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best love themes


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love themes has always a major place in film music, for JW those are the best ones:

Eiger Sanction- the River- jazz autograph (The Terminal).

in Cinema I think that best love themes are:

Marnie, B.Herrmann 1957

-The Godfather II, Nino Rota 1974

- Love Story, Mancini

-Lara theme , Maurice jarre 1965

-Le Casse, Morricone 1971

-Morricone; once upon time in America, Deborah Theme 1984

-King Kong, love theme, John Barry 1976

-The Untouchables, Ness and his Family, Morricone, 1987

-Dances with wolves, two socks at play, John Barry 1990

-Vladimir Cosma, le jaguar, 1996.

-Gladiator, Hans Zimmer, 2000.

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Williams:

Superman love theme

Marion's Theme

Willie's Theme

Princess Leia's Theme

Han Solo and the Princess

Horner:

Krull love theme

Laurence Rosenthal:

Love theme from Clash of the Titans

Goldsmith:

Ilea's Theme

Love theme from Logan's Run

Rosza:

Love theme from El Cid

Arnold:

Love theme from Stargate

Morricone:

Love theme from Lolita

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I'd add:

Steiner: Love theme from Now, Voyager

Chaplin: "Smile" from Modern Times

Korngold: Love theme from The Adventures of Robin Hood

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Does Princess Leia count? Not a love theme in the film, but compositionally I think it qualifies.

I would say that it does. It's the unofficial love theme of Star Wars.

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Williams, Han and leia of course.

I think Alex North is the master of love themes though.

Spartacus, Cleopatra.

Cleopatra btw has two great love themes.

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Princess Leia is still one of his best.

I'd count Yoda's Theme , Anakin's Theme and Fawkes the Phoenix as "love themes" in the way they were written too . They follow the same structure as the other Williams love themes

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I'd have to throw my vote to Nino Rota's simple theme for "Romeo & Juliet."

And since I recently had to deal with it, I think one of JW's best is the largely unknown (these days, at least) "If We Were in Love," which he wrote for Pavarotti in the movie "Yes, Georgio." He didn't score the entire film, just that song...the melody is very catchy, and you just can't beat Pavarotti.

(BTW, you can see the clip from the movie, which features the song, here:

...then you can understand why Pavarotti was nominated for a Razzie Award for worst acting...lol) :lol:

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My favorites are:

Ilia's theme,

Lady Claire and Marek (Brian Tyler, Timeline)

Han & Leia, Luke & Leia (yeah, I know it's not a love theme sensu strictu, but it's stylistically similar), Leia's theme (ditto), Across the Stars, Marion's theme

the love theme in Cutthroat Island (John Debney)

Beautiful (King Kong, James Newton Howard)

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Princess Leia is still one of his best.

I'd count Yoda's Theme , Anakin's Theme and Fawkes the Phoenix as "love themes" in the way they were written too . They follow the same structure as the other Williams love themes

They aren't love themes in relation to their use in the movies, so I wouldn't consider them love themes (more like just thematic pieces for characters). Leia's theme is a bit of an exception.

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Sabrina (can't believe this hasn't been brought out yet)

Bram Stoker's Dracula (Kilar)

The Village (Newton Howard)

Blade Runner (Vangelis)

AI

The Patriot

Batman Forever, Michael Collins, Interview with the Vampire (Goldenthal's Piano writing is always fantastic)

Under Fire and Russia House (Goldsmith's finest love themes)

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Doyle)

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Hermann)

The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Hermann)

Two Socks theme from Dances with Wolves (Barry)

Jane Eyre (Williams)

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Er, Lucius and Ivy's relationship is sort of central to the film. The love theme is the most prominent, melodic one in the score (heard at the start of "What Are You Asking Me?" for instance).

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-Gladiator, Hans Zimmer, 2000.

:lol: And no Williams?

I said

Eiger Sanction 2nd track- The River- jazz autograph (The Terminal)

I forget to mention the great theme of jerry Goldsmith, "Forever Young" 1992!

And the Sublime Morricone's Califfa" 1970 and "Love Affaire"1994

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I've never understood the absolutist opinions toward Leia's Theme. Sure, it's a GREAT theme, but JW has written many more than top it.

not really.

Nothing can top the Love Theme from Superman.

oh that rare occasion that I actually agree with you

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I've never understood the absolutist opinions toward Leia's Theme. Sure, it's a GREAT theme, but JW has written many more than top it.

Hardly. Nor has anyone else. It's one of the best themes in film history at least.

For regular love themes, two of the best are Doyle's from Frankenstein and Korngold's from Robin Hood.

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I've never understood the absolutist opinions toward Leia's Theme. Sure, it's a GREAT theme, but JW has written many more than top it.

Williams hit on something much deeper and universal within people than the Star Wars score proper when he wrote the concert version of Leia's theme. What a godsend.

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Andrea Morricone's Cinema Paradiso love theme is #1 in my book.

I've never understood the absolutist opinions toward Leia's Theme. Sure, it's a GREAT theme, but JW has written many more than top it.

Hardly. Nor has anyone else. It's one of the best themes in film history at least.

For regular love themes, two of the best are Doyle's from Frankenstein and Korngold's from Robin Hood.

I still don't quite get the enthusiasm for the Mary Shelley's Frankenstein love theme.

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OK I will always LOVE the Superman "Love Theme," / "Can You Read My Mind" music, it is LITERALLY the first movie I remember seeing in the theater, and watching with my dad over and over while growing up (I was 3 when the movie came out in 1978).

Unfortunately, I can NOT get Strauss' "Death & Transfiguration" out of my head now when I hear that one. I swear...it's only a few notes different, but holy crap. I don't know if Strauss ruined JW for me, or the other way.

AT THE SAME TIME: Those melodies are based on very, VERY simple arpeggiations of a tonic chord, followed by other things (diminution, etc)... I don't care if it was a "derivative" of Strauss or not...it's a very nice part of the movie, AND what he does with it is phenomenal.

This is NOT a "hey, JW steals from..." post. I write music myself, and everyone knows that the good composers borrow, the best composers STEAL! (bwahaha!) There's really only 12 different notes...and honestly, they've all been written before. :o

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I'm not really into Strauss and all those other composers inferior to Williams

What did Strauss do except a few well known waltses??

Umm..what?

Please note the difference between Richard and Johann.

I do love JW...but RICHARD Strauss was a whole other "thing" than Johann Strauss.

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I'm not really into Strauss and all those other composers inferior to Williams

What did Strauss do except a few well known waltses??

Tone poems? Very excellent tone poems. And songs. And operas.

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I'm not really into Strauss and all those other composers inferior to Williams

What did Strauss do except a few well known waltses??

Tone poems? Very excellent tone poems. And songs. And operas.

Having thought about this for a few minutes, now, I really do have to say that if all of us "John Williams fans" had live 50 years earlier, we'd all likely be "Richard Strauss" fans.

Not that they're exactly alike, but considering the time/culture changes, they are very similar in a lot of ways.

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Andrea Morricone's Cinema Paradiso love theme is #1 in my book.

what ,It's not by Ennio? You mean track 1 "Cinema Paradiso"?

On the album, it would be Track 5. In the film, it receives its most rapturous rendition for the kiss montage in the film's final scene.

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Andrea Morricone's Cinema Paradiso love theme is #1 in my book.

what ,It's not by Ennio? You mean track 1 "Cinema Paradiso"?

Morricone wanted to initiate his son to film music, so he helped him to compose this piece and was dedicated to him in the album!

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