Aenae

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Austin Wintory talks about Thomas Newman in this video:

Interview with Thomas Newman's daughter, Julia Newman (a film composer herself):

Steven Stucky, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning composer on John Williams (this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Stucky): "Loved Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But it absolutely stars John Williams! What a genius this guy is."

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I really like Lalo Schifrin and consider him to be underrated. I think that he is one of the greatest living film composers (top 10 easily).

Chinatown - Jerry Goldsmith This is another great score. I think that it is one of the few dozen best film scores ever written even if I do find it to be a bit overrated in some corners.

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I knew that I forgot something! Godzilla should have been in my top 10. I edited my list and bumped out Altered States to make room for it.

We have 3 out of 10 in common with Alien 3, Blade Runner and Solaris, not too bad!

None of the Star Wars scores are favorites of mine which is why I didn't consider including any of them. I do think that it is sci-fi though, but feel free to use your own evaluation if something is sci-fi enough or not.

I'd be curious to see your choices. What are your top 10 sci-fi scores of all time?

For me Nixon might even be Williams's best ever work as a whole. Close Encounters is the only other challenger I can think of. But I tend to not like the first half of the CE3K score that much, only the second half of the score is really good and where things start going. I think I favor Nixon as a totality as a soundtrack. CE3K has the highest peaks of any Williams score in its best few cues, there is no doubt about that, but as an whole score album from start to finish, I gravitate toward Nixon more. For me, most of Williams's other scores tend to be flawed in some major way, which makes me appreaciate them less (which is also why I don't consider any of his works to be a masterpiece; a masterpiece for me must be something truly special and legendary). Nixon as a whole just works and I can't think of any obvious big flaws that it has, unlike most of Williams's other scores, I have also always liked its darkness too, that it eschews his usual brassy, extroverted pomp for a more subdued approach - many other JW scores are way too optimistic for my taste. Nixon was also more progressive than many other JW scores too and as I said, it didn't have any big flaws in it that i'm able to detect at least. I enjoy Nixon as a whole, whereas CE3K I for most part only revisit my favorite few cues. So I really like Nixon and will continue to regard it as JW's most underrated score.

To be honest, I don't consider any of his scores to be a masterpiece. I think there are only a few dozen masterpiece scores in film music history. Nixon and Close Encounters of the Third Kind are his two best ever works in my estimation, yet I certainly don't consider any of them to be a masterpiece. Nixon was the most recent Williams score that I really liked. As for more recent ones since 1995, I am struggling to name something that i'm enthusiastic about.

I think I might agree with you. I have always preferred that long 13 minute piece over the famous Conquest of Paradise track. I am not familiar with more of the score beyond this album, I have seen the film once many years ago, but I can't remember anything about it. I'm satisfied with the current album, but I wouldn't mind seeing a complete score released.

I think that The Land Theme from Heaven & Earth is quite gorgeous. I still listen to that piece occasionally. I don't care what anyone says about Vangelis. I am a huge fan and will always be a defender of him, he is one of my top 10 favorite composers. I think that this score is a highly entertaining album even if I generally favor Vangelis's earlier work.

Goldenthal was on a score podcast recently: Listening to this now.

Björk apparently named Bernard Herrmann's The Ghost and Mrs. Muir her favourite soundtrack of all time: Björk: "My favourite soundtrack is a Mankiewicz film The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, done by Bernard Herrmann."

Bernard Herrmann for example has certainly the more original and powerful body of work. Vertigo, Fahrenheit 451, Psycho, North by Northwest, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Jane Eyre, Cape Fear, On Dangerous Ground, Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons - there isn't a single film composer who can surpass or probably even match this 10 score combo.

Of Elfman's top 3 soundtracks of all time, I like Casanova by far the best. I think that's one of Rota's best. The Godfather is pretty good, but I don't care for that score on its own and always thought it was overrated. It isn't a favourite Rota score of mine. I do prefer Once Upon a Time in America over The Godfather, but I don't consider it to be Morricone's best work.

I missed this, Danny Elfman apparently named his top 3 soundtracks of all time in an interview. I'm a bit surprised that Bernard Herrmann wasn't in his top 3 given that he is Elfman's favourite film composer: If you could choose a soundtrack for your life, which one would you choose? Elfman: "It would have to be like a tie bewteen Nino Rota's Fellini Casanova and The Godfather, and Ennio Morricone's Once Upon a Time in America. Some where in there. You'd think that Bernard Herrmann would be in the top of the list, because he's still my favorite composer. But just as actual listening soundtracks, those are my favorites. Because there's a difference between what I think is the best soundtrack in a movie and listening to a soundtrack album. If I had to take a soundtrack with me to a desert island, it would be those three."