This is a huge kick in the gut for me. James Horner was my first film score obsession, the first composer I hunted record stores for music from. Like a number of folks, Star Trek II was my introduction to his work and it remains a brilliant score and one of my favorites. Star Trek III is breathtakingly beautiful and was my first LP purchase at 16 years old. When all my friends were buying Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top and Van Halen albums, I was scouring the soundtrack aisles for James Horner scores, and those are some of my favorite memories. Walking up and down Tower Records buying cassettes of Aliens, Brainstorm, Willow, Gorky Park, Cocoon 2, Red Heat and others, listening to them in the car on the drive home from the store. Wearing them out over the weeks and months, getting my friends sick of music from Star Trek's II and III, Krull, Clear and Present Danger, The Land Before Time, and The Rocketeer. My closest friends knew his name before the rest of the world did. I even got a call from one of them when Horner won the Grammy. His music ignited my passion for film scores.
Over time, his style and my tastes didn't match, so he dropped from #1 to #2, but that was still a rarefied place in my list of composers and it's not a criticism of his work; it's an indication of where my interests were. His music moved me and shaped my feelings. I will always appreciate the years of joy he provided.