McD

If memory serves it was the theme to kids TV show The Magic Roundabout. It might have been slightly jazzed up by someone. You can check it out on YouTube.

Happy birthday Mr Williams. Hope all is well, and thanks for such wondrous music.

Empire of the Sun may or may not be the best, but as soon as I read the poll (without seeing the options) it's the one that started playing in my head. So it gets my vote.

The point is that to say Goldsmith was the greatest film composer of them all doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Yes, he was much admired, and almost every soundtrack fan likes (loves) at least some of his output. It's been banded about before - with the comments in the Silva Screen booklet for 'The Omen: The Essential Jerry Goldsmith' claiming him to be the 'leading composer for cinema'. I'm not sure if this was ever the case - there really wasn't much time (a year?) between the demise of Herrman (who most agree finished on a high) and the rise of Williams. Personally, I don't think that anyone in Hollywood has been as much on top of the game and ahead of their field as Williams was between Jaws and ROTJ almost a decade later. But by the time of the above release from Silva Screen, Williams was still the number one film composer in Hollywood. Goldsmith, in my opinion, wasn't even number two by this point. In terms of the prestige of films (and general quality of scores) I'd say that Goldsmith was lagging behind Horner, Zimmer and perhaps Elfman too. Indeed, the filmography listed above for him doesn't, to my ears, transcend the work by any of the other three mentioned. There's perhaps little between Golsmith and Elfman, but the greatness achieved on certain scores by Horner (Braveheart, Titanic) and Zimmer (The Thin Red Line, Hannibal) wasn't matched by any later Goldsmith. Again, in my opinion. Personally, I thought he'd dropped from the number two composer after the death of Hermann, out of the medal positions altogether by his last decade. As for the 'good scores to bad films' debate - it certainly doesn't determine how good the score is going to be. Amistad is one of Williams' finest from the last decade - a disc to treasure - from a film which is in my all time bottom five! And Leviathan was mentioned - a score which felt mostly churned out by a composer who couldn't get inspired by the material at all. But as I recall there was one cue - 'One of Us' which wasn't too bad. I know Goldsmith didn't feel that all of his films warranted a CD release, and I think that was pretty much borne out by a lot of them. As a Goldsmith 'fan' I've picked up many scores from films I'd never watched, often to find no musical treasures within. I have a good deal of the CDs mentioned above (Mulan and The 13th Warrior being the exceptions I've heard good things about), and none of them have much replay value to my ears. (Six Degrees of Separation matched the film very well, of his later films not mentioned above) There's nothing in there I've heard on a par with A.I., The Phantom Menace, Seven Years in Tibet or even Sabrina.

'often' anonymous, and referring to everything he did post-Malice. I'm not a big fan of LA Confidential (the Rambo theme was in there) although many like it. The Hollow Man theme was OK, but I dont think it was a great film score. For the #1 film composer, it wasn't a great decade, featuring any classic work. I probably didn't hear all of it, but I generally wasn't impressed. I dont understand why he worked so tirelessly on some awful films. If he was an actor, he'd be Gene Hackman (based on their vast output on projects that were beneath them this last decade). All of those Williams scores mentioned are far superior to the majority of film scores, especially MR. You can actually deal with examples, especially regarding my main point though rather than continue to pad with meaningless talk of nine-inch nails.

I agree with the general feeling behind the thread. Sure, many people preferred Goldsmith to Williams last year and it's not just a question of building him up since his passing. But there's been an awful lot of praise of Goldsmith as the #1 composer of film, which I think is being used more right now because it's less likely to be challenged. And it just doesn't hold up to scrutiny. It's not really fair to judge them solely on their work during the last decade, but whereas Williams put his heart and soul into all of his projects, Goldsmith was hacking away at awful films with often anonymous soundtracks. The last soundtrack I liked unconditionally was Malice. What I also admire about Williams, and something which I think moves him ahead of the field, is his main themes. Take them out of the score and how well is he doing then? Rather well, actually. Jaws without the legendary title music is still a classic score with one beautiful cue after another, and would still have been a deserving Oscar winner. Not many scores by the great composers could survive the same scrutiny. If you were to number your 10 favourite Goldsmith scores and match them in a face off with Williams' 10 best, I don't think Jerry sould come off well at all. He certainly wouldn't come off so well (in my opinion) that a declaration of Goldsmith as the greatest composer ever holds any serious weight. Star Wars v Star Trek? Superman v Supergirl? To be honest, the only Goldsmith score that could break into this list in my view is The Final Conflict. And only just... 1. The Empire Strikes Back 2. Superman The Movie 3. Jaws 4. E.T. 5. Star Wars 6. Schindler's List 7. Raiders of the Lost Ark 8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind 9. Born on the Fourth of July 10. Jurassic Park

I've been saying in my infrequent posts in here that Yared has been the main competition for Williams for a decade now. Not Goldsmith, not Horner, not Zimmer - Gabriel Yared! Helped by the absence of Williams, of course, but (counting Troy as if it had been used in the final film), I'd say the three best scores of the last 18 months have all belonged to Yared. Troy, the stunning Cold Mountain, and best of the lot, Sylvia. The latter was a stunning score to a poor film, which would have been absolutely dreadful without Yared's contribution. And he's added as much to Minghella's work (Mr Ripley less so than the two that bookend it) as Williams does for Spielberg. Troy was a piece of garbage too, which I'm convinced would have felt at least average if it wasn't for the moment of studio madness which saw his contributions removed - and probably at the cost of over $1 million!!! Shame on them! I look forward to some sort of release - be it CD or alternate DVD track - before shelving out for the bootleg doing the rounds.

Great credit sequences are made up with any of four ingredients - Great score Great photography Great acting Great 'credits' The only one I can think of to score a slam dunk on all four categories is the Adrian Lyne remake of Lolita. Great score - great Morricone opening (even if, as usual, it was probably rehashed from elsewhere) Great photography - there is no denying it was beautifully shot Great acting - wonderful Jeremey Irons voiceover Great 'credits' - the credits come and go with Jeremy Irons' wacky driving. Inspired.

Was that article for real??? Anyone who starts their last para with 'In conclusion...' must still be at school. Surely!

Personally, I couldn't care less about Williams doing another 'Potter' - he's been there, did a good job on #1, done that. I'd have preferred a completely new challenge on The Hulk. But I am annoyed that he's doing it half assed, if it turns out to be true. He'd be better just leaving it be in my opinion. McD, who thinks that AOTC is the worst Williams score in years, and hasn't heard Minority Report.

Be careful in assumptions about the 'poster'. The only thing the poster was guilty of was believing he didn't have to spell it out for you, and could do the job required in only a few words. I think you'll find the assumption of Mozart 'songs', not arias, might not fit a lot of people's preconception of numbering 'dozens'. In any case, it's academic - by the time Prince was the age that Mozart checked out on, Prince had written AND recorded THOUSANDS of songs, a truly astonishing sum, unmatched since the start of the 'rock' era. Whilst you may throw up the likes of Richard Rodgers or Lloyd Webber as 'songwriters' who did not concern themselves with the composing for the modern 'song orchestra' (guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, vocals), it is the modern 'song orchestra' I was referring to. And unlike the above two examples (and, say, Elton John, a classically trained pianist a la JW), Prince writes all his own lyrics, plays (almost) all his own instruments, and produces his own recordings. Now, can we assume that a fun-loving polymath like Mozart may have taken control of the lyrical aspect of his work in the modern era? Yes, we can certainly ‘assume’. And is it reasonable to assume that a virtuoso like Mozart might feel inclined to as big an impact in the 'recording' field (with his own work) as in that of composition? Certainly. Are any of the named 'would-be-20th-Century-MDMs' as well known as soloists as they are as composers? Is Prince? Yes, by a country mile. Not to mention that Mozart's major passion was for the piano and violin. The modern equivalent? Why, it's the keyboard and guitar. Two instruments Prince is known worldwide as being a master of. The playing field, if looking for a 20th Century Mozart – has to be expanded considerably, and more thought given to its result. Would the modern day Shakespeare be Akiva Goldsman, winning an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind, or be responsible for writing Death of A Salesman? No, he’d probably have bridged out with the modern times, and be behind the camera as well. Think Milos Forman. Probably. What should the modern day Mozart consist of? Virtuoso instrumentalism, innovative musical approaches, prodigious beginnings, awesome output, heart-on-the-bloody-pulse-music. Not to mention the matter of succeeding in business beyond their wildest dreams, and then failing with the false moves of a child. From worldwide fame (ok, only Euro-wide for Moz, but back then it was the same thing) to a position approaching obscurity (despite NO drop in quality). Sure, Prince may have invented Gansta Rap, and it’s nothing to be proud of, but it’s all there, folks. Could Prince have filled 180 CDs, Mozart style, even at the age of 35? With ease. Of course, if the argument is to descend into ‘who occupies the same position in Classical Music as Mozart did in 1790’, at any point in the 20th Century, then the argument for Prince falls flat. But that didn’t seem to be the argument at all, and there was no hint that the debate was as narrow minded as that. Hell, why don’t you just go for the one who sounds most like Mozza, and award victory to Patrick Doyle for his work on Sense and Sensibility?

JW is probably the greatest composer for orchestra of the century. I'd go along with that. But if Mozza was alive today, would be be scoring for orchestra, or be a songwriter? I'm shocked to have had the option in the poll, but I do believe the modern day Mozart is PRINCE. He's the only person in the last century whose artistic output is literally hard to comprehend. Composing an album's worth of (mostly fabulous) material week in, week out - I just don't know how he does it. I honestly believe that in 300 years PRINCE will be as well known as MOZART. Will JW's reputation grow and grow? I'm not sure.