I wouldn't be interested in either of the scores. As for Horner expressing his opinion. I would say it's one of the first times I have felt he accomplished something worthy of any degree of respect.

Being critical is not yet illegal in the United States.

I wouldn't own a Horner score. I've despised the hype surrounding that guy for quite awhile. As for Yared, I've listened to several of his earlier scores that really hit the mark.

victoravalentine, November 8, 2006; 11:14 AM

I agree, Horner talks like it was the worst film score in history, even worst than poltergeist 3 for example :)))

but I concur, Horner's words were not well chosen at all. You just do not! talk like that about your colleagues, mostly not on a public radio.

karol, November 7, 2006; 5:44 PM

Honestly, on its own, I thought Yared's score was more interesting. I haven't actually seen the movie, and can't help but wonder if people would have laughed ANYWAY, from everything I've heard...

And yeah, I can't believe the way Horner spoke about a LOT of people in that interview, especially considering how much flak he tends to take, himself...

-Tim

jesuslovinmovienurd, November 7, 2006; 5:44 PM

boah LOL
just listeden to that interview. Well, I just don't know what to say about Horner's words about Yared. So proud and shit lol.
Man I love some Horners scores he did in the past, really creative one. But this gussip is just too much. True or not but I just say this: Hollywood is a crap factory and Horner just gone to far with his words.

I dislike Troy's direction, casting (except Eric Bana), camera angels, special effects, and especially Horners music.
AND that was not "after" the movie, I felt that way while I was watching it in the theater. Like Horner said: Petersen wanted it to be the best movie ever, an epic film... and it just sucks. lol

so if Horner say Yared has no knowledge to compose an epic so then Petersen has no knowledge to create an epic. And I just wonder what kind of stupid test audience it was, like I said: Hollywood is crap!!
yo and Horner is just too proud of his. I mean it's not wrong to be round of yourself but I think it's a big crap to say it to other.

anyway, I rather would welcome a second 50' Hercules that a film like Troy. I pray for a better Troy and I hope it will happen in my lifetime.

good night and good luck

1701, November 7, 2006; 8:49 PM

if Horner is jaelous of Yared's score i cant answer, im not in that guy's (Horner) head and I dont wish to be either

but which score is better there is no doubt, there is even no comparison!GABRIEL YARED's Troy totally blows Jaime's version to kingdom come.

finally the test audience must have been a bunch of crackheads, of course wih all due respect to cracuk consumers on his page, quite honestly they must haven been a bunch of lobotomised and tasteless people, besides Jaimie Horner added some extra comments there wich were very inappropriate, impolite and immature..... grow up man you're 53, not 13.... have some diginity!

baalgehenna, November 7, 2006; 8:51 PM

just one more thing....
Horner talking about scoring small films... well of course "they have to be good films" .... but one sentence blew me away and that is: "that's very important to my writing that I'm not just doing the same massive Ghostbusters type film, the film, the film, the film. There are certain composers who... you know you will immediately say oh that's so and so score"

damn he just said the truth about himself.
no more comments.... I'm just laughing about that stupidity he giving from himself.

1701, November 7, 2006; 9:08 PM

Hello,

Having heard both scores I would say that neither score is great, But I like Yared's score alot better than horner's. As for Horner's comments, He is making himself look bad and shows he lacks class. About test audiences, My take is most are not regular listeners of film music and I'm not sure I care what they think good or bad.

Best Regards,
David Phoenix, AZ.

deg63iami, November 7, 2006; 9:17 PM

I have not heard Yared's version of the score. Though, I have a good friend who would love to hear it. If anyone knows where I could take a listen to it, I would appreciate the info.

In regards to Horner's statements, it sadens me. Horner is one of my favorite composers. I am a bit taken back to see that he would comment on someone else's work in this way.

drakemarone, November 7, 2006; 11:21 PM

I haven't heard the score that Gabriel Yared wrote but it doesn't matter. The only good thing
about the film "Troy" was the casting of Eric Bana. He was the only sympathetic character in
the whole film and the only one with a sense of purpose, direction and or moral compass.
Other than that, "Troy" was a terrible waste of money, lots of talented crew efforts and the
story was told in a completely uninteresting and bland way. James Horner's score was
completely forgettable and made me laugh in several scenes. (So much for harping on
Yared's score being laughable. I'm sure it was far more musically inclined.) Once again,
Horner's efforts were at best an amalgamation of cues and melodies from his past films
thrown into the film music compositional blender and splattered back out again.

Anyway, scrap the whole thing and start over. That was a consensus feeling shared by
myself and several audience members in the screening I attended in L.A.

rwjolley, November 8, 2006; 2:08 AM

drakemarone,

for more info about Yared's score, you can contact me at karol@easytraining.de

regards,

karol, November 8, 2006; 2:24 AM

As far as I know James Horner is not very honest on that one .
But he's familiar with this kind of reaction and he's very well known for that in the business.
If the score was so dreadful then why using the very same chorus and not even proposing new things ?
Yared felt betrayed by Petersen who used to whistle his themes on the set all the time and chosed not to support him after the projection test where the music was not mixed . Yared thought it was nonsense not to mix the music on the film test ( way too loud ) but they ignored it . It would have wasted any music .

I must admit I am not impartial on that one but for me Horner composed new age /ambient mixed things without any powerful writings and no sense of epic at all (for Horner it's seems a contradiction ) while the rejected score contains powerful themes and is , at least very generous in his compositions as only Yared can do it .

As for the remark on the "Hercules" scores I suggest Horner to purchase the recent releases and I'm pretty sure he could find better inspiration than his average deliveries .

michel, November 8, 2006; 3:23 AM

One thing about Horner's scores.... if you have heard one you've just about heard them all. LOL He tends to rehash themes. I could be watching a 'x' movie and hear a few verses of the music and pow!... must be a Horner soundtrack score. they all sound the same. Note: He is no musical genius!!

mikecee, November 8, 2006; 4:39 AM

DISGUSTING INDEED!

baalgehenna, November 8, 2006; 4:58 AM

guys,

thanx a lot for all the posts and opinions. now I have some more background info on this issue.

I like both scores, Horner's one (as already mentioned here) is more new age like, modern and of course a rehash/repetition of his previous scores. "You heard one you heard 'em all" :)))

Horner did the "best" he could in 9-11 days, as he said in the interview. compared to bruce broughton, who did lost in space in about 14 days, we can see there can be more done, than horner did.

Horner's ego is way too high in the clouds, but that's hollywood I guess.

take care!




karol, November 8, 2006; 7:21 PM

I am starting to lose my respect for this arrogant Horner guy,and i almost own all of his scores...jeez!

j.w.schenk, November 8, 2006; 4:37 PM

There's some very enjoyable music in Yared's version. Some of it more interesting than the equivalent Horner cues, and some perfectly interchangeable. There is also some very "pompous" music... especially true of the choral sections. You might think it's the better plate to spin, but the music on this disc would have been too far over-the-top in TROY, a movie average at best. It's very ambitious music. It tries to do too much and be too many things. When background music gets uppity, it ends up demeaning the movie it's supposed to complement; don't you agree? The film becomes fudgesicle. Oops. Farcical. What is this, a Roland Emmerich joint? Picture it: You'd be watching the movie, and there's some soldiers performing brave acts of radical carpentry, and here comes along the Requiem Mass in B-Flattened-Majorly, and the whole movie becomes a strange monster of a music video.

zuvqwyx3, November 8, 2006; 5:29 PM

The best he could in 9-11 days? Is that how long it takes to find stuff to cut and paste from
his old score/s?

Apart from Bruce Brougton, mentioned above, there's also Jerry Goldsmith writing the classic
Chinatown score in about 2 weeks. I can't remember who fell through or was rejected (I
know someone else will fill that in). Of course what Goldsmith can do in two weeks blows
away a lot of other composer with a year up their sleeves.

Actually to start a minor sub thread:
I'd be curious to know other stories of great scores that were written last minute/as
replacement/under difficult conditions.

whyaduck, November 9, 2006; 3:06 AM

whyaduck, good, we can continue as a sub-thread.
What I heard:
1. Goldsmith was hired to score the Lost in space film, but due to time schedules he had to refuse. Broughton was called in. he had about two weeks time.
2. horner was now replaced on "The good Shepherd". Any one knows why? DeNiro said "creative differences". Similar with "Apocalypto"
3. Howard Shore was replaced by JN Howard on King Kong. JNH had about 5 weeks, I thnik, to write the score
4. Of course, Jerry Goldsmith's Timeline, was replaced by Brian Tyler's score, because the film so cut and recut, edited so many times, that Jerry simply walked away after the 3rd re-scoring.
5. John Williams has never been rejected. at least not that I know of.
6. Alan Silvestri's score for mission impossible was rejected and replaced by danny elfman

regards,

karol, November 9, 2006; 3:23 AM

Interesting :)

I remember too reading that Danny Elfman had a bad time on Spider-man 2. Seems Sam Raimi
rejected his ideas on the score and wanted to essentially only revisit the score from Spidey 1.
Elfman has all but disowned the second score and said he wouldn't be working with Raimi again.
Who is scoring Spidey 3?

whyaduck, November 9, 2006; 6:51 PM

Spiderman 3 - Christopher Young

karol, November 10, 2006; 5:46 AM

well, I liked both scores, but I was kind of disappointed to hear several cues (or bars) from previous scores that Horner have done in the past but I still ended up liking it.

But, personally... YARED'S SCORE IS MUCH BETTER!!!
I think it deserved, at least, an Oscar nomination.

And Mr. Horner, shame on you, have a little of dignity, ok?

guchinpelado, July 20, 2007; 8:35 PM

Guys, I have listened closely to both scores.
I am totally dumbstruck how unpolite, tactless and respectless Horner talks about Yared and his score for TROY. It is nothing but and unbelievable misbehaviour to talk about a colleague's effort like that, no matter how much you like or dislike it - Horners statements endlessly disgust me.
And the music?
Well, I know quite some scores by both composers and I can say that Yared is BY FAR the better composer. Yared and Horner simply play in different leagues - while Horner may have had some good moments many years ago, Yared DELIVERS...one excellent score after the other (Listen e.g. to POSSESSION, L'AVION and many, many others).
TROY is no exception - it is bold, classic and exciting music with really sophisticated and memorable themes, that leaves 99% of Horner's efforts in the dust. True, Yared's score bootleg contains two tracks with some women wailing and lamenting - and these pieces are not really accessible and nice to hear on a soundtrack album - they would have most probably been left out from the compilation of a commercial soundtrack album anyway (had it been released). The rest, however, is simply marvellous.
The only good thing about Horner's score is the song ('Remember') and the related theme. The rest is so dull and ultimately boring that I am all the more wondering whether this guy really believes all this nonsense that he has been saying about Yared's TROY.
Sure, writing an epic score in such a short time is an incredible achievement in its own right, but, unfortunately, this seems to be the point where Horner's professionalism ends. His statments are far from professional - they are simply embarrassing for him and reveal a shocking lack of appropriate behaviour, decency and modesty.

karreverfriemelt, May 10, 2010; 9:32 PM

Hmmm,.... check out Horner's Willow score for a rip-off of Robert Schumann's Rhenish Symphony 1st movement...he's no-one to talk is he!

opus, May 3, 2014; 2:06 AM