For his single prior collaboration with director James Cameron (Aliens), James Horner received an Oscar nomination in 1986. Ten years ago the composer was just beginning to find an individual voice; with the similarly Oscar-nominated Braveheart (1995), Horner established a style best suited to highlighting the emotional core of a film. Thus, like Braveheart, Titanic features the mournful yet romantically imbued strains of the Uillean pipes. Indeed, romance is the key to the entire film. Dramatic tension is added by percussion and ‘slapped’ strings in “Hard to starboard”. “Death of Titanic” is a relentless progression of feverishly insane (often atonal) passages. Yet, despite the obvious violence of ship meeting iceberg, it is the central love story that is best conveyed by the music.
There are several motifs suggestive of flowering passion, the most prominently developed love theme being accorded song treatment as My heart will go on. But before the synthesizer- and drumbeat-drowned Celine Dion song, far gentler wordless versions abound performed by Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebo. Her soft vocals, together with the pipes, make for that distinctive Celtic sound so successful in its sensual resonance. The score leaves no doubt that this is a lover’s tale; but after similar treatment in Braveheart and Titanic, one hopes that Horner will now find another voice with which to tell his next story. PT