Search forums

Forums

Export thread

Movie Soundtrack Composers

Sep 19, 2011#1

Jay

My favorite has to be without a doubt Hans Zimmer. He's by far the most gifted man in this field I've ever had the pleasure to hear in countless movies.

It's funny... when I watch a new movie... I'll be halfway in and... I'd just know it's his work. I'd go home, rush to computer and check on IMDB and smile.

I can't really say which soundtrack is my favorite... they are just so different and all equally enjoyable. I'm a big movie soundtrack buff, classical music with no or almost no lyrics.

One of his recent work we all know... and deserving of praise is this song.

(Dream is collapsing is equally as impressive but I want to limit to 1 video per post - heck it'll be the song that plays in my Halloween video invite this year)

My woman finds it weird when I drive listening to this instead of whatever flavor of the week plays on the radio but it.... center me....

Anyone out there feel the same? Do you feel like sharing your taste as well? Perhaps even post a video of a song somewhere so that I can perhaps enlarge my library?

Sep 19, 2011#2

Hailey Knight

Hans Zimmer can swivel between really plain, generic-sounding scores (Gladiator) to really brilliant stuff (Inception, Lion King).

John Williams must always be mentioned, but I tend not to listen to him because his main themes are so iconic (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark), everyone knows them by heart. I think the only ones I listen to in full are Memoirs of a Geisha and Schindler's List.

James Newton Howard does some great fantastical stuff (King Kong 2005, Peter Pan 2003, good music for M. Night's garbage films).

I'll think of more soon.

Sep 19, 2011#3

Charlie Don't Surf

Not to be pedantic, but soundtrack is usually existing songs in a movie (like Pulp Fiction) and score is the music created for a movie (Hans Zimmer).

Also: ban everyone that says John Williams

Sep 19, 2011#4

ThatNickGuy

Why? His are pretty much the scores that everyone's familiar with.

James Horner's one of mine. The Rocketeer soundtrack is fantastic. And say what you will about Titanic and "that song" (ugh), the score is amazing. Ditto for Avatar. The man doesn't do greatly memorable stuff on the John Williams scale, but he's a damn solid scorist.

Sep 19, 2011#5

Officer_Charon

Oh yeah, Hans Zimmer, all the way. Probably my favorite work of his was either in The Rock or Backdraft, with Blackhawk Down being a VERY close third.

Ultimately, it depends on what mood I'm in... Zimmer seems to find a way to make it work.

Basil Poledouris is another all-time favorite... not the least of which for his work on Robocop, but also for Starship Troopers.

Sep 19, 2011#6

ThatNickGuy

Ooh, let's not forget about John flipping Carpenter.

Sep 19, 2011#7

klew

Hans Zimmer's The Rock was his best. James Horner's Braveheart is excellent, as is Randy Edelman's Dragonheart and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, both commonly used in other trailers or award show moments.

Sep 19, 2011#8

Hailey Knight

James Horner has done some great scores; it's unfortunate he keeps ripping off himself.

Sep 19, 2011#9

checkeredhat

Hans Zimmer's best work, right here:

Sep 19, 2011#10

PatrThom

I came here pretty much to say Zimmer and Howard, but it seems we're all already familiar with these guys (even when teamed up with Elton John). So instead I'll add a couple other names, such as Mark Mancina (Training Day, Disney's Tarzan) and Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Hercules).

Let's have a little underrated Menken, shall we?

--Patrick

Sep 19, 2011#11

checkeredhat

No one's said Ennio Morricone yet.

Sep 19, 2011#12

PatrThom

Thank you for rectifying my omission, sir. I even got the import version, should've remembered it.

--Patrick

Sep 19, 2011#13

strawman

checkeredhat said:
No one's said Ennio Morricone yet.

The Mission is hands down one of the best soundtracks ever. It's breathtaking in movie and out of movie.

Sep 20, 2011#14

Espy

John Murphy. Hands down favorite.

Sep 20, 2011#15

Hailey Knight

Joe Hisaishi, best known for scoring the works of Hayao Miyazaki.

Even the less good movies (like Goro Miyazaki's) benefit from his beautiful music:

Sep 20, 2011#16

Just Me

And there's Basil Poledouris.

And of course:

As well as all his other work.

Sep 20, 2011#17

fade

My favorite relatively recent score was "Brick". It was understated but powerful.

Sep 21, 2011#18

Frankie Williamson

Espy said:
John Murphy. Hands down favorite.

Like times a million, I always pick up the scores to movies he works on.
Added at: 02:13

Just Me said:
And there's Basil Poledouris.

Also!

Sep 21, 2011#19

Philosopher B.

Alan S. worked on two of the raddest 80s movies:

Also, one of my personal favorites from J. Wizzle:

Cujo is an example of a good movie made great by its atmospheric score, thanks to C. Bernstein:

Sep 21, 2011#20

ncts_dodge_man

While not a movie soundtrack per se, Brian Tyler should be commended for the Children of Dune soundtrack - esp. Inama Mushif - it fit very well with the scenes being played (just the music, screen doesn't change).

Sep 21, 2011#21

Philosopher B.

Also, 80s scores with hella synth totally rule:

Sep 21, 2011#22

Azurephoenix

Basil Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian is one of my favorite movie scores. I like a lot of his work.

Hans Zimmer is great as well as James Horner.

I also have to add the Terminator 2 score by Brad Fiedel... I think it's a really good movie synth score (and very distinct).

Sep 21, 2011#23

twitchmoss

no Michael Giacchino? for shame.

Sep 21, 2011#24

Just Me

Philosopher B. said:
Also, 80s scores with hella synth totally rule:

Now please you cannot bring up 80s movies with electronic scores and leave this one out

And as my girlfriend always says: Zimmer geht immer! (hey, we are germans)
Meaning: There's a Zimmer soundtrack for every mood and everything else...

Sep 21, 2011#25

Piotyr

No love for Danny Elfman? Although a bunch of his are really iconic songs, too, like the Batman theme. He's also apparently attached at the hip to Tim Burton.

Sep 21, 2011#26

Azurephoenix

Piotyr said:
No love for Danny Elfman? Although a bunch of his are really iconic songs, too, like the Batman theme. He's also apparently attached at the hip to Tim Burton.

I really like the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack.

Sep 21, 2011#27

Philosopher B.

Just Me said:
Now please you cannot bring up 80s movies with electronic scores and leave this one out

And as my girlfriend always says: Zimmer geht immer! (hey, we are germans)
Meaning: There's a Zimmer soundtrack for every mood and everything else...

Unfortunately, I have not seen that movie. :-o

Sep 21, 2011#28

checkeredhat

Piotyr said:
No love for Danny Elfman? Although a bunch of his are really iconic songs, too, like the Batman theme. He's also apparently attached at the hip to Tim Burton.

Other than the Simpsons and the stuff Danny Elfman did with Oingo Boingo, everything he does sounds the same to me.

Sep 21, 2011#29

Espy

checkeredhat said:
Other than the Simpsons and the stuff Danny Elfman did with Oingo Boingo, everything he does sounds the same to me.

I dunno man, I think he does some super great stuff and then some very generic stuff. He's either ON or he's "meh".

Sep 21, 2011#30

strawman

He has a particular style, and within that style he's done some great stuff. He can't compose for everything though.

Sep 21, 2011#31

Hailey Knight

I love how when he was hired for Hulk, Ang Lee told him to write a score that was "not like Danny Elfman".

And the Hulk score was beautiful.

Sep 21, 2011#32

PatrThom

Just Me said:
Now please you cannot bring up 80s movies with electronic scores and leave this one out

Nor can you mention that one without also mentioning this one:

Glad someone else mentioned Elfman and Fidel.

--Patrick

Sep 22, 2011#33

Adammon

Clint Mansell on Requiem for a Dream. Its a bit overplayed now but still so recognizable from its rewrite into the trailer for LOTR: The Two Towers.

Also, Immediate Music which isn't really an individual but a group that put together scores for trailers has done a lot of work that you'd recognize pretty quickly. They wrote parts of the score for the second Spiderman's first trailer: Lacrimosa.

Sep 22, 2011#34

Mathias

Charlie Don't Surf said:
Not to be pedantic, but soundtrack is usually existing songs in a movie (like Pulp Fiction) and score is the music created for a movie (Hans Zimmer).

Also: ban everyone that says John Williams

Is John Williams too mainstream for your tastes?

Sep 22, 2011#35

wana10

PatrThom said:
Let's have a little underrated Menken, shall we?

--Patrick

uh hold on there cowboy. i love me some menken (and i mean LOVE me some menken) but the dude has 8 oscars. i don't think there is anyone else living with more oscars than him. i really don't think underrated is the best word to describe him.

Sep 22, 2011#36

strawman

Philosopher B. said:
Unfortunately, I have not seen that movie. :-o

You gotta see ladyhawk. It's quite good. But I'm biased - it's my mother's favorite movie and I watched more than a few times as a kid.

Sep 23, 2011#37

Just Me

stienman said:
You gotta see ladyhawk. It's quite good. But I'm biased - it's my mother's favorite movie and I watched more than a few times as a kid.

Seconded, Ladyhawke forever!

And in that vein some more electronic fantasy movie music

Sep 23, 2011#38

Officer_Charon

Also (and how did I forget?), Klaus Doldinger.

Sep 24, 2011#39

PatrThom

wana10 said:
i really don't think underrated is the best word to describe him.

I agree. I was referring to the song. Everyone remembers "Zero to Hero," but in my opinion, Meg's song is the best from that flick, and the best I'd heard in a movie in a long time.

I often present Ladyhawke as one of the quintessential "Fantasy" movies, just like I present Dark City as a quintessential "50's Sci-Fi" movie.

--Patrick

Sep 24, 2011#40

Hailey Knight

Just Me said:
Seconded, Ladyhawke forever!

And in that vein some more electronic fantasy movie music

Disgusting; you'd actually post the Tangerine Dream-scored atrocity cut as opposed to the excellent Jerry Goldsmith Director's Cut.

I want to dislike this post with Charlie's anteater tongue.

With music, not synth:

Sep 24, 2011#41

Just Me

Quotemander Prime said:
Disgusting; you'd actually post the Tangerine Dream-scored atrocity cut as opposed to the excellent Jerry Goldsmith Director's Cut.

I want to dislike this post with Charlie's anteater tongue.

With music, not synth:

Like it or not (and I don't like it myself!), I posted it because of the synthesized music.

Here's some more love for Jerry Goldsmith, one of the Great Old Ones.

Sep 24, 2011#42

Hailey Knight

Oh. I jumped to conclusions because I hate that score so much.

Jerry Goldsmith was amazing.

Sep 24, 2011#43

Just Me

Quotemander Prime said:
Oh. I jumped to conclusions because I hate that score so much.

Jerry Goldsmith was amazing.

No offense taken, no problem.

And just because this has to do with with film/tv show and music in some way and because today would have been the 75th birthday of another great genius who got honored with a google doodle today...

I don't know if it fits the motto of the thread, but it has shaped part of my life.

Sep 24, 2011#44

ThatNickGuy

You know, I've been racking my brain for awhile on this. We all grew up on these amazing film scores, some that we can't get out of our heads (and why would we? They're awesome).

But I've been trying to think: have there been many music compositions in the last couple of years that were new and as memorable as the ones we've been posting? I can't honestly think of many.

I suppose there's this:

And this:

But those were TV show credit themes, not full on scores we'd hear during the show itself.

Sep 24, 2011#45

Espy

I'm sorry man, the buffy them is, imo, horrible. Love that show but that them was awful. Angel had a cool song if I remember correctly.

Sep 24, 2011#46

ThatNickGuy

Oh, there are much better themes, I agree. And yeah, the Angel theme was badass.

Sep 24, 2011#47

checkeredhat

ThatNickGuy said:
But I've been trying to think: have there been many music compositions in the last couple of years that were new and as memorable as the ones we've been posting? I can't honestly think of many.

All I can think of is Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings score. But even that was 8 years ago now... holy crap has it been that long?

Sep 24, 2011#48

Espy

The buffy theme just sounded like some TV suits idea of what "grunge" must sound like.

Sep 24, 2011#49

Piotyr

Espy said:
The buffy theme just sounded like some TV suits idea of what "grunge" must sound like.

Wasn't it Joss Whedon's band just making things up on the fly?

Sep 24, 2011#50

ThatNickGuy

Yeah, I'd think LotR might be the last memorable score we've had in awhile. Although, I have to admit that some of Steve Jablowski's work on the the Transformers movies was pretty damn good. Solid, but nothing really memorable.

Sep 24, 2011#51

Espy