Emotional, Powerful, and Beautiful....A Fabulous Score

"Titanic".... When I think about that 1997 James Cameron film, I can easily recall all of the points that, to me, make it one of the best films of all time. One of the things I enjoyed most while watching it, was listening to the musical score. Composer James Horner created a score that perfectly complimented the film. Where Cameron crafted the film to reflect the true-to-life emotions felt from Titanic's launch until her sinking, Horner's score works right along with it to plunge the listener inside the story and experience the same emotions. It's definitely not difficult to see why, while "Titanic" was the #1 film for so long a time, this soundtrack was the #1 selling album in America. Crowds flocked to the movies to watch the experience, then flocked to the stores to purchase this score so they could experience it again.

Some of the more interesting features of this soundtrack are the soft, echoey, haunting sounds of Enya on certain tracks and also the only track to include vocals (by Celine Dion), "My Heart Will Go On".

Here is the track listing:

1 - Never an Absolution
2 - Distant Memories
3 - Southampton
4 - Rose
5 - Leaving Port
6 - "Take Her To Sea, Mr. Murdoch"
7 - "Hard To Starboard"
8 - Unable To Stay, Unwilling To Leave
9 - The Sinking
10 - Death of Titanic
11 - A Promise Kept
12 - A Life So Changed
13 - An Ocean Of Memories
14 - My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme from 'Titanic')
15 - Hymn To The Sea

Titanic's launch in 1912 had a huge aura around it, of pride and majesty felt by the ship's owners, and awe felt by the public. These emotions can be experienced again when listening to tracks such as "Southampton" (3), "Leaving Port" (5), and "Take Her To Sea, Mr. Murdoch" (6). Those who have seen the film will recognize these tracks as playing during those scenes when Titanic, loaded up with its passengers, left port and began its voyage across the ocean. You can just feel the swell of pride in the ship's captain and officers as this, the largest ocean liner in the world, gets underway.

Tracks "The Sinking" (9), and "Death of Titanic" (10), call to mind the frantic and harrowing moments just before Titanic struck the fatal iceberg and the final panic-stricken moments of the ship's being afloat, the dramatic tension very thick as people clamored in futility to the ship's stern as its bow plunged further under the sea. These are very chilling tracks to listen to as you recall when they were played during the film.

And then, there are tracks such as "Never An Absolution" (1), "A Promise Kept" (11), "A Life So Changed" (12), "An Ocean of Memories" (13), "Hymn To The Sea" (15) and parts of "Unable To Stay, Unwilling To Leave" (8). These tracks call to mind the great sadness associated with the knowledge of how many people (including Jack) lost their lives in this disaster. They're very melancholy in tone, soft, and reflective. I include part of "Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave" in this because part of this track was played twice in the film, once while Rose was being lowered in the lifeboat and looking back up at Jack, and then the second time at the very end when Rose had "died" (which is said to be open to interpretation) and went back to her "heaven", meeting Jack at the Grand Staircase on Titanic, surrounded by those who lost their lives in the tragic sinking. I suppose I could, and should, also include the Celine Dion song "My Heart Will Go On" (14) with these other track as well. The song is beautiful and helps one to appreciate what was felt in Rose's heart when she had to physically give up Jack, but kept his memory and her vow to him in her heart and went on with her life.

Finally, I think my personal favorite track is "Rose" (4). The light, echoey sounds of Enya's voice and the swell of the emotional element during this portion of the film, when Rose finally came to Jack and was "flying" on the bow of the ship, is very strong. It's definitely one of the highlights of the film, both as far as the love story is concerned, and captured one of the most memorable moments as well with the two main characters located on the bow during a beautiful sunset, Titanic's last view at daylight as it plunged ahead to its inevitable outcome.

***Final Thoughts***

James Horner's "Titanic" score is very moving, very relaxing to listen to, and extremely emotional. The music itself is beautiful. For those who loved the film, or even for those who never have seen it, but still enjoy a great film score....do yourself the favor and pick this up. It's worthy of listening to repeatedly, and I'm sure that you'll be replaying track 4 quite often. Horner did a superb job in creating the score to this film. Get it and you'll see (or hear, rather) exactly what I mean.