Composing Greatness: #9. James Horner - "Avatar" (2009)

Scene from Avatar (2009)

Welcome to Composing Greatness: a column dedicated to exploring the work of film composers. This will specifically focus on the films that earned them Oscar nominations while exploring what makes it so special. This will be broken down into a look at the overall style, interesting moments within the composition, and what made the score worth nominating in the first place. This will also include various subcategories where I will rank the themes of each film along with any time that the composer actually wins. This is a column meant to explore a side of film that doesn't get enough credit while hopefully introducing audiences to an enriched view of more prolific composers' work. This will only cover scores/songs that are compiled in an easily accessible format (so no extended scores will be considered). Join me every Sunday as I cover these talents that if you don't know by name, you recognize by sound.

Series Composer: James Horner

Entry: Avatar (2009)

Collaborators (If Available): N/A

Nomination: Best Original Score

Did He Win: No

Other Nominees:
Best Original Score
-Up (Michael Giacchino) *winner
-Fantastic Mr. Fox (Alexandre Desplat)
-The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and buck Sanders)
-Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)

Additional Information

This is to help provide perspective of where each composer is in their Oscar-nominated life as it related to the current entry.

Oscar Nomination: 10

Oscar Wins: 2

Track List

1. "You Don't Dream in Cryo"
2. "Jake Enters His Avatar World"
3. "Pure Spirits of the Forest"
4. "The Bioliminescence of the Night"

5. "Becoming One of the People - Becoming One with Neytiri"
6. "Climbing Up Iknimaya - The Path to Heaven"
7. "Jake's First Flight"
8. "Scorched Earth"
9. "Quaritch"
10. "The Destruction of Hometree"
11. "Grace's Lab"
12. "Gathering All the Na'Vi Clans for Battle"
13. "War"

Note: Listen to here.

Exploring the Music

The area of the column where I will explore the music in as much detail as I see fit for each entry.

Theme Exploration:

"You Don't Dream in Cryo"

Considering how much the rest of this world feels built from the ground-up, it's amazing to hear what James Horner is doing with this score. From the opening notes, he's gone beyond the atmosphere and is building towards something grander, knowing that spectacle lies within the booming drums and harmonies that play as the other instruments blend in. If nothing else, this is one of his most urgent scores alongside A Beautiful Mind, not wasting time at getting to a musical interpretation of the world that is easy to understanding and breathtaking to behold. This is an achievement of sorts for Horner because it finds him playing with form so much that he comes out the other side with something new and exciting in the process.

Interesting Standout:
"Pure Spirits of the Forest"

While it would be one thing if this was just a twist on the blockbuster score, it's also effective thanks to how it uses quietness. In this track, James Horner introduces audiences to the world of Pandora, where things are mysterious. He borrows heavily from jungle motifs that everyone knows but finds ways to make each motif sound new, whether by having a different instrument play it or placing it at different points within the track. It's meditative of sorts, allowing the viewer to take in the scenery as the song plays. It's moments like this that prove just how expansive Avatar was intending to be. Even the music feels like it has a lot of side stops for the various majestic moments to play out.

Best Moment:
"The Destruction of Hometree"

As usual with James Horner, the back half tends to be the strongest portion of the score. It all builds to something grand and emotional. In this case, he manages to mix an action film full of intensity with a sense of heartbreak in the middle. While at times reminiscent of The Lion King, these tracks all capture the reason why there would be a war. Something brutal happened, and the music captures it with its punching notes and ability to sound wounded. There's so much personality in this track that it captures Horner doing what he does best, and maybe even better than most of his other nominations.

Did This Deserve an Oscar Nomination?:
Yes

The beauty of doing James Horner is that it begins and ends with James Cameron movies. You can see his progression from Aliens to Avatar, and it's amazing to hear how big and beautiful the latter is comparatively. While the sci-fi film is up for debate as to whether it should win, the components of it are a well-oiled machine. Cameron and Horner made magic together and it's a shame that they won't be working together on (if it even exists) Avatar 2-?, which would be downright exciting. This score has clearly unleashed some piece of creativity in Horner that never got to be expanded upon, and that's a shame. It's a brilliant piece of music and fills the listener with awe. However, there's still the wish that this wasn't the end of the road for such a talented genius.

Best Theme

A ranking of all themes composed by James Horner.

1. "A Kaleidoscope of Mathematics" - A Beautiful Mind (2001) 
2. "Never an Absolution" - Titanic (1997)
3. "You Don't Dream in Cryo" - Avatar (1999)
4. "Main Title" - Apollo 13 (1995)
5. "Main Title" - Braveheart (1995)
6. "The Cornfield" - Field of Dreams (1989)
7. "Main Title" - Aliens (1986)

8. "An Older Life" - House of Sand and Fog (2003)

Best Song

A ranking of all songs composed by James Horner.

1. "My Heart Will Go On" - Titanic (1997)
2. "Somewhere Out There" - An American Tail (1986)

Overall Thoughts

The process for choosing Composing Greatness topics has generally been what composers I feel have left behind a fascinating career story. I started with John Williams in part because of his legacy, but also because he had the most nominations. Everyone since has been some variation of most nominations (Rachel Portman), most nominations without wins (Thomas Newman), or in James Horner's case a career that was gone too soon. He was a figure that brought an authentic sound to film, and I wanted to see if his three decades of nominations would amount to any grand statement. I'll admit that I know Horner's work, but until this column I never took time to think about how it works as much, especially since I'm a melody guy who generally finds atmospheric scores to be less interesting.

The thing with Horner is that he is atmospheric and there are parts where I feel my bias kicking in. However, there's an evolution to his style and a versatility to his selections. The same man did Braveheart and Apollo 13 in the same year. He made Titanic into an emotional melodrama. He created Avatar's audio landscape. Within the atmosphere, I heard him playing with forms and instrumentation, sometimes reaching brilliance with scores like A Beautiful Mind. He was innovative at every turn and never really felt repetitive no matter how busy he ended up being. If anything, I'm sure he did a lot more that was worth getting nominated. It's just the luck of the draw.

As a whole, this column increased my respect for Horner and gave me the sad revelation that he's gone all over again. You listen to the back half of Titanic and hear the intense mix of fear and romance that comes with a ship sinking and realize how talented you have to be to not leak some air into that. It's airtight, and his music told stories and took listeners on journeys. I suppose we should be thankful that he won at all, unlike unfortunately Thomas Newman, and thus has some Oscar legacy. Still, finishing Avatar made me realize that we could've had more if he lived. We could hear more of that magnificent world. Instead, someone else will do it. They will probably do a fine job, but it won't compare. It's a bummer to know that he's gone, but at least his work is a triumphant presence in film score history.

Up Next:

The Freshman Class of the 2010s

After doing a handful of series on various singular composers, I am deciding to start something that I hope will be a rewarding experience. Starting next week, I will be working my way through what I'm calling "The Freshman Class" series. Basically, I plan to take a look at the composers with three or fewer nominations that had their first recognition between 2010 and 2019. I know that technically the 2019 class has yet to be announced, but I intend to add them to this list when the nominations become public. Once I complete this series (though not right away), I will hopefully be doing The Freshman Class series going backward through the decades to highlight composers who produced great work, but whose output wouldn't warrant a standalone series. Mind you, this is not going to be like other Composing Greatness columns for a variety of reasons, but also in that there won't be time to focus on external nominations outside Best Original Score. This is strictly sticking to category. 

So, whom can you expect? While not in order, here's a list of who will be appearing in the series: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (The Social Network), John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon), Ludovic Bource (The Artist), Mychael Danna (Life of Pi), Steven Price (Gravity), Will Butler & Owen Pallett (Her), Gary Yershon (Mr. Turner), Johan Johannsson (The Theory of Everything, Sicario), Justin Hurwitz (La La Land), Mica Levi (Jackie), Hauschka & Dustin O'Halloran (Lion), Nicholas Britell (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk), Johnny Greenwood (Phantom Thread), and Terence Blanchard (BlacKkKlansman).

I hope that this column is a worthwhile exploration into how diverse the Best Original Score category has become. While there's a bunch of dominant names that I would still love to get to (Hans Zimmer and Alexandre Desplat especially), this is an idea that I've had for a while now and just needed the right moment to do it. Considering that we're facing the end of the decade in three months, I figured it was as good of a time as any to start it. I hope it works out, especially since a lot of these are great scores worthy of further discussion. The road to finding out will sure be fun though. I hope you're there to make it more enjoyable.