John Powell’s Top 100 Film Scores

[Holko 9,499]

Still in the finno-ugric family then at least.

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

On 5/9/2021 at 10:11 AM, Aenae said:

Ops, Rózsa's name was misspelled that's why I missed that one. No Michel Legrand and some others either though.

 

I guess it's a list of personal preferences, not a list of the greatest film composers.

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Yeah, if I had to list my top 100 favourite film scores, it would mostly be populated with contemporary composer's scores because I haven't had a chance to explore the Golden Hollywood scores yet.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

Exactly mine would be 80 Williams, 15 Goldmith and some Horner, Morricone and Herrmann's one to complete. Now it's doesn't mean that I'm forgetting about the other great composers just that those score are my favourite regardless of their actual quality or innovation they did bring.

I'll go further by saying that I'm quite sure this list doesn't really represent his actual 100 favourites scores but the largest variety possible among his favourites. It's more classy to present a list like that than the entire Williams filmography for exemple, plus it makes one looks more cultivate.

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

11 minutes ago, May the Force be with You said:

Now it's doesn't mean that I'm forgetting about the other great composers

 

Yeah, but they're all dead.

[Aenae 41]

We differ so greatly in opinion. Why would one be so redundant and list Williams entire filmography? I'd be surprised if Williams had more than a few entries in my top 100 since there are many other composers that need to be included in order to cover the entirety of what the best that film music has to offer. There's Hugo Friedhofer and David Raksin, another two important names left out entirely by Powell...

 

But then again, I consider myself familiar enough with almost all eras of film music. Relatively few of my own choices for a top 100 list would have been scores written in the last few decades as I consider the 1950s and 1960s to be the best era of film music.

 

I do think that this list of his is just his personal favourites; I doubt that this is a list in attempt to look more cultured since it excludes so many important film composers and landmark scores.

[Fabulin 3,510]

2 minutes ago, Aenae said:

We differ so greatly in opinion. Why one would be so redundant and list Williams entire filmography? I'd be surprised if Williams had more than a few entries in my top 100 since there are many other composers that need to be included in order to cover the entirety of what the best that film music has to offer. There's Hugo Friedhofer and David Raksin, another two important names left out entirely by Powell...

 

But then again, I consider myself familiar enough with almost all eras of film music. Relatively few of my own choices for a top 100 list would have been scores written in the last few decades as I consider the 1950s and 1960s to be the best era of film music.

 

I do think that this list of his is just his personal favourites; I doubt that this is a list in attempt to look more cultured since it excludes so many important film composers and landmark scores.

You seem to have strong views on that. Would you care to share your list with us? If you do, I will share mine too.

[Aenae 41]

I haven't made a list, but all of this is making me want to sit down and try make my own top 100. 

 

I would certainly make sure to include most of the most important film composers at least once in the top 100. Of course there can't be room for every important film composer, some exclusions must be considered somewhat acceptable.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

2 minutes ago, Aenae said:

We differ so greatly in opinion. Why one would be so redundant and list Williams entire filmography? I'd be surprised if Williams had more than a few entries in my top 100 since there are many other composers that need to be included in order to cover the entirety of what the best that film music has to offer. There's Hugo Friedhofer and David Raksin, another two important names left out entirely by Powell...

 

But then again, I consider myself familiar enough with almost all eras of film music. Relatively few of my own choices for a top 100 list would have been scores written in the last few decades as I consider the 1950s and 1960s to be the best era of film music.

 

I do think that this list of his is just his personal favourites; I doubt that this is a list in attempt to look more cultured since it excludes so many important film composers and landmark scores.

I perfectly see your point of view. What I'm asking you is would it be your actual favourites scores or would it a be the best list possible to cover and represent all the greatest composers that ever existed?

 

When I said it looks more cultured I was reffering to the fact that if he only quotes Williams, Goldsmith or Hermann just for exemple, well it would make of him a composer who only loves/knows three composers. I haven't compted how many different composers there are in his list but I would say something around 50 which is more impressive than 3. This way you can tell that he probably has looked and listen a bit to all those composers' works, or at least a large part of it.

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3 minutes ago, Aenae said:

 

I would certainly make sure to include most of the most important film composers at least once in the top 100.

 

Honest question -- doesn't that defeat the purpose of making a list of your top 100 scores? Seems more like you're trying to make quotas.

 

I mean, if I had to list my top 5 favourite film scores and I couldn't split E.T. and Raiders, I wouldn't just choose one and omit the other purely to avoid multiple Williams scores.

[Fabulin 3,510]

To me quotas are a no-no. Somebody's best score might not be worth another composer's 50th and that's just life.

[Aenae 41]

6 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

Honest question -- doesn't that defeat the purpose of making a list of your top 100 scores? Seems more like you're trying to make quotas.

 

I mean, if I had to list my top 5 favourite film scores and I couldn't split E.T. and Raiders, I wouldn't just choose one and omit the other purely to avoid multiple Williams scores.

That's fine, no objective list can obviously exist. Objective lists aren't possible obviously.

 

I personally think that kind of post-romanticism reached its peak earlier in film music history so including both of them would feel redundant for me. I can see why others disagree though, and that's fine