Yes, I am a James Horner purist. Sue me. I have been in love with his work since I first heard his score for Braveheart back in 1995, and have been defending him and his work since then.

That being said, I purchased Yared's score from Ebay a few years ago, having heard so much pomp about how great it was. I heard a snippet of his track "Approach of the Greeks" and was initially captivated by it. So I bought it...

...and was very disappointed. It was loud. Too much wailing and moaning of voices. No rhythm. The melodies were weak, and the thematic development was mediocre at best. I compared it to Horner's album, and put Yared's album back on EBay. Horner, despite his tendency to use snippets of his past scores simply does a better job crafting his themes and his music is purer and less of an annoyance. And the "wailing women" kind of voice work that Horner employs is less intrusive of my eardrums than Yared's version.

THE DIRECTOR'S CUT: If you haven't already, DO NOT buy Peterson's "Troy: The Director's Cut". Peterson hacked Horner's score, added Danny Elfman's score to Planet of the Apes for the battle music for Hector and Achilles and replaced entire sections of emotional music with Yared's wailing women cues. Horner's score is a mess in the director's cut and the mix of styles between Yared and Horner is a sin to film making.

I won't sue you for being a Horner purist, but I'll shake my head at you for thinking Horner's soundtrack is superior to Jared's. Zorro, Troy, Avatar, and Enemy at the Gates didn't just have "snippets" of Horner's style. They ALL had an excessively played four-note motif that makes me and possibly Christian Clemmensen cringe. It shows that Horner doesn't really have the courage to try anything new with his action pieces, so all these soundtracks are self-referencing and distracting from the movie.

There are great exceptions like The Amazing Spider-man and Braveheart, but if I hear the "danger motif" even once, I role my eyes. Horner uses it in The Greek Army and its Defeat, along with many terrible transitions. Jared's Battle of Arrows is far superior with its themes for Greece and Troy battling it out with greater purpose.

I definitely skip the wailing women tracks on Jared's soundtrack, which are unlistenable. However, the director could've easily asked Jared to make some changes. Isn't that what directors do? Direct! Instead he was lazy, chose a different composer, and mashed it all together in a D-cut later. It goes to show the director wasn't very good. As a whole, the movie would've been terrible either way, but Jared would've at least captivated us with his all-powerful Greek theme.

>
Yes, I am a James Horner purist. Sue me. I have been in love with his work
> since I first heard his score for Braveheart back in 1995, and have been
> defending him and his work since then.

> That being said, I purchased Yared's score from Ebay a few years ago,
> having heard so much pomp about how great it was. I heard a snippet of his
> track "Approach of the Greeks" and was initially captivated by
> it. So I bought it...

> ...and was very disappointed. It was loud. Too much wailing and moaning of
> voices. No rhythm. The melodies were weak, and the thematic development
> was mediocre at best. I compared it to Horner's album, and put Yared's
> album back on EBay. Horner, despite his tendency to use snippets of his
> past scores simply does a better job crafting his themes and his music is
> purer and less of an annoyance. And the "wailing women" kind of
> voice work that Horner employs is less intrusive of my eardrums than
> Yared's version.

> THE DIRECTOR'S CUT: If you haven't already, DO NOT buy Peterson's
> "Troy: The Director's Cut". Peterson hacked Horner's score,
> added Danny Elfman's score to Planet of the Apes for the battle music for
> Hector and Achilles and replaced entire sections of emotional music with
> Yared's wailing women cues. Horner's score is a mess in the director's cut
> and the mix of styles between Yared and Horner is a sin to film making.

It took you 2 years to think of a response? j/k.

We all have our likes and dislikes, music we love and music we despise. I still stand by my 2012 opinion that Gabriel Yared's score was not appropriate for a film that was geared for a more mainstream audience like Troy was. Just like when Ridley Scott had to replace the score for Legend at the behest of the studio because they wanted to cater to American movie goers, so to did the music for Troy have to mesh with the modern listeners.

Yared's score, on it's own isn't bad. But for the emotional side of the story I found James Horner more capable at bringing a love story and a tragedy like the sacking of Troy full circle. I love Horner's danger motif and love how he employs it in most of his music. But then again, I love Horner's music and very rarely do I find one I do not like. But that is just me.

:-)

I won't sue you for being a Horner purist, but I'll shake my head at you
> for thinking Horner's soundtrack is superior to Jared's. Zorro, Troy,
> Avatar, and Enemy at the Gates didn't just have "snippets" of
> Horner's style. They ALL had an excessively played four-note motif that
> makes me and possibly Christian Clemmensen cringe. It shows that Horner
> doesn't really have the courage to try anything new with his action
> pieces, so all these soundtracks are self-referencing and distracting from
> the movie.

> There are great exceptions like The Amazing Spider-man and Braveheart, but
> if I hear the "danger motif" even once, I role my eyes. Horner
> uses it in The Greek Army and its Defeat, along with many terrible
> transitions. Jared's Battle of Arrows is far superior with its themes for
> Greece and Troy battling it out with greater purpose.

> I definitely skip the wailing women tracks on Jared's soundtrack, which
> are unlistenable. However, the director could've easily asked Jared to
> make some changes. Isn't that what directors do? Direct! Instead he was
> lazy, chose a different composer, and mashed it all together in a D-cut
> later. It goes to show the director wasn't very good. As a whole, the
> movie would've been terrible either way, but Jared would've at least
> captivated us with his all-powerful Greek theme.
> Yes, I am a James Horner purist. Sue me. I have been in love with his work

Having listened to both, I can definitely say that in film, Horner's music works much better. It's much more modern in its application and setting of the tone of scenes. Yared's score is a good listen on its own, and is masterfully crafted from orchestral point of view, but the cinematic craftmanship was on Horner's side.

> Having listened to both, I can definitely say that in film, Horner's music
> works much better. It's much more modern in its application and setting of
> the tone of scenes. Yared's score is a good listen on its own, and is
> masterfully crafted from orchestral point of view, but the cinematic
> craftmanship was on Horner's side.

Of course you can say that, considering we never got to hear Yared's score in film in its properly mixed and edited form. Nobody has other than that one accursed test audience. There are some videos floating around on YouTube or whatever but they are fanmade, without proper balancing of sound, so Yared's music comes across as too dominant, but that's not how it would have sounded in the actual finalized film. We have no way to truly compare how well Yared's score would have worked, simple as that.