Greatest movie scores

[vandermolen]

There is already a film (movie) thread (started by me) however, I thought that it was now time for a 'greatest' movie score thread. So, what are your six greatest/most memorable scores?

Here are mine, not in any order:

Prokofiev: 'Ivan the Terrible', his score for Eisenstein's famous film. I prefer Prokofiev's score for 'Ivan the Terrible' to the more famous one for 'Alexander Nevsky'

Bernard Herrmann: 'North by Northwest' ('The Ghost and Mrs Muir' was Herrmann's own favourite and a wonderful score too).

Miklos Rozsa: 'Ben Hur' (ok, mawkish in places but containing some terrific episodes, including 'The Burning Desert' and the famous galley slave sequence).

Franz Waxman: 'Rebecca' (conveys romance and looming threat at the same time)

Jerry Goldsmith 'Alien' (chilling)

Alan Rawsthorne: 'The Cruel Sea' (terrific representation of the sea and the hopes and fears of the wartime crew)

Just realised that I couldn't possibly leave out Walton's 'Henry V' so you are allowed one extra choice too 


You may prefer much more modern scores!

[North Star]

Herrmann: Psycho, Vertigo
Takemitsu: Ran
Masaru Satô: Yojinbo
a Finnish classic: Osmo Lindeman: Inspector Palmu's Error (1960)

[bhodges]

Herrmann: Vertigo
Rota: Il Gattopardo
Rota: Rocco e i suoi fratelli
Goldsmith: Chinatown
Bernstein: On the Waterfront
Williams: Minority Report

--Bruce

[AnthonyAthletic]

Rota : The Godfather
Williams : Schindlers List
Horner : Braveheart
Steiner : King Kong
Morricone : The Mission. For a Few...., TG, TB & TU
Nyman : The Piano (Really didn't like the movie, but the score was a gem of a listen)

[vandermolen]

Thank you for responses ( this is already 300% more successful than my Ernest Pingoud thread  )

'On the Waterfront' is a terrific score and I nearly selected it myself (Bernstein's only movie score I think). Takemitsu is also a very interesting choice and I need to be more familiar with his music. I probably should also have selected 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Elmer Bernstein.

[vandermolen]

Rota : The Godfather
Williams : Schindlers List
Horner : Braveheart
Steiner : King Kong
Morricone : The Mission. For a Few...., TG, TB & TU
Nyman : The Piano (Really didn't like the movie, but the score was a gem of a listen)

'Braveheart' is a favourite of mine too.

[AnthonyAthletic]

'Braveheart' is a favourite of mine too.

Yep, its a really perfect score for a Scottish/Highland/Kill the English movie...great lyrical lush, full of marvellous themes.  Williams' Schindler is really a heartbreaking sorrowful score, nobody can match the sheer emotion raised by Perlman in the famous theme with orchestra.

Some great music out there on the big screen.  I also like the scores to Enemy at the Gates (very Shostakovich in parts), Independence Day is pretty powerful stuff and mentioned before Alien is awesome, the quietness and the alone without escape is captured marvellously.

[bhodges]

I only saw Ran once - loved it - and recall liking the score, but would have to revisit. Almost chose Alien, too.

And Osmo Lindeman is an off-the-radar choice - don't know him or the film at all!

--Bruce

[Moonfish]

Howard Shore's compositions for the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Fellowship, Towers and Return). The complete recordings.
Very, eh, Wagneresque in its approach... 

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[North Star]

I only saw Ran once - loved it - and recall liking the score, but would have to revisit. Almost chose Alien, too.

And Osmo Lindeman is an off-the-radar choice - don't know him or the film at all!

--Bruce

I've seen Ran just once too, so far (last fall or summer)

I don't know Lindeman outside the Palmu either, but the movie is widely considered to be the best Finnish movie ever made, despite of it's oblivion elsewhere in the world - Criterion should release it..

[Todd]

I can't say the these are the greatest movie scores, but the scores fit well with the movies, and in some cases are better than the movies.

Rota: The Godfather
Poledouris: Conan the Barbarian
Carpenter: Halloween
Morricone: The Thing
Arnold: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Hermann: North by Northwest

[Moonfish]

I was also awed by Philip Glass' soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi . It is possible that the music needs the accompanying images to be effective...

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[vandermolen]

I can't say the these are the greatest movie scores, but the scores fit well with the movies, and in some cases are better than the movies.

Rota: The Godfather
Poledouris: Conan the Barbarian
Carpenter: Halloween
Morricone: The Thing
Arnold: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Hermann: North by Northwest

Actually I think that the Conan score is a great one and I have seen it compared ( in the sadly long defunct Gramophone Film Music Guide), appropriately I think with Prokofiev's and Einstein's collaboration on Alexander Nevsky. A rather expensive but excellent two CD complete edition came out a while back.

Also rating very high in my estimation is Philip Glass's score 'Kundun', one of my favourite works by that composer:
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[jochanaan]

Sergei Prokofieff: Alexander Nevsky
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Adventures of Robin Hood
Alfred Newman: The Robe
Jerry Goldsmith: Logan's Run
Philip Glass: Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi
Peter Best: Crocodile Dundee (surprisingly effective and hypnotic)
James Horner: Willow
Angelo Badalamenti: Mulholland Dr.
John Williams: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

And I'm surprised I'm the first to mention the Star Wars series!  The 1977 original in particular is a masterful score, still effective even after being overplayed and overplayed again.

Special mention for a "musical" score: Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story.

And I deliberately did not include any Kubrick films, since Stanley mostly used previously written and recorded material--although I really should at least mention A Clockwork Orange for Walter/Wendy Carlos' work.

[mc ukrneal]

Williams: Schindler's List and Star Wars
Menken/Ashman: Beauty and the Beast (though everything they did together was pretty brilliant)
Korngold: Robin Hood
Goldsmith: the Omen (not that I would want to listen to it separately, but it makes the movie tick)
Barry: Dances with Wolves (perhaps this is more than you want to know! )
Corigliano: Red Violin (what a good movie - love the idea)

I'm sure there are more, if I could just remember them.

[Brian]

Many of the best have already been mentioned! If I limit myself to scores which have not been mentioned, three still spring to mind immediately:

Michael Giacchino, Up - the music is essential to the emotional weight of the film
John Morris, Young Frankenstein - likewise but even more so; it's no exaggeration to say that with a different soundtrack, Young Frankenstein simply would not have been the memorable classic that it is.
Charlie Chaplin, the entire Charlie Chaplin oeuvre - I remember watching my first Chaplin and thinking, "Wow, which brilliant composer did he hire to write this extraordinary, sophisticated music?" and then being shocked to discover the music was his own. More than anything, that tipped my view of Chaplin from pleasure to sheer awe.

[vandermolen]

Williams: Schindler's List and Star Wars
Menken/Ashman: Beauty and the Beast (though everything they did together was pretty brilliant)
Korngold: Robin Hood
Goldsmith: the Omen (not that I would want to listen to it separately, but it makes the movie tick)
Barry: Dances with Wolves (perhaps this is more than you want to know! )
Corigliano: Red Violin (what a good movie - love the idea)

I'm sure there are more, if I could just remember them.

Very much agree about the Menken/Ashman score, especially the music accompanying the Beast's transformation back into the Prince at the end. Also Goldsmith's 'The Omen' score. The 'Black Mass' for the sequel is also very good.

[EigenUser]

I'm not a movie person, but I love Hitchcock. Almost any scores from his films are outstanding. My favorites are
-Hermann's "North by Northwest", "Psycho", and "Vertigo"
-Tiomkin's "Dial 'M' for Murder"

[ritter]

I'm not much of a movie perosn either, but there are some soundtracks I quite admire:

- Georges Auric's score for Cocteau's La Belle et la bête...
- Thomas Newman's Angels in America (OK, it's TV, but it's a masterpiece)
- Ennio Morriccone's Once upon a time in America and The Mission
- Nino Rota's Amarcord

[vandermolen]

I'm not much of a movie perosn either, but there are some soundtracks I quite admire:

- Georges Auric's score for Cocteau's La Belle et la bête...
- Thomas Newman's Angels in America (OK, it's TV, but it's a masterpiece)
- Ennio Morriccone's Once upon a time in America and The Mission
- Nino Rota's Amarcord

The Auric is a wonderful score and thank you for mentioning it. My own favourites are for mostly 'classic' old films, but I certainly appreciate John Williams's 'Star Wars', 'Schindler's List' and indeed 'Saving Private Ryan'. I loved The Lord of the Rings trilogy but I do have my doubts about Howard Shore's score. There are great moments such as 'The Mines of Moria and 'The White Tree' (if they are the right names) but I once read a critic who described the score as 'barely adequate' and I do not totally disagree. Having said that my wife loves the music and we have the three CD set.