James Horner utilized four main themes in the scoring of Titanic. The Titanic theme, played by French horns, and the Southampton theme, a vocal yet wordless melody, express the majesty of the “ship of dreams.” The Rose theme is also a sung melody without words that has an Irish/Enya-esque quality to it. The Love theme is more orchestral, and at the end of the movie becomes “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion and is firmly rooted in everyone’s mind as the theme song of the movie.
The third class/steerage on the Titanic was made up of mostly poor Irish looking for opportunity in America. Horner stays true to history when creating the musical contrast between the first class and the third class. The music in the first class is all classical music played by a string orchestra and a piano lending a very formal air. The party scene in the third class is vastly different. The music (played by one of my favorite bands, Gaelic Storm) is made up of a reel followed by the tune “Hills of Connemara” (which is also a reel) and is played by traditional Irish instruments such as the bodhran and uilleann pipes. Lively dancing accompanies the music further contrasting the reserved manner of the first class.
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Good job touching on Horner's main themes, the analysis of them provided me with some good information.
ReplyDeleteI also found the analysis of the themes very useful. I also noticed the break down into a few major themes that were carried throughout the movie. I think the use of these 4 themes was a good idea since the movie was so long and was set in real time and in a flash back so the common themes helped tie everything together as well as added a strong emotional impact to the film. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteI really like that you gave an analysis of the instruments used. I have a hard time picking up on exactly was instruments I am hearing onscreen. I also noticed the use of ethnic music to represent the lower class and thought it really added to the film.
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