Kinda surprised that nobody picked him yet- the composer of Satantango and Werckmeister Harmonies among others Mihaly Vig.
Hey Jesse, where you can get Mihaly Vig’s scores? I took a quick search around the net and his work is nearly impossible to find (at a reasonable price, that is).
I have a hard time picking favourites of anything, but my latest dicovery is Ryuichi Sakamoto. His scores for The Last Emperor, Babel and especially Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence are amazing.
@Jeff
I had a collection that someone posted a link to free on IMDB. It might be under Mihaly Vig or Bela Tarr. Don’t remember though…
How could i forget Georges Delerue, I adore his score for the Conformist.
I’m not huge on film music, but I adore Nino Rota’s contributions to a number of Fellini films, especially 8½. I also think Giovanni Fusco, in particular his work for Michelangelo Antonioni, goes unfairly ignored.
Van den Budenmayer (Zbigniew Preisner) and Philip Glass
Ennio Moricone
Just been listening to Lalo Schifrin’s soundtrack to Bullit (1968) which is awesome. Schifrin is surely one of the great Hollywood movie composers particularly good is his late ‘60s work on films like Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Presidents Analyst (1967), Bullit (1968), *Coogan’s Bluff* (1968), and Hell In The Pacific(1968).
One of my favourite film tracks is “Lujon” by Henry Mancini, which is features in the film Sexy Beast (2000), but I’m sure it’s cropped up in other films.
A little known British composer is Marc Wilkinson, who composed the music for Lindsay Anderson’s If (1968) but also did a quite remarkable job on the British witchcraft themed classic The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971). The soundtrack is very abstract yet atmospheric, perfectly suiting the directing style of Piers Haggard.
Also I have to mention the composer Paul Giovanni who composed the score for the original The Wicker Man (1973). He adapted traditional folk material from around Europe to create a unique musical flavour for the film, plus his band, Magnet and himself perform in the film adding an extra dimension and relevance to the films soundtrack, it becomes an integral part of the conspiracy happening on Summerisle. Unfortunately this was to be the only film he would compose for.
Patrick O’Hearn
Shigeru Umebayashi
Zbigniew Preisner
Ennio Morricone
Zdeněk Liška!
TORU TAKEMITSU
there is no second
Bernard Herrmann
Jerry Goldsmith
John Barry
Zbigniew Preisner
Ennio Morricone
Michael Nyman
Neil Young (Dead Man)
Phillip Glass: The Hours’ score never gets old.
Thomas Newman: everything by him is so tender and meditative.
Rachel Portman: so mellow and I like it.
Peer Raben
Michel Legrand
Zbigniew Preisner
Georges Delerue
Goblin
Angelo Badalamenti
Here’s a list I made of great film music.
Korngold will always be the greatest though.
Mihály Vig
Philip Glass
Zbigniew Preisner
Shigeru Umebayashi
Ryuchi Sakamoto
Popol Vuh
Erik Satie
1. James Newton Howard
2. Herbert Gronemeyer
3. Alexandre Desplat
4. Harry Gregson-Williams
5. Hans Zimmer
6. Carter Burwell
7. Danny Elfman
8. Ennio Morricone
9. Thomas Newman
10. Nino Rota
11. John Williams
12. Craig Armstrong
13. Steve Jablonsky
14. Howard Shore
15. James Horner
16. Brian Tyler
17. Bernard Herrmann
18. Marc Shaiman
19. Elmer Bernstein
20. David Raksin
Gustavo Santaolalla
Takeshi Kobayashi
In case not mentioned yet…
Quincy Jones
Krzysztof Komeda- for Polanski films
Roy Budd- Get Carter, Wild Geese, Black Windmill…
Isaac Hayes- he’s on my top list, with SHAFT alone, even without the main theme
Burt Bacharach
Toru Takemitsu
I mentioned elsewhere that I’m really into film scores – if I had to limit myself, I’d say my top three are – Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, Jon Brion, and Clint Mansell.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest film composer of all was
ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD.
He was the only composer in Hollywood who retained copyright on all his music written for films. His name always got big letter billing on films. His master scores won Oscars: The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. If you listen to the opening of John Williams score for Star Wars and then listen to Korngold’s score for Kings Row, some 25/30 years earlier, you may think that there’s a touch of copying involved.
And Herrmann’s score for Vertigo is not entirely unrelated to Wagner’s Parsifal.
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH is without a doubt the greatest composer ever to have written music for films. His best scores are for Hamlet and King Lear. And of course Sir William Walton (Henry V, Richard III). And Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote quite a lot of good film music – his music for Scott of the Antarctic is fantastic.
yann tiersen anyone? the scores on amelie are too brilliant and captures the mood of the film perfectly! and his work on goodbye lenin are fairly notable too, if not his best.
air’s scores on the virgin suicides are also similar in that sense, it seems to give a really nonchalant and haunting suburban vibe. every now and then when i listen to the ost by itself, the demeanors of the suicide girls will cross my mind and somehow i feel like everything had actually happened and it was a part of my past or something. anyone happens to share the same sentiments?
My favorite film composers:
1. Ennio Morricone
2. Danny Elfman
3. Philip Glass
4. John Williams
5. Thomas Newman
6. Alexandre Desplat
7. Bernard Herrmann
8. Carter Burwell
9. Clint Mansell
10. Gustavo Santaolalla
11. Jonny Greenwood
12. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
Bernard Herrmann, Danny Elfman, John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Nino Rota, Angelo Badalamenti.
2IMMS
Nino Rota
Bernard Hermann
Maurice Jarre