Vangelis
Any shout outs here? Chariots of Fire obviously was an iconic score for its time. Maybe still is.
Certainly not the greatest but Randy Newman deserves at least one mention. He’s a very good composer as well as being one of our greatest songwriters. Few movies benefit more from a great score than ‘The Natural’.
The Natural. Cornball, but in a classy way. I enjoy that score.
Randy Newman had three uncles who where pretty good too. The best of the three was Alfred Newman:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000055/#composer
I also like Peter Gabriel’s film work—The Last Temptation of Christ, Birdy, Rabbit-Proof Fence
elton john
not necessarily top of mind for anyone, but I love these scores
Elmer Bernstein – The Man with the Golden Arm
Nino Rota – Hurricane (yes, the dreadful remake, listen to that score!)
Ennio Morricone – The Untouchable
Georges Delerue – Julia
David Shire – Pelham 123 (orig)
Jerry Goldsmith – Chinatown
Fred Karlin/Dory Previn – The Sterile Cukoo
Nicola Piovani – Life is Beautiful
Aaron Copeland – Something Wild (61)
Although not exclusively for film, Philip Glass. Unrivalled genius.
Philip Glass hands down. His score for Kundun was flawless.
@ CASEY — I’m with you, man. Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire is a superb iconic score, like Anton Karas’ zither music for The Third Man and Mikos Hajidakis’ Never on Sunday. And I love The Natural, score and movie, in spite of it’s kitsch!
@JASPAR LAMARR CRABBE — For me, Jerry Goldsmith’s Chinatown has a shelf in heaven reserved all to itself (of course you’d know all about that movie, wouldn’t you?). I also like his score for The Omen, the only Oscar he ever received!
Fred Karlin’s The Sterile Cuckoo is quite good, and do you remember the funky one he did for Up the Down Staircase ? I’d love to find that digitized somewhere.
Mention really must be made of Danny Elfman – Edward Scissorhands is one the greatest scores in recent memory.
hermann, thomas newman, philip glass, howard shore, shigeru umebayashi (in the mood for love even though it wasnt composed specifically for that film), carter burwell, jonny greenwood (there will be blood)
Zbigniew Preisner, scored a lot of Krzyzstof Kieslowski films. The music in Blue is amazing. Johan Soderqvist – Let the Right One In
@nessa- im with you on preisner.
Michel Legrand: Umbrellas of Cherbourg & Young Girls of Rochefort. Umbrellas was epic
Soderqvist’s score for Let the Right One In is the best one I’ve heard recently. I’d like to show some love for Pino Donaggio: Don’t Look Now and Blow Out (recently “borrowed” for Death Proof) are particular favourites. And has anyone mentioned Ry Cooder? Paris, Texas anyone? Southern Comfort?
Christopher, It’s really strange who those Oscar people give awards to and for what films…Elmer Bernstein won ONCE and it was for Thoroughly Modern Millie (not criticizing that film, but this was the guy who did Magnificant Seven, Man with the Golden Arm, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc.)
Neil, glad to see Pino Donaggio. I had a Blow Out poster in my b’room in high school and saw his name constantly! And it’s a great score.
I vote Morricone, but these are my favorite scores overall:
Mancini – Two for the Road
Morricone – Cinema Paradiso
Barry – Somewhere in Time
Bernard Herrmann is one of my favorites. His music for much of Hitchcock’s films fits so perfectly with the themes and moods of those particular movies. Vertigo’s main theme, in particular, has that hypnotic, spiraling quality that the movie’s main motifs and themes of madness reflect.
Tôru Takemitsu - scored a variety of films including Kaidan and Women in the Dunes.
Often had a mix of traditional music with avant-garde. Original voice.
Nino Rota. The Godfather Waltz alone trumps anything Bernard Hermann, Ennio Morricone, John Williams, or Danny Elfman ever did.
Hmm…I’d have to disagree with you there Fredo. Bernard Herrmann is class in a glass!
Bernard Herrmann’s score for North by Northwest is a major influence on Philip Glass.
“Bernard Herrmann is class in a glass!”
hahahah – I love it! I’m going to have to use that.
Don’t forget Peer Raben
Yeah Justin, I can see where North by Northwest has been an influential on Glass – all that thunderous stuff in Hitchcock’s souffle of a film made its way into Mishima (“Runaway Horses” is almost a direct steal). Has Glass himself said this somewhere? It’s a funny thing: sometimes the music in a film is the deciding factor for me – it might explain why I much prefer Taxi Driver to Raging Bull (otherwise I find it hard to account for it). I watched The Day the Earth Stood Still the other day, and Herrmann’s work elevated that film into the realm of the classics.
Glass has acknowledged being influenced by Bowie/Eno and I guess Terry Riley and John Cage, but the first time I heard the opening to North by Northwest I just said to myself, “Is this The Photographer?”
Has Raymond Scott been mentioned?
I mean… pretty much everyone who has worked with Hitchcock (but not limited to the Hitchcock work of course!).
Takemitsu is really great.
No GOBLIN listed!?
I’ll take me a heaping helping of GOBLIN anytime.
By no means prolific (as a film composer), but Aaron Copeland provided two astounding scores…one for Wyler’s The Heiress and another for the undervalued, barely seen 61 film Something Wild.
Juan E. Rodriguez
Maurice Jarre: Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Mourir à Madrid, Is Paris Burning? Sundays and Cybele, Isadora, The Night of the Generals, Witness, A Passage to India, and many more.