What is the greatest score ever made (poll)

I would like to know the general opinion so let’s make a little poll 🙂

Let everyone post names of (at most) three soundtracks he/she thinks are the best candidates to win the first prize in the contest for the greatest score ever written.

If, for example, you think that the whole Star Wars Saga music is the winner simply post: Star Wars (and then the two others).
But if you feel that a specific one is the best – name it: e.g. Star Wars: The Sth of Sb.

After couple of you guys will have posted I’ll do the maths and statistics and give you the winner(s).

Try not to look at the other opinions before you post yours in order to make the whole thing more objective.

Ok, so personal feelings aside:

1) Jaws: John Williams. The music, and the shark motif in particular, not only served to ratchet up the tension and mood, but essentially replaced a failed mechanical effect as a main character in the story.

2) Star Wars: John Williams. Another essential component to a film that forever changed movie making.

3)Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: John Williams. A score, and film, that added depth and maturity to a sequel that topped a film that was seen as un-toppable….

Ok, yea, so no Horner..shock. Close runner up would be Goldsmith’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture (absolutely sublime, and perfect for the film)

Supeman The Movie is his masterpiece

For Me:
– KING KONG Max Steiner
– STAR WARS John Williams
– THE OMEN Jerry Goldsmith

1/ Once Upon a Time in the West, Ennio Morricone
2/ The Wild Bunch, Jerry Fielding
3/ In The Heat Of The Night, Quincy Jones

1.- The Lord Of The Rings.
2.- Star Wars
3.- Jaws

1. Conan the Barbarian (1982) – Basil Poledouris
2. Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) – Ennio Morricone
3. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – John Williams

Hello,for me, I would say :

1 Ben Hur Miklos Rozsa
2 Bladerunner Vangelis
3 Dances with Wolves John Barry
4 Heat Elliot Goldenthal and others

I’ll have to say since I’m younger I don’t have as much appreciation for older scores (a few but not alot) My list will go as follows:

Inception
The Dark Knight
At World’s End

Sherlock Holmes
Music from Lost and Fringe
Harry Potter (The ones by john williams, oh course!)

I’d also do an honorable mention for brian tyler :p

JAWS (it changed movies forever much thanks to the music and became a character more menacing than the shark)
E.T (if a score brought feelings on its own, E.T is the grand winner)
Psycho (if a score can scare you without showing any images Psycho can)

Jaws is great.

My favorite score is Elmer Bernstein’s To Kill A Mockingbird.

hum…

1.Blade Runner (Vangelis)
2.Lord of the rings, special mention for "the two towers" (Shore)
3.Psycho (Herrman)

Two outsiders, as far as i’m concerned: The Omen (Goldsmith) and Conan the Barbarian (Bates. no, just kidding, I mean Poledouris:))

I consider Jaws at the top, because the score really makes the film. Without that Williams score, would the movie have ever been as good? Can you not hear that theme, when watching the film?

Edit: Same can be said for Conan.

Psycho [Herrmann]
LOTR: Fellowship [Shore]
Upon Upon A Time In the West [Morricone]
Empire Strikes Back [Williams]

The obvious ones, I know.

…but there’s a reason they keep getting mentioned. 🙂

Yea, Psycho is another one. Just ty to imagine that shower scene with ANY other cue….

Star Trek TMP
Star Wars Empire Strikes Back
Where Eagels Dare

and Hans Zimmers Pirates 😛

Conan the Barbarian (1982) – Basil Poledouris
THE OMEN Jerry Goldsmith
The Last Samurai – Hans Zimmer

star wars i-vi
alien, aliens
star trek
basic instinct expanded
total recall deluxe
superman the movie

Surely, as always, this just boils down to "What is your favourite score ever made"? Or am I just being pedantic about semantics?

Surely, as always, this just boils down to "What is your favourite score ever made"? Or am I just being pedantic about semantics?

My list would be different if that were the case with my choices.

Psycho would still be on it though.

:shrugs:

My ability to confuse myself and others is astounding. 😀

The point, I think, was to pick scores based on technical merit as "best score" All three of my picks are certainly favorites. But, many of my favorites, are so for personal reasons, and may not be "best score ever".

I love Young Sherlock Holmes, for instance, but it is not on the level of Jaws for impact of score.

the greatest scores i know are maybe:

raiders of the lost ark
girl with the golden earring
e.t. – the extra terrestrial
the island
pirates of the caribbean
thelma & louise

All you people crack me up..almost nobody listens to anything from the Golden Age, probably because most of you are 20 somethings I would imagine.

All you people crack me up..almost nobody listens to anything from the Golden Age, probably because most of you are 20 somethings I would imagine.

Not really.

I’ve got the Steiner and Korngold collection going pretty strong.

i have not really, really listened to anything pre, say, ’75 or so. :/ So, I can only speak from what I know. But, these newer scores being mentioned, like Transformers and such, I don’t see how those can be called the best scores of all time. As a personal favorite, I can dig it, but as technical works outside of personal interests, I just don’t see it.

I’ll have to say since I’m younger I don’t have as much appreciation for older scores (a few but not alot) My list will go as follows:

Inception
The Dark Knight
At World’s End

Sherlock Holmes
Music from Lost and Fringe
Harry Potter (The ones by john williams, oh course!)

I’d also do an honorable mention for brian tyler :p
Same here mate, quite a few young ones like me and you
I will have to go with:
1. Lair-John Debney (LISTENING TO THIS AND THIS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
2. ALL DA STAR WARS! (DUR-Joh Williams)
3. Transformers (the first one) Steve Jablonsky
4. Inception/The Dark Knight/Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Main Themes/Sherlock Holmes/DKNTR/SHGoSH/TLS hanz zimmer!
5. Star trek (2009)Michael Giacchino (super 8 too)
And an honorable mention to Lorne Balfe (MW2), Brian Tyler (Fast 5), Thomas Newman (The Adjustment Beuraue) , jeremy Soule (Elder Scrolls) and of course Marti O’ Donnel and Micheal salvatori (HALO)

1. Star Trek :the Motion Picture
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Krull

But I feel that list should include Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters, King Kong(1933), Ben Hur, A Big Country and so on.

I cannot answer the question as it is posed. What parameters are you using as your definition for "Greatest Score Ever Made"? There have obviously been numerous scores, many mentioned already, that are epic. That comes down to a personal preference. So what makes the Best Score? Are you asking about the greatest score ever composed for pure listening enjoyment? Are you asking about scores that have been most essential to the greatness of the film? Or is it another parameter I haven’t thought of yet.

I tried to minimize the list as best as I could, and this is what I got.

Battlestar Galactica by Richard Gibbs and Bear McCreary
Meet Joe Black by Thomas Newman
The Fountain by Clint Mansell
Blade Runner by Vangelis
Doctor Who by Murray Gold
The Lord of the Rings by Howard Shore
Mission to Mars by Ennio Morricone
The Social Network by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Sunshine by John Murphy & Underworld
Star Wars by John Williams
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by Nicholas Hooper
Star Trek: Insurrection by Jerry Goldsmith
Donnie Darko by Michael Andrews

My opinion
_John Williams-Star Wars IV,V;Jaws;Close Encounters of the Third Kind
_Howard Shore-LOTR I,II,III
_Miklos Rozsa-Ben Hur,El Cid,Spellbound
_Sergei Prokofiev-Alexander Nevsky,Ivan the Terrible
_Ernest Gold-Exodus
_Dimitri Tiomkin-Alamo
_Jerry Goldsmith-Basic Instinct,Omen
_Basil Poledouris-Conan

John Williams: Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Superman, Star Wars;
Bernard Hermann – Psycho, Vertigo;
Jerry Goldsmith – Star Trek TMP;
Elmer Bernstein – The Ten Commandments.

My opinion
_John Williams-Star Wars IV,V;Jaws;Close Encounters of the Third Kind
_Howard Shore-LOTR I,II,III
_Miklos Rozsa-Ben Hur,El Cid,Spellbound
_Sergei Prokofiev-Alexander Nevsky,Ivan the Terrible
_Ernest Gold-Exodus
_Dimitri Tiomkin-Alamo
_Jerry Goldsmith-Basic Instinct,Omen
_Basil Poledouris-Conan

Finally someone that has a wider more diverse pre 1975 conception of what makes a great soundtrack and not just something that reminds them of their first date etc.

my list will be totally boring and predictable but i can’t remain silent on this

john williams: the empire strikes back, E.T., superman, indiana jones and the temple of doom, or empire of the sun
john barry: walkabout, king kong, dances with wolves, on her majesty’s secret service, or the lion in winter
jerry: star trek the motion picture, planet of the apes, the burbs, total recall, air force one, or first blood (fuck it, let’s just say every goldsmith score is the greatest)
ennio: for a few dollars more, untouchables, or the mission
air: the virgin suicides
nino rota: the godfather part ii
giorgio moroder: scarface
howard shore: the two towers
horner: star trek ii or braveheart
danny elfman: batman, spider-man, edward scissorhands, peewee’s big adventure, beetlejuice, and just about everything he did before 2000
maurice jarre: lawrence of arabia, enemy mine, or mad max beyond thunderdome
vangelis: blade runner
walter carlos: a clockwork orange
bernard herrman: psycho
max steiner: king kong
james newton howard: king kong

i know it’s crazy long but i can’t pick just one by each, too hard

my list will be totally boring and predictable but i can’t remain silent on this

john williams: the empire strikes back, E.T., superman, indiana jones and the temple of doom, or empire of the sun
john barry: walkabout, king kong, dances with wolves, on her majesty’s secret service, or the lion in winter
jerry: star trek the motion picture, planet of the apes, the burbs, total recall, air force one, or first blood (fuck it, let’s just say every goldsmith score is the greatest)
ennio: for a few dollars more, untouchables, or the mission
air: the virgin suicides
nino rota: the godfather part ii
giorgio moroder: scarface
howard shore: the two towers
horner: star trek ii or braveheart
danny elfman: batman, spider-man, edward scissorhands, peewee’s big adventure, beetlejuice, and just about everything he did before 2000
maurice jarre: lawrence of arabia, enemy mine, or mad max beyond thunderdome
vangelis: blade runner
walter carlos: a clockwork orange
bernard herrman: psycho
max steiner: king kong
james newton howard: king kong

i know it’s crazy long but i can’t pick just one by each, too hard

so i narrowed it down to these three:

john williams: the empire strikes back
john barry: dances with wolves
nino rota: the godfather part ii

I cannot answer the question as it is posed. What parameters are you using as your definition for "Greatest Score Ever Made"? There have obviously been numerous scores, many mentioned already, that are epic. That comes down to a personal preference. So what makes the Best Score? Are you asking about the greatest score ever composed for pure listening enjoyment? Are you asking about scores that have been most essential to the greatness of the film? Or is it another parameter I haven’t thought of yet.
What he said.
JonC

Too many great ones to mention but Lord of the Rings is by far the greatest ever for me, made me really take a liking to film music and all the emotion from Return of the King is a result of the music.

I’d say The Mummy Returns too as it’s a thrilling masterpiece from the first note to the last.

Also there’s the pirates scores that are just plain fun, even tho On Stranger Tides wasn’t the best film, the score just made it enjoyable nonetheless.

I’m new to the score scene so don’t shoot me ;). Slowly going back to the good ones, but I still lack an appreciation for the majority of them.

John Powell – How to Train Your Dragon
Bear McCreary – Battlestar Galactica
Murray Gold – Doctor Who
Patrick Doyle – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Hans Zimmer – Sherlock Holmes
James Newton Howard – Blood Diamond
Tan Dun – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Brian Tyler – Children of Dune
John Williams – Jurassic Park
Danny Elfman – Black Beauty

All personal preference based on enjoyment while listening. Not for how well they works with their films, nor for their technical merits.

I cannot answer the question as it is posed. What parameters are you using as your definition for "Greatest Score Ever Made"? There have obviously been numerous scores, many mentioned already, that are epic. That comes down to a personal preference. So what makes the Best Score? Are you asking about the greatest score ever composed for pure listening enjoyment? Are you asking about scores that have been most essential to the greatness of the film? Or is it another parameter I haven’t thought of yet.

My true intention while creating this thread was actually getting to know what’s the greatest score in people’s opinion.

We can’t say objectively which score is the best because what for one is great for somebody else could be totally crappy 🙂
And the reason people give their opinions here is they have opinions and that’s what this all is about.
Of course there are soundtracks like Star Wars or LOTR which are mentioned repeatedly. This is pehaps a sign that the winner is emerging from this variety of choices 🙂
To sum up – let’s make people’s tastes the best definition and parameter on that matter 🙂 And as I said the statistics will do the rest.

Not to get off-topic, let me throw in my two cents too:

– Star Wars, Jurassic Park (for the main theme mmmmm… 🙂

– LOTR (many people actually consider it the greatest score of all times )

– Hooper’s Harry Potters (yea I know, I know…;])

– Debney’s Evan Almighty

– Angels in America and How To Make An American Quilt (Thomas Newman. In fact, this guy makes a really good music)

– Ladder 49 (William Ross – and this guy is soooo underappreciated)

And, of course, how could I not mention Zimmer – everything he touches turns to gold 🙂

Nicholas Hooper’s work on Potter is definitely underrated. Order of the Phoenix definitely is a masterpiece. I’ll have to add that to my stack, as well.

it mostly depends on when you were brought up. For me I was brought up on movies mostly from the 70???s and 80???s and there???s where my fave music is from too…

i have not really, really listened to anything pre, say, ’75 or so. :/ So, I can only speak from what I know. But, these newer scores being mentioned, like Transformers and such, I don’t see how those can be called the best scores of all time. As a personal favorite, I can dig it, but as technical works outside of personal interests, I just don’t see it.

This is exactly my point. Most of it comes down to personal preference. Transformers is clearly not the best score ever written for reasons too obvious to state (although I do enjoy the first one a lot). The best we can do is say "This is the best score I’ve heard because […]".

I’m being pedantic, I know, and these types of discussions are just a bit of fun… but I admit I’m not a fan of emphatically stating one score above all others as "THE best" ever written. I don’t think such a thing exists (I find it hard enough to choose a personal favourite!). I do believe many scores are objectively better than others, certainly – Herrmann’s Citizen Kane is both infinitely more original, intricate and complex than Transformers. It IS a better score. But it just doesn’t necessarily mean it’s more enjoyable. And I think that’s what most of these choices boil down to. Anyone who seriously thinks Transformers is the best score ever written is profoundly na???ve.

PS I understand the point of this thread, so don’t think I’m trying to poop all over it! It’s always an interesting topic. I’m just throwing in my two cents about the difference between quantifiable merits and qualitative reasons for particular choices.

Finally someone that has a wider more diverse pre 1975 conception of what makes a great soundtrack and not just something that reminds them of their first date etc.

I haven’t heard a lot of "golden age" scores, but I don’t rank these on the same line as those I nominated. they play in another league. As far as older movies are concerned, I have preference for the works of Frank Skinner and Hans Skinner. Also the music James Bernard composed for many Hammer films are favorites of mine.

Body Heat – J. Barry
Psycho – B. Herrmann
Omen I-III – J. Goldsmith

Nicholas Hooper’s work on Potter is definitely underrated. Order of the Phoenix definitely is a masterpiece. I’ll have to add that to my stack, as well.

I completely agree with you. It’s a shame there’s no complete score or even recording session out there…

I completely agree with you. It’s a shame there’s no complete score or even recording session out there…

Yeah. The only expanded stuff I could find were DVD rips. 🙁

1-Superman, The Movie
2-Stae Trek, The Motion Picture
3-Stargate Atlantis

ooops!
1-Superman, The Movie
2-Star Trek, The Motion Picture
3-Stargate Atlantis

Psycho

The Lion In Winter

Jaws

Star wars Ep3
The Lord of the rings of course (All of them)
The Bourne Trilogy
I love the work of Alan Silvestri for Predator and Beowulf
And…well, this is too hard. There are too many titles for soundtracks lovers 🙂

For a movie’s score, I like "The Great Mouse Detective" (1986 Disney film)’s score. I also like scores from other older Disney films, like "101 Dalmatians" and "The Jungle Book". I hate the modern-age stuff like "Hannah Montana", though.

"To Ratigan, the world’s greatest ra-"

My true intention while creating this thread was actually getting to know what’s the greatest score in people’s opinion.

We can’t say objectively which score is the best because what for one is great for somebody else could be totally crappy
And the reason people give their opinions here is they have opinions and that’s what this all is about.
Of course there are soundtracks like Star Wars or LOTR which are mentioned repeatedly. This is pehaps a sign that the winner is emerging from this variety of choices
To sum up – let’s make people’s tastes the best definition and parameter on that matter And as I said the statistics will do the rest.

Okay, Ygm, What I infer from your reply is that what you are seeking is what is the most popular score ever made. I.E. the score that the largest number of people enjoy the most. Fair enough!

If we are going on most popular that is easier to answer if we look at the best selling scores of all time. From that point of view, according to one pundit, the highest grossing score of all time is The Bodyguard, with 42 million copies sold worldwide. Numbers two through five are Saturday Night Fever, Purple Rain, Dirty Dancing, and Titanic (16 weeks at number 1 in the album charts.

Other than Titanic, none of these scores would be remotely close to my top favorites. But they are the scores that sold the most copies…..

The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. 🙂
Personal liking: Am???lie, Tron: Legacy, The Dark Knight..

Someone pointed out to me that of the highest grossing scores of all time, the first four are really song compilations, NOT scores. Ergo, I would have to say that Titanic is the most popular score ever written.

Well, you have to consider this from a number of angles, by "Best" do you mean the most popular? The most albums sold? The theme song that was heard EVERYWHERE at the time the movie was in the theatres?
The first would have to go to "Goldfinger"! Same with the third, or a close tie with "Titanic" (that song was everywhere!) As for the second, you would have to say also "Titanic"! It really sold ALOT of CDs! But that may be close to Goldfinger as well, but Goldfinger had a TON of knockoff albums. Almost every recording star did their own version of the main theme, and there were a large number of "soundtracks" done by other orchestras than John Barry!

Just have to consider different aspects of your question!

And, we are talking about actual movie SCORES here, NOT "music from" like "Dirty Dancing"! Most people wouldn’t even know LOTR music if it would bite them on their asses! Star Wars was really up there as far as scores was concerned, but worldwide, you would have to go long and far to beat Titanic or Goldfinger!

I checked online, and keep getting different listings. Titanic was listed one place as selling 11 million units, but only 8 million on another! There seems to be a problem, as they are all quoting different movies with popular music in the soundtrack, like "Top gun", which people are going to buy to get different songs from, NOT the score! Everyone thinks that the top selling music album of all time is "Thriller" by Michael Jackson, but that is not correct! The best selling album of all time is "Sgt Peppers" by the Beatles. If you take into consideration the different release dates from 1968 to 1982, then the Beatles would beat Jackson by a good distance! You also have to consider how many people are on the planet at the time each album is sold. According to "Rolling Stone", the Beatles are numer one!

It’s kind of like the old question: which was the best movie of all time? You could say "Titanic" or "Avatar" as the most money made, but when you consider inflation, "Gone with the wind" still comes in first!

William

I guess if we’re looking for the BEST scores ever made, then the obvious contenders would be the big epic movies like Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, Superman, Gladiator, Titanic etc. because those movie soundtracks sold by the bucket load, and because those movies were so popular that their scores undoubtedly influenced the work of other composers. So if it’s a popularity contest then the winner is probably someone like Williams, Horner, Zimmer, Shore etc.

But if you’re asking me for my FAVOURITE film scores (and there are A LOT), then I might be forced to say:

1. Notes On A Scandal – Philip Glass
2. Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone – John Williams
3. Basic Instinct – Jerry Goldsmith
4. The Hours – Philip Glass
5. Scream – Marco Beltrami
6. The Nightmare Before Christmas – Danny Elfman
7. The Lord Of The Rings trilogy – Howard Shore
8. The Dark Knight – Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
9. Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer – Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek & Reinhold Heil
10. The Holiday – Hans Zimmer

Yes, that’s as condensed as I could bear to make my list… I told you, I have a lot of favourites… and the list is ever-changing! 🙂

What is the greatest fruit ever created?

What is the greatest vegetable ever created?

Who has the most beautiful body- a man or woman?

What is the best pet?

THIS is a vexing question with no real productive outcome, based clearly and singularly on individual taste. There is no answer. Why not just discuss String Theory and whether or not it is valid? Or better yet: Do you believe in Santa Claus & the Easter Bunny?

What is the greatest fruit ever created?

What is the greatest vegetable ever created?

Who has the most beautiful body- a man or woman?

What is the best pet?

THIS is a vexing question with no real productive outcome, based clearly and singularly on individual taste. There is no answer. Why not just discuss String Theory and whether or not it is valid? Or better yet: Do you believe in Santa Claus & the Easter Bunny?

Haha! Good point!

It’s still nice to hear everyone’s personal favourites, though.

Star Trek:The Motion Picture
The Empire Strikes Back
Superman:The Movie

Empire of the Sun: John Williams Williams at his best. The use of the choir is emotionally stirring.

[I]
Okay, Ygm, What I infer from your reply is that what you are seeking is what is the most popular score ever made. I.E. the score that the largest number of people enjoy the most. Fair enough!

If we are going on most popular that is easier to answer if we look at the best selling scores of all time. From that point of view, according to one pundit, the highest grossing score of all time is The Bodyguard, with 42 million copies sold worldwide. Numbers two through five are Saturday Night Fever, Purple Rain, Dirty Dancing, and Titanic (16 weeks at number 1 in the album charts.

Other than Titanic, none of these scores would be remotely close to my top favorites. But they are the scores that sold the most copies…..

Come on, guys.

I know that the ‘best score ever made’ thing is impossible to tell but I didn’t mean this thread to be so super strict about the criteria. It was supposed to shed some light on ‘what people think is the greatest score’. Of course it is a matter of personal likes or dislikes. So if for someone Star Wars is the greatest score ever written then let him/her say it and we all respect it. And that’s why this thread was made. To share our general likes – our, which means people’s who are into film music and not the 42 million other’s who bought the Titanic album because they wanted to have it not listen to it.

So let’s keep the thread the way it is and enjoy other people’s opinions and maybe we will find some really good music we never even heard of 🙂

Regards

Well, if you’re talking "great" as in a score that made an otherwise broken movie, I’d have to say

Number 2: Jaws. Simple themes, robust writing by a fledgling Williams. Clearly masterful scoring that would have made an otherwise boring summer movie into the most terrifying movie of its time.

at number 1, however, in terms of what I conceive as greatness, I have to go with "John Carpenter’s Halloween".

Now there’s a film that would have been a total piece of dogshit movie without it’s score to make it what it is today. And on top of this it’s score is SO simplistic and basic that it not only made the movie a hit, but it also turned it into the choice Halloween holiday film. It managed to so do much with so little. That, to me, is what greatness is…

for me:

1.Armageddon
2.Pearl Harbor
3.Remember the Titans

and many more :o)

Well the greatest film score ever made in my opinion definitely goes to John William’s Jaws, for reasons already established. It basically defined film music and everything film music is intended to be.

Now, in terms of my other picks, I’m forced to set John Williams aside, mainly because he’s in a league all his own and each of his scores could easily take any of the slots. SO that being said, here they are (in no particular order):

1. Inception (Hans Zimmer) – Before you roll your eyes, just think about how well that score worked with the film, complimenting every emotion felt along the way. It basically did everything film music is supposed to do, with almost no moments of drab or missteps. Easily my personal favorite Zimmer score of the 2000s, arguably one of my favorite Zimmer scores of all time, and in the running for my favorite film score of all time.

2. Requiem for a Dream (Clint Mansell) – One of the most emotional and gratifyingly depressing scores I’ve ever heard, as well as one of the most different and innovative. While the main theme has been butchered to death by COD YouTubers and Lord of the Rings, that just proves how well it created a musical world that can stand alone from it’s film counterpart, something that is rarely achieved by film scores, especially post-2000.

3. Ghostbusters (Elmer Bernstein/Ray Parker Jr./Various) – Interesting case this one is. Normally I hate when film scores utilize songs in place of actual music, but in the case of Ghostbusters, the entire palette of music as fabricated and heard in the film is one of the best examples of film scoring there is (almost rivals Jaws, in some ways). Elmer Bernstein’s score was excellent and lamentably overlooked when compared to Ray Parker Jr.’s theme song, which is the most definitive element in the soundtrack.

There is no answer. Why not just discuss String Theory and whether or not it is valid? Or better yet: Do you believe in Santa Claus & the Easter Bunny?

Okay Phideas.

1. String Theory is a misnomer in my opinion. In order to be a true scientific theory there has to be a way to test for results (as well as others being able to independently duplicate said tests). Since there is NO known way to test for the existence of strings, it cannot be considered a true scientific theory.

2. Of course I believe in Santa Claus & the Easter Bunny! Doesn’t everyone!?!?!? 😉

Okay Ygmmasta, I’ll stop being such a stick in the mud. I can be too literal minded sometimes. Ummm, most times actually!

1. Inception (Hans Zimmer) – Before you roll your eyes, just think about how well that score worked with the film, complimenting every emotion felt along the way. It basically did everything film music is supposed to do, with almost no moments of drab or missteps. Easily my personal favorite Zimmer score of the 2000s, arguably one of my favorite Zimmer scores of all time, and in the running for my favorite film score of all time.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, res. I agree with everything you say here. In my mind, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Score over The Stupid Network. But, I guess if I had to narrow it down to 3 (which was extremely hard) IMO I would have to say the 3 greatest scores ever written are:

1.) Howard Shore – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – I saw a lot of people mention The Two Towers, but not Return of the King. Surprising. Best piece is "The Journey to the Grey Havens" off The Complete Recordings.

2.) Hans Zimmer – The Lion King – My favorite film score of all time, my favorite Disney movie of all time. The only one for which Zimmer has EVER received an Academy Award

3.) Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard – The Dark Knight – I’ve seen numerous people post it in this thread, so need I say more? It’s fantastic, dark, dramatic, moving and haunting. This score is what drives the film.

Runner Ups:

James Horner – Avatar
James Horner – Titanic
Vangelis – Blade Runner
John Williams: Jurassic Park

Yes, I too am a youngant, sorry my tastes really don’t go anything beyond John Williams. To me, every film score from the Golden Age sounds the same. They’re all just bland and boring sounding. Today, every film score sounds different, which is the way it should be. *THIS IS ALL JUST MY OPINION PEOPLE, NO NEED TO FREAK OUT*

EDIT: Yeah……seems I left out Judgement Day. How in God’s name I managed to do that, I have no fucking clue. I could sacrifice The Dark Knight for Judgement Day. That’s right. I said it. Because it’s that good. Anyone here wanna argue that? Didn’t think so. You know what, IMO Termnator 2: Judgement Day is *the best film score ever written*

oh boy. Quite the list here:

BTTF 1 & 2
E.T. (The cue heard at the end when the bikers fly off to evade the cops is AMAZING & I got chills when E.T. looks on as the door closes & his ship flies off creating a rainbow. But the emotions were opposite in the beginning when E.T., being chased, tried to run back to his ship only for it to leave him behind at the last minute. THAT is what a good score does)
Dark City (The trailer theme, main theme, words just cannot express how much these tracks mean)
The Crow (The film is what it is today – a legendary, memorable, timeless, epic classic film because of the score & because of Brandon Lee’s portrayal. The score is not only the greatest, but so iconic that IF one thing rivals it in terms of making the film what it is, it is Brandon’s portrayal.)
X2: X-Men United (The music heard when Nightcrawler attacks the White House…..it ranks up there with my favorite tracks of ALL time)
T2 (The main theme is pretty much etched in people’s minds forever. But I also like the tracks where T-101 deals with the cops, yet manages to keep his word to John by
having 0 human casualties)
Batman 1989/Returns/Mask Of The Phantasm.The Animated Series/Begins/TDK (certain tracks, too many to name here, made the films seem timeless IMO). I believe TDK Rises will soon be added to
this list.
Star Wars (Williams really made his mark in the film industry here IMO)
LOTR (All 3 scores here….Howard really made a masterpiece out of them that is just fitting for such a trilogy)
Superman The Movie/4: The Quest For Peace (I thought The Quest For Peace was the BEST score despite being the least popular film)
Rose Of The Planet Of The Apes
Captain America
Lovely Bones
Nightmare Before Christmas
Corpse Bride

I’ll add if I think of anymore.

I’ve seen Jaws mentioned, which is why other than not liking the film over the films I listed, I didn’t mention it

"at number 1, however, in terms of what I conceive as greatness, I have to go with "John Carpenter’s Halloween".

Now there’s a film that would have been a total piece of dogshit movie without it’s score to make it what it is today. And on top of this it’s score is SO simplistic and basic that it not only made the movie a hit, but it also turned it into the choice Halloween holiday film. It managed to so do much with so little. That, to me, is what greatness is…"

I do not wish to start an argument here so I gotta respectfully while at the same time, completely & strongly disagree. If you were talking any other Halloween, I’d agree. How much I agree would depend on which Halloween film you’d be talking about. Maybe certain aspects of the film can be credited to the score such as the main theme being memorable. But Myers was too good in that film for the movie itself to be a total waste
so had it not been for the score because Myers’ would have had made that film with or without its memorable score. In fact, most people
remember that score for its main theme only & remember the film for 2 things: the main theme & Myers himself. Yet the score has more than just
the main theme.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, res. I agree with everything you say here. In my mind, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Score over The Stupid Network. But, I guess if I had to narrow it down to 3 (which was extremely hard) IMO I would have to say the 3 greatest scores ever written are:

1.) Howard Shore – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – I saw a lot of people mention The Two Towers, but not Return of the King. Surprising. Best piece is "The Journey to the Grey Havens" off The Complete Recordings.

2.) Hans Zimmer – The Lion King – My favorite film score of all time, my favorite Disney movie of all time. The only one for which Zimmer has EVER received an Academy Award

3.) Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard – The Dark Knight – I’ve seen numerous people post it in this thread, so need I say more? It’s fantastic, dark, dramatic, moving and haunting. This score is what drives the film.

Runner Ups:

James Horner – Avatar
James Horner – Titanic
Vangelis – Blade Runner
John Williams: Jurassic Park

Yes, I too am a youngant, sorry my tastes really don’t go anything beyond John Williams. To me, every film score from the Golden Age sounds the same. They’re all just bland and boring sounding. Today, every film score sounds different, which is the way it should be. *THIS IS ALL JUST MY OPINION PEOPLE, NO NEED TO FREAK OUT*

I did like The Lion King score. I didn’t add it because I listen to COUNTLESS and I mean COUNTLESS scores & OST’s. And the scores I have don’t have words in any of the tracks. So I always thought of TLK as a OST. But since it’s here, I’m gonna add Aladdin & my personal favorite Disney film, The Jungle Book. What I’m surprised at is you didn’t add T2 lol.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star trek: II and III
First Star Wars Trilogy

Memento
Inception
Jaws

I did like The Lion King score. I didn’t add it because I listen to COUNTLESS and I mean COUNTLESS scores & OST’s. And the scores I have don’t have words in any of the tracks. So I always thought of TLK as a OST. But since it’s here, I’m gonna add Aladdin & my personal favorite Disney film, The Jungle Book. What I’m surprised at is you didn’t add T2 lol.

Well, take out the few songs that are included in the complete score and you have a masterpiece by Zimmer.

I realized when the guy who posted after I did (because he mentioned it) that I forgot Judgement Day. One of the best damn film scores of all time. I have to edit my post lol.

oh boy. Quite the list here:

BTTF 1 & 2
E.T. (The cue heard at the end when the bikers fly off to evade the cops is AMAZING & I got chills when E.T. looks on as the door closes & his ship flies off creating a rainbow. But the emotions were opposite in the beginning when E.T., being chased, tried to run back to his ship only for it to leave him behind at the last minute. THAT is what a good score does)
Dark City (The trailer theme, main theme, words just cannot express how much these tracks mean)
The Crow (The film is what it is today – a legendary, memorable, timeless, epic classic film because of the score & because of Brandon Lee’s portrayal. The score is not only the greatest, but so iconic that IF one thing rivals it in terms of making the film what it is, it is Brandon’s portrayal.)
X2: X-Men United (The music heard when Nightcrawler attacks the White House…..it ranks up there with my favorite tracks of ALL time)
T2 (The main theme is pretty much etched in people’s minds forever. But I also like the tracks where T-101 deals with the cops, yet manages to keep his word to John by
having 0 human casualties)
Batman 1989/Returns/Mask Of The Phantasm.The Animated Series/Begins/TDK (certain tracks, too many to name here, made the films seem timeless IMO). I believe TDK Rises will soon be added to
this list.
Star Wars (Williams really made his mark in the film industry here IMO)
LOTR (All 3 scores here….Howard really made a masterpiece out of them that is just fitting for such a trilogy)
Superman The Movie/4: The Quest For Peace (I thought The Quest For Peace was the BEST score despite being the least popular film)
Rose Of The Planet Of The Apes
Captain America
Lovely Bones
Nightmare Before Christmas
Corpse Bride

I’ll add if I think of anymore.

I’ve seen Jaws mentioned, which is why other than not liking the film over the films I listed, I didn’t mention it

"at number 1, however, in terms of what I conceive as greatness, I have to go with "John Carpenter’s Halloween".

Now there’s a film that would have been a total piece of dogshit movie without it’s score to make it what it is today. And on top of this it’s score is SO simplistic and basic that it not only made the movie a hit, but it also turned it into the choice Halloween holiday film. It managed to so do much with so little. That, to me, is what greatness is…"

I do not wish to start an argument here so I gotta respectfully while at the same time, completely & strongly disagree. If you were talking any other Halloween, I’d agree. How much I agree would depend on which Halloween film you’d be talking about. Maybe certain aspects of the film can be credited to the score such as the main theme being memorable. But Myers was too good in that film for the movie itself to be a total waste
so had it not been for the score because Myers’ would have had made that film with or without its memorable score. In fact, most people
remember that score for its main theme only & remember the film for 2 things: the main theme & Myers himself. Yet the score has more than just
the main theme.

You can think what you want, after all it’s al highly subjective, but I’m going by what Carpenter said himself over the preliminary screening of the movie before and after the score was implemented.Before the score, the movie was considered a total borefest and audiences didn’t care for it. After the score was added, it skyrocketed 100 fold.

As I said, I’m going by what’s the most memorable greatest movie scoring that comes to mind, and that, to me, is quite the achievement on Carpenter’s part.

I’m going to name some scores that not only do I think are brilliant, but really helped redefine film scoring.

The Adventures of Robin Hood. It’s just a masterpiece of film scoring. One of the all-time great scores, by anybody, ever. Some film scores fade with time, but not this one. It only gets better. And it’s been hugely influential.

Goldfinger. Barry had previously orchestrated the Bond theme for Dr. No, and had scored From Russia, With Love, but it was with Goldfinger that the Barry sound grew to full flower, combined with the amazing Goldfinger theme song, sung by Shirley Bassey. (I think his best work in the series would come with On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but it’s Goldfinger that really set the standard.)

Jaws. You take the score out of this movie and you have a mildly affecting and somewhat traumatic film about a manic-depressive shark with borderline personality disorder. Add Williams’ score, and you’ve got a masterpiece of terror.

Star Wars. You just can’t leave out Star Wars. There’s the world of film music before Star Wars, and the world of film music after Star Wars. There’s just no separating the two.

The problem with these polls, as someone has pointed out before, is that many people here have barely listened to golden age soundtracks and cannot fully comprehend the impact these scores had on film scoring history. Besides, the Golden Age comprehends a period of 40 to 50 years, within which a critical transition occured from the ‘viennese emigres’ to the first wave of american-born composers and the inclusion of jazz elements. Something similar occurs with the Silver Age, which lasts for almost 30 years. Therefore, I’m going to pick the best three scores out of the classic periods, as following:

Golden Age (early years):
1) The Adventures of Robin Hood, by E. W. Korngold
2) Alexander Nevsky, by S. Prokofiev
3) Rebecca, by F. Waxman

Golden Age (later years):
1) Vertigo, by B. Herrmann
2) Psycho, by B. Herrmann,
3) Ben-Hur, by M. Rozsa

Silver Age (early years):
1) Jaws, by J. Williams
2) The Godfather, Part II, by N. Rota
3) The Omen, by J. Goldsmith

Silver Age (later years):
1) The Empire Strikes Back, by J. Williams
2) Conan The Barbarian, by B. Poledouris
3) Dances With Wolves, by J. Barry

Contemporary:
1) LOTR: The Return of the King, by H. Shore
2) Gladiator, by H. Zimmer
3) Amelie, by Y. Tiersen

It’s a pity that I have left out personal favourites of mine such as Schifrin’s "Cold Hand Luke", Elfman’s "Batman", Goldmisth’s "Alien", Williams’ "Superman" and "Schindler’s List", Debney’s "Cutthroat Island" and Zimmer’s "The DaVinci Code" and "Lion King".

Im glad no one , at least that I have seen here, has said Spartacus 🙂

To be quite honest , and this could be my age too speaking, I dont like to pick apart filmscores and try to figure out which one is the best technicol merrit wise , I just enjoy listening to good music, if you find enjoyment out of picking apart scores then more power to ya as for me , Moonie loves everything 😉

1-Stephen King,s It Richard Bellis
2-Batman Returns
3-Cashback

Yeah, if you’re tone-deaf. :thumbsdown:

Obviously, the only valid answer is PSYCHO.

Lord of the Rings by Howard Shore.
Lair by John Debney.

hmm . . . difficult to pick three. i would would break it into genres:
2001 a space odyssey for the classical type.
psycho (herrmann) for the horror type.
breathless (solal) for the romantic type.
armageddon (rabin, gregson-williams) for the action type.
and for western – anything by morricone – i haven’t seen a modern western that doesn’t borrow from him.

Why not just discuss String Theory

Well, I personally would rather pay a little bit more to get the GOOD strings on my piano, violin, and my guitar! But then, that’s just me! 🙂

William

(unpopular opinion coming up, brace yourselves) Comparatively, now that I’ve heard the masters for both, I actually prefer Batman Begins over The Dark Knight. BB just seems more well done and flushed out in it’s complete form. Now, if you’re comparing both official album releases, then I would say that TDK appears to be the better score. But in terms of score written for picture vs. score written for picture, both as stand alone listening experiences, Batman Begins just seems to have a slight edge.

But that could just be because we already got the expanded score for TDK released officially and I listened to TDK nonstop for about two years, so maybe it’s just gotten old for me. Who knows. I don’t know, I hate to choose between the two, because they really are both excellent, and the themes for TDK are some of my favorites of all time, but judging simply by complete scores alone (the way the music was written to picture, which is kind of what we’re judging here anyway) I can’t help but think BB takes the cake by about a centimeter. But I don’t know, like I said, TDK may have just been exhausted by iPod.

Well, I personally would rather pay a little bit more to get the GOOD strings on my piano, violin, and my guitar! But then, that’s just me! 🙂

William

Thou art a smarty-pants, thou art!

PS.

If the original poster is actually just interested in the vagaries of taste amongst music lovers, I wish that had been stated from the beginning. There is no ‘greatest’ score. There are, in my opinion, masterful & iconic scores by various composers (these artists can’t hit ’em all out of the baseball park).

Some folks mix up their tastes (yea!). Some folks stick with what is popular (hiss!). Some folks venture into the bizarre & esoteric (interesting!). And some folks listen to stuff that makes you wonder if they are down at the water pump with Annie Sullivan.

(unpopular opinion coming up, brace yourselves) Comparatively, now that I’ve heard the masters for both, I actually prefer Batman Begins over The Dark Knight. BB just seems more well done and flushed out in it’s complete form. Now, if you’re comparing both official album releases, then I would say that TDK appears to be the better score. But in terms of score written for picture vs. score written for picture, both as stand alone listening experiences, Batman Begins just seems to have a slight edge.

But that could just be because we already got the expanded score for TDK released officially and I listened to TDK nonstop for about two years, so maybe it’s just gotten old for me. Who knows. I don’t know, I hate to choose between the two, because they really are both excellent, and the themes for TDK are some of my favorites of all time, but judging simply by complete scores alone (the way the music was written to picture, which is kind of what we’re judging here anyway) I can’t help but think BB takes the cake by about a centimeter. But I don’t know, like I said, TDK may have just been exhausted by iPod.

I’ve always agreed with this sentiment. TDK borrowed heavily from Begins, with some of the only new music being the Joker’s theme.

Plus, I always found Begins to be a more emotional and involving score (probably because Begins is a more emotional film). Especially the cues that underscored stuff involving Bruce’s father. Or that final fight scene that started off with Gordon in the tumbler. The music just works so well with what’s onscreen.

Lord of the Rings is by far the richest film score ever created. Granted, it’s had over 11 hours of music for it but all of it is completely wonderful and infinitely varied.

Oh and about the "Most sold soundtrack albums" thing, I believe you’re forgetting Saturday Night Fever, which sold nearly 80 mln copies.

X2: X-Men United (The music heard when Nightcrawler attacks the White House…..it ranks up there with my favorite tracks of ALL time)

FYI, that is actually the "Dies Irae" from Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor. (I believe it’s listed in the credits; I’m not accusing Ottman of plagiarism)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1C-GXQ1LdY

My own list:

Prokofiev – Alexander Nevsky
Rozsa – Quo Vadis
Herrmann – Vertigo
Goldsmith – Star Trek The Motion Picture
Williams – The Empire Strikes Back
Barry – Somewhere In Time
Horner – Krull/Willow (tie)
Elfman – Batman

The problem with these polls, as someone has pointed out before, is that many people here have barely listened to golden age soundtracks and cannot fully comprehend the impact these scores had on film scoring history. Besides, the Golden Age comprehends a period of 40 to 50 years, within which a critical transition occured from the ‘viennese emigres’ to the first wave of american-born composers and the inclusion of jazz elements. Something similar occurs with the Silver Age, which lasts for almost 30 years. Therefore, I’m going to pick the best three scores out of the classic periods, as following:

Golden Age (early years):
1) The Adventures of Robin Hood, by E. W. Korngold
2) Alexander Nevsky, by S. Prokofiev
3) Rebecca, by F. Waxman

Golden Age (later years):
1) Vertigo, by B. Herrmann
2) Psycho, by B. Herrmann,
3) Ben-Hur, by M. Rozsa

Silver Age (early years):
1) Jaws, by J. Williams
2) The Godfather, Part II, by N. Rota
3) The Omen, by J. Goldsmith

Silver Age (later years):
1) The Empire Strikes Back, by J. Williams
2) Conan The Barbarian, by B. Poledouris
3) Dances With Wolves, by J. Barry

Contemporary:
1) LOTR: The Return of the King, by H. Shore
2) Gladiator, by H. Zimmer
3) Amelie, by Y. Tiersen

It’s a pity that I have left out personal favourites of mine such as Schifrin’s "Cold Hand Luke", Elfman’s "Batman", Goldmisth’s "Alien", Williams’ "Superman" and "Schindler’s List", Debney’s "Cutthroat Island" and Zimmer’s "The DaVinci Code" and "Lion King".

i agree, but even then, there’s always gonna be people that feel shorted. for instance, i look at your list and see no max steiner. however, your inclusion of dances with wolves and amelie makes up for this 🙂

i would go further and say that the only way to do this right is rank best of particular genres, otherwise whatever list we get will be dominated by sci-fi and epics. almost every list i see online has star wars at number one. it’s so predictable. i’d like to see a list that excludes fantasy and sci-fi epics, it would be far more diverse and interesting than whatever we’re gonna end up with in this poll.

I would never consider the question in terms of album listening purposes, because film scores are meant to be heard when matched with the image. That’s why the music exists, so to really judge a score in the truest sense that’s where you would have to start.

For that reason I would never list something like "Inception", simply because to me that score was so overbearing and loud, that it simply overpowered the film due entirely to a case of the volume being too high. Like everything when it comes to music and film, there needs to be a balance, and to me personally, the music was just too loud for the film.

A score like "Aliens" is very hard to determine because what you hear in the film was not how it was originally intended, so there’s a whole false impression going on. Such is the case with a lot of scores where post-production editing can make a score virtually unrecognizable from what it was meant to be.

A score like "Star Wars" is iconic, but while it’s something I can’t really enjoy on an album apart from the film (in fact I don’t enjoy any of John Williams’ music on album at all) in the film its a prime example of what a film score is supposed to do, how it’s supposed to function, without being too loud, too soft, to heavily edited, and so on.

I’m a kind of "less is more" type when it comes to how music can enhance a scene, so hearing for example "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" in the film was a bit too much because it seemed too overwritten. Too much music to convey something so simple as wonderment or a sense of awe. A 90-piece orchestra saying "look they’re kissing" isn’t necessary (to me) compared to a solo piano or an oboe playing softly. That’s why I’m such a Horner nut because his approaches are right in line with my own sensibilities in terms of what works most effectively when matching music to image.

"Independence Day" was the film that turned me into a film music fan, and for all the bombast it has, look at the softer moments of the score as you hear it in the film, and that’s where it really got me. That’s where it made me a fan and take notice. When Hiller’s fianc???e Jasmine went to the marine base he was station at and found it burning, when the First Lady of the United States went to sleep, and when everyone was saying their goodbyes before the alien ship lifted off to save the world one last time. Listen to what David Arnold did when Hiller and Levinson lit their victory cigars: A solo trumpet was all it took in that scene, very quiet in the mix to say "we’ve won". That only after the actual triumphant aerial battle brought the alien destroyer down in a blaze of patriotic musical glory.

Of course it doesn’t need to be said how the question has no answer, especially since it’s been repeated many times and rightfully so!

Amarcord by Nino Rota
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Henry Mancini
Casino Royale by Burt Bacharach
Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent by Georges Delerue
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by John Barry

Shit my list is mad different to anyone’s here, hope I dont get boo’d of stage any my top three is:

Ennio Morricone – The Good, The Bad And the Ugly,
Travor Rabin – Gone in 60 Seconds,
Basil Poledouris – Robocop (Original not Number 3)

But with that said I would prefer a top ten then I could include Brian Tyler, Danny Elfman, John Powe. . . . . . You know what 4 get it here is my top ten lol.

The three above plus:

John Powell – Face/Off
Danny Elfman – Batman Returns
Brian Tyler – Fast And Furious: Tokyo Drift
Carlo Siliotto – The Punisher
Paul Haslinger – Deathrace
John Murphy, Henry Jackman, Marius de vries, Ilan Eshkeri – Kick Ass
Nigel Godrich – Scott Pilgrim vs the World

CT3

Thou art a smarty-pants, thou art!

That should be "THOUST" (second person singular!)

Smarty, as in really, really SMART??

Thanks, buddy 🙂

William

I don’t think you can narrow it down to even three. I mean, you can have a consensus, which is what a poll is, but even sorting through one’s
personal favourites is tough enough. But, for my money, you could possibly do the most influential, and for those I’d choose…

1. Psycho – Bernard Herrmann
2. Goldfinger – John Barry
3. Star Wars – John Williams

I would never consider the question in terms of album listening purposes, because film scores are meant to be heard when matched with the image. That’s why the music exists, so to really judge a score in the truest sense that’s where you would have to start.

For that reason I would never list something like "Inception", simply because to me that score was so overbearing and loud, that it simply overpowered the film due entirely to a case of the volume being too high. Like everything when it comes to music and film, there needs to be a balance, and to me personally, the music was just too loud for the film.

A score like "Aliens" is very hard to determine because what you hear in the film was not how it was originally intended, so there’s a whole false impression going on. Such is the case with a lot of scores where post-production editing can make a score virtually unrecognizable from what it was meant to be.

A score like "Star Wars" is iconic, but while it’s something I can’t really enjoy on an album apart from the film (in fact I don’t enjoy any of John Williams’ music on album at all) in the film its a prime example of what a film score is supposed to do, how it’s supposed to function, without being too loud, too soft, to heavily edited, and so on.

I’m a kind of "less is more" type when it comes to how music can enhance a scene, so hearing for example "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" in the film was a bit too much because it seemed too overwritten. Too much music to convey something so simple as wonderment or a sense of awe. A 90-piece orchestra saying "look they’re kissing" isn’t necessary (to me) compared to a solo piano or an oboe playing softly. That’s why I’m such a Horner nut because his approaches are right in line with my own sensibilities in terms of what works most effectively when matching music to image.

"Independence Day" was the film that turned me into a film music fan, and for all the bombast it has, look at the softer moments of the score as you hear it in the film, and that’s where it really got me. That’s where it made me a fan and take notice. When Hiller’s fianc???e Jasmine went to the marine base he was station at and found it burning, when the First Lady of the United States went to sleep, and when everyone was saying their goodbyes before the alien ship lifted off to save the world one last time. Listen to what David Arnold did when Hiller and Levinson lit their victory cigars: A solo trumpet was all it took in that scene, very quiet in the mix to say "we’ve won". That only after the actual triumphant aerial battle brought the alien destroyer down in a blaze of patriotic musical glory.

Of course it doesn’t need to be said how the question has no answer, especially since it’s been repeated many times and rightfully so!

i think a truly great score also heightens the overall experience of a film. dances with wolves is a prime example, imho

"FYI, that is actually the "Dies Irae" from Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor."

I was JUST about to write that right now lol but you beat me to it. But the part(s) that played during that scene in the film are my favorite part(s) of that music. Not because it was in the film, but because it’s when things really pick up. It’d be perfect for the last big fight in any movie, show or game or the last cutscene in the game before the last big
boss fight.

As far as the BB & TDK comparisons…..I don’t think BB is more emotional than TDK. TDK has its emotional themes too – loss of Rachael, Dent going bad by being mentally
scarred, among many others. But BB is also emotional in its own right. Among other reasons, tt had Brice as a young boy seeing his parents murdered. In saying this, IMO no
Batman film is more emotional than the other. Not for me at least. And I’m counting Burton’s 2 films as well which were somewhat darker for me too. Now to compare the scores….I do like BB more. As stated here, an expanded edition of TDK was released. I thought the 2 disc set from some years ago was the complete score. Anyway, the only Batman films to get an expanded/complete score release are Batman Forever/B&R. Both films essentially have the same exact music so you wanna talk about borrowing cues, there it is
lol. The films may have been bad. But some of music is nice & worthy of a release to me. But BB should also get an expanded/complete score to include the amazing end credits suite as well as my personal favorite (I can even describe in full where it’s heard) which is the cue played in the film when Bruce receives his birthday gift from Rachael, Alfred says "The guests will be arriving" Bruce responds with "Tell em that joke you know", plays a paino note, goes down the shaft, walks over & opens the closest & the cam is zoomed on the Bat suit & Bat logo on the chest.

Anyway, the only Batman films to get an expanded/complete score release are Batman Forever/B&R.

You mean Batman and Batman Returns.

Forever is coming out next month, and there can’t be a release of Batman and Robin because there was never a score-only album to begin with, so there’s a restriction there. Only scores that were released as albums before, which means every modern-day Batman film from 1989 to 2008, except for Batman and Robin, qualifies for expansion.

As for the cue from Begins, it’s ‘Finders Keepers’ and it’s now everywhere, so if you haven’t got it, go and get it!

I made a video presentation of both scores so I don’t know if you managed to get those, but it’s there to be seen and heard. ‘Finders Keepers’ opened one of the segments I made.

😀

IMO Greatest score would have to go to Basil Poledouris’s Starship Troopers score. Close second would be his Conan The Barbarian score. And third would be Vangelis’s Blade Runner.

"You mean Batman and Batman Returns."

Oh yeah lol. Thanks for correcting me. I make mistakes like that when I get ahead of myself sometimes. But who doesn’t right?

"Forever is coming out next month, and there can’t be a release of Batman and Robin because there was never a score-only album to begin with, so there’s a restriction there. Only scores that were released as albums before, which means every modern-day Batman film from 1989 to 2008, except for Batman and Robin, qualifies for expansion."

I’m glad Forever is comin out. While it wasn’t as good as 1989, Returns, BB or TDK, it was still better than B&R. I mean as a film because when
we’re talking about scores, 1989, Returns, BB & TDK were clearly the best. I’m not sure what exactly qualifies as an expansion of there is any
qualification or why there is or isn’t any. But what I didn’t know for sure was that Forever had a score album released. B&R probably never got
one since most if not all the score music from that film is from Forever. What they could do with the Forever expansion is just put all the Forever stuff & what is used for the first time in B&R as bonus tracks or something because there are a few that I can think of such as The Birth Of Ivy, Birth Of Bane, Bane driving Ivy to the Gotham Observatory, the cue heard when Freeze is telling Nora "Soon we’ll be together once more" and the music heard when the people bid on Ivy at that party Freeze eventually crashes. It’s actually heard when she appears in the gorilla costume, takes off the gorilla mask, falls & gets caught by 2 guys I think who walk her to where B&R are. This is during that bidding party for that diamond gem or whatever it was.

"As for the cue from Begins, it’s ‘Finders Keepers’ and it’s now everywhere, so if you haven’t got it, go and get it! I made a video presentation of both scores so I don’t know if you managed to get those, but it’s there to be seen and heard. ‘Finders Keepers’ opened one of the segments I
made."

No I didn’t get it. I’m taking a break from downloading while waiting for my burner to come. When it does, I can clean off my cpu & resume
downloading which I will. What I was getting at when I brought that up in the previous post was "Finder’s Keepers" and the End Credits have yetto be officially released. So an expansion needs to be officially released containing the complete score. Another thing I didn’t notice in the
released OST was the cue in the film when young Bruce cries after his father tells him not to be afraid. I could be wrong though. It’s been a long time since I listened to it.

Why does it need to be an official release, though? I would think for the people that really want it, leaked scores (in great quality, by the way) would be more than sufficient. I doubt most of the general public really cares about missing music from the commercial release.

The complete scores to Begins and TDK have both leaked in the past six months.

Also, I really doubt that Goldenthal reused all of the music from Forever in B&R. That’s like saying The Dark Knight is a completely original score, using no preexisting material from Begins.

It not being particularly memorable to you is a far different matter than blatant self-plagiarism (something Zimmer has definitely done in the past, most notably with the Pirates and Batman films).

I’m not sure what exactly qualifies as an expansion of there is any
qualification or why there is or isn’t any. But what I didn’t know for sure was that Forever had a score album released. B&R probably never got
one since most if not all the score music from that film is from Forever.

Something to do with the rights and licensing and all that stuff.

Basically since all the other modern Batman film scores – Batman 89, Returns, Forever, Begins, TDK and Mask of the Phantasm – all got score albums when they originally came out, they qualify as being available for the label to expand them into complete score releases. That’s why 89, Returns, Forever and Mask of the Phantasm all have 2-CD expanded versions (with Forever coming soon next month). Begins and TDK haven’t seen the same type of expanded releases officially but in theory they do fit the requirements of being able to be released that way some time in the future because of the original albums that were put out. The 2-CD collector’s version of TDK was a pathetic joke (pardon the pun).

Batman and Robin did have a soundtrack release, but it was a basic song compilation with one ‘suite’ of music that was re-used score from Forever anyway. Since it never had a stand-alone score album release, the label doesn’t have the rights to release an album of it.

This poll is quite very difficult because we talk about thousands of movies and then of soundtrack and so much time and changes of style.

If I had to choose three :
1) Star Wars Episode IV by John Williams, because it changed everything in the music soundtrack
2) Once Upon a Time in the West by Ennio Morricone, because I didn’t know harmonica could be so chilling
3) The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by Howard Shore, because even more than the movies the soundtrack always make me travel to Middle Earth

And even if it’s not a great score, I’ll always have fond memories of Young Sherlock Holmes by Bruce Broughton, because it was the soundtrack that put me into this world of score.

Star Trek The Motion Picture
Star Wars A New Hope
Ben Hur

As others have pointed out, the problem with these sorts of Top Whatever Lists is the lack of criteria (just because you like something doesn’t necessarily qualify it for greatness), and following that, the fact that there can be huge gaps in people’s musical exposure. But why cloud the issue with relevant details? Here’s my top three (in order of release):
• King Kong
• Lawrence of Arabia
• The Great Escape

Really, it’s top two (Lawrence and Kong) and everything else.

If the list were expanded to 10, I’d also include:
• Sunset Boulevard
• Seven Samurai
• Once Upon a Time in the West
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Blade Runner
• The Mission
• 1492
• In the Mood for Love

Okay, this list goes up to 11 — cos it’s one louder. 🙂

I’d have to go:

Lord of the Rings (FotR & RotK)
Silence of the Lambs

aside from those two I love 28 Days Later and albeit I’ve never seen a complete score but the two pieces by Howard Shore for Se7en were amazing!

Pufnstuf (1969) Charles Fox & Norman Gimbel.

Well, it depends on the tastes of each person.
It is really difficult to decide the top of the tops, so here is my "short" toplist that I enjoy listening

01. Alan Silvestri – Contact (1997)
02. Jerry Goldsmith – Rambo III (1988)
03. James Horner – Apollo XIII (1995)
04. Hans Zimmer – The last Samurai (2003)
05. John Williams – Jurassic Park (1997)
06. Ennio Morricone – Mission to Mars (2000)
07. Hans Zimmer – The Da Vinci code (2006)
08. John Williams – Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
09. Jerry Goldsmith – The 13th warrior (1999)
10. Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman – The last of the Mohicans (1992)

"Why does it need to be an official release, though? I would think for the people that really want it, leaked scores (in great quality, by the way) would be more than sufficient. I doubt most of the general public really cares about missing music from the commercial release."

The complete scores to Begins and TDK have both leaked in the past six months".

Because official releases are superb quality. Download a video, DVD rip or Blu Ray rip and buy one. You’ll see the
difference and will see that the purchased one is better than what you downloaded. A lot of times, ripped movies are compressed meaning
quality is lost. Same with music unless it’s in true genuine lossless quality. The studios who make this stuff do it professionally. No disrespect or
knock meant to people making their custom tracks and all. There’s a 2 cd Forever score on this site. But it has SFX, which I’m not complaining
about. But an official release likely would not have any meaning no distractions from enjoying the music and would also likely have better quality and I just to be someone who cares about quality. If that bothers/or offends you or anyone else in any way whatsoever, sorry. Can’t change foranother person’s satisfaction.

I am aware that the complete Begins & TDK scores have been leaked. But what’s the original source? Source meaning where did it originally
come from and what was the original audio format? If you see something that says lossless, can you really trust it without truly knowing where
the original source is from? If someone downloaded an cd that was originally uploaded in MP3, then converted it to a lossless format & uploaded
it to a site and put lossless as the bit rate, people may think it really is. And without knowing what the original source is as in where it actually
came from, what else could they be expected to think? But if you have good ears and headphones, you can tell. And I do. Leaked stuff is good.
I’m not complaining because in the end, it’s better than nothing. But I’m sure there’s many who want an actual release of complete scores to
truly enjoy the music in superb quality and completely free of any SFX and or dialogue. I’m one of those people and I’m sure you and many
others here are too. I downloaded many, many scores in my time. When I heard how good they were and realized how much I loved them, I
bought them to support those who made them. And that’s the other benefit to things being officially released whereas if they’re leaked, those
who made it don’t get any financial profit. If I worked hard to make a good cd, I wouldn’t want it to be leaked. I’d wanna gain something out of
it financially since money went into making, producing and releasing it. I’m sure the people who make, produce, and release it feel the same
way.

"Also, I really doubt that Goldenthal reused all of the music from Forever in B&R. That’s like saying The Dark Knight is a completely original score, using no preexisting material from Begins."

If I said all the music was reused, then perhaps I’m wrong. But watch both films. You’ll see that most or a big portion of it was. Why else do you think Forever did get a commercially released score and B&R did not? I don’t think it’s only because B&R was a far worse film. B&R just borrowed a lot of the Forever score. But maybe
not all of it.

You’ll have to excuse how the words appear. I’m gonna see if I can get that fixed. Funny how it only happens on this site. Not any other site or forum and I am on countless others.

How people like myself know the Begins and TDK releases are legitimately lossless, was simple: If you have Adobe Audition or a similar program that allows you to look at the spectral view of an audio file, you will see it is from an uncompressed source.

It’s something that’s been discussed many times in various threads, the method of checking for a true lossless release.

If you were to convert an mp3 or an m4a file to WAV, it would not ‘decompress’ into lossless, it would remain unchanged. Convert that WAV into an mp3 again and it would be just like compressing an mp3 to an mp3. Much worse.

When I made a custom Avatar edit, I saved everything as WAV and then made Apple Lossless versions for iPod playback. Of course the source was mp3, and I didn’t want to cause further compression by making my edit mp3s, or m4a so I saved them in a lossless manner to avoid any further compression / damage.

If I were to upload that here and say "yes it’s really lossless, look – it’s Apple Lossless!", I’d be lying big time. No, I’d say "it’s not lossless, just saved that way to avoid compressing it more because the source was mp3".

That’s just one example, though.

Most of the leaks that say lossless are genuinely lossless. People have run it through audacity and other programs, and have confirmed it. The Begins and TDK leaks are superb quality.

As for B&R, it actually was because the film was so derided that it didn’t get a score album. Films only get score albums if it successful in one way or another. Most studios don’t even care about scores, which is why a majority of the releases are so horribly put together, and miss a ton of the music, most of the time it being the best stuff from the film, in fact.

As for supporting the artist, I do understand that. And I would if I could. Unfortunately, I have a very small income, and it barely covers the essentials. If I didn’t have the interent, if there weren’t sites like these, I would basically be out of luck. I wouldn’t be able to hear all of this great work that these composers did. When I get spare money, I do try to buy as much of their stuff as I can. However, most of the scores I’m interested in had really horrible commercial releases. So I’d still be using this site anyways to get all of the leaked complete scores and recording sessions and whatnot.

Two other things to say on that subject:

1. From what I’m told, the royalties for scores are really, really horrible. It’s practically nothing. So buying the scores doesn’t really help the composer (who gets his/her paycheck from the actual recording of the score, not subsequent album releases), but instead continues to line the pockets of the idiotic studios that put out such horrible releases. The only labels I would actually buy from would be private ones that the composers themselves set up (Philip Glass tends to release his scores on his own if they don’t get commercial albums), or companies that really care about the music, like La La Land or Intrada. While I appreciate the work of companies like FSM, the people that run them are a bunch of assholes, and I will never purchase anything from them. Ever.

2. It’s my opinion that, regardless of financial imbursement, scores are meant to be listened to and enjoyed, not horded in studio vaults until it’s "financially viable" to try to sell them for outrageous prices. The real artists understand that piracy is a good thing (people like Neil Gaiman, Dave Matthews, and Joss Stone), and that it actually helps their sales and popularity. I’d much rather buy stuff from a person that wanted their stuff to be experienced, regardless of whether they get payed or not, than greedy assholes like Metallica, that use piracy to heighten their popularity, then turn on the fans and sue them because they like sharing their music.

As for B&R, it actually was because the film was so derided that it didn’t get a score album. Films only get score albums if it successful in one way or another. Most studios don’t even care about scores, which is why a majority of the releases are so horribly put together, and miss a ton of the music, most of the time it being the best stuff from the film, in fact.

Its not always the studio’s fault though, some of the composers pick which cues to include, which to drop, and what cues to edit, and where to cut, and what to cut to, to create a kind of suite a.k.a. "listening experience"

Its not always the studio’s fault though, some of the composers pick which cues to include, which to drop, and what cues to edit, and where to cut, and what to cut to, to create a kind of suite a.k.a. "listening experience"

I think a big part of the reason why composers do that, though, is because they are limited to what they can include on a commercial release. Most of the time it’s an hour at most, when they have composed probably 80-110 minutes of score. There are rare exceptions (Zimmer and Williams), but I think, for the most part, it’s to try to fit as much of their score on an album as possible, and so they have to trim it or re-arrange it to make it fit.

Hopefully with digital releases become more and more commonplace, this will no longer be an issue. But, I don’t know all of the business intricacies, so maybe not.

Thats why I hope something like blu-ray disc happenes with CD’s, where more material can be added.

Right out of the bat I’d say Gone With The Wind by Max Steiner! Still going great and well known after so many years.

By composers I’d say:

– one by John Williams (Star Wars or Jaws)
– one by Maurice Jarre (Lawrence Of Arabia or Doctor Zhivago)
– one by Ennio Morricone (Once Upon A Time In The West or The Good, The Bad And The Ugly)

Certainly very near the top are John Barry for the James Bond-Theme and Henry Mancini for the Pink Panther-theme. But then again it’s the main theme and not the whole score.

(Personal, either Barry’s Moonraker or The Black Hole, but ask me on another day and it may be something by Goldsmith (Rambo First Blood Pt. 2) or Horner (Star Trek II – The Wrath Of Khan).

<– astounded that only a few people mentioned Superman…wow

Nice posts everyone. Here are mine.
Star Wars I-VI (Williams)
PoTC At World’s End (Zimmer)
Titanic (Horner)
Lord of the Rings (Shore)
Gladiator (Zimmer)
Armageddon (Rabin)
Godzilla (Arnold)
Independence Day (Arnold)

Those are some of my favorites.

"How people like myself know the Begins and TDK releases are legitimately lossless, was simple: If you have Adobe Audition or a similar program that allows you to look at the spectral view of an audio file, you will see it is from an uncompressed source.

It’s something that’s been discussed many times in various threads, the method of checking for a true lossless release.

If you were to convert an mp3 or an m4a file to WAV, it would not ‘decompress’ into lossless, it would remain unchanged. Convert that WAV into an mp3 again and it would be just like compressing an mp3 to an mp3. Much worse.

When I made a custom Avatar edit, I saved everything as WAV and then made Apple Lossless versions for iPod playback. Of course the source was mp3, and I didn’t want to cause further compression by making my edit mp3s, or m4a so I saved them in a lossless manner to avoid any further compression / damage.

If I were to upload that here and say "yes it’s really lossless, look – it’s Apple Lossless!", I’d be lying big time. No, I’d say "it’s not lossless, just saved that way to avoid compressing it more because the source was mp3".

That’s just one example, though."

Appreciate that good info. Didn’t know about it before. However, a lot of leaked stuff (not saying all) may still have dialogue and/or SFX even at a
minimal which I’m not complaining about at all. But I am one person who likes classical, actually just about any music so much so that any SFX/dialogue distracts me from true listening experience.

"Most of the leaks that say lossless are genuinely lossless. People have run it through audacity and other programs, and have confirmed it. The Begins and TDK leaks are superb quality.

As for B&R, it actually was because the film was so derided that it didn’t get a score album. Films only get score albums if it successful in one way or another. Most studios don’t even care about scores, which is why a majority of the releases are so horribly put together, and miss a ton of the music, most of the time it being the best stuff from the film, in fact.

As for supporting the artist, I do understand that. And I would if I could. Unfortunately, I have a very small income, and it barely covers the essentials. If I didn’t have the interent, if there weren’t sites like these, I would basically be out of luck. I wouldn’t be able to hear all of this great work that these composers did. When I get spare money, I do try to buy as much of their stuff as I can. However, most of the scores I’m interested in had really horrible commercial releases. So I’d still be using this site anyways to get all of the leaked complete scores and recording sessions and whatnot.

Two other things to say on that subject:

1. From what I’m told, the royalties for scores are really, really horrible. It’s practically nothing. So buying the scores doesn’t really help the composer (who gets his/her paycheck from the actual recording of the score, not subsequent album releases), but instead continues to line the pockets of the idiotic studios that put out such horrible releases. The only labels I would actually buy from would be private ones that the composers themselves set up (Philip Glass tends to release his scores on his own if they don’t get commercial albums), or companies that really care about the music, like La La Land or Intrada. While I appreciate the work of companies like FSM, the people that run them are a bunch of assholes, and I will never purchase anything from them. Ever.

"It’s my opinion that, regardless of financial imbursement, scores are meant to be listened to and enjoyed, not horded in studio vaults until it’s "financially viable" to try to sell them for outrageous prices. The real artists understand that piracy is a good thing (people like Neil Gaiman, Dave Matthews, and Joss Stone), and that it actually helps their sales and popularity. I’d much rather buy stuff from a person that wanted their stuff to be experienced, regardless of whether they get payed or not, than greedy assholes like Metallica, that use piracy to heighten their popularity, then turn on the fans and sue them because they like sharing their music."

Perhaps of most of the leaked material is genuine lossless. But not all of it, not all the time. Can you expect it to be? I don’t think so. A lot of work is put into just getting it
ready to upload. And then you count uploading it onto a site which just takes up more time. I don’t know if I agree with your B&R point. You may be partially right though I don’t
think you completely are. B&R was one of the worst films ever. But a lot of people say that about the 3rd Halloween film & Superman: The Quest For Peace. Yet the latter 2
got score releases. While a score not being released for B&R may be partly due to the film’s rating, it’s also because a good portion of the music (not all of it though) was taken from the Forever score. The B&R score has been leaked though. I had it before. But once I heard it, I realized it’s basically Batman Forever (at least my favorite parts/tracks are concerned) so I tossed it. Watch both movies. You’ll hear it for yourself.

When it comes to income, I know where you’re coming from. Who hasn’t been there before? So it’s a valid reason as to why you don’t buy albums.

Royalties for scores being horrible…..yeah maybe nowadays because of the decline in our economy. But perhaps also due to being able to obtain material for free via
downloading. I do think the economy decline is a much bigger reason for the royalties being horrible. That is, if whoever told you was right. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren’t.

""It’s my opinion that, regardless of financial imbursement, scores are meant to be listened to and enjoyed, not horded in studio vaults until it’s "financially viable" to try to sell them for outrageous prices. The real artists understand that piracy is a good thing (people like Neil Gaiman, Dave Matthews, and Joss Stone), and that it actually helps their sales and popularity. I’d much rather buy stuff from a person that wanted their stuff to be experienced, regardless of whether they get payed or not, than greedy assholes like Metallica, that use piracy to heighten their popularity, then turn on the fans and sue them because they like sharing their music."

Scores are most definitely meant to be enjoyed by whoever listens to them. But while I don’t like that they’re horded in studio vaults just till it’s financially viable, I look at it
from a business standpoint too & think that’s the case to build anticipation. As a few examples: I was anxiously anticipation for years, an expanded Batman 1989 & Returns set as well as the Superman 4 score. Once they were released, I downloaded them to see how the quality was & if everything was included. To the very best of my memory, they were so I bought them right away. Of course, whatever is released whether it is popular or not, there will always be a handful of people at the last to buy whatever is out there. But if anticipation builds, more people will buy. If less people buy, business goes down. I also hate that the prices are ridiculously expensive. But rarely, it is worth it.
To me, at least. Of course I’d like it if the price was lowered. But if it’s a score I really really like, price does not matter to me. That’s on rare occasions when I actually afford
to buy something so expensive. I don’t know any artist who likes piracy & who feels it helps their sales. Piracy means getting stuff for free last I checked. Not sure how that
helps sales.

btw, you said that Begins & TDK are superb quality. Is there any SFX/dialogue? If it’s minimal, not that much of a problem for me. If none though, that’s even better.

"Its not always the studio’s fault though, some of the composers pick which cues to include, which to drop, and what cues to edit, and where to cut, and what to cut to, to create a kind of suite a.k.a. "listening experience"

Yeah. I always thought it was the studios who did that. Maybe in some cases, but not always.

"I think a big part of the reason why composers do that, though, is because they are limited to what they can include on a commercial release. Most of the time it’s an hour at most, when they have composed probably 80-110 minutes of score. There are rare exceptions (Zimmer and Williams), but I think, for the most part, it’s to try to fit as much of their score on an album as possible, and so they have to trim it or re-arrange it to make it fit."

Hopefully with digital releases become more and more commonplace, this will no longer be an issue. But, I don’t know all of the business intricacies, so maybe not."

Some things are left out because maybe the composers and/or studios feel it’s no necessary to have on there. This can be a small cue or a cue the composers themselves didn’t like how their final work for that particular musical piece turned out to be. If I’m right, and I’m not saying I am, I don’t know if digital releases will help or not. But it might. I
just feel like even if they had 2-3 disc sets which would mean they’d be less limited in what they could be included, if a piece is really that bad in the composer’s opinion, which
should definitely count as it is their work, it is likely not to be included IMO which would mean that whatever time is left would be taken up by demo tracks. Like you. I don’t
know all the business intricacies either so I may be wrong too.

"Thats why I hope something like blu-ray disc happenes with CD’s, where more material can be added."

Not only more material, but perhaps even better quality. I say that because as far as movies go, Blu Rays are often better of not always than DVD’s so maybe the same will go for CD’s.

"<– astounded that only a few people mentioned Superman…wow"

I am too which is why I’m adding Superman 4. The movie was panned. But the score was IMO, the best. Most people remember the score to the first Reeve film for John
Williams’ Main Title theme which is well cemented as it should be in film music history. But Courage’s score to the 4th film blows that away IMO. I don’t know. I just liked it more.
What I’m surprised at is E.T. was never mentioned. Well I may have mentioned it. But besides me, no one has. It’s the greatest film to not yet receive a Blu Ray treatment.
And the score only enhances that film to greater heights.

While I still disagree with you on a number of points, there’s only one that I want to discuss anymore.

Just to clarify for you, if a score is leaked, that means it came from someone, somewhere in the business, which means that it is always SFX-free. Now, sometimes it isn’t always the best quality (though this was more often the case several years ago, not today), but it definitely came from someone within the studio who had access to the masters.

If a score has SFX or dialogue, it doesn’t matter what people say it is, it is a fan rip (either from a DVD or blu-ray). Some are better than others (Tron: Legacy and Blade Runner as two examples), but it is still a rip nonetheless.

Well we both gave our opinions. While we may agree on some, we obviously disagree on others which is ok from my side of things. I respect your opinions as well as you should respect mine. Now let’s move on before this thread suffers the same fate as the Cap thread….sudden death.

Vertigo (Herrmann)
Spartacus (North)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Herrmann)
Obsession (Herrmann)
Richard III (Walton)
Alexander Nevsky (Prokofiev)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Herrmann)
El Cid (R???zsa)
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Barry)
Chinatown (Goldsmith)
Once Upon a Time in the West (Morricone)
To Kill a Mockinbird (Bernstein)
Lawrence of Arabia (Jarre)
Spellbound (R???zsa)
Bullitt (Schifrin)
Seconds (Goldsmith)
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Williams)
Bladerunner (Vangelis)
Walkabout (Barry)
The Battle of Algiers (Morricone)
Sunset Boulevard (Waxman)
The Lion in Winter (Barry)
A Man Called Horse (Rosenman)
On the Waterfront (Bernstein)
Patton (Goldsmith)
Viva Zapata! (North)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Williams)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Williams)
Planet of the Apes (Goldsmith)
Fantastic Voyage (Rosenman)
A.I. (Williams)
The Matrix (Davis)
Titus (Goldenthal)

That’s pretty much it. Not a single David Arnold POS in sight.

my list:

Basil Poledouris – Conan The Barbarian
Vangelis – 1942 Conquest Of Paradise
John Williams – Star Wars IV, V, VI
John Williams – Schindler’s List
Rocky I-IV (score and songs)
Eric Serra – Leon
Ennio Morricone – The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
Peter Gabriel – Passion

My own humble list:

1. Star Wars: Episode II (J.W.)
2. Vertigo (B.H.)
3. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (J.G.)
4. Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban (J.W.)
5. Cleopatra (A.N.)
6. Jurassic Park (J.W.)
7. Total Recall (J.G.)
8. Dances with Wolves (J.B.)
9. Legend (J.G.)
10. Contact (A.S.)

For me (and I have been around for a few years now) the cds I listen to most are (which is how I would gage my favourites):

Deep Red (Goblin)
Halloween 3 Season of the Witch
The Serpent and the Rainbow
Dead Ringers (Howard Shore)
Dressed to Kill
Vertigo
The Return of the King (Complete)
King Kong (remake – sorry)
I Saw The Devil
Sonatine
Tron Legacy
The Thin Red Line
A L’interiuer (Inside)
Predator
Insomnia
Inception
Lady Vengeance
Day of the Dead
Alien

I object to this kind of poll for two reasons:

1) I doubt anyone on this forum, myself included, is qualified to name the greatest score ever made.

and

2) Chances are that few of the scores on this list are going to pre-date the 1960s.

I think a better title for this thread might be: what is the most popular score on this forum?

So… basically you’re arguing semantics?

The basic idea the OP had was "What is the score that everyone can agree on is great?".

So far, I think that’s The Lord of the Rings.

So… basically you’re arguing semantics?

The basic idea the OP had was "What is the score that everyone can agree on is great?".

So far, I think that’s The Lord of the Rings.

Well, thank you, GrayEdwards for making it clear 🙂
The way you put it should be now enough for all the ‘doubters’

DELETED.

You put Order of the Phoenix but not any of the other Harry Potter Scores?!

I am too which is why I’m adding Superman 4. The movie was panned. But the score was IMO, the best. Most people remember the score to the first Reeve film for John
Williams’ Main Title theme which is well cemented as it should be in film music history. But Courage’s score to the 4th film blows that away IMO. I don’t know. I just liked it more.
What I’m surprised at is E.T. was never mentioned. Well I may have mentioned it. But besides me, no one has. It’s the greatest film to not yet receive a Blu Ray treatment.
And the score only enhances that film to greater heights.
[/COLOR]

Superman 4 had almost no budget for the music what so ever, very funny to hear the commentary and film makers interview regarding this. I felt the original Score to Superman The Movie was just the best score of all time. I’ve converted 100% of everyone who disagreed with me that the score was the best ever written, everyone who listened to the entire score agreed with me afterward, just gorgeous on every single track, so memorable and moving at the same time. Pure work of genius on every track. Its funny to hear Superman 4 tossed around, I mean, it was the poorest recordings of the entire series and it had by far the lowest budget. I enjoyed the new music cues in it, Train Stopper was fun, but overall I felt the score to be really poorly made compared to the Superman 1.

meh, just my two cents, any of the superman soundtracks is acceptable for inclusion, so long as its superman, its fine. But ya, anyone who doesn’t agree with me, get some headphones and sit your butts down and listen to the original Superman score, then go listen to star wars or lord of the rings and note the difference. Every track in superman invoked some emotional response to me, by far my favorite OST of all time.

It has to be Superman The Movie, and I want to add that even the Ken Thorne adaptation for Superman II is just as incredible….

I do listen to a lot of "Golden Era" but I say that my favourite (most listened to) scores are 70’s-80’s though with a good classical music knowledge you can hear the antecedents of earlier melodies and structures resonating and informing everyone from Goldsmith to Williams to Desplat and Zimmer (and Horner, who’s the Magpie of film scores, even plagiarizing his own work frequently!).

My top 5 in reverse order are:

Star Trek: Motion Picture
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
LOTR: Return of the King
Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn
Conan the Barbarian

60’s and earlier:

El Cid
The Vikings
She (Hammer)
The Good, Bad, and Ugly
Psycho

Good thread, makes me want to dig into the collections and my top lists get revised very often.

Keep cool,

Ummphoo

Supeman The Movie is his masterpiece

Exactly what I was thinking.
the Best score ever

Props for Jaws and Superman and ET and Raiders -John Williams really was on fire late 70’s to early 80’s. (Not taking anything away from his scoring before and since). Of this millennium his mastery for the Harry Potter score is so densely melodic and the themes iconic that it stands far apart. In the 90’s his work on Shindler’s List is pure channelled pain and emotion and instantly recognizable. Anyone heard Horner’s Enemy at the Gates ‘homage’ to that score? :/

Keep cool,

Ummphoo

all of them 🙂

Cutthroat Island (John Debney)

Considering the long History of man (wich we don’t know so much about), I’m sure no one of us has never heard the greatest score ever made.

But once again, from our times, it’s Conan the Barbarian. Obvious. Why asking ?

… Not everybody will agree, though no one will disagree. lol

Considering the long History of man (wich we don’t know so much about), I’m sure no one of us has never heard the greatest score ever made.

But once again, from our times, it’s Conan the Barbarian. Obvious. Why asking ?

… Not everybody will agree, though no one will disagree. lol

Well, if the question is "greatest score ever by your tastes", I would definitely go with Poledouris’ Conan. the recent rerecordings are just gorgeous. But it would be close with probably half a dozen other scores by the same man, and probably half a dozen others by other compositor.

Ergo, I can’t name one. Hell, Zimmer and Newton Howard’s "The Dark Knight" would be a close call too !

it all boils down to ones personal taste & favorites.

(since WildWoodPark mentioned in the earlier pages of this thread, i’ll include my pick from the silver age/golden age.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold – The Sea Hawk, Robin Hood.
Elmer Bernstein – Ten Commandments
Alfred Newman – How The West Was Won
Ennio Morricone – The Good The Bad & The Ugly
David Raksin – Laura
Bernard Herrman – Psycho
Max Steiner – Gone With The Wind

and from the post silver age etc…

John Williams – Superman, Jaws
Jerry Goldsmith – The Omen, Rambo First Blood
Alan Silvestri – Back To The Future, Predator
Basil Poledouris – Conan The Barbarian, RoboCop
Brad Fiedel – Terminator I & II
Lalo Schifrin – Enter The Dragon
John Barry – Out Of Africa, James Bond… , Somewhere In Time
Bill Conti – Rocky, Masters Of The Universe
Joe Hisaishi – Princess Mononoake, Howl’s Moving Castle, Laputa

the current flocks of composers

Brian Tyler – Children Of Dune, Annapolis, Eagle Eye (Lego Universe), The Hunted
John Debney – Cuthroat Island, Princess Diaries
David Arnold – The Musketeer, Godzilla, Independence Day
James Newton Howard – King Kong
John Powell – Bourne Series

I know some will definitely raise their eyebrows or whatever, i don’t care. it’s my choice, my preferences.

as they say to each his own…

1. E.T.
2. Star Wars & Empire Strikes Back
3. Hook & Jurassic Park
4. The Raiders Of The Lost Ark
5. The Lion King

1 – Conan the Barbarian – Basil Poledouris
2 – Superman – John Williams
3 – Lord of Illusions – Simon Boswell

There are so many!

Body Heat (Barry)
North By Northwest (Bernstein)
Inception (Zimmer)
The Specialist (Barry)
Remains of the Day (Robbins)
Bourne Trilogy (Powell)

There are so many!

Body Heat (Barry)
North By Northwest (Bernstein)
Inception (Zimmer)
The Specialist (Barry)
Remains of the Day (Robbins)
Bourne Trilogy (Powell)

Kind of telling, don’t you think? 😉

Bourne Trilogy (Powell)

I agree.

ANYONE who thinks that The Bourne music is the greatest score of all time is either 12 years old or younger, mentally disabled or deaf.

ANYONE who thinks that The Bourne music is the greatest score of all time is either 12 years old or younger, mentally disabled or deaf.

Well, anyone who thinks like this has problems. We all have our tastes, some like Bourne’s Trilogy, others James Bond. But calling somebody like that for enjoying a score is childish, and stupid. You might like something I hate or just don’t like, but I’d never call you that.
Respect is gone in the internet, isnt it?

John Williams – Jurassic Park
John Williams – Raiders of the Lost Ark
David Arnold – Godzilla
Hans Zimmer – The Da Vinci Code
John Williams – The Empire Strikes Back

Danny Elfman – Edward Scissorhands
Elliot Goldenthal – Interview with the Vampire
John Williams – Schindler’s List

ANYONE who thinks that The Bourne music is the greatest score of all time is either 12 years old or younger, mentally disabled or deaf.

Well, I didn’t say this is the greatest score "of all times" but it’s sure in my top 3 greatest film music of this fucking industry. I won’t comment on the maturity of your post itself tho… ironic. lol !

The Bourne music is pure entertainment and in this style wich isn’t usually my cup of tea Powell truly got it. If somebody don’t consider such style as "great scoring" I’ll fully understand. You can live your life safely, I won’t track you down to convince you. The end.

———- Post added at 08:07 AM ———- Previous post was at 07:53 AM ———-

Well, if the question is "greatest score ever by your tastes", I would definitely go with Poledouris’ Conan. the recent rerecordings are just gorgeous. But it would be close with probably half a dozen other scores by the same man, and probably half a dozen others by other compositor.

C’mon l’ ami, I was talking about the original performance. Nevermind the sound or the smaller orchestra it had. (Eternal discussion anyway…;-))

Well, I didn’t say this is the greatest score "of all times" but it’s sure in my top 3 greatest film music of this fucking industry. I won’t comment on the maturity of your post itself tho… ironic. lol !

The Bourne music is pure entertainment and in this style wich isn’t usually my cup of tea Powell truly got it. If somebody don’t consider such style as "great scoring" I’ll fully understand. You can live your life safely, I won’t track you down to convince you. The end.

———- Post added at 08:07 AM ———- Previous post was at 07:53 AM ———-

C’mon l’ ami, I was talking about the original performance. I don’t mind the sound or the smaller orchestra it had. (Eternal discussion anyway…;-))

I fully agree with you on the bourne series. Powell usually does really enjoyable compositions. But I would put his work in Green Zone over the bourne trilogy. As far as action score are concerned, Powell is in my top three, with Gregson-Williams and Craig Armstrong. And those three are under my all time trio of favorite composers: Poledouris, Goldsmith and Morricone. I can listen to nearly anything by these three.

As for Conan, I said the rerecording were gorgeous…But I still prefer the original recording. Because it’s the score I grew up with. can’t count how often I’ve listened to "Battle of the mound pt.1"…

Green Zone blew me indeed, but only in theatre with the picture (and story). I can’t listen to the music alone, notably the promo-expended wich sound gets on my nerves. Maybe the album is more comfortable and the editing interesting (sometimes the "original score" is not the best presentation for the music).

Fore me, some of the greatest scores:

Howard Shore: Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (Complete Recordings)
Steve Jablonsky: Transformers Trilogy
Badelt/Zimmer: Pirates Of The Caribean

None of this is good, let alone great, music . The question was for the BEST film score of all time, not your personal favorite.

How do these Powell, Badelt, Jablonsky scores compare to Goldsmith, North, Herrmann, R???zsa, Newman, Goldenthal – ? They don’t – they only do in so far as to understand why the former are crap musically, and the latter are sublime.

Get a music education, or any education that teaches you about arts – and you’ll understand.

None of this is good, let alone great, music . The question was for the BEST film score of all time, not your personal favorite.
There is no best score of all times. It???s always an personal favorite.
The question is silly like "what???s the best film ever?"

How do these Powell, Badelt, Jablonsky scores compare to Goldsmith, North, Herrmann, R???zsa, Newman, Goldenthal – ? They don’t – they only do in so far as to understand why the former are crap musically, and the latter are sublime.

In your opinion, every modern composer is crap?

Goldenthal is a much more "modern" composer than any of the others. Your use of "modern" clearly suggests you’re not aware of what the term actually means!

The question was for the best score – if you don’t accept that question, don’t answer it!

Fact is, people’s understanding and command of film music aesthetics and history around here are severely(!) limited.

sigh

How infantile!

Well, you people keep listening to the pedestrian, predictable chord progressions, mindnumbingly simplistic orchestrations, deafening, intelligence-defeating walls of sound that the likes of Badelt, Bates, Jablonsky, Tyler, Rabin et al keep dishing out (while laughing about you all the way to the bank), while the rest of us delight in the subtleties and intricacies served by Desplat, Goldenthal, Giacchino (on his day) and others. 😀

Wimpel69 : You don’t need to play the obnoxious one. People have different tastes. Hell, some people even like the latest incarnation of Conan the Barbarian. I’m not going to call them idiots, infantile, and so on, because I’m of a different advice. Some composer did ONE great score in all there career. Don Davis did the Matrix, Craig Safan did "the last starfighter", etc, etc. Asside from Bates, Both Badelt and Jablonsky have proven they ere able to do good stuff. Enjoyable stuff. Badelt did so with "Equilibrium" and "Solomon Kane" (again that’s my humble opinion). Jablonsky did D-war, which, all in all, pretty much redeems him for the rest of his work.

All in all, to everyone’s his own.

And by the way, I find Desplat’s composition incredibly boring. but that’s just me. If you want to name a true great french composer, go with Georges Delerue.

Nice discussion. 🙂
First question should be: what makes a soundtrack good?

First function of a score is to accentuate a movie or a scene, support the atmosphere and the plot.
That could be a big symphony sound or a bright piano, depends on the intent of the director and composer.
Specially in horror movies the score is often "symphonic noise", fits perfectly to the film, sounds horrible and annoying if you listen it separated.
For example: Predators from John Debney. It???s horrible to listen isolated and I erased the whole score from itunes.

When I listen to isolated scores on my iPod during jogging or in my car, I prefer scores with great themes and impressing melodies like from of the "Pirates of the Caribbean"-trilogy for example. In alliance with the movie, scores like this are fractional too much, too dominant and standing in competition to the movie and could be annoying. Isolated they sounds great.

Where is your emphasis to judge a score? Isolated listening or part of the movie?

For me, I would have to say:

1. Tangerine Dream – The Keep
2. John Williams – Superman The Movie
3. Hans Zimmer – The Thin Red Line
4. Hans Zimmer – Inception
5. Clint Mansell – Requiem for a Dream
6. Jerry Goldsmith – Star Trek The Motion Picture

I just saw "the Artist" tonight. The music I heard won’t be something I’ll listen for myself (in my room) cause there’s too much things told in it, too rich. But…

… What a gorgeous film score! Unique.

How infantile!

Well, you people keep listening to the pedestrian, predictable chord progressions, mindnumbingly simplistic orchestrations, deafening, intelligence-defeating walls of sound that the likes of Badelt, Bates, Jablonsky, Tyler, Rabin ….

I hate those composers too. You’re not able to judge anyone’s taste however and mines for instance are guided by the context I use to listen to some scores in. I’m not listening to the Empire Strikes back when I’m working peacefuly (while it’s in my top 10), not anything else too rich. The Bourne may do fine though, and I can’t see how it can be called a wall of sound… So, Professor Taste, please know what you’re talking about a little bit please.

When I really want to enjoy great scoring, what the hell will I do with film scores when classical music is much more superior to almost any composer for soundtracks, will you tell me ? How sound your Desplat, Goldenthal, Giacchino when compared to Mussorgsky (I love) or Gorecki, or Arvo Part ???

So, when I’m not going for great music wich requires all my attention: yes, I need something a little more simple, sometimes even stupid.

How infantile is that ?

[QUOTE=Arial;1846250]I just saw "the Artist" tonight. The music I heard won’t be something I’ll listen for myself (in my room) cause there’s too much things told in it, too rich. But…

… What a gorgeous film score! Unique.

So, when I’m not going for great music wich requires all my attention: yes, I need something a little more simple, sometimes even stupid.

How infantile is that ?

…..Well I find the "simple" stuff to be incredibly unenjoyable, while stuff like TESB, ROTLA, and other scores, to be so enjoyable and pleasurable that they can lull me to sleep (and not in a bad way mind you)

I’d have to go with ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (mostly because the film and the music flow as one)

Waxman’s ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ (it doesn’t hurt that the score was used throughout the old ‘Flash Gordon’ serials) and Goldsmith’s ‘Chinatown’ .

I’d also have to mention Sakamoto & Byrne’s ‘The Last Emperor’

TITANIC
TITANIC
TITANIC….I can do this all day…

How infantile!

Well, you people keep listening to the pedestrian, predictable chord progressions, mindnumbingly simplistic orchestrations, deafening, intelligence-defeating walls of sound that the likes of Badelt, Bates, Jablonsky, Tyler, Rabin et al keep dishing out (while laughing about you all the way to the bank), while the rest of us delight in the subtleties and intricacies served by Desplat, Goldenthal, Giacchino (on his day) and others. 😀
Desplat, Goldenthal, and most of Giacchino is boring for me.

If talking about ‘most suitable underscoring to the visual direction on screen’ then a lot of soundtracks must be compared and considered outside of personal listening preferences. If you include musicals, then the line between the importance of score and the moving image becomes even more blurred. Would Fiddler on the Roof work bereft of the great scoring (by Williams) and the unforgettable songs? West Side Story? Oliver!? South Pacific? A Hard Days Night? Elvis movies?

Some examples of films where the soundtrack is critical to the storytelling:

1) Jaws -it would be a rubber shark vs three men on a boat. Instead a theme based on two alternating notes became an iconic engine of suspense and horror.
2) Lawrence of Arabia -an epic score that transcended the film and became instantly recognizable in any media.
3) Star Wars -another epic score that borrowed romantic themes and chord progressions from a dozen sources, including Golden Age (Rozsa, Kerngold, North, Hermann, Waxman) and classical sources (Wagner, Prokofiev (leitmotif in particular) and Beethoven, Dvorak, Holst among others) but combined them with the imagery and characters with a remarkable storytelling synergy.

The sadness for me is that increasingly producers turn to ‘factory’ music production and consider the score as the least important element of film… too many modern soundtracks are simply white noise.

Keep cool,

Ummphoo

"Batman" by Danny Elfman
"Indiana Jones" by John Williams
"Drag Me To Hell" by Christopher Young

It’s all subjective.

i. Gi??? la Testa

ii. Suspiria

iii. Blade Runner

1. Conan the Barbarian – 24-track recording
2. Conan the Barbarian – stereo film mix
3. Conan the Barbarian – mono mix

😀

1. Conan the Barbarian – 24-track recording
2. Conan the Barbarian – stereo film mix
3. Conan the Barbarian – mono mix

😀

Conan did nothing for me, besides Riders of Doom, and Anvil of crom (and Orgy Fight)

1. Conan the Barbarian – 24-track recording
2. Conan the Barbarian – stereo film mix
3. Conan the Barbarian – mono mix

You are listening to mono tracks if you have them in stereo?
Conan is nice but not my favourite score. I prefer the version from the Prague symphony orchestra. It???s not the original film score.
Do you know it?

I would say: Superman The Movie, Conan Barbarian and The Omen, but I will be original:

1. Carlito’s Way – Patrick Doyle
2. Jennifer Eight – Christopher Young
3. X-men – Michael Kamen

And would add all JN Howard and Elfman scores

You are listening to mono tracks if you have them in stereo?
Conan is nice but not my favourite score. I prefer the version from the Prague symphony orchestra. It???s not the original film score.
Do you know it?

Nope. That’s why I put it in 3rd position. Haha!… no sense of humor ?

Yes I know the re-recording. Here’s what I think, and it seems I’m not alone: http://forums.ffshrine.org/f92/conan-barbarian-intrada-new-release-93932/#post1753323, aside from the technical flow. Anyway, I think the new Intrada remaster will have the final word.

How To Train Your Dragon – John Powell (I am actually very surprised no one mentionned this one, it’s such an intense work.)
Begins & The Dark Knight – Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
The Green Mile – Thomas Newman (Coffey On The Mile is absolutely breathtaking.)

I have long resisted but … ok, here are my alltime favorites.

1. The Fury – John Williams ( and E.T. and CEOTTK and …)
2. Conan The Barbarian – Basil Poledouris ( and Hunt For Red October and … )
3. Planet Of The Apes – Jerry Goldsmith ( and First Blood Part II (best action score ever) and Total Recall and … )
4. Batman – Danny Elfman ( thats a Leitmotiv Herr Zimmer)
5. Alien3 – Elliot Goldenthal ( and Interview With The Vampire and Batman Forever and … )
6. Die Hard – Michael Kamen ( and Lethal Weapon and Robin Hood and … )
7. … and many more

Oh man … It is not possible to identify the best music. There are just so many excellent works. Steiner, Newman, North, Delerue, Rota, Bernstein, (and all the others i forgot) … great musicians and composers …

How infantile!

Well, you people keep listening to the pedestrian, predictable chord progressions, mindnumbingly simplistic orchestrations, deafening, intelligence-defeating walls of sound that the likes of Badelt, Bates, Jablonsky, Tyler, Rabin et al keep dishing out (while laughing about you all the way to the bank), while the rest of us delight in the subtleties and intricacies served by Desplat, Goldenthal, Giacchino (on his day) and others.

You’re right. The easiest for the ear is not necessarily the best for the brain …

Hi hi, i have an idea for a new thread. What score is the worstest of all? Which composer is the worstest of all?

… Hi hi, i have an idea for a new thread. What score is the worstest of all? Which composer is the worstest of all?

Heh ! There are already a good bunch in your quotation from the infantilising fellow !

I have long resisted but …

Such thread can’t be serious, don’t worry. That’s a silly vote (like any…).

My personal top scores of all time

OSTs
Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard – Batman Begins
Hans Zimmer – Inception
Tim Truman & Jan Hammer – Miami Vice (Released and Unreleased Scores)
Giorgio Moroder – Scarface (1983)

VGMs
Kai Rosenkranz – Gothic I-III & Risen
The Elder Scrolls – Oblivion & Skyrim
Michael McCann (aka Behavior) – Splinter Cell IV Double Agent
Shift 2 Unleashed Score (cmon who in the first place expected them to be THAT good?)

Hasn’t been written yet

Hasn’t been written yet

I DEFINITELY vote for that. I’m jealous you got the idea before ! 😀

Nope. That’s why I put it in 3rd position. Haha!… no sense of humor ?

Yes I know the re-recording. Here’s what I think, and it seems I’m not alone: http://forums.ffshrine.org/f92/conan-barbarian-intrada-new-release-93932/#post1753323, aside from the technical flow. Anyway, I think the new Intrada remaster will have the final word.

Although I cannot be more happy to have full Conan soundtrack in stereo and clean digital sound, Prague musicans lost original feel of costume epic drama that Poledouris brilliantly recreated in 1980s (Ben Hur, Cleopatra etc). I will put Prague recording side by side with Varese but never replace one with another.

Will we ever be able to hear remastered complete Destroyer?

Will we ever be able to hear remastered complete Destroyer?

I’m not interested in that one but both Conan scores are on their way for a remastered reissue by Intrada. No release date yet but as far as I understood they’ll be issued at the same moment.

My favourites: Star Trek III, Star Trek First Contract, Star Wars Episode V, Superman The Movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

1. Rudy (Goldsmith) A truly inspiring score, and I can’t imagine the movie without it.
2. Batman Begins (Zimmer) A true gem that seem to me horrible underrated.
3. The Dark Knight (Zimmer) Incredibly dark and majestic, another gem of a score.

2. Batman Begins (Zimmer) A true gem that seem to me horrible underrated.
… especially the more interesting parts of the score written by James Newton Howard.

Yes. While Zimmer is a master composer and created some great themes for the score, without James Newton Howard it just wouldn’t have been the same. Which is why I’m so disappointed that only Zimmer is doing The Dark Knight Rises. Other great Newton-Howard scores that I have are, The Fugitive, Hidalgo, and Salt. All are excellent (especially the fugitive!!!)

I’ll list some I haven’t seen so far in the thread…

Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Joe Hisaishi)
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Akira Senju)
The Incredibles (Michael Giacchino)
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (guess who) – Yes, I liked a prequel and its score. Don’t hate!
The Matrix trilogy (Juno Reactor and Don Davis)

I say The Matrix simply because it is iconic of the Matrix and fit perfectly with the films’ intense action sequences. Chateau, Burly Brawl, Mona Lisa Overdrive, and Neodammerung immediately come to mind.

Some game soundtracks, if that’s ok (I’ve only seen movies in this thread so far)…
Lego Universe (Brian Tyler)
Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Mahito Yokota)
Kameo: Elements of Power (Steve Burke)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (Cris Velasco, Sascha Dikiciyan) – This fits the atmosphere perfectly; it’s very dark and intense.
Rayman 2 (Eric Chevalier) – Light and magical, this wonderful score helped set this game apart. I only wish someone would get together an orchestra to redo this soundtrack so it were less… fake-sounding.
Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl (and Smashing… Live!) – Something about Melee’s opening and menu music strikes me as magical and impresses me in a way that only John Williams music tends to. Brawl has some excellent orchestral arrangements of game music, and Smashing… Live! is orchestral versions of lots of Melee music.

Its a question i get asked a lot actually. My reply always is ..there has to be at least 6 scores a year that one would truly appreciate with one each year contending for the best score of all time.

Superman The Movie
Conan The Barbarian
Star Wars Empire Strikes Back
The Red Violin

These are my top 4, after that its a free for all, just too many great ones to name but these four stand out most to me.

Soundtracks, what are they, what should they do?

IMO, a soundtrack should
A.) set a mood conducive to the story it is associated with
B.) integrate well with the story being told on the screen on a moment-by-moment basis
C.) be able to "stand on its own legs" musically for later listening pleasure

To narrow this down to three choices is TOUGH. I will throw out my 3 favorites, but I am going to add some honorable mentions.

1. Where Eagles Dare – Ron Goodwin (still the standard by which all others are judged, especially by qualifiers A & B)

2. The Blue Max – Jerry Goldsmith (a close second to Where Eagles Dare)

3. The Living Daylights – John Barry (it is almost impossible to select a favorite 007 Barry soundtrack, but this one was his last and there are no flies on it)

Honorable Mentions

Lawrence of Arabia – Maurice Jarre
Dr Zhivago – Maurice Jarre
All the 007 Barry Soundtracks, but especially Goldfinger and OHMSS
Zulu (ha! Snuck yet another Barry in on you)
Wuthering Heights – Michel LeGrand
Every Western ever scored by Ennio Morricone
Miami Vice – Jan Hammer (Yeah, it’s a TV show, so what?)
In Like Flint/Our Man Flint – Jerry Goldsmith
Red Dawn – Basil Poledouris

There are more, but I can’t think of them right now. I will kick myself later for not thinking of them.

OAGM you make some very strong points thanks for the post!

1.) Lord of the Rings (by Howard Shore)
2.) Star Wars (by John Williams)
3.) Batman Begins + Dark Knight (by Hans Zimmer) – put together because they are practically the same
4.) The Bourne Trilogy (by John Powell)

Lord of the Rings trilogy by Howard Shore
Batman Begins by Hans Zimmer (I know he gets more recognition for pirates and inception, but this was the first score of his I fell in love with)
A New Hope by John Williams

E.T.

The score transcends the visuals (California Suburbia circa 1980 and an otherwise ugly alien creature) taking the film to another intoxicating and captivating level, it is ultimately the very soul of the story.

The last 15mins is (I believe) the single greatest piece of music/scoring ever crafted for film.

I have loved reading everyones posts.
Zax

Under Fire – Jerry Goldsmith
From Hell – Trevor Jones
Gladiator – Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerard

Honourable Mention:

Topsy-Turvy – Gilbert and Sullivan/Carl Davis
The Third Man – Anton Caras
The Year of Living Dangerously – Maurice Jarre

1) Sea Hawk – Korngold
2) Vertigo – Bernard Herrmann
3) Batman & Robin – Elliot Goldenthal

Chosen for their sheer beauty, complexity and excitement.

I have 6 scores all fighting for the top spot so here ya go, the scores and why I like them.

And yes two of them are VG scores.

Star Wars: Episode IV, V And VI. – John Williams (No explanation necessary.)
The Lord of the Rings – Howard Shore (Wonderful score, that added depth and layers to an already rich and wonderful movie series.)
The Last Samurai – Hans Zimmer (Amazingly beautiful, and immensely powerful and dramatic at times. it really transports you to japan and makes a crappy movie watchable.)
Tron Legacy – Daft Punk (Awesome Techno, with rather amazingly touching and wonderful orchestrated pieces… especially considering who wrote the score.)
Final Fantasy X And VII – Nobuo Uematsu (Shows both the pros and cons to video game music. some songs are annoying and looped, but some are so beautiful you just want them to stick around for another few minutes)
Mass Effect 1 and 2 – Jack Wall (Think if blade runner had an affair with batman begins, then the child was raised with star wars. Cant imagine it? then go listen I cant really explain why it is good.)

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Dirty Harry
The Exorcist (Original)

I’m more of a modern fan as well…
1. Lord of the Rings – Howard Shore
2. Doctor Who – Murray Gold
3. The Last Airbender – James Newton Howard
4. Star Wars – John Williams (especially episodes V, I, and III)
5. Gladiator – Hans Zimmer

Not to mention Pirates, HTTYD, Independence Day, Batman Begins, Elizabeth: TGA, and Lair.

I really like your top four (though I’d put them in a different order). You’ve got really good taste (lol). If you’re still looking for the expanded score for The Bourne Supremacy here’s a download link.

CT – The Bourne Supremacy (Expanded Score) – OST.rar (http://www.mediafire.com/?5z1wy9y5083wlwr)

The end credits are missing for some reason, but you can find that on YouTube. Other than that all the major tracks are here…

my all-time favs are:
Fellowship of the Ring
Dances with the wolves
Last samurai
Transformers
Revenge of the Sith
Perfect storm
Last of the Mohicans
Kikujiro
Curse of the Black Pearl

Wow, I nominate this question for one of the toughest ever.

I’m going to explain all around my picks. First off, I’m a Gen-X kid: not that I haven’t heard some classic scores, but I wouldn’t know some of the more obscure scores, before the 80’s. I’m a little biased against big film scores (although, a couple of them make my list). I started thinking of big films, but…those are easy targets: the music is usually in your face. …and I avoided choosing all old film music that has arguably proven itself through time. Again…easy targets. I couldn’t be as objective as maybe I should have been. …and I chose these (no particular order):

1. The Shawshank Redemption – Thomas Newman: …sets a great balance between vintage, creepy, playful, gorgeous, and then incredibly uplifting. The track "Compass and Guns" almost makes me cry, everytime I hear it.

2. The Fountain – Clint Mansell: Absolutely, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful film scores I’ve heard in my life, hands down. I can’t listen to this score without getting moody. …AND, because of faith in Clint Mansell (from previous work, like Requiem for a Dream), I heard this before I saw the film, and I loved the music even more, with the film, because it fits so perfectly. Every track is gorgeous.

3. The Matrix – Don Davis: I think this score really set itself apart…especially in the 2000’s. I think if anyone even tries to make anything that sounds similar to this score, everyone is going to know it sounds like the Matrix. It was both creepy and adrenaline pumping. I don’t think there’s really anything else like it, and the two note motif is impressively simple but powerful.

…had a tough time choosing.

I considered others like A Few Dollars More, The Lion King, The Last Airbender…really tough to choose three.

———- Post added at 10:24 PM ———- Previous post was at 10:05 PM ———-

I fully agree with you on the bourne series. Powell usually does really enjoyable compositions. But I would put his work in Green Zone over the bourne trilogy. As far as action score are concerned, Powell is in my top three, with Gregson-Williams and Craig Armstrong. And those three are under my all time trio of favorite composers: Poledouris, Goldsmith and Morricone. I can listen to nearly anything by these three.

As for Conan, I said the rerecording were gorgeous…But I still prefer the original recording. Because it’s the score I grew up with. can’t count how often I’ve listened to "Battle of the mound pt.1"…

Yeah, for action films, I definitely think the Bourne Trilogy has one of the best soundtracks of "today". I considered "The Long Kiss Goodnight", by Alan Silvestri, good action stuff…or Predator. …and then, of course, Jerry Goldsmith…oh man, I forgot about The Shadow…should have thrown that as an extra on my list. …and Deep Rising.

From reading the lists of others, I feel like my darts are hitting off the board, but these are some of my definite favorites.

———- Post added at 10:42 PM ———- Previous post was at 10:24 PM ———-

I think that ranking by genre and by time period would be best. Honestly, I hate when someone talks about artists before my time and talks about how influential they were, or what they did first, because I always think: Okay, but being the first doesn’t mean someone else wouldn’t have been the first, without him, or that someone didn’t do it better than that guy did. I prefer to think about just the sound of the music (which, still can be tough and biased, because of the use of different tools, and the change in film style, over the years).

Nominees for "Best Score Ever Written". Hmm… Tricky…

Personal, immediate choices:

1) Conan The Barbarian
2) Star Wars
3) Superman The Movie

Considering all these scores were released in a relatively small window during my formative years I volunteer that imprinting has a lot to do with my choices.

You’ll get 100 different answers from 100 different people when worlds like greatest, best, top, etc are in the title of any poll or if any of those words are in a question or a list is compiled. You all probably know that but I said it anyway in hopes of avoiding any arguments over what’s the greatest & respects the opinions of others.

In no particular order.
Dark City
Crow
Batman
Batman Returns
Batman Begins
Batman Forever
Batman & Robin
Batman TAS
Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm
Star Wars
Superman 4
Superman
E.T.
T2
BTTF 2
Underworld (first one)
Halloween 1 & 2 (not the remakes. I’m talking the original 1 & 2)
LOTR ( I really loved Fellowship score best. But really, all are epic)
Social Network
Dragon Tattoo
I’m sure I’m leaving some out. But that’s all I can think of at the top of my head right now so….

Note: Reason I didn’t number then & why it’s no particular order is cause if I did number them, Dark City would be #1. But if you asked me again, any of the others could be number 1 instead so I opted not to number them. Plus, I love them all too much to do that cause……I mean I love them so much so that asking me to say which of these is number one for me would be like asking me which one of my parents is number one or which parent I like better. And I can’t do that.

Considering all these scores were released in a relatively small window during my formative years I volunteer that imprinting has a lot to do with my choices.

It does, for all of us. But when I look at all those lists, I also see a severe limitation of knowledge or even curiosity. Whoever seriously lists a Hans Zimmer score as or among the "best" of ANY kind displays a complete lack of knowledge about film music history, and even of today’s film music variety. And no, it’s not just a matter of taste. Music is a language and music is a craft – with a vocabulary and a grammar and a "dialect". They can be analysed and judged. 😉

1. The Thin Red Line, by Hans Zimmer;

2. Body Heat, by John Barry;

3. First Blood, by Jerry Goldsmith.

Star Wars
Superman The Movie
The Red Violin

The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King
Star Wars Episode IV
Lawrence of Arabia

It does, for all of us. But when I look at all those lists, I also see a severe limitation of knowledge or even curiosity. Whoever seriously lists a Hans Zimmer score as or among the "best" of ANY kind displays a complete lack of knowledge about film music history, and even of today’s film music variety. And no, it’s not just a matter of taste. Music is a language and music is a craft – with a vocabulary and a grammar and a "dialect". They can be analysed and judged.

Sad to say but it is unfortunately true. "Opinion" and "criticism" are two words that are like to mistaken. "Opinion" is how it feels, "critique" describes the stylistic, technical and substantive aspects of a work.
You like the music of Hans Zimmer? That’s ok.
But that’s not art, but rather a cultural imposition. Hans Zimmer’s trademark is it to ignore the basic conception of music, there exists no structure, no cleverness, no substance.
I just think it’s just a question of the age of the recipient. Many people simply do not know the original works or references, most by John Barry and Ennio Morricone. For example JB’s "Hanover Street" and HZ’s "Pearl Harbor",
or EM’s classical italo western scores with any HZ action – western stuff. Take a look, it does not hurt …

"The score evokes Bernard Hermann with a modern noir sensibility and flourishes of guitar courtesy of the legendary Johnny Marr …" [I]HANS ZIMMER

I feel this is almost as an insult …

Mine is pretty generic…

1. Star Wars (whole saga, also including Shadows of the Empire)

2. Indiana Jones

3. Independance Day

Aye, I’m a sucker for scores with big fanfares…:D

list by fav composers

John Williams – tie between Raiders / Empire Strikes Back / Superman
Jerry Goldsmith – Legend / Under Fire / Russia House
John Barry – Ipcress File / On Her Majesty’s Secret Service / too many others to mention
Elmer Bernstein – Magnificent 7 / Airplane
Herrmann – North by Northwest / Vertigo
James Horner – Aliens
Hans Zimmer – Rain Man
Danny Elfman – Batman
Alan Silvestri – Predator / Judge Dredd
Henry Mancini – Two For the Road
Georges Delerue – Joe vs the Volcano
Bill Conti – Escape to Victory / Thomas Crown Affair
Howard Shore – Big / The Fly
Maurice Jarre – Lawrence of Arabia / Jacob’s Ladder

Jaws
Braveheart
Blade Runner

———- Post added at 11:45 PM ———- Previous post was at 11:43 PM ———-

That’s your opinion. Hans Zimmer doesn’t blow up your skirt but does to others. I’m sure some of us wouldn’t agree with your choices. Don’t hate on the Zimmer, dude! He’s one of many musical geniuses living today.

That’s your opinion.

That’s exactly what I was trying to say. Opinion is a feeling, but criticism is a analysis.
"What is the greatest score ever made. Music tastes changed over the course of life, quality standards do not.
I don’t hate Hans Zimmer, from time to time I hear a few of his older scores. Even if I like it is perfectly clear to me that
none of his music even remotely belong in the list of the best scores. And that is not emotionally charged opinion, it is strictly music-theoretical analysis.

It is not a bad thing to like this kind of music.

I like to contribute one thought. For me, one of the best "soundtracks" ever written is Tristan & Isolde by Richard Wagner. I like to think of him as one of the creators of modern cinema. He made the orchestra disappear into the pit (which was not common before) and therefore focused the attention of the audience merely to the actions on stage (like a canvas in cinema). The music happened in the background. He also was kind of the inventor of the leitmotiv-technic, which was used by pretty all the film composers since then. So in conclusion I thought, he shouldn???t be missing on this thread. Cheers

An interesting choice …

… and now i understand why. Lars von Trier’s "Melancholia" …

I agree.

1. Star Wars – John Williams
2. Hannibal – Hans Zimmer
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell

1) The thin red line by Hans Zimmer (far far far away)

2) Mission by Ennio Morricone ex eaquo with Once upon a Time in America

3) Shawshank Redemption by Thomas Newman ("Brooks was here")

Well, it’s misleading to draw any comparison between single CD soundtrack and whole series (i.e. LotR, Star Wars, PotC, Indiana Jones, Star Trek, etc.);
nonetheless 🙂 I vote for: Fellowship of the Ring [1]
Indecent proposal [2]
Portrait of a Lady [3]

My personal favourites are:

1) Vangelis – Bladerunner
2) John Carpenter – Escape from New York
3) Tangerine Dream – Risky Business
4) John Carpenter – Halloween
5) Jerry Goldsmith – The Omen

Art

never posted in the forums, but I’m going to try and break the chain of "star wars" and "star treks" with what I truly believe is the greatest score ever made

Original 1927 Score by Gottfried Huppertz for "Metropolis"

Jerry Goldsmith: Coma
No other score gives me scares like this one.
Second in scares comes Bruce Broughtons Narrow Margin.

Sidenote: Search youtube for Joe Stafford Moonlight in Vermont.
The very short Piano solo resembles Goldsmith Cape Cod track,
it is my believe he subconciously was inspired by this.

CONAN !

Not sure if the best ever made, but problably my favorites:

1. Star Wars — John Williams
2. The Mission — Ennio Morricone
3. Lord of the Rings — Howard Shore
4. North by Northwest — Bernard Herrmann
5. Edward Scissorhands — Danny Elfman

———- Post added at 11:52 AM ———- Previous post was at 11:52 AM ———-

Not sure if the best ever made, but problably my favorites:

1. Star Wars — John Williams
2. The Mission — Ennio Morricone
3. Lord of the Rings — Howard Shore
4. North by Northwest — Bernard Herrmann
5. Edward Scissorhands — Danny Elfman

Fright Night the original movie, Fiedel score and the tunes both. 30 years later almost I’m still listening to it all the time. Ditto the Giorgio Moroder score to the remake of Cat People. The movie I like, but the score I’m totally in love with. The OST to Labyrinth, and both scores for Legend, still on the media player decades after I first heard them. All 3 Omen soundtracks were terrific, not just the first. Any early Trek movie soundtrack but particular the scores to the first and second films, the Star Wars scores, the OST to August Rush has become a major thing for me. I can see myself still listening to it in decades actually. John Barry’s scores to Somewhere In Time and Chaplin. The score and songs from The Craft and I absolutely love the score to Manhunter. I have so many scores that I really still listen to years later, keep coming back to I’d have a hard time even listing them all, but most of these scores have been permanently on every media player I’ve owned since I bought my first walkman tape player…

I can’t list these in any order (the numbering is random), and I am cheating and combining three scores into one vote since they are thematically similar, but here goes:

1. Romeo and Julietm by Nino Rota
2. John Williams’ work on Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, with Superman the Movie, as all three bear his similar late 1970s/early 1980s style. Combine the best of all for perfection.
3. Conan the Barbarian by Basil Poledouris

I am a film score addict, but the above albums I actually don’t listen to as frequently as others, because when I do play them I want treasure the strength, romanticism and emotional power behind each one, even separately from the films as they hold their own as beautiful standalone compositions.

1. Anything with the Giacchino progression (You know, that one chord progression in all his late soundtracks that cuts straight through to your heart strings and you can’t quite put you’re finger on why it does so much damage.(I’m looking at you, Super 8 and Lost!))

2. Hunchback of Notre Dame (This soundtrack is the epitome of manipulation of a theme, one that can switch from a joyous anthem to a death knell in a heartbeat. (Oh, and Tom Hulce screaming for his woman in a lustful rage is one of those magic moments that got me into this sort of thing.))

3. I can’t help but fear that the constant exposure to Williams’ scores is leaving them with a favorable taste in my mouth, so I’m worried that this commendation comes with a bit of bias. Regardless, since I know Star Wars has got the best chance of winning and to see it lose to a Zimmer score would piss me off immensely, I throw my last vote to the Star Wars bucket and hope for the best.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Jerry Goldsmith – Coma.
I dont know anything more frigthening 🙂
Almost on par in that regard: Bruce Broughton – Narrow Margin.

Music tastes changed over the course of life, quality standards do not.

Interesting, but could you please explain how you define "quality standards"? I’m sure there could be different opinons on this too depending on ones musical knowledge and background and possible education aside from age, social background and life experience for example 🙂

Interesting, but could you please explain how you define "quality standards"? I’m sure there could be different opinons on this too depending on ones musical knowledge and possible education aside from age, social background and life experience for example 🙂

Star Wars just wouldn’t sound the same, if Williams had used a single bagpipe only … 😀

Haha…Agreed. No offence, but if you go back and read my former post you can see clearly that I’m asking how benuit defines "quality standard" and not you 🙂

Haha…Agreed. No offence, but if you go back and read my former post you can see clearly that I’m asking how benuit defines "quality standard" and not you 🙂

Yeah, i know who you were asking. But i ignored it. Because my opionion is so super important. Just ask The President about my valued opinions! He will deny it. But it’s a denial coming from high places and i must say,
i am mighty proud about it! 😀

And so this not only to spam this thread, here a some other scores i dig:
Trevor Jones – Cliffhanger
Ron Goodwin – The Trap
John Barry – The Deep

Yeah, i know who you were asking. But i ignored it. Because my opionion is so super important. Just ask The President about my valued opinions! He will deny it. But it’s a denial coming from high places and i must say,
i am mighty proud about it! 😀

And so this not only to spam this thread, here a some other scores i dig:
Trevor Jones – Cliffhanger
Ron Goodwin – The Trap
John Barry – The Deep

Flattering will get you nowhere 😀

Flattering will get you nowhere 😀

Hilarious! 😀 Gimme some time to beat that! 😀

EDIT: Sean, I am defeated. You win! Burn in Hell !!!! 😀 😀 😀

Conan the Barbarian – Basil Poledouris
The Fountain – Clint Mansell
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Ennio Morricone
Cave of Forgotten Dreams – Ernst Reijseger
The Rock – Hans Zimmer/Harry Gregson-Williams/Nick Glennie-Smith
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Howard Shore
The Village – Jaes Newton Howard
Dances with Wolves – John Barry
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – John Williams
Empire Strikes Back – John Williams
The Greatest Miracle – Mark McKenzie
Romeu & Juliet – Nino Rota
Amelie – Yann Tiersen

olafolaf 😉

Favourites right now in random order:
Casino Royale (1967) – Burt Bacharach
From Russia With Love – John Barry
Thunderball – John Barry
Psycho – Bernard Herrmann
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly – Ennio Morricone
Amarcord – Nino Rota

Greatest score may be one of King Kong, Psycho, Star Wars, Jaws, I really can’t choose.

So instead I nominate the single greatest cue in movie score history: the James Bond Theme. Whatever the measure of greatness in movie music is I think that track would be hard to beat. Recorded 50 years ago this month and it is still awesome.

Greatest score may be one of King Kong, Psycho, Star Wars, Jaws, I really can’t choose.

So instead I nominate the single greatest cue in movie score history: the James Bond Theme. Whatever the measure of greatness in movie music is I think that track would be hard to beat. Recorded 50 years ago this month and it is still awesome.

Couldn’t have put it better myself, Penny. 😀

My choices:

1) Psycho (Bernard Herrmann)
2) The Empire Strikes Back (John Williams)
3) triple tie Star Trek : the Motion Picture (Jerry Goldsmith) E.T. or Jaws (John Williams)

I’m currently in love with Michael small’s scores for 70’s thrillers (such as Marathon Man or Parallax View) so my top 3 choices are not what I currently listen to the most 😉

Conan the Barbarian – Basil Poledouris

Excalibur – Trevor Jones/Richard Wagner/Carl Orff

Where Eagles Dare – Ron Goodwin

Superman the Movie – John Williams

Highlander – Michael Kamen /Queen

This is gonna be hard….3 scores out of nearly a hundred years of film music…. but let me try…

Jerry Goldsmith – Star Trek: The Motion Picture
John Williams – Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Danny Elfman – Edward Scissorhands

I know, an obvious list but I really love these there scores….
I think next time we do a poll best score not by Williams or Goldsmith.

Have to be Basil Poledouris’ Conan the Barbarian

Interesting, but could you please explain how you define "quality standards"?

I do not define the standarts. Melody, musical structure, intelligence of the variation, orchestration, are only a few universal standarts.
Editing is not composing. But that’s what the "media venture people" do in most cases. Klaus Badelt and John Powell have understood that and opened their own studios.

Example "The Pacific".
Take Michael Kamen’s "Band of Brothers" and mix it with John Williams’ "Saving Private Ryan ", a pinch of Trevor Rabin’s "The Great Raid". Ready is the main theme.
And what else? Helpless variations, a trivial orchestration, no thematic structure. A comparison with the Music by John Williams and Michael Kamen demonstrates this.
Is that bad? No, just simply irrelevant, boring and completely useless. Typical elevator music, not really good, not really bad.

Star Wars just wouldn’t sound the same, if Williams had used a single bagpipe only … … perfect answer

LADY IN THE WATER by
James Newton Howard

Hands down, the best thing I’ve ever heard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH7r5ThIw5Y&feature=related

I have one particular favourite, I went to the lengths of extracting the score from the 5.1 DVD soundtrack as the score wasn’t commercially available … until FilmScoreMonthly did a fantastic job ….

The Big Bus – David Shire

I just love it, the film itself is wonderful sillyness and the score just enhances that, very cheesy 70’s but overwhelmingly fun. I’d advise anyone who’s not heard it to give it a go.

Other than that I feel:

Star Trek II (James Horner)
Star Trek TMP (Jerry Goldsmith)
The Towering Inferno (John Williams)
Star Wars (John Williams)

Are the ones on my iPod that get the most plays.

LADY IN THE WATER by
James Newton Howard

Hands down, the best thing I’ve ever heard.

Lady in the Water – Prologue – YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH7r5ThIw5Y&feature=related)

Wow. Bold. Never heard it myself, but I haven’t heard great things about it. To each his own, though

Never? So do yourself a favor. And listen to this damn fine film score, ASAP.

DepositFiles (http://depositfiles.com/de/files/tulrxmx2a)

I can only subscribe to this review:

http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/lady_water.html

olafolaf 😉

Star Wars just wouldn’t sound the same, if Williams had used a single bagpipe only … 😀

… perfect answer

HAHA! Who’s going to hell NOW, Sean!?!?! Hehehe 😀

But then, benuit, do i get you right you don’t dig Kamen that much? I would find that a tad unfair.
I almost got all Goldsmith’ Soundtracks stored in my brain and he is repeating himself pretty much. But then, he is still the master and perhaps being one is a question of HOW you repeat yourself without repeating yourself that much. Ah, yes and then there’s Hans Zimmer, need i say more? lol 😀

A reference? Ok. A quote? Ok. Apart from the excessive, such as James Horner’s "Shuttle Discovered" from "Aliens".
A copy? That’s not ok. Jerry Goldsmith has improved his skills further and further, the approach I do not see for example in …
… this man from Frankfurt.

is a question of HOW you repeat yourself…

exactly…

But then, benuit, do i get you right you don’t dig Kamen that much? I would find that a tad unfair.

I like his work very much. "Lethal Weapon", "Die Hard", "The Iron Giant", "Mr. Holland’s Opus", "The Three Musketeers", …
This incredible musical range, baroque, jazz, rock, classic, his very specific "wild" style, sprawling orchestrations. A fantastic composer.
The "Band of Brothers Main Theme" was certainly intended as a reference to John Williams "Saving Private Ryan". But his score was independently.
Reference? Yes, but no copy.

do i get you right you don’t dig Kamen that much?

I’m not sure if I understand the sentence correctly.

I’m not sure if I understand the sentence correctly.

I meant, if you don’t like him to much regarding your standards, but you just already answered that.
Totally agree to all you said, not only Kamen but about Goldsmith too.
And the man from Frankfurt … indeedy! I meant it exactly the way you just did, hehehe, that’s why
i said "i need not say more". Or do i need to add? "I don’t dig him?" haha 🙂

Stargate by David Arnold

El Cid, all the depth of Ben Hur, more personal
Magnificent Seven redefined the western score (the first time Morricone fans)
To Kill a Mockingbird
and any of Herrman’s scores for Hitchcock ( well most any)

Never bash Hans Zimmer:

He is, at the same time, overestimated – and underestimated.

1. The Shawshank Redemption (Thomas Newman)
2. Bloodsport (Paul Hertzog)
3. They Live (John Carptenter)
4. Nightmare on Elm Street, A (Charles Bernstein)
5. Empire Strikes Back (John Williams)
6. Edward Scissorhands / Back To School / Nightmare Before Christmas (Danny Elfman)
7. Truman Show, The (Burkhard Dallwitz & Philip Glass)
8. Addams Family, The [Film] (Marc Shaiman)
9. Hook (John Williams)
10. Army Of Darkness (Joseph LoDuca)

El Cid, all the depth of Ben Hur, more personal

Didn’t read the whole thing but I hope that’s not the only references to Miklos in such a subject!

"I don’t dig him?" haha
I understand … 🙂

I always get chills when I hear the scores from Dances With Wolves.

In no specific order:

Braveheart – James Horner
The Age of Innocence – Elmer Bersntein
Star Wars – John Williams
Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Henry Mancini
Lord of The Rings – Howard Shore
Once Upon A Time In America – Ennio Morricone
The Shawshank Redemption – Thomas Newman
Vertigo – Bernard Herrmann
Lawrence of Arabia – Maurice Jarre
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Alexandre Desplat

That’s my top 10 😀

ah yes, maurice jarre.

i quite love his score to mad max beyond thunderdome

This is my list:

Star Wars: John Williams
Out of Africa: John Barry
Vertigo: Bernard Herrmann
Krull: James Horner
Under fire: Jerry Goldsmith
Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Henry Mancini
Ben Hur: Miklos Rosza
Bride of Frankenstein: Franz Waxman
Lord of the Rings trilogy: Howard Shore
The Empire Strikes Back: John Williams
Cutthroat Island: John Debney
Batman: Danny Elfman
The Omen: Jerry Goldsmith

That’s are my top 13!!!

I do not define the standarts. Melody, musical structure, intelligence of the variation, orchestration, are only a few universal standarts.
Editing is not composing. But that’s what the "media venture people" do in most cases. Klaus Badelt and John Powell have understood that and opened their own studios.

Example "The Pacific".
Take Michael Kamen’s "Band of Brothers" and mix it with John Williams’ "Saving Private Ryan ", a pinch of Trevor Rabin’s "The Great Raid". Ready is the main theme.
And what else? Helpless variations, a trivial orchestration, no thematic structure. A comparison with the Music by John Williams and Michael Kamen demonstrates this.
Is that bad? No, just simply irrelevant, boring and completely useless. Typical elevator music, not really good, not really bad.

Ok. So what are the greatest or 5 greatest scores, based on that?

HAHA! Who’s going to hell NOW, Sean!?!?! Hehehe 😀

Hell ain’t bad place to be 😉 Just kidding. I don’t believe in hell. Cheerio 😀

Ok. So what are the greatest or 5 greatest scores, based on that?

This is an incredibly difficult question. Perhaps it would help to identify music that influenced
other composers, Music that set new standards in composing, structure, genre, …

Bernard Herrmann: Psycho, Vertigo, …
Miklos Rosza: Ben Hur, Quo Vadis, …
Alex North: Spartacus, …
Max Steiner: Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, …
John Williams: Star Wars, Schindlers List, …
Jerry Goldsmith: Planet of the Apes, Legend, …
Danny Elfman: Batman, Edward Scissorhands
John Powell: Bourne Identity
John Barry: Goldfinger, Out of Africa, …
Ennio Morricone: Dollar Trilogy, Once Upon A Time In America, …
Nino Rota: The Godfather, Romeo & Juliet, …
Elmer Bernstein: The Man With The Golden Arm, The Magnificent Seven, …
Don Davis: The Matrix
Vangelis: Blade Runner

Did I forget someone? From my perspective it is easier to identify best composers,
the problem is that these people have often written several great works.
I can not decide because the personal listening experience also plays a role.

For example: My favorite JW is "The Fury", my favorite JG "POTA", EB "Gangs
of New York", JP "How to train your Dragon", …

John Powells "HTTYD" shows visible weaknesses in orchestration and accentuation.
On the other site fantastic ideas, wildness. Certainly his best work. Stronger influence
on other composers? Certainly not. But "The Bourne Identity". "Chase Across DC" (Salt)
written bei James Newton Howard? Partly…

Really difficult. Perhaps via the genre influence?

Epic: John Williams
Thriller: Bernard Herrmann
Action: Jerry Goldsmith

The best one hundred would probably make more sense …

This is an incredibly difficult question. Perhaps it would help to identify music that influenced
other composers, Music that set new standards in composing, structure, genre, …

Bernard Herrmann: Psycho, Vertigo, …
Miklos Rosza: Ben Hur, Quo Vadis, …
Alex North: Spartacus, …
Max Steiner: Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, …
John Williams: Star Wars, Schindlers List, …
Jerry Goldsmith: Planet of the Apes, Legend, …
Danny Elfman: Batman, Edward Scissorhands
John Powell: Bourne Identity
John Barry: Goldfinger, Out of Africa, …
Ennio Morricone: Dollar Trilogy, Once Upon A Time In America, …
Nino Rota: The Godfather, Romeo & Juliet, …
Elmer Bernstein: The Man With The Golden Arm, The Magnificent Seven, …

Did I forget someone? From my perspective it is easier to identify best composers,
the problem is that these people have often written several great works.
I can not decide because the personal listening experience also plays a role.

For example: My favorite JW is "The Fury", my favorite JG "POTA", EB "Gangs
of New York", JP "How to train your Dragon", …

John Powells "HTTYD" shows visible weaknesses in orchestration and accentuation.
On the other site fantastic ideas, wildness. Certainly his best work. Stronger influence
on other composers? Certainly not. But "The Bourne Identity". "Chase Across DC" (Salt)
written bei James Newton Howard? Partly…

Really difficult. Perhaps via the genre influence?

Epic: John Williams
Thriller: Bernard Herrmann
Action: Jerry Goldsmith

The best one hundred would probably make more sense …

I would go a step further in that it is impossible to list the greatest scores. I agree with you though, that identifying music that influenced
other composers, set new standards in composing, structure, genre etc is vital to the discussion.
For example: Wolfgang Korngold’s score for "King’s Road", Gustav Holst’s orchestration for "The Planets" and Walton’s "Orb and Sceptre" (the model for "The Throne Room") all inspired the "Star Wars" trilogy.
As you write, personal listening experience also plays a role.

I’d like to offer a thought here: Musical skills are important, but equally important is the composer’s sensitivity and ability to evoce certain feelings, memories and thoughts in the listener.
Like maybe you have happy memories of someone you whatched "Casablanca" with the first time or discovered new ways to arrange music while whatching "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" for example.

It takes a certain level of know how and sensibilty also from the listener to fully appreciate what the composer is trying to communicate. I think it’s all about communicating or rather translate and enhance the films message to the listener here.
As a composer you’ve got to know how and what musical sounds, pitch, dissonance and harmonic structure etc people respond to in certain ways. That seems to be very different depending on who you are and what you have experienced, in what mood you are when listening, if you’re alone, if you’re tired, alert etc.

Chinatown and Blade Runner.

Touch of Evil runner up.

never posted in the forums, but I’m going to try and break the chain of "star wars" and "star treks" with what I truly believe is the greatest score ever made

Original 1927 Score by Gottfried Huppertz for "Metropolis"

I’m with that guys opinion 🙂

The Lion King & Titanic. nothin else really sticks out for me.

Since there are only three, I’ll narrow it down:

Horner: Star Trek II
Horner: Aliens
Williams: All Star Wars movies

I could really go on and on with Horner, eg Braveheart, Titanic, Star Trek III, etc. In recent times Zimmer has really been a big deal too. I don’t know if anyone has listened to the score for Antz, but if you read through the credits you’ll see it has Zimmer as executive producer, mainly conducted and written by Harry Gregson-Williams, and assisted by Steve Jablonsky.

Edit: I guess I can go ahead and add Vince Dicola for Transformers the Movie 1986. That soundtrack and movie will stick with me until the day I die.

The lack of taste in these quarters never xeases to astound me.

The lack of taste in these quarters never xeases to astound me.

Member??? (http://www.hans-zimmer.com/)

… but not really, right?

James Newton Howard’s King Kong hands down. I have been humming the themes all week and that’s pretty impressive given how very little of pretty much everything JNH had to work with.

My own list:

Prokofiev – Alexander Nevsky
Rozsa – Quo Vadis
Herrmann – Vertigo
Goldsmith – Star Trek The Motion Picture
Williams – The Empire Strikes Back
Barry – Somewhere In Time
Horner – Krull/Willow (tie)
Elfman – Batman

I wrote that list a while back in this thread. I’d now narrow it down to:

Sergei Prokofiev – Alexander Nevsky – I’m somewhat cheating with this because I’m mostly familiar with (and prefer) this work in its concert version, but it really has just about everything. Impeccable orchestration, martial fire, waves of sorrow, exaltations of joy… it runs the gamut. The Jarvi/SNO recording is just fantastic.

Bernard Herrmann – Vertigo – Reminiscent of Wagner’s "Tristan and Isolde", but who cares? Gorgeously written, deeply psychological and tragic. Not as iconic as "Psycho" but, for me, a far more satisfying listen.

John Williams – The Star Wars Trilogy – "Empire" is the best of the three, but taken altogether Williams’ achievement is staggering. When listened to in excellent sound (i.e. NOT the goddamn Special Editions) they are all immensely enjoyable and overwhelming. Shore attempted something similar in "LOTR," but his scores are overlong and the thematic material isn’t as varied or interesting. Williams himself couldn’t sustain it over the prequels with a only handful of great new themes and a lot of filler underscore. But the Original Trilogy is top notch.

These three achievements are all capable of standing on their own, apart from their filmic contexts quite well and are worthy of concert performance.

two way tie between superman the movie and star wars the empire strikes back

Trying to come up with some that haven’t been listed, I’ll make my standard "most influential" in my lifetime …besides John Williams.

The Last Temptation of Christ (or Peter Gabriel’s ‘Passion’) – May not be in your collection, but it is certainly in other composers’ collections. Listen to Passion then listen to Gladiator.
Edward Scissorhands – The definitive ‘wintery’ sound. Heard a Walgreens commercial the past couple years?
American Beauty – Really all of Thomas Newman’s more subtle, unconventional, and experimental stuff. I think his influence has been incalculable, especially on TV scores. All the quirky synths, xylophones, etc. you hear in medical and legal dramas? Newman-influenced.

The Village (James Newton Howard)
Horse Whisperer (Thomas Newman)
Last Samurai (Hans Zimmer)
Braveheart (James Horner)
Signs (James Newton Howard)

Probably The Last Valley

Jan Kaczmarek – Unfaithful
Hans Zimmer – King Arthur
Rachel Portman – Joy Luck Club
Mark Isham – Life as a House
Javier Navarrete – Fireflies in the Garden
Georges Delerue – Dien Bien Phu
Taro Iwashiro – Blood and Bones
Zbigniew Preisner – Secret Garden
Armand Amar – Ao le dernier Neanderthal
Alexandre Desplat – King’s Speech
James Horner – Life before her Eyes

i am trying to limit myself 🙂
they might not be the best scores ever made, but for me they are.

LOST (Michael Giacchino) definitely

2nd best would probably be The Lord of the Rings (Howard Shore)

In the order, my 10 favorites scores of all time :

1 The Empire Strikes Back – John Williams
2 Conan The Barbarian – Basil Poledouris
3 Back to the Future – Alan Silvestri
4 Young Sherlock Holmes – Bruce Broughton
5 Batman Returns – Danny Elfman
5 Predator – Alan Silvestri
6 E.T. – John Williams
7 Star Trek The Motion Picture – Jerry Goldsmith
8 Hook – John Williams
9 Aliens – James Horner
10 The Avengers – Alan Silvestri
10 Silverado – Bruce Broughton

1. Titanic – James Horner
2. The Lord of the Rings – Howard Shore
3. Lady in the Water – James Newton Howard

Without any doubt – my answer ist

Basil Poledouris – Conan the Barbarian

I can’t say how many times I’ve been listening to this music. How many miles I drove in my car listening to this soundtrack.
So many things in life fade away – people, things, places – but this wonderful music always stays with me.

Movie score

Lord of the rings
star wars
Most of Harry Potter

TV

Uchuu Senkan Yamato – Hiroshi Miyagawa

Moonraker

Jerry Goldsmith – Star Trek The Motion Picture
John Williams – Star Wars – A New Hope
Tangerine Dream – The Keep
Vangelis – Blade Runner
Jerry Goldsmith – Alien

nosferatu, heart of glass, etc by popol vuh have got to be in there along with the american classics Herrman, Goldsmith, Waxman…

In no-particular order:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Jerry Goldsmith
The Living Daylights – John Barry
American Beauty – Thomas Newman
The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King – Howard Shore
Gladiator – Hans Zimmer, Lisa Gerrard and Klaus Badelt.

… of all time.

Single most depressing thread on FFShrine. 😉

My standard answer is that if you cant find at least 6 every year that meets that criteria, then you’re not trying.

N??? 1 : The lord of the rings trilogy – Shore

Another of my favorites :

Classic :

Ben-Hur /El Cid – Rozsa
Alexander Nevski / Ivan the terrible – Prokofiev
King Kong – Steiner
The Ghost And Mrs. Muir / Psycho – Herrmann
Mutiny on the Bounty -Bronislau Kaper
The Agony And The Ecstasy / Spartacus / A Streetcar Named Desire – Alex North
To Kill A Mockingbird – Elmer Bernstein
The Robe – Alfred Newman
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly / Once Upon a Time in the West – Morricone
Romeo & Juliet – Nino Rota

Moderns :

Star Wars A New Hope / E.T. / Hook – Williams
Braveheart – Horner
Conan the barbarian – Poledouris
The Dark Crystal – Trevor Jones
The lion king / Inception – Zimmer
Dances with wolves – Barry
Cutthroat Island – Debney
Stargate – David Arnold
Matrix – Don Davis
Hellraiser Christopher Young
Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Wojciech Kilar

Sorry if I have put many , hard to choose just one .

The GREATEST score? Well, there was this one girl in college, LOL

My standard answer is that if you cant find at least 6 every year that meets that criteria, then you’re not trying.

Are you saying that you believe that every year there are no less than six film scores that approach or surpass the greatest film music ever written?

Does this standard apply to the movies themselves? Books? Sculptures? Paintings? Every year there are six scientific discoveries that rival the greatest of all time?

Think about the phrase "greatest of all time." That phrase does not simply mean "great" or "fantastic" or even "super awesome." It means that we are talking about the best. That means that the composition is the best, the listening experience is the best, the music works in its filmic, dramatic context the best out of all of the countless scores written since the birth of cinema in the late 19th century. Obviously "best" is according to one’s personal taste but by declaring something the "greatest of all time" you are by definition putting it on a pedestal. It should be unsurpassed. Maybe, maybe six scores in a decade could be seriously considered, and of those only one or perhaps two (depending on the decade) would be legitimate contenders for the title. Without such strenuous selectivity and criteria, the phrase "greatest of all time" becomes meaningless.

Six scores may come out in a single year that I may really enjoy, but six scores that tick all of the boxes, that demonstrate a musical acumen that would make Herrmann and Rozsa and Prokofiev and North and Bernstein and Goldsmith and Williams all weep with envy? I don’t think so.

Of all the great film composers, each has only perhaps two or maybe three scores out of their entire career that might qualify for the title of "Greatest Score of All Time." That is the momentousness of the achievement. Such an evaluation requires hindsight and, most importantly, context, both of which require the passage of time.

Your criteria are too low, my friend.

Alexander Nevsky followed by the Empire Strikes back and Conan the Barbarian. Then honorable mentions to Fall of the Roman Empire and mostly a bunch of Rozsa and Barry stuff.

What is the greatest fruit ever created?

What is the greatest vegetable ever created?

Who has the most beautiful body- a man or woman?

What is the best pet?

THIS is a vexing question with no real productive outcome, based clearly and singularly on individual taste. There is no answer. Why not just discuss String Theory and whether or not it is valid? Or better yet: Do you believe in Santa Claus & the Easter Bunny?

a very very good point! the topic is very broad and complex to be made into a contests of who will emerge on the top of the lists with the most votes. i have my favorites, you have yours. we all have some favorite scores that might be yours too or maybe not but that’s just about it. endless.

It is an unanswerable question on absolute terms; we all have different tastes, exposures, education, etc. The fun is entirely in the discussion.

Subjectively, Inception by Hans Zimmer.

Objectively, The Omen, by Jerry Goldsmith.

It is an unanswerable question on absolute terms; we all have different tastes, exposures, education, etc. The fun is entirely in the discussion.

Different exposures? Yes. Different education? Sure. Different tastes? Yes, but that doesn’t enter into it. While the styles in film music are VARIED, such a thing as compositional quality can be measured along defined lines of music vocabulary and grammar, plus of course dramatic viability and historical context. As all art forms, can: literature, painting, sculpting, etc.

Can’t really name one in particular, so I’ll just go with some that I really love and have inspired me:

John Williams – Jaws, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Indiana Jones
Vangelis – Blade Runner
Ennio Morricone – Once Upon A Time In The West
Hans Zimmer & Mark Mancina – The Lion King
Hans Zimmer – The Da Vinci Code
James Horner – The Land Before Time
Jerry Goldsmith – Basic Instinct
John Barry – Dances With Wolves
Howard Shore – Lord of The Rings
Danny Elfman – Batman

Different exposures? Yes. Different education? Sure. Different tastes? Yes, but that doesn’t enter into it. While the styles in film music are VARIED, such a thing as compositional quality can be measured along defined lines of music vocabulary and grammar, plus of course dramatic viability and historical context. As all art forms, can: literature, painting, sculpting, etc.

There are certainly more informed opinions than others, but how can you deny that personal taste will factor into it? Unless there is but one choice that overwhelmingly surpasses every other possible choice, you’re going to find disagreement at even the highest level.

This year, for the first time since its inception, Citizen Kane was not atop the "Sight & Sound" list of the greatest films of all time, drawn from the personal lists of hundreds of film scholars and professionals. Instead, Vertigo claimed that honor. Both films are the work of masters of their craft, both have top-notch production values, great writing, great acting, great scores, great cinematography. Both have been widely imitated. How is one to choose between them? Or The Godfather? Or Lawrence of Arabia? (And we’ve not even gone beyond English-language films.)

How does one choose between Beethoven’s Ninth and Stravinsky’s Rite? I think we’re actually closer in opinion than we are apart in that I agree that it is possible to separate viable choices from the "chaff," so to speak, but at a certain level of accomplishment I believe that objective criteria becomes less useful, even irrelevant. At that point, it does come down to personal taste.

Best love theme: Jenny from the Rocketeer
Best album: Empire Strikes Back
Best main theme overall: Indiana Jones (Because John Williams couldn’t decide which of two themes he liked better so he combined the two separate ideas into one piece.)

Just a few of the ones that have stayed with me off hand:

Raiders of the Lost Ark (my first) – J. Williams
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – H. Shore
The Thin Red Line – H. Zimmer
The Empire Strikes Back – J. Williams
The Rocketeer – J. Horner (this one sweeps me away)

For me, I like the feeling of wonder and/or elation, of a kind, after listening to these and other scores/soundtracks that I consider fantastic.

last samurai – hans zimmer
the thin red line – hans zimmer
c’era una volta il west – ennio moricone

1-CONAN THE BARBARIAN
2-ALIEN
3-JAWS

Subjective topic as you’ll get millions of different opinions from million different people. But as long as it can remain spirited and not spiritual out of control, it’s fun to talk about.

My list is in no particular order

Movies:
Dark City
The Crow
Batman 1989/Returns/Begins/TDK Rises
E.T.
All Star Wars movies
LOTR trilogy expanded scores
Inception
Nightmare Before Christmas
Edward Scissorhands
Mortal Kombat

TV:
various wrestling themes
Buffy/Angel

Greatest score ever? I won’t even try. I do know my favorites though…

Arnold: Independence Day, Tomorrow Never Dies
Barry: From Russia with Love, The Living Daylights
Giacchino: The Incredibles
Goldsmith: Star Trek 1, 5 & First Contact, Mulan
Gregson-Williams: Kingdom of Heaven
Horner: Star Trek 3, Apollo 13
Poledouris: Conan the Barbarian, The Hunt for Red October
Powell: The Bourne Supremacy, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda 1-2 (with Zimmer)
Shore: The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit
Williams: Star Wars 4-5, Harry Potter 1 & 3, Indiana Jones 1 & 3
Young: Spider-Man 3
Zimmer: The Last Samurai, Pirates 3

2001: A Space Odyssey and TRON Legacy deserve honorable mentions too!

The Village – James Newton Howard
The Horse Whisperer – Thomas Newman
The Last Samurai – Hans Zimmer

Hook – John Williams
Star Wars- John Williams
Batman – Danny Elfman

Home Alone 1&2-Harry Potter Trilogy-John Williams
Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas/Corpse Bride/Batman Returns-Danny Elfman
Stephen King,s It-Richard Bellis
Dark Knight Rises/Pirates of the Carribbean 2,3&4-Hans Zimmer
Lord of the Rings Trilogy- Howard Shore
The Snowman-Howard Blake

1) The Empire Strikes Back
2) Star Trek: The Motion Picture
3) Alien
4) Ben Hur

1) E.T.
2) The Empire Strikes Back
3) Star Trek: TMP
4) LOTR: FOTR

Nekromantik
Braveheart
Christine
A Clockwork Orange

Best Game:
Final Fantasy VII

My Sister:
Legend
Heathers

Kings Row

Invaders From Mars (original)

Between Two Worlds

Lost Horizon

Leprechaun – Score – Kevin Kiner

Puppet Master Collection – Richard Band

Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D – Andrew Lockinton

not the best but good ones

1. LOST – Michael Giacchino
2. The Lord of the Rings – Howard Shore
3. Star Wars, Home Alone, Indiana Jones – John Williams
4. Titanic – James Horner
5. The Deathly Hallows – Alexandre Desplat

PSYCHO by Bernard Herrmann…’nuff said!

It’s difficult to name just a few, but I would certainly include Alexander Nevsky and Ivan th Terrible of Prokofiev.

Does the greatest score ever made have to go well with the movie it was made for? Might the greatest score be for a terrible movie?

i say most definitely. we’re just talking music here 🙂

Star Wars Saga – John Williams
Titanic – James Horner
Lord of the Rings Series – Howard Shore
Harry Potter 1,2,3 – John Williams
Psycho – Bernard Herrmann

Yeah, I can’t say only one..

Seems there are many younglings in this thread 😉
Nobody mentions John Barry?

Dances With Wolves is the greatest
Other honorable mentions include

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Ennio Morricone
Bladerunner, Vangelis
Chariots Of Fire, Vangelis
IMHO Wall-E, Thomas Newman (Vastly Under-rated)
Somebody else said this one and if you haven’t heard it you haven’t lived, The Snowman by Howard Blake

Greatest? No. Most beautiful?

Debora Lurie – An Unfinished Life

It’s difficult to name just a few, but I would certainly include Alexander Nevsky and Ivan th Terrible of Prokofiev.

Personally, I much prefer the cantata for Alexander Nevsky to the score. I almost always prefer concert arrangements though.

My top 5:
1. Star Wars (just plain Star Wars–no bloody IV V or VI, just the original album) (Williams)
2. ST: TMP (Goldsmith)
3. Conan the Barbarian (Poledouris)
4. El Cid (Rozsa)
5. Nevsky (Prokofiev–though I know this more from the cantata form as I said)

Those are soundtracks I can listen to through and through without any "dead spots".
Honorable mentions:

– Raiders, Indy II (Williams)
– Krull (Horner)
– Ben Hur (Rozsa)
– Empire of the Sun (Williams)
– Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Kilar)
– Glass’s Dracula (I refuse to watch the movie without it)
– ET (Williams)
– Starship Troopers (Poledouris)
– Batman Returns (Elfman)
– Battlestar Galactica (Philips)
– You Only Live Twice (Barry)
– Stardust (Eshkeri)

Casino Royale – Burt Bacharach
The Great Race – Henry Mancini
Patton – Jerry Goldsmith

Superman, Totally, one of the best scores ever alongside Empire, STTMP (full) and Transformers 2007 (and don’t discount "The Rock")

Hook – John Williams
Far and away – John Williams
Lawrence de Arabia – Maurice Jarre
The Claim – Michael Nyman
The Hours – Philip Glass

THE MISSION (ENNIO MORRICONE)
CONAN THE BARBARIAN (BASIL POLEODOURIS)
SUPERMAN (JOHN WILLIAMS)

1- Raiders of the Lost Ark
2- Poltergeist
3- Psycho
4- Star Wars
5- The Fog (1980)

Once Upon A Time In The West

1 – The Godfather Saga by Nino Rota
2 – For a Few Dollars More / Once Upon a Time in the West by Ennio Morricone
3 – The Others: Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Kilar, BTTF by Silvestri, Batman Returns by Elfman etc. Don’t forget Rozsa’s El Cid.
Also I prefer Williams’ Superman than his Star Wars scores.

Jaws—John Williams
Star Wars—John Williams
First Knight—Jerry Goldsmith

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – Howard Shore
Schindler’s List – John Williams
Alien 3 – Elliot Goldenthal
Vertigo – Bernard Herrmann
The Godfather – Nino Rota
The Thin Red Line – Hans Zimmer

This "poll" has been going on for a long time, haha. Many of the answers are telling of the poster’s age range. Nothing wrong with that. Goes to show that for many, a score needs to have some kind of personal connection to register with a listener. While that’s natural, I would submit that orchestral movie scores are the modern day evolution of classical music.

While scores are created specifically to support, supplement, and serve as an emotional guide for the film it’s written for, great scores stand on their own. I have many scores for which I’ve never seen the film it was written for and it allows me to hear the music on it’s own merits. It also allows me to attach my own thoughts or experiences to that music. I would challenge a lot of younger movie score enthusiasts to try this. Have a look through some of the great scores listed here and pick a few of the most frequently mentioned to try, especially if you’ve never seen the film it went with. I could make a huge list of scores to try but I’m going to try and keep mine short, in keeping with the original intention of the thread.

When thinking about what criteria would constitute a score qualifying for the "greatest score ever written", I settled on these:
• The music has to have helped define the film. In many cases, the music has (or should) outshine the film itself.
• The must be iconic – it should be easily recognizable and should have helped to create a new standard for the genre in which the film was contained.
• The music must stand on it’s own as an enjoyable and fulfilling listening experience.
• Lastly, the music must be diverse. It has to be rich, complex, and cover a myriad of tempos, compositional styles, and moods.

That being said, here’s my short list:

1. John Williams – Star Wars – A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back
2. Basil Poledouris – Conan the Barbarian
3. John Barry – Dances With Wolves

4. Jerry Goldsmith – Star Trek: The Motion Picture
5. Ennio Morricone – The Man With No Name Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly)
6. Michael Kamen – The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
7. Maurice Jarre – Lawrence of Arabia
8. John Williams – Superman
9. Danny Elfman – Batman
10. Bronislau Kaper – Mutiny On The Bounty
11. John Williams – Jaws
12. Bernard Herrmann – Beneath the 12-Mile Reef

And a few Honorable Mentions:

Miklos Rozsa – Ben Hur
Howard Shore – The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Tom Twyker, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Hiel – Cloud Atlas
James Horner – Braveheart
John Williams – Raiders of the Lost Ark

Someone mentioned the lack of Golden Era films being listed. I agree that more should be on the list, and probably on my own list, but them not being on my list is less a result of my age and more a result of the inspirational underpinnings of that era’s scores. Many of those great first generation composers in hollywood were heavily influenced by Stravinsky’s work, which is wonderful, but tends to be a "harsher" listening experience (for lack of a better term). It wasn’t until later that composers like Bernard Herrmann started infusing styles from the Romantic period of classic music, which, in my opinion, led to more "lush" sounding scores, and I happen to prefer the more lush sounds. I think that comes from more sections of the orchestra overlapping, and playing through from one section of a score to another. I wish I knew the terminology better so I could articulate what I mean. The romantic influences made scores sound less "choppy". That’s my two cents on that, anyways.

I think most of the scores I mention speak for themselves, but I wanted to say that while it felt strange to include Elfman’s Batman score, I think it’s as iconic – and different – as William’s Superman score. I feel that each of those scores perfectly encapsulates the overall tone and mood that each character is intended to generate. I love how completely different they are and I think they play wonderuflly against one another.

Also, with Bernard Herrmann, I could have listed The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Arognauts, or Mysterious Island just as easily as Beneath the 12-Mile Reef. Other scores by Herrmann might be more well known, but he absolutely defined the sound and epic scale of sci-fi and fantasy films. If you want to get a feel for where some of John Williams’s influence comes from, listen to any of these Bernard Herrmann scores.

I think Miklos Rozsa’s score for Ben Hur captures everything that’s great about the golden era of film scores and does it without sounding as "harsh" as many of its contemporaries.

Lastly, I really feel that Mutiny on the Bounty and Lawrence of Arabia should be higher on the list. I struggled to not have them in the top three, but the other scores above them are just that great. This really is an impossible task but it’s a lot of fun to try.

Stargate
The Empire Strikes Back
Vince Dicola’s score for Transformers: The Movie
E.T.
Jurassic Park

1. Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
2 Superman The Movie
3. Back to the Future
4. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
5. Conan The Barbarian
6. Lord of the Rings 1-3
7. Indiana Jones And the Last Crusade
8. Tenacious D – Pick of Destiny
9. The Longest Day
10. The Last Dragon

In no particular order.

Once Upon a Time in the West

once upon a time in the west

———- Post added at 03:00 PM ———- Previous post was at 02:59 PM ———-

and 2nd conan the barbarian

Hans Zimmer – The Thin Red Line

The Empire Strikes, I had much deliberation on this, but I think it is extremely difficult to top!

No question in my mind

Orchestral -> Star Wars
Synth -> Blade Runner

These two for me stick out.

Without repeat any compositor (someone could repeat easily)
This my list:

Bernard Herrmann 1958 VERTIGO
Roque Ba???os 2004 THE MACHINIST
Vangelis 1982 Blade Runner
Jerry Goldsmith 1979 ALIEN
Ennio Morricone 1986 THE MISSION
Hans Zimmer 2001 GLADIATOR
Alan Silvestri 1987 PREDATOR
John Williams 1991 JFK
James Newton Howard 1999 SIXTH SENSE
John Debney 1995 CUTTHROAT ISLAND
Basil Poledouris 1982 CONAN THE BARBARIAN
Elmer Bernstein 1962 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Miklos Rozsa 1961 EL CID
Richard Rodney Bennett 1974 MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS

Chariots of Fire
Blade Runner
1492 – Conquest of Paradise

Many of the answers are telling of the poster’s age range. Nothing wrong with that. Goes to show that for many, a score needs to have some kind of personal connection to register with a listener.

More obviously, it shows that only a minority of people – a tiny minority – can muster the intellectual discipline to differentiate between "best" (never ever one single score) and "favorite". 😉

E.g., "Star Wars – A New Hope" is a much WEAKER score than "The Empire Strikes Back" – objectively, while the earlier score is more historically relevant because it singlehandedly put symphonic film music back on the map.

More obviously, it shows that only a minority of people – a tiny minority – can muster the intellectual discipline to differentiate between "best" (never ever one single score) and "favorite". 😉

E.g., "Star Wars – A New Hope" is a much WEAKER score than "The Empire Strikes Back" – objectively, while the earlier score is more historically relevant because it singlehandedly put symphonic film music back on the map.

I disagree; it’s much stronger thematically, with a lot fewer stretches of "mood music" or "sonic wallpaper." It’s better to listen to AS MUSIC.

really interesting picks everyone!

These are among my most played over the years

Chinatown – Jerry Goldsmith
Perfume, Story of a Murderer – Tom Tykwer, et al.
Blade Runner – Vangelis
Colpo Rovente – Piero Picconi
Guns for San Sebastian – Ennio Morricone
Giu La Testa – Ennio Morricone
Forbidden Planet – Bebe and Louis Barron
Clockwork Orange – Walter Carlos
The Fifth Element – Eric Serra
TV:
Battlestar Galactica – Bear McCreary
TOS The Cage – Alexander Courage

some more but that will give some idea

John Williams: Jurassic Park
John Williams: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
John Williams: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Happy somebody finally mentioned "How to Train Your Dragon". The movie might not have the prestige of others but the music makes you close your eyes and fly.

The Blue Butterfly – Stephen Endelman.

1 – Road To Perdition – Thomas Newman
2 – Rambo 4 – Brian Tyler
3 – Vertical Limit – James Newton Howard
4 – White Fang – Basil Poledouris
5 – Escape From New York – John Carpenter
6 – Red Dawn – Basil Poledouris
7 – Bad Company – Trevor Rabin

Just a few of my all time Fav’s.

I disagree; it’s much stronger thematically, with a lot fewer stretches of "mood music" or "sonic wallpaper." It’s better to listen to AS MUSIC.

"Mood music" lol it’s like when my brother will quip "it’s just long stretches of boring". Once you learn to appreciate film music for what it is, you quickly understand that almost every passage has meaning and intention. Empire is the best part of the OT as it develops new themes whilst creating a cohesive tapestry of ideas reflecting the conflicts and relationships of the characters on screen. Symphonic scores today lack much of what those scores introduced as a means of conveying a narrative not telling you what to feel as bluntly as Zimmerites might do.

———- Post added at 10:43 PM ———- Previous post was at 10:41 PM ———-

Happy somebody finally mentioned "How to Train Your Dragon". The movie might not have the prestige of others but the music makes you close your eyes and fly.

The film received positive critical acclaim…

The score worked wonderfully in tandem with the film.

Here’s my list:

The Hunt for Red October by Basil Poledouris
Conan The Barbarian by Basil Poledouris
Alien by Jerry Goldsmith
War of the Worlds by John Williams
Empire Strikes Back by John Williams
Batman Begins by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
United 93 by John Powell
Blade Runner by Vangelis

Has anyone mentioned Red Dawn – Basil Poledouris yet? That is an all time great. Also Bat 21 – Christopher Young.

Top 3:

1. Blade Runner – Vangelis
2. Conan the Barbarian – Basil Poledouris
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark – John Williams

Has anyone mentioned Red Dawn – Basil Poledouris yet? That is an all time great. Also Bat 21 – Christopher Young.

Thank you for expanding my wishlist.

so… today it will be:

Psycho: Herrmann
The Invaders: Fronti???re
Alien: Goldsmith

Tough to narrow down but reading through the replies was very interesting. I am a middle ager and was brought up on the golden age — Steiner was and is my favorite. I think many scores that are highly rated have 1 or 2 wonderful tunes that often get manipulated in surprising ways, but this method always leaves me less impressed. Star Trek 1 has some great effects and a rousing main theme. I love Goldsmith and have almost every one of his scores. BUT, listen to other Goldsmith scores before thinking the Trek movies are his top tier. For Williams, dig a little deeper and you find utter genius. My suggestion is to listen to his concertos to understand the level he can attain. But the exciting part is so many people being obsessed with film scores. I was a young boy when Charles Gerhardt released the classic series and bought every CD and listened in QUAD sound. Giving a few choices is oh so wrong but here are mine:

Star Wars — all six movies represent the greatest work for a series. If the ultimate comparison is Wagner, then Williams here creates a series of leitmotivs that elevate space opera to a series of emotions that is without equal. Superman 1 is the only serious rival.

Gone With The Wind — my all time favorite score. Steiner composed 24/7 on benzedrine and created a work that in a single film has never been equaled. The excerpts that Gerhardt did are great sounding but get the 2 cd rhino complete score to understand how the themes are used and developed. The greatest scored single scene in all film is the end of part 1. King Kong is among the first great scores. Max showed that a great tune works wonders with a true composer to work harmonic/tempo/time sig/etc magic throughout a movie.

Picking a third is just too hard. Alex North and David Raksin showed how an intellectual approach can be used. Elmer Bernstein is in a class unto himself and certainly can handle the widest range. Jerry Goldsmith invented and perfected using electronics in film scoring. Herrmann showed us minimalism before we had the word could build tension. Miklos Rosza brought Hungarian folk music via Bartok to epics, noir, romance, and adventure. Franz Waxman showed how having a great tune can be transcended by varying everything (Peyton Place for one). Lalo and Dominic bought real jazz, Ennio is another force unlike anyone. Hans and his cohorts are hit and miss but can be very effective. Howard Shore can blow me away.

Close with what I think is the best main title: The Bad and the Beautiful — sets the tone in a melody that just keeps going —

And one nitpik: ET — love John but this score is more of an homage to Howard Hanson, it really catches a few moments of the film, but ruins the ending for me. Heresy I know. plus that damn theme for solo piano is just too hard… And I love AI (if this helps)

Kudos to everyone on this list.

Back To The Future – Alan Silvestri
Breakheart Pass – Jerry Goldsmith
Superman – John Williams
Once Upon A Time In The West – Ennio Morricone
The Bridge At Remagen – Elmer Berstein
Conan The Barbarian – Basil Poledouris
Star Trek 2 – James Horner
The Shawshank Redemption – Thomas Newman
The Time Machine (2002) – Klaus Badelt
Tron Legacy – Daft Punk

Back To The Future – Alan Silvestri
Breakheart Pass – Jerry Goldsmith
Superman – John Williams
Once Upon A Time In The West – Ennio Morricone
The Bridge At Remagen – Elmer Berstein
Conan The Barbarian – Basil Poledouris
Star Trek 2 – James Horner
The Shawshank Redemption – Thomas Newman
The Time Machine (2002) – Klaus Badelt
Tron Legacy – Daft Punk

The Shawshank Redemption is a pretty amazing soundtrack, Some of Thomas Newman’s Best work.

James Newton Howard – The Postman

1 — Romeo and Juliet — Nino Rota

2 — The last valley – John Barry

3 — C’era una volta il west — Ennio Morricone

"Mood music" lol it’s like when my brother will quip "it’s just long stretches of boring". Once you learn to appreciate film music for what it is, you quickly understand that almost every passage has meaning and intention. Empire is the best part of the OT as it develops new themes whilst creating a cohesive tapestry of ideas reflecting the conflicts and relationships of the characters on screen. Symphonic scores today lack much of what those scores introduced as a means of conveying a narrative not telling you what to feel as bluntly as Zimmerites might do.

———- Post added at 10:43 PM ———- Previous post was at 10:41 PM ———-

The film received positive critical acclaim…

The score worked wonderfully in tandem with the film.

Exactly. Williams brought forth the use of operatic leitmotif to tell the story musically. Every character in the film has a theme, some concepts have themes…it all gets woven together and expands as the film does, which is why listening to complete, chronologically ordered scores by him is a must. Each score matures in it’s film. This is especially true for Empire. However, I do believe Star Wars tops it on the list, for redefining the entire world of film score, and for giving birth to the styles and themes Empire builds on. Empire is a far more complicated score, but so is it’s film. New Hope was the kickstart. Actually, I suppose you could consider the entire original trilogy as one nearly unbeatable film score….

Inception!

Inception was good, although I don’t know if anything can compare to the Lord of the Rings films in my book.

Commenting on the ones I know which had an impact on me 1. Born Free – John Barry, 2 Gladiator – Zimmer & Gerrard, 3. Star Trek TMP – Jerry Goldsmith, 4 Lord of the Rings – Howard Shore, 5. Dances with Wolves – John Barry, 6. The Joy Luck Club – Rachel Portman

My favorites:

1. Star Wars – John Williams
2. Inception – Hans Zimmer
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – Hans Zimmer

The Shawshank Redemption is a pretty amazing soundtrack, Some of Thomas Newman’s Best work.

I’m suprised that The road to Perdition does not enjoy high esteem, for me it’s Newman’s best score, better than The Help, Oscar & Lucinda, Meet Joe Black or The war

Hoosiers – Jerry Goldsmith (Intrada edition)

The Mission – Ennio Morricone

Poltergeist – Jerry Goldsmith

1. Superman: The Movie
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Star Wars (A New Hope)
4. Jurassic Park
5. Dracula (1979, John Williams)
6. Batman and Batman Returns (Danny Elfman)
7. Supergirl (Jerry Goldsmith)
8. Batman Begins (Hans Zimmer/ James Newton Howard)
9. Signs (James Newton Howard)
10. Inception (Hans Zimmer)

All you people crack me up..almost nobody listens to anything from the Golden Age, probably because most of you are 20 somethings I would imagine.
Exceedingly well said,Wildwood. I couldn’t agree with you more!

I don’t think I could choose the greatest single score of all time. I will list 8 scores,and any one of them could get my vote as to being number one. In no particular order:

The Big Country
North by Northwest
How The West Was Won
The Great Escape
The Magnificent Seven
Ben-Hur
Spartacus
The Adventures of Robin Hood

I guess the reason because here are not so many Golden Age classics in this thread is, because these classic scores mostly doesn’t have that repetitive pop song hooks that newer ones have. John Williams revolutionized the world of scores, because his scores were the first ones that charted worldwide like pop albums.

Greatest – choices:

01 – Girl with a Pearl Earring – Alexandre Desplat
02 – Death On The Nile – Nino Rota
03 – Edward Scissorhands – Danny Elfman
04 – E. T. – John Willams
05 – Thelma & Louise – Hans Zimmer
06 – On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – John Barry
07 – Spellbound – Mikl???s R???sza
08 – Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki
09 – The Piano – Michael Nyman
10 – Titanic – James Horner

Other Favourites:

Dans La Maison / In the House – Philippe Rombi
The 39 Steps – Louis Levy
Oblivion – M83
Pan’s Labyrinth – Javier Bavarrete
The Island – Steve Jablonsky
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – John Williams & Patrick Doyle
The Big Blue – Eric Serra
In Time – Craig Armstrong
S1Mone – Carter Burwell
Breakfast At Tiffany’s – Henry Mancini

My TOP 5 would be (using different composers, otherwise Mr. Herrmann would be 1, 3, 4 and 5):

1. Vertigo
2. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
3. How The West Was Won
4. The Curse Of The Golden Flower
5. A Single Man

Anything James Newton Howard.

Really love The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Narnia film soundtrack.

Ben-Hur
Spartacus
El Cid
King of Kings

After 35 years of listening to scores there’s a number I still like to visit again and again:

– The Black Hole (John Barry) (my first score, always special to me)
– Krull (James Horner) (the best piece of music he ever did)
– Gremlins (Jerry Goldsmith) (after Barry my favourite composer)
– Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (John Williams) (best of the Star Wars-films, with the best of the Star Wars-scores)
– Taxi Driver (Bernard Herrmann) (his last score, an intense piece of music)
– The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (Ennio Morricone) (tough choice!)
– RoboCop (Basil Poledouris) (we miss you Basil!)
– Tron (Wendy Carlos) (a neo classic classic, never before and never again will there be such music for a film)

Honorable mentions:

– Moonraker (John Barry) – similar to The Black Hole, but not as dark and most certainly very Bond!
– Thunderball (John Barry) – the best of the (early) Bonds in many respects
– Flash Gordon (Howard Blake) – charming score with a lot of great themes "hiding" behind the bombast of the Queen-music
– Young Sherlock Holmes (Bruce Broughton) – what a rollercoaster of a great, classic score!
– Cutthroat Island (John Debney) – the best pirate film score of the 90s, shame on you Badelt & Zimmer, you talentless hacks
– Girl With A Pearl Earring (Alexandre Desplat) – heart stealer, ear stealer, one of the few hopes for good scores in the future
– Transformers: The Movie (Vince DiCola) – under rated pop classic, a score from the 80s which SOUNDS like the 80s
– The Nightmare Before Christmas (Danny Elfman) – a musical with a wonderful – film – music
– Babylon 5 (Christopher Franke) – the Bear McCreary of his time, the series would be nothing without it (just watch Crusade!)
– The Incredibles (Michael Giacchino) – forget David Arnold, Giacchino is the rightful heir to John Barry’s throne!
– Dawn of the Dead (Goblin) – Morricone done by a progressive rock band
– Jerry Goldsmith – too many titles to quote here
– Fahrenheit 451 & Vertigo (Bernard Herrmann) – timeless classics, yes, they belong together, men and their obsession for women
– Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan (James Horner) – for some this is his best score
– The Rocketeer (James Horner) – most certainly the SECOND best score he ever did
– Falling Down & Atlantis – The Lost Empire (James Newton Howard) – oh, James, I really want to love your music, but sometimes there’s simply too much Zimmer going on
– The Dark Crystal (Trevor Jones) – an almost forgotten classic in sooo many respects
– Die Hard (Michael Kamen) – we miss you, Michael!
– The Three Musketeers (Michael Kamen) – sounds like classic music but is (great) film music
– Patlabor 2 (Kenji Kawai) – another overlooked anime classic
– Le Roi Et L’Oiseau (Wojcech Kilar) – and another overlooked classic
– Lifeforce (Henry Mancini) – just kidding
– Deep Star Six (Harry Manfredini) – a rather cheap movie, riding on the wave of deep sea/Abyss-ripoffs, but with nice music
– Mad Max 2 – The Road Warrior (Brian May) – most certainly not the one from Queen and missed too
– The Avengers & Soldier (Joel McNeely) – here’s one good composer really waiting to be (re-)discovered
– The Lighthorsemen (Mario Millo) – forgotten classic movie, forgotten classic score
– Watership Down (Angela Morley) – another forgotten name, one of the few female composers of her time
– The Big Country (Jerome Moross) – bombastic western score, before Morricone wiped the slate clean
– Mission to Mars (Ennio Morricone) – just like the movie, it’s actually way better than you’re being told by the critics
– The Untouchables (Ennio Morricone) – one of those people like to forget
– Dragonslayer (Alex North) – a tough listen to people who are not into "real" classic music, Filmtracks for example
– Spartacus & The Shoes of the Fisherman (Alex North) – easier listen for Filmtracks, great scores all along
– Battlestar Galactica (Stu Philips) – the series may have been a Star Wars-ripoff, the (most excellent) music certainly not!
– Cherry 2000 (Basil Poledouris) – there are so many more good Poledouris-scores around!
– The Hunt for Red October (Basil Poledouris) – i told you!
– Les Mis???rables (Basil Poledouris) – and don’t forget Conan – The Barbarian!
– The Saint (Graeme Revell) – well, here’s the one score they’ll (rightfully) remember you for, Graeme
– The Lord of the Rings (Leonard Rosenman) – Shore may paint the greater canvas, but Rosenman goes the straighter direction
– Fantastic Voyage (Leonard Rosenman) – it’s 12 tone-music! and Nimoy should have hired James Horner (once again) for Star Trek IV
– The Godfather (Nino Rota) – need I say anything else?
– The Godfather Part II (Nino Rota) – well, this here! 😉
– Ben Hur (Miklos Rozsa) – timeless classic
– The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes – forgotten timeless classic, get the original recording, not the re-recording done under sedation!
– Blue Thunder & War Games (Arthur B. Rubinstein) – two more (almost) forgotten classics from the 80s
– The Last Starfighter (Craig Safan) – great classic score for one of the (very) first movies to use cgi-effects
– Pirates (Philippe Sarde) – the best pirate film score of the 80s, no Zimmer involved & none required
– The Four Musketeers (Lalo Schifrin) – the way classic music sounds – great – when composed as film music
– The Fifth Element (Eric Serra) – we’ll forgive you Goldeneye, Eric! one day. maybe.
– South Park – Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Marc Shaiman) – the one thing nobody expected from South Park – a great musical with great music!
– The Hindenburg (David Shire) – beautiful music!
– The Fly (Howard Shore) – What music? What films? Lord of the… what? I can’t hear you! 😉
– Predator & Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Alan Silvestri) – yep, in a package. because they’re the same good.
– Back To The Future I-III (Alan Silvestri) – yep, another package and because they’re even better!
– Total Annihilation (Jeremy Soule) – oops, it’s not film music but for a game! shame on me… (listen to it anyway)
– Fortress & Robot Jox (Frederic Talgorn) – yes, this man CAN compose decent music!
– Le Brasier & Asterix At The Olympic Games (Frederic Talgorn) – see what I mean?
– MDK (Tommy Tallarico) – oops, another game score. won’t happen again! (but most certainly listen to it!)
– Dune (Toto) – some call this as "failed" as the movie, but it’s one of the best pop-meets-classic score-operas of the 80s!
– Perfume (Tom Tykwer with Johnny Klimek & Reinhold Heil) – worth every second!
– Blade Runner (Vangelis) – great classic of the 80s with dozen of recordings, just watch the threads!
– Shirley Walker – we miss you, Shirley, we really do!
– Green Lantern – The Animated Series (Frederik Wiedmann) – the force is strong with this one!
– John Williams – a dozen, maybe more
– Troy (Gabriel Yared) – too bad he made one the best scores of recent time for the WRONG movie – and director
– Hellbound: Hellraiser II (Christopher Young) – "horror opera" sums it up, excellent score!
– Zimmer Hans – just kidding 😉

1. The Phantom Menace – John Williams
2. The Mummy – Jerry Goldsmith
3. Cutthroat Island – John Debney

In no specific order, here are my current top 25:

1. Jesper Kyd – Assassin’s Creed 2
2. Akira Yamaoka – Silent Hill 2
3. Nobuo Uematsu – Final Fantasy 7
4. Jeremy Soule – Skyrim
5. Michael McCann – Deus Ex: Human Revolution
6. Nathan McCree – Tomb Raider 2
7. Bear McCreary – The Battlestar Galactica Saga + The Walking Dead
8. Christopher Drake – Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
9. Clint Mansell – The Fountain
10. Eric Serra – The Fifth Element
11. John Powell – How to Train Your Dragon Saga
12. Henry Jackman – Wreck-It Ralph
13. Howard Shore – LOTR-Saga
14. James Newton Howard – The Hunger Games
15. John Williams – Memoirs of A Geisha
16. Michel Legrand – The Three Musketeers
17. Mark Mothersbaugh – The Lego Movie
18. Alan Silvestri – The Avengers
19. Michael Giacchino – Lost Saga
20. Nathan Barr – True Blood Saga
21. Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – The Social Network
22. Trevor Rabin & Harry Gregson-Williams – Armageddon + Enemy of the State
23. James Horner – Cocoon
24. Yoko Kanno – Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
25. Andrew Hale & Simon Hale – L.A. Noire

Honorable mentions:
Tangerine Dreams, Woody Jackson, The Alchemist & Oh No – Grand Theft Auto V
Mark Mancina – Bad Boys
Hans Zimmer – The Ring

Too many to mention, love a lot of what other members have put forward.

Carpenter is a big favourite with me as his scores remind me of cinema going in the 70s/80.

I have to say for me though the one score I love is ‘Once Upon a Time in America’

The Adventures of Robin Hood – Erich Gorngold

North By Northwest – Bernard Hermann

Star Wars – John Williams

My list:
1/ La Dolce Vita Rota / Henry V William Walton/ Agony Schnittke
2/ La Strada Rota/The Double life of Veronique Preisner/L’Atalante Maurice Jaubert
3/ Hamlet, Shostakovitch/Alamo Tiomkin/Les mis???rables Arthur Honnegger
4/The Private life of Elisabeth Korngold /The King and the Bird Kilar
5/America America Hadjidakis / Pithamagan Illayaraja
6/Indochine et Une femme Fran???aise Patrick Doyle
7/Total recall Goldsmith / Cleopatre North
8/North by Norwest Hermann and Chihiro Journey Joe Hisaischi
9/Satantango Vig Mihaly and The Hopful River Coulais
10/Les enfants du paradis Cosma/ Lust For Life, Rozsa
11/ sweeney Todd Sondheim/ Der K???nige Der Letzen T???ge, Kilar
12/ Prowokator Michal Lorenc/ Gorky Park James Horner
13/ L’Eclipse, l’ann???e derni???re ??? marienbard Fusco/ Alien 3 Goldenthal
14/Wihistle Down the Wind, Malcom Arnold, Urga Artemiev
15/Armarcord Rota, Brutti Sporchi et Cattivy Trovajoli
16/ Addio Africa Riz Ortolani, Les Gonnies Dave Grusin
17/Glory James Horner, Roja A.R Rahman
18/Kids Return Hisaischi Rebecca Franz Waxmann
19/Brainstorm Horner and Tess Philippe Sarde
20/Citizen Kane Herman and Mayrig Jean Claude Petit
21/Henry V Patrick Doyle/ Time Of Gypsies Goran Bregovic
22/Ran Toru Takemitsu and The Moon in th Glitter Yared
23/ War of Wolrd John William/ Bridge of the kwai river Arnold
24/Abyss Alan Silvestri and The mission Morriconne
25/Crouching Tiger Tan Dun, A Woman Decision Kilar
26/ Providence, Rozsa/ The eyes without face Jarre
27/ La Balia Crivelli and Oc???an Coulais
28/ Eminent Domain Preisner, Jaws John William, The Egyptian Newman and Herman
29/Stalker Artemiev/ Ten Commandements Bernstein
30/Odd man out Alwyn/Oliver Twist Arnold Bax/Dil Se A R Rahman
31/Angel Phillipe Rombi/ Troy Yared/ Queen Margot Goran Bregovic
32/Pirates Sarde/ L’Arcidiavolo Trovajoli
33/ Esther Kahn Howard Shore/ Le Boucher Perre Jensen
34/Hook, Harry Potter 3, Empire of the sun, Catch me if you can, John William
35/The Woman on the beach, Heisler/ The Informer Max Steiner
36/Chcken Run John Powell
37/The Young Girls of Rochefort Legrand
38/Dark Water Kawai/ Star Treck Goldsmith
39/All About my mother Alberto Iglesias/ The red Circle Eric de Marsant
40/Thalapathi Illayaraja/ Mondo Cane Ortolani/Himalaya Coulais

Conan The Barbarian – by Basil. The greatest fantasy score IMO ever – period.
Empire Strikes Back – Williams – The greatest sci-fi score IMO.
Aww, dammit, that’s me up now for the rest of the night trying to decide on the third. I want to say a Horner score like Wrath of Khan… yep, Wrath of Khan… or maybe… grrr.

Six of the best in my opinion:

Serpico – Mikis Theodorakis
Heaven’s Gate – David Mansfield
Three Days Of The Condor – Dave Grusin
The Molly Maguires – Henry Mancini
Funeral In Berlin – Konrad Elfers
Shiri – Lee Dong-joon

In no particular order, but there’s so many to choose from and these just spring to mind, but it would be nice to put

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg – Michel Legrand
amongst them (but seeing as it’s song all the way through, does this count). If it was alright then another definite would be
Les Mis???rables – Boublil & Sch???nberg

———- Post added at 02:14 AM ———- Previous post was at 01:52 AM ———-

Oh and then there’s
The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes – Miklos Rozsa

you see, there’s just to many out there, and that’s not including anything from the stuff that turner6 has been kindly sharing (music(als) from the 40’s and 50’s,)
or from the Dimitri Tiomkin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner stables.
All these could be candidates for all different reasons.

———- Post added at 02:26 AM ———- Previous post was at 02:14 AM ———-

Oh!
and Ir’d really love to put ‘Band of Brothers’ by Michael Kamen in there, but does that count because it’s actually TV.

and then there’s also ‘Gods And Generals – John Frizzell and Randy Edalman’.

Ben Hur
For a few dollars more
The good the bad and the ugly

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (David Shire)
The Big Country (Jerome Moross)
vertigo (b herrmann)
ben-hur
I Promessi Sposi (Ennio Morricone)

Jaws (Williams), Psycho (Herrmann) and Spartacus (North)

My Top 5 would be currently somewhere around
1. Clint Mansell – United
2. John Williams – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
3. Alexandre Desplat – Imitation Game
4. Hans Zimmer – Inception
5. Craig Armstrong – In Time

I’d love to get my hands on Mansells Einstein & Eddington but no luck indeed.

1. Titanic (James Horner)
2. Gladiator (Hans Zimmer)
3. Planet of the Apes (Jerry Goldsmith)
4. Predator (Alan Silvestri)
5. Star Trek III – The Search for Spock (James Horner)

Star Wars (A New Hope)
Star Wars (ESB)
Batman Begins (Hans Zimmer/ James Newton Howard)
King Kong (John Barry)
[…]
Hollowman (Jerry Goldsmith)

Out Of Africa
E.T.
Batman Begins
The Godfather Part 2
The Empire Strikes Back
Titanic

But if you ask me tomorrow you might get a completely different list.

B

Titanic (Horner)
Star Wars (Williams)
Lord of the Rings (Shore)
Braveheart (Horner)

"Vertigo"
"Rio Grande"
"Vertigo"

Going to move this to Film Music Discussion:
Anime, Film & Video Game Music Discussion (http://forums.ffshrine.org/anime-film-video-game-music-discussion/)

It’s run a good time in here download section.

Conan the barbarian
the lord of the rings trilogy
the star wars trilogy (not the prequels)
Stargate

Superman (John Williams)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Jerry Goldsmith)
Sleeping Beauty (George Bruns)

GLadiator _HNA Z ZIMMER

My top 5 are
Game- Xenogears ost
Game- Chrono Cross
Anime- Fullmetal alchemist brotherhood
Anime- kenshin
Movie- Pirates of the Caribbean (mostly the first and second movie ost that i listen to.)

The red Violin Corriglianno
Henry V Walton
Hamlet Chostakovitch
Brainstorm Horner
Sweet Movie Hadjidakis
Danton Prodomid???s
The double life Preisner
The Withe Witch Doctor Hermann
El Cid Rosza
Citizen Kane Hermann
Tess/Pirates Phillipe Sarde
Casque d’Or George Van parys

I guess I’m a Zimmer fan.

Black Hawk Down
Batman Begins
Gladiator
Inception
The Last Sumarai

Non-Zimmer

First Blood
Smokin Aces
Stealth

1. Conan the Barbarian (1982) – Basil Poledouris
2. Amelie (2001) – Yann Tiersen
3. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – John Williams

disappointing that not a lot of people listen to the classics, like herrmann, rozsa, alfred newman, kaper, rota, korngold etc….

if anyone is interested Im going to recommend one title from each of those, you can take it or leave it, Im no one to give recommendations other than have been an avid listener for over 25 years of film music, but give it a try, these are classics for a reason

herrmann: vertigo
Rozsa: ben-hur
korngold: the adventures of robin hood
rota: il gattopardo
kaper: the glass slipper
alfred newman: the Robe

"The Adventures of Robin Hood", Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

It’s "The Empire Strikes Back". C’mon, people. You shouldn’t even have to think about this.

John Williams: Star Wars (1972); E.T; Raiders Of The Lost Ark; Schindler’s List; Saving Private Ryan.
Hans Zimmer: Gladiator (2000); The Dark Knight & The Dark Knight Rises; Crimson Tide; The Last Samurai; Hannibal; The DaVinci Code; Interstellar.
James Horner: A Beautiful Mind; Braveheart; Enemy At The Gates; Legends Of The Fall.
John Addison: A Bridge Too Far.
Jerry Goldsmith: Alien (1979); Poltergeist; several Star Trek movies.
John Barry: Out Of Africa; Dances With Wolves; several James Bond movies; The Specialist.
Yann Tiersen: Am???lie.
Nicola Piovani: La Vita E Bella.
Michael Kamen: Band Of Brothers.
Vangelis: Blade Runner.
Klaus Doldinger: Das Boot.
Ennio Morricone: The Dollar Trilogy; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Once Upon A Time In The West.
Michael J. Lewis: Ffolkes (North Sea Hijack).
Rogier van Otterloo: Soldaat van Oranje (1977).
Nino Rota: The Godfather Trilogy.
Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman: The Last Of The Mohicans.
Howard Shore: The Silence Of The Lambs; The Lord Of The Rings & The Hobbit Trilogy’s
Thomas Newman: The Shawshank Redemption; Meet Joe Black.
Harold Faltermeyer: Top Gun.

Just pick one…. I can’t choose!

Do you know any that hans Zimmer didn’t do?

Just a few:
Jerry Goldsmith – The Prize; A Patch of Blue
Nino Rota – The Godfather; The Taming of the Shrew
John Williams – E.T.; Jaws; Superman; Raiders of the Lost Ark; Schindler’s List
Victor Young – Shane; Strategic Air Command; The Left Hand of God
Max Steiner – Gone With The Wind; A Summer Place
Franz Waxman – A Place In The Sun; Sunset Boulevard; Rebecca
Elmer Bernstein – To Kill A Mockingbird; Far From Heaven; By Love Possessed; From The Terrace
Alfred Newman – The Diary of Anne Frank; The Best Of Everything; The Robe; How Green Was My Valley
Hugo Friedhofer – The Best Years Of Our Lives
Miklos Rozsa – Ben-Hur; The V.I.P.’s; Ivanhoe
Gabriel Yared – Amelia; The English Patient; The Talented Mr. Ripley; Message In a Bottle; Sylvia; Autumn In New York
John Barry – Born Free; Dances With Wolves; Chaplin; Frances; James Bond Scores
Thomas Newman – The Road To Perdition; The Shawshank Redemption; Meet Joe Black
Bernard Herrmann – Vertigo; Psycho; North By Northwest
Johnny Green – Raintree County
Dimitri Tiomkin – Friendly Persuasion; The Sundowners; Giant
Alex North – Spartacus; Cleopatra; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Misfits
Ennio Morricone – Cinema Paradiso; Once Upon a Time In The West; Bugsy
Bronislau Kaper – Mutiny On the Bounty; Home From The Hill; Butterfield 8; Green Dolphin Street
Johnny Mandel – The Americanization of Emily; The Sandpiper
Andre Previn – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; Dead Ringer; Irma La Douce; Two For The Seesaw
George Duning – Picnic; Houseboat
Maurice Jarre – Lawrence of Arabia; Ryan’s Daughter
James Horner – A Beautiful Mind; Braveheart
Henry Mancini – Breakfast at Tiffany’s; Charade; Days of Wine and Roses

Just a few:
Jerry Goldsmith – The Prize; A Patch of Blue
Nino Rota – The Godfather; The Taming of the Shrew
John Williams – E.T.; Jaws; Superman; Raiders of the Lost Ark; Schindler’s List
Victor Young – Shane; Strategic Air Command; The Left Hand of God
Max Steiner – Gone With The Wind; A Summer Place
Franz Waxman – A Place In The Sun; Sunset Boulevard; Rebecca
Elmer Bernstein – To Kill A Mockingbird; Far From Heaven; By Love Possessed; From The Terrace
Alfred Newman – The Diary of Anne Frank; The Best Of Everything; The Robe; How Green Was My Valley
Hugo Friedhofer – The Best Years Of Our Lives
Miklos Rozsa – Ben-Hur; The V.I.P.’s; Ivanhoe
Gabriel Yared – Amelia; The English Patient; The Talented Mr. Ripley; Message In a Bottle; Sylvia; Autumn In New York
John Barry – Born Free; Dances With Wolves; Chaplin; Frances; James Bond Scores
Thomas Newman – The Road To Perdition; The Shawshank Redemption; Meet Joe Black
Bernard Herrmann – Vertigo; Psycho; North By Northwest
Johnny Green – Raintree County
Dimitri Tiomkin – Friendly Persuasion; The Sundowners; Giant
Alex North – Spartacus; Cleopatra; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Misfits
Ennio Morricone – Cinema Paradiso; Once Upon a Time In The West; Bugsy
Bronislau Kaper – Mutiny On the Bounty; Home From The Hill; Butterfield 8; Green Dolphin Street
Johnny Mandel – The Americanization of Emily; The Sandpiper
Andre Previn – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; Dead Ringer; Irma La Douce; Two For The Seesaw
George Duning – Picnic; Houseboat
Maurice Jarre – Lawrence of Arabia; Ryan’s Daughter
James Horner – A Beautiful Mind; Braveheart
Henry Mancini – Breakfast at Tiffany’s; Charade; Days of Wine and Roses

this is the list of someone whos listened to alot of music and who has also an excellent taste

or we just happen to have very similar tastes, eitherway 🙂

My list – I don’t know if BEST, but BELOVED for sure:

Morricone – Once Upon A Time In America, C’era Una Volta Il West, Tte Untouchables
Elmer Bernstein – The Age of Innocence, Far From Heaven (my beloved autumn score)
Barry – Body Heat, Out Of Africa, Dances With Wolves, Playing By Heart (also Americans, but it’s not the soundtrack)
Goldsmith – Under Fire, Chinatown, Russia House
Lorenc – 300 mil do nieba (300 Miles To Heaven), Psy 2. Ostatnia krew (Pigs 2. The Last Blood)
Kilar – Dracula, Portrait of a Lady
Williams – Schindler’s List, JFK (except atonal music), also "Seven Years in Tibet" theme is a masterpiece
Poledouris – Farewell To The King, Lonesome Dove, Les Miserables
Jerome Moross – The Big Country
Trevor Jones – Fields of Freedom
Conti – North & South, Book I (complete edition; the longest score I can listen over and over again)
Howard Shore – Looking For Richard
Rota – Il Gattopardo, The Godfather I & II (only Rota’s music, not Carmine Coppola’s)
Goldenthal – Michael Collins
Vangelis – 1492
Rozsa – Ben Hur
Sakamoto – The Last Emperor, Wuthering Heights.

Of course, that’s not all…

"The Empire Strikes Back". If I had a gun at my head, and somebody told me to take only one, and I had to flamethrower my many, many thousands of other scores, there wouldn’t even be a second’s worth of hesitation. It’s the greatest film score ever written.

All you people crack me up..almost nobody listens to anything from the Golden Age, probably because most of you are 20 somethings I would imagine.

I’m with you. Herrmann’s farts are more melodic than anything that’s come out of John Williams.

Top Top Scores of All Time:
3 by Bernard Herrmann
3 by Miklos Rozsa
3 by Victor Young
Ennio Morricone’s Once Upon a Time in the West

Nino Rota: The Godfather Trilogy

Korngold you mean

The Adventures of Robin Hood – Erich Gorngold

North By Northwest – Bernard Hermann

Star Wars – John Williams

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I’d say it must be Conan the Barbarian

1. Lord of the Rings
2. The Fountain
3. Star Wars
4. Blade Runner
5. K-19
6. Oblivion
7. One Upon a Time in the West
8. Gladiator
9. Gallipoli
10. Dark Knight trilogy

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
2. Star Wars
3. The Godfather Trilogy
4. Gladiator
5. Blade Runner
6. The Dark Knight Trilogy
7. Indiana Jones Trilogy
8. Once Upon A Time In The West and the Dollar Trilogy
9. Crimson Tide
10. Dances With Wolves
11. The Last Of The Mohicans
12. The Last Samurai
13. E.T.
14. The Shawshank Redemption
15. Meet Joe Black
16. Soldier Of Orange – Rogier van Otterloo (never released on CD)

😉

So you’ve heard them all?

So many good ones. Favourites… hard to say but theres a few that i play more often.

The Mission (morricone)
Cinema Paradiso (morricone)
In Bruges (burwell)
Star Wars (williams)
Amadeus
The Revenant (sakamoto)

John Scott – Anthony and Cleopatra

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Alex North – Under the Volcano

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Jerry Goldsmith – Chinatown

———- Post added at 05:25 PM ———- Previous post was at 05:25 PM ———-

Georges Delerue – Agnes of God

———- Post added at 05:25 PM ———- Previous post was at 05:25 PM ———-

John Williams – A.I.

Gravity!

1. Complete lord of the Rings
2. Blade Runner
3. Alien
4. Das Boot
5. Donnie Darko
6. Godzilla Ultimate Edition
7. Myst II: Riven
8. Species
9. The Stand
10. Star Gate
11. Dune
12. Star Trek Motion Picture

Braveheart
Jaws
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

My other personal favorites:
Gattaca
The Last of the Mohicans
The Lion King
The Crow
Dances with Wolves
Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves
The Mission (1986)
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Man of Steel
Gladiator
Too many others to name…..

Oh wow, it’s hard to really say, since there are so many different kinds of scores. You have grand orchestral works like John Williams, and the Golden Age folks like Alfred Newman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman and so on, or you have the electronically influenced works of the more modern era, or the minimalistic approach of folks like Desplat, or Philip Glass.

But a good summery can be:

Star Wars – John Williams (especially A New Hope, and Empire Strikes Back. Say what you will, but the music was always amazing)
Kundun – Philip Glass
The Hours – Philip Glass
John Williams’ multitude of collaborations with Steven Spielberg
Superman: The Movie – John Williams
Batman – Danny Elfman
Her – Arcade Fire
Gravity – Steven Price
The Queen – Alexandre Desplat
Gone with the Wind – Max Steiner
King Kong – Max Steiner
Bernard Herrmann’s scores for Alfred Hitchcock (The Trouble with Harry, The Wrong Man, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, Marnie)
Taxi Driver – Bernard Herrmann
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – Howard Shore
WALL-E – Thomas Newman
The Social Network – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

And many, MANY more….

1- The Empire Strikes Back
2- Star Trek: The Motion Picture
3- Psycho

(Runner-ups : Conan The Barbarian (Poledouris one), Superman : The movie (Williams), Blade Runner.

1. Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End – Hans Zimmer
2. Skyfall – Thomas Newman
3. Up – Michael Giacchino
4. Sherlock Holmes – Hans Zimmer
5. How To Train Your Dragon – John Powell

Star Wars – John Williams
The Lord of the Rings – Howard Shore
Batman – Danny Elfman
Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Jerry Goldsmith
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Nicholas Hooper

I’d say that it depends on my mood, but as for the classics, Steiner’s themes for The Adventures of Don Juan certainly are catchy (even if I first heard them in another film). For music that makes the movie, ooh boy, brace yourselves, I’ll say that, for a "feature-length toy commercial," Vince DiCola’s The Transformers: The Movie [from 1986, mind you] score made the film, well beside the rock songs in it… For under-appreciated, Reijiro Koroku’s score for The Return of Godzilla desperately needs mentioning, as it established my liking for non-mainstream soundtracks (its Americanized counterpart, Godzilla 1985, scared the daylights out of me as a kid at the beginning, whereas its ending made me cry, partially due to the interplay of the music with the action).

CONAN – BASIL POLEDOURIS

1. Back To The Future – Alan Silvestri
2. Star Trek (2009) – Michael Giacchino
3. The Lion King – Hans Zimmer

(honourable mentions – Blade Runner, Apollo 13, The Amazing Spider-Man)

I’m sure our answers always change but this is a great way to figure out our ages I’m sure 😉

1. Empire strikes back
2. Star Trek the Motion Picture
3. E.T.

personal ranking of Soundtrack (Casual Order)

1) Bullit (Lalo Schifrin)
2) Jaws (John Williams)
3) The Alamo (Dimitri Tiomkin)
4) 36 Hours (Dimitri Tiomkin)
5) El Cid & Ben Hur (Miklos Rozsa)
6) The Man With The Golden arm (Elmer Bernstein)
7) To Kill a Mockingbird (Elmer Bernstein)
8) QBVII & Masada (TV) Jerry Goldsmith
9) The Collector (Maurice Jarre)
10) How The West Was Won (Alfred Newman)
11) North By Northwest (Bernard Herrmann)
12) The Kentuckian (Bernard Herrmann)
13) Exodus (Ernest Gold)
14) Capricorn One (Jerry Goldsmith)
15) The Wrong Box (John Barry)
16) Under Fire (Jerry Goldsmith)
17) Divorzio all’Italiana & Sedotta e Abbandonata (Carlo Rustichelli)
18) Una Vita Difficile (Carlo Savina)
19) The Giant (Dimitri Tiomkin)
20) I Soliti Ignoti & L’Audace colpo dei Soliti Ignoti (Piero Umiliani)

I have a huge collection with extended score albums so let’s see the best ones. In alphabetical order;

25th Hour (2002, Terence Blanchard)
An Affair to Remember (1957, Hugo Friedhofer, Harry Warren)
The Alamo (1960, Dimitri Tiomkin)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007, Nick Cave & Warren Ellis)
Amelie (2001, Yann Tiersen)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959, Duke Ellington)
Back to the Future Trilogy (1985-1990, Alan Silvestri)
Batman Returns (1992, Danny Elfman)
The Dark Knight (2008, Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard)
Ben-Hur (1959, Miklos Rozsa)
Benny & Joon (1993, Rachel Portman)
The Betsy (1978, John Barry)
The Beyond (1981, Fabio Frizzi)
Blade Runner (1982, Vangelis)
Blood In Blood Out: Bound by Honor (1993, Bill Conti)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992, Wojciech Kilar)
Braveheart (1995, James Horner)
Candyman (1992, Philip Glass)
Canone Inverso – Making Love (2000, Ennio Morricone)
The Chorus (2004, Bruno Coulais)
El Cid (1961, Miklos Rozsa)
The Cincinnati Kid (1965, Lalo Schifrin)
Cinema Paradiso (1988, Ennio Morricone)
City Lights (1931, Charlie Chaplin)
Crimes of the Heart (1986, Georges Delerue)
The Crow (1994, Graeme Revell)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, Bernard Herrmann)
Deep Red (1975, Goblin)
Delicatessen (1991, Carlos D’Alessio)
Don’t Look Now (1973, Pino Donaggio)
The Double Life of V???ronique (1991, Zbigniew Preisner)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982, John Williams)
Edward Scissorhands (1990, Danny Elfman)
The Elephant Man (1980, John Morris)
The English Patient (1996, Gabriel Yared)
The Fifth Element (1997, Eric Serra)
A Fish Called Wanda (1988, John Du Prez)
For A Few Dollars More (1965, Ennio Morricone)
Gladiator (2000, Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard)
Gods and Monsters (1998, Carter Burwell)
Gloomy Sunday – A Song of Love and Death (1999, Rezso Seress arr. Detlef Friedrich Petersen)
The Godfather Trilogy (1972-1991, Nino Rota & Carmine Coppola)
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (1966, Ennio Morricone)
The Graduate (Simon & Garfunkel, Dave Grusin)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014, Alexandre Desplat)
The Great Escape (1963, Elmer Bernstein)
The Great Silence (1968, Ennio Morricone)
Halloween I-II (1978-1981, John Carpenter)
Hanover Street (1979, John Barry)
Hellbenders (1967, Ennio Morricone)
Hellraiser (1987, Christopher Young)
JFK (1991, John Williams)
Highlander (1986, Michael Kamen & Queen)
Ilona Arrives with the Rain (1996, Luis Bacalov)
In Bruges (2008, Carter Burwell)
Stephen King’s IT (1990, Richard Bellis)
Le Jaguar (1996, Vladimir Cosma)
Jurassic Park (1993, John Williams)
The Kid (1921, Charlie Chaplin 1971)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989, Joe Hisaishi)
The King and the Mockingbird (1980, Wojciech Kilar)
King of Kings (1961, Miklos Rozsa)
La Belle et La Bete (1946, Philip Glass arr. 1994)
La Ragazza dalla Pelle di Luna (1972, Piero Umiliani)
La Strada (1954, Nino Rota)
Lady of the Camelias (1981, Ennio Morricone)
The Last of the Mohicans (1992, Trevor Jones, Randy Edelman)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988, Peter Gabriel)
Laura (1944, David Raksin)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962, Maurice Jarre)
The Legend of 1900 (1998, Ennio Morricone)
L???on (1994, Eric Serra)
Lethal Weapon (1987, Michael Kamen, Eric Clapton, and David Sanborn)
Lieutenant Kij??? (1934, Sergei Prokofiev)
The Light Touch (1952, Miklos Rozsa)
A Little Romance (1979, Georges Delerue)
Lola (1981, Peer Raben)
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003, Howard Shore)
Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955, Alfred Newman)
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973, Vladimir Cosma)
Madame Bovary (1949, Miklos Rozsa)
Man, Woman and Child (1983, Georges Delerue)
Marnie (1964, Bernard Herrmann)
The Mercenary (1968, Ennio Morricone)
The Message (1977, Maurice Jarre)
Miller’s Crossing (1990, Carter Burwell)
The Mission (1986, Ennio Morricone)
Mouvements du Desir (1994, Zbigniew Preisner)
The Mummy (1999, Jerry Goldsmith)
National Treasure (2004, Trevor Rabin)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993, Danny Elfman)
Nights of Cabiria (1957, Nino Rota)
North By Northwest (1959, Bernard Herrmann)
Oldboy (2003, Yeong-wook Jo)
The Omen (1976, Jerry Goldsmith)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984, Ennio Morricone)
Once Upon a Time in The West (1968, Ennio Morricone)
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013, SQ???RL, Jozef van Wissem, Yasmine Hamdan, Wanda Jackson 1961)
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006, Javier Navarrete)
Papillon (1973, Jerry Goldsmith)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006, Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil)
Phenomena (1985, Goblin)
Photographing Fairies (1997, Simon Boswell)
The Piano (1993, Michael Nyman)
The Pink Panther series (1963-1993, Henry Mancini)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003, Klaus Badelt)
The Pledge (2001, Hans Zimmer & Klaus Badelt)
Police Academy (1984, Robert Folk, Jean Marc Dompierre)
The Portrait of a Lady (1996, Wojciech Kilar)
Psycho (1960, Bernard Herrmann)
Quartiere (1987, Ennio Morricone)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, John Williams)
The Rock (1996, Hans Zimmer & Nick Glennie-Smith)
Rocky I-IV (1976-1985, Bill Conti; Survivor; Vince DiCola)
Romeo & Juliet (1968, Nino Rota)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968, Krzysztof Komeda)
The Rover (1967, Ennio Morricone)
Scarface (1983, Giorgio Moroder)
Schindler’s List (1993, John Williams)
Scott of the Antarctic (1948, Ralph Vaughan)
Seabiscuit (2003, Randy Newman)
The Secret (1974, Ennio Morricone)
Seduced and Abandoned (1964, Carlo Rustichelli)
Senso ’45 a.k.a. Black Angel (2002, Ennio Morricone)
Shane (1953, Victor Young)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994, Thomas Newman)
Since You Went Away (1944, Max Steiner)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008, A.R. Rahman)
Sodom and Gomorrah (1962, Miklos Rozsa)
Somewhere in Time (1980, John Barry)
The Snowman (1982, Howard Blake)
Spartacus (1960, Alex North)
Spellbound (1945, Miklos Rozsa)
Star Wars – Episode IV – III (1977-2005)
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971, Nora Orlandi)
Subway (1985, Eric Serra)
Superman (1978, John Williams)
Szamanka (1996, Andrzej Korzynski)
The Tall Men (1955, Victor Young)
Tammy and the Bachelor (1957, Jay Livingston)
Taxi Driver (1976, Bernard Herrmann)
The Terminator (1984, Brad Fiedel)
Tess (1979, Philippe Sarde)
The Third Man (1949, Anton Karas)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968, Michel Legrand)
Three Colors Trilogy (1993-1994, Zbigniew Preisner)
Titanic (1997, James Horner)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, Elmer Bernstein)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948, Max Steiner)
Troy (2004, James Horner)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, Michel Legrand)
The Untouchables (1987, Ennio Morricone)
Uranya (2006, Panagiotis Kalatzopoulos)
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1973, Lubos Fiser)
Vampyros Lesbos (1971, Manfred H???bler, Siegfried Schwab)
The Venetian Affair (1967, Lalo Schifrin)
Vengo (2000, Jose Fernandez, Dionysis Tsaknis, Gritos de Guerra, Ramon Pisa Borja, Emilio Fernandez de los Santos, Tomatito, Sheik Achmed Al Tuni, Tony Gatlif, Kudsi Erguner, Group Jose, Mohamed Hamza, Balighe Hanuli)
Vertigo (1958, Bernard Herrmann)
Veruschka (1971, Ennio Morricone)
White Dog (1982, Ennio Morricone)
Who Can Kill a Child (1976, Waldo De Los Rios)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, Alan Silvestri)
The Wild Bunch (1969, Jerry Fielding)
Without Apparent Motive (1971, Ennio Morricone)
The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967, Michel Legrand)

Some great single themes:

1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992, Vangelis)
The Blues Brothers (1980, Henry Mancini)
From Russia with Love (1963, John Barry)
Goldfinger (1964, John Barry)
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969, John Barry)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961, Henry Mancini)
Bullets Don’t Argue (1964, Ennio Morricone)
Casablanca (1942, Max Steiner)
Castle in the Sky (1986, Joe Hisaishi)
Dead Men Ride (1971, Bruno Nicolai)
The Deer Hunter (1978, Stanley Myers)
Emmanuelle (1974, Pierre Bachelet)
Eternity and a Day (1998, Eleni Karaindrou)
Exodus (1960, Ernest Gold)
Funeral in Berlin (1966, Konrad Elfers)
Gone with the Wind (1939, Max Steiner)
High Noon (1952, Dimitri Tiomkin)
Un Homme et Une Femme (1966, Francis Lai)
Jaws (1975, John Williams)
Johnny Guitar (1954, Victor Young)
Levy and Goliath (1987, Vladimir Cosma)
Limelight (1952, Charlie Chaplin)
Love Story (1970, Francis Lai)
Maddalena (1971, Ennio Morricone)
Modern Times (1936, Charlie Chaplin)
Requiem for a Dream (2000, Clint Mansell)
A Slightly Pregnant Man (1973, Michel Legrand)
Therese Desqueyroux (1962, Maurice Jarre)
The Wizard of Oz (1939, Harold Arlen, Herbert Stothart)
Zorba The Greek (1964, Mikis Theodorakis)

P.S.: I eliminated non-original film scores (like Amadeus).

Bridge Of Spies – Thomas Newman
Captain America: Civil War – Henry Jackman
Coco – Michael Giacchino
Dunkirk – Hans Zimmer
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them – James Newton Howard
Gladiator – Hans Zimmer
How To Train Your Dragon / 2 – John Powell
Interstellar – Hans Zimmer
Pirates Of The Caribbean Series – Hans Zimmer & Geoff Zanelli
Skyfall & Spectre – Thomas Newman
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – John Williams
The Avengers – Alan Silvestri
The Dark Knight – Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. – Daniel Pemberton
Up – Michael Giacchino

Hi,

In no particular order, my list:

1) King Kong : Max Steiner (1933)
2) Blade Runner : Vangelis (1982)
3) Vertigo : Bernard Herrmann (1958)
4) Ben-Hur : Mikl???s R???zsa (1959)
5) The Bridge on the River Kwai : Malcolm Arnold (1957)
6) Conan the Barbarian : Basil Poledouris (1982)

To name a few….

In no particular order:
– Star Wars – in particular "Imperial March" from "Empire Strikes Back", but the main ones are all great
– Superman
– Mission Impossible
– Requiem For A Dream
– The Fountain
– Cinema Paradiso (Yo-Yo Ma version)
– Chariots of Fire
– The Piano
– Raiders of the Lost Ark
– Tron
– Yumeji’s Theme (Theme from "In the Mood for Love")

Interstellar is my absolute favourite of all time
LOTR
Star Wars (Excellent for the movies and games, not really one I listen to by itself)

My Favorites are "The Last Run " by Jerry Goldsmith, "The Alamo" by Dimitri Tiomkin, "Death Rides A Horse" by Ennio Morricone.