard to Starboard," but with a
frenzied and rising pitch to each bar of music that accompanies the
ultimate sinking of the ship's stern. Dissonant fragments of the love
theme under meandering brass and constant snare are appropriate. A
horrific crescendo of synthesized voice provides the ship's last gasp of
air, twisting the once elegant new age vocal effect into the kind of
dissonant horror that inhabited the final action scenes in
Willow. The total disintegration of those vocal effects, now only
one mass of cries at the conclusion of "Death of Titanic," is a fitting
end for the famed ship. A melancholy and barely audible series of
thematic fragments exists in the stunned aftermath in "A Promise Kept."
Horner understates himself in this cue, only eventually allowing faint
reminders of Sissel's beautiful tones to echo in the latter half of the
cue. Her voice would serve as a mournful tribute in "A Life So Changed,"
returning to the eerie atmosphere and instrumentation of the opening
track. Most of this cue is, unfortunately, redundant with "Never an
Absolution." In "An Ocean of Memories," Horner once again treats Rose's
older self with the fluttering ambience of "Distant Memories," but this
time with an attractive mix of both Sissel's voice and, eventually, the
orchestra. The last moments of this cue would be one of the few times
when Sissel's voice would mingle with the ensemble. The last two minutes
of "An Ocean of Memories" are an emotional powerhouse without much
volume, and it's obvious that the synthetic voices, piano, and tingling
metallic percussion in this cue were Horner's inspiration for
A New
World. A satisfyingly harmonic conclusion to the track is an
outstanding close to the score.
The song performance of the love theme follows on the
first album for
Titanic, and Celine Dion's voice is thankfully
not as harsh in the upper regions as it can be at times. Little needs to
be said about the song; its popularity was testimony to the public's
craving for its sappy pop style in that era. It's by no means offensive,
though some fans may not be able to appreciate its beauty due to that
distinct 1990's style. At least Horner finally got the opportunity to
write a song for Dion, for whom he had written the song in
American
Tail 2: Fievel Goes West, only to have the producers of the film
reject her because her name was too obscure at the time. There has been
some speculation about why Sissel herself wasn't asked to perform the
song. Her operatic grace was quite evident in the concurrent
The
Adventures of Pinocchio, in which she offered several fantastic (and
funny) performances in songs with robust orchestral arrangement by Lee
Holdridge. The choice of Dion obviously worked, but there's still some
lingering curiosity about how well Sissel could have done with the song.
Her lyrical singing voice is stunningly beautiful, and it may have
especially functioned well in regards to connecting the song to the
general sound of the score. The final cue on the first album, "Hymn to
the Sea," is heard during the second half of the end credits for the
film. Its tempo is significantly slower as it progresses through
performances of the love theme by Sissel and then pipes. The interlude
for the ship's theme on electronics yields to the typical, drawn out
conclusion that plagues some Horner scores. Better than anyone, he can
manage to accomplish practically nothing (musically) in the last minutes
of an end credits cue. For listeners concerned with what they actually
hear in the film's finale and end credits, the descent cue opens with
"Rose" and inserts the middle of "Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave"
into the famous transition to the spirit world before returning to
"Rose" for Cameron's own credit. Dion's song follows, with the remainder
of the credits switching between portions of "Take Her to Sea, Mr.
Murdoch" and "Southampton" before finishing with "Hymn to the Sea." The
album, while over 70 minutes in length, did leave out a couple of
noteworthy score cues, and both would be offered on the sequel album,
"Back to Titanic," debuting in August of 1998 to coincide with the
highly-anticipated video release of the film. Much like the "More Music
from Braveheart" album released two years prior, this second album for
Titanic covers all the bases that the original album missed,
including traditional pieces and more of Horner's original score.
Making the "Back to Titanic" album different from the
equivalent follow-up for
Braveheart, however, is the fact that
Horner spent early 1998 writing and orchestrating new arrangements of
his ideas from
Titanic for performance by the London Symphony
Orchestra. Thus, the compilation is a combination of additional original
score from the film, traditional pieces, and the newly recorded suites
by Horner's preferred ensemble in London. The most interesting aspect of
this album is just how different the recordings in Los Angeles and
London sound. Horner recorded many of his best scores with the LSO and
the Choristers of King's College in Cambridge, and to hear their
versions of
Titanic compared to the original Los Angeles
musicians' work is enlightening. The performances themselves may be
adequate in both cases, but the recordings in London are so much fuller,
even when combined with the synthetic and vocal elements, that you can't
help but wish that Horner had recorded the original film's score (along
with all others) with the LSO. It's good fodder for the ongoing debate
inside and outside the film music recording industry about the merits of
London over Los Angeles, regardless of the union issues that usually
guide such discussions. Aside from the robust quality of the London
recordings' sound, including the vibrant, real-life chorus rather than
the synthetic one for most of its time, there are some disappointments
within their three tracks on the album. First, Horner's arrangements
aren't the best, with lengthy sequences of dull, meandering material
(often for solo brass) given too much airtime. Sissel's voice is mixed
behind the ensemble so that her role is marginalized. The tempo in the
LSO's performances is significantly slower than the original recording
as well, which occasionally gives it the awesome resonance of
Legends
of the Fall, but sometimes defeats the personality of the
composition. The performance of the love theme by the full ensemble,
including the chorus, at the end of "Titanic Suite" is the highlight of
the album. The "Epilogue" replacement cue for the final track on the
first album features an interesting twist on the watery motif
representing Rose's older self. The "A Shore Never Reached" hymn is
largely unrelated to the rest of the score, and features extended pipe
solos. Overall, these concert suites are impressive in their resounding
sound, but are surprisingly lazy and subdued. Given that the score and
film were so popular at the time, there exist several renditions of
music from
Titanic on the market from 1998 and 1999 from some of
the world's most veteran film music-recording ensembles, and some of
those are on par with the LSO performances here.
For the biggest die-hard fans of the film, the "Back to
Titanic" album provides practically all of the secondary source music
heard on screen. The Irish party dance music and the performances of the
small ensemble on the decks are included, as well as the song that Rose
mutters as she realizes that she has lost Jack. For Horner collectors,
this material may not be particularly interesting, though Irish
performer Maire Brennan's version of "Come Josephine" melds very well
with the score. The two versions of "Nearer my God to Thee" are equally
unexciting. Both "Jack Dawson's Luck" and "Lament" include more in the
way of traditional adaptations rather than actual new material from
Horner, leaving just two cues prominently featured in the film that
appear on this album for the first time. The highlight of the album for
most casual fans was the inclusion of a lengthier, suite-arranged
version of "The Portrait," the famous cue featuring a solo piano version
of the love theme. This much coveted, five-minute piano performance by
Horner himself is the only recognizably important piece of score to be
added, though "A Building Panic" may be more intriguing for Horner's
devotees. This later cue, heard in between the cues "Hard to Starboard"
and "Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave" on the first album, accompanies
the earlier portions of the sinking sequences (during the mad rush to
the lifeboats). This 8-minute cue expands upon some of Horner's better
ideas for the other action cues for
Titanic, including the
continuation of the telegraph tapping motif at the outset. During this
opening rhythm, it's somewhat amusing to hear the puffs of the Japanese
sakauhachi flute, proving that Horner will indeed try to insert either
that or his bagpipes into any score he possibly can. Sharp series of
medium drum hits later in "A Building Panic," along with an excess of
metallic tapping, easily connects the music to
Apollo 13. The
highlight of this cue is a singular motif that Horner uses between 4:00
and 5:20; it's a sensationalistic choral interlude of surprising harmony
in the middle of the chaos. Appearing twice during that time, one of
these choral performances, almost playing like a final tribute to the
majesty of the ship before it succumbs, would appear over the latter
half of the trailers for the film (along with
Braveheart and
James Newton Howard's
Waterworld). After these somewhat
incongruous performances, Horner unleashes a series of piano rhythms of
menacing character under entertainingly dark renditions of the love
theme. The final minute of this cue offers tragic layers of bittersweet
harmony until one final thud at about 7:30 marks the fate the ship's
remaining inhabitants.
On the whole, the "A Building Panic" cue debuting on
"Back to Titanic" is the most interesting sequence of any action
material on either album, especially with its percussive connections to
early 1980's Horner material (listen for subtle references to
Star
Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in several places), but it's not
particularly enjoyable apart from the visuals. One of the surprisingly
positive aspects of "Back to Titanic" is the fact that its material
doesn't overlap with the original album's offerings. It may be rather
short on original score material, but like the second
Gladiator
soundtrack product released in 2001, the sequel album isn't simply
redundant. Even the mix of the Celine Dion song is different. Her vocals
are given a wetter ambient mix and varied overdubbing, and this
radio-aimed version of the song features dialogue from the film in
between its statements (which is a tad obnoxious given that the voices
from the film aren't afforded the same echoing mix that Dion's voice is
given). Overall, "Back to Titanic" is an album that original
Titanic fans have lovingly embraced, sending it to sales levels
in the millions of units that, like its predecessor, eclipse the
performance of most film score albums. A few weeks after "Back to
Titanic" hit the market, Sony offered a DTS DVD audio version of the
original album at a higher cost for enthusiasts with high end stereo
systems. When the
Titanic 3D event hit theatres in early 2012,
Sony jumped at the opportunity to release not just one new album for the
soundtrack, but two. The first, regular "Anniversary Edition" includes a
remastered edition of the original 1997 album and a full second CD of
music recorded by the quintet, I Salonisti, to provide the authentic
source music for the movie. Only the second CD contains previously
unreleased tracks. On a "Collector's Anniversary Edition" set released
concurrently and priced not significantly higher, Sony presents these
same two CDs but also a third CD with the remastered contents of the
"Back to Titanic" album and a fourth CD of music that was popular at the
time of the ship's short life. The remastering of the score does
actually make a difference, especially in the presentation of Sissel's
vocals, though Horner collectors will be required to purchase the 4-CD
"Collector's Anniversary Edition" set to assemble all of the relevant
score material in the better sound quality for their own purposes. The
additional original I Salonisti and vintage period tracks will not be of
any interest to most Horner enthusiasts, and there is some lamentation
to result from Sony's choice not to arrange the popular and historically
important score into one cohesive, chronological presentation given this
opportunity.
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1998 Back to Titanic: | | |
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Only $9.99
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Unless you're a sentimental type with an attachment to
Titanic, it's difficult to recommend the 2012 albums for the
millions of people who already own the 1997 and 1998 offerings. Sales
gimmicks like the four vintage luggage stickers contained in the 2012
products can't compensate for the lack of a truly comprehensive written
analysis of the music itself in their inserts, a common standard of
contemporary soundtrack re-releases absent in this case. For
audiophiles, the 1998 DVD audio product still obviously remains superior
to the remastered stereo contents on the 2012 albums. The fact remains
that there isn't really a tremendous amount of score material in
Titanic that has not been released, especially when considering
Cameron's rearrangement of the cues within the context of the film.
Devoted Horner collectors could think of half a dozen scores by the
composer that better deserve expanded treatment, but
Titanic has
really been the only widely marketable Horner score outside of
Braveheart (since
Apollo 13 didn't actually have much
additional score not featured on its commercial album) on which the
labels could count on sales in any decent volume. For Horner himself,
Titanic obviously gave him a retirement account that most would
dream of, and outside of his two Zorro-related scores in 1998 and 2005,
which were really only praised within the film music collecting crowd,
he has failed to maintain the same level of consistent quality and
mainstream popularity since. Even
Avatar, despite its multitudes
of awards nominations, was derided by many for representing the worst of
the composer's self-referencing habits. You often hear film music
collectors (and even some in the larger populace) claiming that they
never caught on to the
Titanic fad, and some of these people are
likely embarrassed to have jumped on the bandwagon at the time. And yet,
despite the hundreds of thousands of copies of the first
Titanic
album floating about in used CD bins for as low as $0.01, the score was
a phenomenon worth every piece of praise it could muster in 1997 and
1998. Whether you like it or not, Horner wrote one of those scores that
only comes around every ten to twenty years, a piece of music for the
cinema so effective in its film that it can attract people who don't own
a single soundtrack. In the case of
Titanic, women primarily
constituted that overwhelming interest, a note of significance given
that men represent the vast majority of orchestral soundtrack buyers.
Without a doubt,
Titanic could very well end up being the
crowning achievement of Horner's entire career, and no sour aftertaste
can change that fact.
Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
Music as Written for the Film: *****
Music as Heard on the 1998 "Back to Titanic" Album: ****
Music as Heard on All Other Albums: *****
Overall: *****
| Bias Check: | For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.13 (in 98 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.25
(in 184,725 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
