Favourite composer?

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Okay, we've had favourite score, how about favourite composer?

A few of mine include:

Alan Silvestri
Bill Conti
John Williams

I've got albums by all of them, and they're great .



my fave movie score composers are:

david newman; especially for don't tell mom the babysitter's dead and heathers

thomas newman; especially for pay it forward, american beauty and the player



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Are they brothers or is it just a coincidence?



they are brothers, according to imdb.com.




Hans Zimmer, particularly for his work on THE THIN RED LINE.

Jon Brion just for MAGNOLIA (I know I'm obsessed...)

and of course, John Williams

I'll think of more later, I'm sure



James Newton Howard, whose credits include:
  • Unbreakable (my goodness...amazing).
  • The Sixth Sense
  • Dinosaur
  • My Best Friend's Wedding

  • Space Jam
  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire
  • Outbreak
  • Pretty Woman

  • The Fugitive
  • Runaway Bride
  • Vertical Limit
  • A Perfect Murder
Those are just some of the highlights. He's contributed to roughly 90 films.



Man You forgot Junior (1994), & Waterworld (1995) TWTCommish two very well done scores. I am a score -a -holic. I collect them like crazy.

Here my favorites (And yes I have tons of their work all full and complete on audio and mp3!) :P

Jerry Goldsmith (the 'burbs, dennis the menace, alien)
Howard Shore (the fly)
Danny Elfman (Beetlejice, Batman 1+2, Pee Wee Films)
James Newton Howard (junior)
Randy Edelman (the mask (1994) was awesome)
John Debney (hocus pocus)
Michael Kamen (the die hard series)
Alan Silvestri (predator - the ultimate in my book)
John Williams (home alone 1+2, star wars, jurassic park 1+2)
James Horner (Legends of the fall!)
Marc Shaiman (the addams family films)
Randy Newman (toy story 1+2, meet the parents, three amigos!)
David Newman (Heathers Is The Best!)
Brad Fiedel (true lies, terminator 1+2)
Elliot Goldenthal (interview with the vampire, pet sematary)
John Carpenter (halloween, escape from l.a.)
John Ottman (the cable guy was an awesome score)
Joseph LoDuca (the evil dead)
Alan Menken (little mermaid)
Graeme Revell (the crow, from dusk til dawn)




Oh yeah, definitely Elfman. The dude has done the score for...uh...every movie ever made. His song "What's This" (which I heard he sang himself) in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is one of the best original songs I've ever heard.



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oh come on! how can you ignore James Horner as the worlds greatest movie music composer! his music more than often makes me cry.



My Top 5 Film Composers & two scores I lovedIn No Order)

ELMER BERNSTEIN: The Magnificent 7 & The Great Escape
DANNY ELFMAN: Beetlejuice & Batman
JOHN WILLIAMS: Star Wars & Superman
QUINCY JONES: The Getaway(original) & The Italian Job
JERRY GOLDSMITH: Planet Of The Apes(original) & Twilight Zone
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Danny Elfman. Hands down. Think Pee Wee.



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1956 The Searchers
1949 White Heat
1948 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
1948 Key Largo
1946 The Big Sleep
1945 Mildred Pierce
1942 Casablanca
1939 Stagecoach
1939 Gone With the Wind
1938 Jezebel
1937 A Star is Born
1937 Lost Horizon
1935 The Informer
1935 Top Hat
1933 King Kong

Best Score (nom) The Charge of the Light Brigade 1936 Academy
Best Score (nom) The Life of Emile Zola 1938 Academy
Best Score (nom) Jezebel 1938 Academy
Best Score (nom) Gone With the Wind 1939 Academy
Best Score (nom) Dark Victory 1939 Academy
Best Score (nom) The Letter 1940 Academy
Best Score (nom) Sergeant York 1941 Academy
Best Score (win) Now, Voyager 1942 Academy
Best Score (nom) Casablanca 1943 Academy
Best Score (nom) The Adventures of Mark Twain 1944 Academy
Best Score (win) Since You Went Away 1944 Academy
Best Score (nom) Rhapsody in Blue 1945 Academy
Best Score (nom) Night and Day 1946 Academy
Best Score (nom) Life with Father 1947 Academy
Best Score (nom) My Wild Irish Rose 1947 Academy
Best Score (nom) Johnny Belinda 1948 Academy
Musical Comment (win) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 Venice Film Festival
Best Score (nom) Beyond the Forest 1949 Academy
Best Score (nom) The Flame and the Arrow 1950 Academy
Best Score (nom) The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima 1952 Academy
Best Score (nom) The Jazz Singer 1952 Academy
Best Score (nom) The Caine Mutiny 1954 Academy
Best Score (nom) Battle Cry 1955 Academy


Needless to say the best there ever was
John Williams is second



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My above post was for Max Steiner



Join the academy.



During my second year at Uni I befriended a Prospective film music composer. What he told me was that the greatest scores not only add emotion, tension etc to the scene but can stand alone as a piece of music. Therefore I nominate Joe Hisaishi as my favourite composer. He is a man who has worked within the Japanese film industry for over a decade, and is held in high regard in his native land, while over in the States he is building his reputation, with his fine scores for Princess Mononoke and more recently Brother. Watch any Takeshi Kitano film after Boiling Point (It has no music!) and sample the delights of Hisaishi's haunting melancholic scores, that will stay with you long after the film.
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First and foremost, Bernard Herrmann.
From Citizen Kane to The Day the Earth Stood Still to Vertigo, North By Northwest and Psycho to Cape Fear to The Bride Wore Black to Taxi Driver, he's the Master in my mind.

Many other favorites of course, including...
  • Ennio Morricone
    A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad & the Ugly, Once Upon A Time in the West, 1900, The Untouchables
  • Henry Mancini
    Creature from the Black Lagoon, Touch of Evil, "Peter Gunn", Hatari!, The Pink Panther, Victor/Victoria
  • David Raskin
    Laura, Force of Evil, The Bad and the Beautiful, A Big Hand for a Little Lady
  • Alfred Newman
    Gunga Din, Only Angels Have Wings, Foreign Correspondent, The Snake Pit, Unfaithfully Yours, The Gunfighter, How the West Was Won
  • Lalo Schifrin
    "Mission: Impossible", The Cincinnati Kid, Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt, Dirty Harry, Charley Varrick, Rush Hour
  • Jerry Goldsmith
    Chinatown, The Omen, Alien, L.A. Confidential
  • Vangelis
    BladeRunner, Chariots of Fire, Missing, Bitter Moon
  • Ry Cooder
    The Long Riders, Southern Comfort, Crossroads, Johnny Handsome
  • Carter Burwell
    Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, The Spanish Prisoner, Being John Malkovich
  • Patrick Doyle
    Henry V, Dead Again, Carlito's Way, Donnie Brasco, Hamlet

and on and on and on....




Totally agree Holden, but, what about Ry Cooders score for Paris, Texas, not just his best work but surely a contender for best score of all time?! For comedy value Schiffrin's Enter the Dragon score is fantastic. WAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!



I ain't gettin' in no fryer!
I would have to say

Danny Elfman
James Horner
Hans Zimmer
Randy Newman
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"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg



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My favorite is John Williams.