Listmania: the 250 top film music composers (part 1)
[If you read this post yesterday, you found 111 composers here. I did a lot of research today and came up with a list of more or less EVERY film composer there is, which are 250 persons. I divided them into 5 groups, the last one being the boring ones and will upload these Thursday/Friday/Saturday. And as a special bonus there will be an additional 50 composers, who are more or less "one-hit-wonders". These will be presented on Sunday.]
Today: the 50 absolutely best. After the composers you find a score most representative of their work. This is really difficult with someone like Goldsmith as he composed so much great music, but the rule is just 1 score for each composer.
I'm starting with the top 5 (group 1). Each of these has among his works more quality tracks than any other film composer (at least to my subjective taste).
Goldsmith, Jerry - The Wind and the Lion (1975)
Kilar, Wojciech - Dracula (1992)
Morricone, Ennio - The Untouchables (1987)
Schifrin, Lalo - Enter the Dragon (1973)
Williams, John - Star Wars (1977)
And now the 45 next best (group 2). You can listen to every score of these composers, too, without wasting much time.
Angelis, Guido and Maurizio de - Piu forte, ragazzi ! (1972)
Barry, John - The Last Valley (1971)
Bernstein, Elmer - The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Budd, Roy - The Wild Geese (1978)
Chaplin, Charles - Modern Times (1936)
Conti, Bill - Rocky (1976)
Copland, Aaron - The Red Pony (1949)
Davis, Carl - Hollywood (TV) (1980)
Delerue, Georges - La revolution francaise (1989)
Doyle, Patrick - Henry V (1989)
Elfman, Danny - The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Fenton, George - Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Fielding, Jerry - The Gauntlet (1977)
Fried, Gerald - The Mystic Warrior (1984)
Frontiere, Dominic - The Stunt Man (1980)
Glass, Phillip - Powaqqatsi (1988)
Goodwin, Ron - Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Grainer, Ron - The Omega Man (1971)
Gray, Barry - Thunderbirds (TV) (1965)
Hamlisch, Marvin - The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Hefti, Neal - Duel at Diablo (1966)
Herrmann, Bernard - The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Horner, James - Krull (1983)
Ifukube, Akira - Godzilla (1954)
Jarre, Maurice - The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Jones, Quincy - They Call Me Mister Tibbs (1970)
Legrand, Michel - Summer of '42 (1971)
Mancini, Henry - The White Dawn (1974)
Nascimbene, Mario - The Vikings (1958)
Newman, Alfred - How the West Was Won (1962)
North, Alex - Cleopatra (1963)
Nyman, Michael - The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)
Poledouris, Basil - Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Prokofiev, Sergej - Ivan the Terrible (1944)
Rosenman, Leonard - The Lord of the Rings (1978)
Rota, Nino - The Godfather (1972)
Rózsa, Miklós - Ben-Hur (1959)
Sarde, Philippe - The Lord of the Flies (1990)
Shire, David - The Conversation (1974)
Shostakovich, Dimitri - The Fall of Berlin (1949)
Theodorakis, Mikis - State of Siege (1972)
Tiomkin, Dimitri - The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
Vol, Frank de - The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Waxman, Franz - Taras Bulba (1962)
Zimmer, Hans - The Rock (1996)
Tomorrow: the 50 next best. Still good composers, but not as much quality among their works. Wait and see !
Today: the 50 absolutely best. After the composers you find a score most representative of their work. This is really difficult with someone like Goldsmith as he composed so much great music, but the rule is just 1 score for each composer.
I'm starting with the top 5 (group 1). Each of these has among his works more quality tracks than any other film composer (at least to my subjective taste).
Goldsmith, Jerry - The Wind and the Lion (1975)
Kilar, Wojciech - Dracula (1992)
Morricone, Ennio - The Untouchables (1987)
Schifrin, Lalo - Enter the Dragon (1973)
Williams, John - Star Wars (1977)
And now the 45 next best (group 2). You can listen to every score of these composers, too, without wasting much time.
Angelis, Guido and Maurizio de - Piu forte, ragazzi ! (1972)
Barry, John - The Last Valley (1971)
Bernstein, Elmer - The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Budd, Roy - The Wild Geese (1978)
Chaplin, Charles - Modern Times (1936)
Conti, Bill - Rocky (1976)
Copland, Aaron - The Red Pony (1949)
Davis, Carl - Hollywood (TV) (1980)
Delerue, Georges - La revolution francaise (1989)
Doyle, Patrick - Henry V (1989)
Elfman, Danny - The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Fenton, George - Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Fielding, Jerry - The Gauntlet (1977)
Fried, Gerald - The Mystic Warrior (1984)
Frontiere, Dominic - The Stunt Man (1980)
Glass, Phillip - Powaqqatsi (1988)
Goodwin, Ron - Where Eagles Dare (1968)
Grainer, Ron - The Omega Man (1971)
Gray, Barry - Thunderbirds (TV) (1965)
Hamlisch, Marvin - The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Hefti, Neal - Duel at Diablo (1966)
Herrmann, Bernard - The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Horner, James - Krull (1983)
Ifukube, Akira - Godzilla (1954)
Jarre, Maurice - The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Jones, Quincy - They Call Me Mister Tibbs (1970)
Legrand, Michel - Summer of '42 (1971)
Mancini, Henry - The White Dawn (1974)
Nascimbene, Mario - The Vikings (1958)
Newman, Alfred - How the West Was Won (1962)
North, Alex - Cleopatra (1963)
Nyman, Michael - The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989)
Poledouris, Basil - Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Prokofiev, Sergej - Ivan the Terrible (1944)
Rosenman, Leonard - The Lord of the Rings (1978)
Rota, Nino - The Godfather (1972)
Rózsa, Miklós - Ben-Hur (1959)
Sarde, Philippe - The Lord of the Flies (1990)
Shire, David - The Conversation (1974)
Shostakovich, Dimitri - The Fall of Berlin (1949)
Theodorakis, Mikis - State of Siege (1972)
Tiomkin, Dimitri - The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
Vol, Frank de - The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Waxman, Franz - Taras Bulba (1962)
Zimmer, Hans - The Rock (1996)
Tomorrow: the 50 next best. Still good composers, but not as much quality among their works. Wait and see !
posted by Omega at 11:53 AM
5 Comments:
Interesting list.
One modern composer that I like very much is David Julyan. While I concede much of his material sounds similar, I think he has the potential to do some great work in the future.
Also, how do you feel about Clint Mansell?
Though it is a very well-made list, I think, but it's unbelievable they are not in the one.
Toru Takemitsu and Francois De Roubaix.
I'd recommend Ron Goodwin on that list. I've listened to several of his scores without having seen the actual movies. I'd recommend "Operation Crossbow"
As for Marco Beltrami, might I recommend "I Am Dina" It's a lot different than most of his other scores. I really like it.
I'll just go with tracks, just because:
John Powell ("The Mall Chase" - EVOLUTION)
David Newman ("Escaping the Island" - THE PHANTOM)
Joel McNeely ("Cadillac Freefall" - TERMINAL VELOCITY)
Harry Gregson-Williams ("Whip Fight" - THE RUNDOWN)
Dario Marianelli ("God is in the Rain" - official cue title: "Evey Reborn" - V FOR VENDETTA)
Shirley Walker ("Ski Mask Vigilante" - BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM)
James Newton Howard ("They're Coming" - OUTBREAK)
You overlooked Elliot Goldenthal in my opinion. I think Michael Collins, Titus, Heat, the last 2 Batmans, The Butcher Boy, Alien3, FF: Spirits Within etc are much better than...The Rock(???)(IMHO)
However great list so far, I totally agree with the Top 5!
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