Right now, who are your Top 5 film composers?

[Josh500 1,620]

I realized that I don't have more than 5. That's because I might not even be a film music fan, but just a big fan of John Williams, who happens to write music for film. A difference.

 

That said, I discovered Jerry Goldsmith too, but for me, he's FAR behind JW (still number 2, though).

 

For me: 

 

1. John Williams 

2. Jerry Goldsmith 

3. James Horner  

4. Henry Mancini 

5. John Barry

 

[Jay 45,403]

1) John Williams

2) James Horner

3) Jerry Goldsmith

4) Danny Elfman

5) Michael Giacchino

[Josh500 1,620]

1 minute ago, Jay said:

4) Danny Elfman

5) Michael Giacchino

 

How many scores do you own from these 2? And which are your favourites from them?

 

From Danny Elfman, I only own Batman and Batman Returns. That's it.

 

I own no score at all from MG. 

[Disco Stu 15,517]

4 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

From Danny Elfman, I only own Batman and Batman Returns. That's it.

 

Whoa.

 

Almost every Tim Burton score (I'd say only more recent ones like Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie and Big Eyes are inessential)

Black Beauty

Dick Tracy

Mission: Impossible

Sommersby

Spider-Man

Spider-Man 2

Hulk

The Wolfman

Men in Black

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Real Steel

Oz The Great and Powerful

Darkman

 

These are all great scores.

[Jay 45,403]

8 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

How many scores do you own from these 2? And which are your favourites from them?

 

From Danny Elfman, I only own Batman and Batman Returns. That's it.

 

I own no score at all from MG. 

 

My favorite Danny Elfman scores are Mission: Impossible, Batman, Batman Returns, Mars Attacks!, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Beetlejuice.  I have no idea how many I own, probably more than 40 at least.

 

My favorite Michael Giacchino scores are LOST, Tomorrowland, Super 8, and the Star Treks.  As for how many I own, its literally every one ever pressed to disc.

[mstrox 7,333]

Williams

Elfman

Giacchino

Zimmer

Powell

 

 

Honestly, the top two are the only ones I still pick everything up from.  Giacchino has been hit-or-miss with me over the past 5 years, but he has a gem every once in a while.  I pick up most of his stuff.  The other two complete the category because I can't think of anyone else really.

[Jay 45,403]

Horner does nothing for you troxy?

[Disco Stu 15,517]

Williams is the only composer I'll pick up literally any and every score from.  Everyone else I'm content to stream and buy if I really like it.

[mstrox 7,333]

7 minutes ago, Jay said:

Horner does nothing for you troxy?

 

Of what I've heard, half of Horner's stuff does it for me, and half is kind of a drag, TBH.  I feel the same way about Goldsmith.

 

I liked All the King's Men, Amazing Spider-man, American Tail, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, the Zorro movies, Legends of the Fall, and Willow.

 

I'm ambivalent towards Apollo 13 and Titanic

 

I didn't care for Aliens, Avatar, Braveheart, Commando, Troy, or his Star Trek scores.

 

It's a hit-to-miss ratio that keeps me from spending more money on his stuff.  If I streamed music, I'd probably listen to or sample a bit more of it.

[Thor 9,337]

1. John Williams

2. Danny Elfman

3. Elliot Goldenthal

4. Hans Zimmer

5. James Horner

 

...or something. I'm a completist of the first three.

 

I first thought this was about 'who are your favourites among the younger composers (let's say in their 30s and 40s)', but I guess it was about alltime favourites.

[Koray Savas 2,259]

1. Morricone

2. Williams

3. Giacchino

4. Howard

5. Zimmer 

[Jim 6,204]

John Williams

Jerry Goldsmith

James Horner

Ennio Morricone

Howard Shore

[Josh500 1,620]

36 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Whoa.

 

Almost every Tim Burton score (I'd say only more recent ones like Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie and Big Eyes are inessential)

Black Beauty

Dick Tracy

Mission: Impossible

Sommersby

Spider-Man

Spider-Man 2

Hulk

The Wolfman

Men in Black

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Real Steel

Oz The Great and Powerful

Darkman

 

These are all great scores.

 

Oh, I forgot. I also own MIB and Mission Impossible, but only the regular soundtracks, where the score is only two or three tracks!

[Disco Stu 15,517]

So this is all-time, not currently working?

 

1. Williams

2. Herrmann

3. Goldsmith

4. Steiner

5. Elfman

 

4 and 5 will change depending on the year/month/day, but the top 3 are locked.  Been listening to a lot of Steiner re-recordings the last few months so I'm real high on him right now.  Adventures of Don Juan is fucking awesome.

 

Elmer Bernstein would probably knock Elfman out of the 5 normally.  Randy and Thomas Newman are in the running too.

[Glóin the Dark 1,807]

Bernard Herrmann

Howard Shore

Jonny Greenwood

Carter Burwell

Ralph Vaughan Williams

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,517]

2 minutes ago, Glóin the Dark said:

Ralph Vaughan Williams

 

He and Aaron Copland could definitely invade my list, but I think of them as "concert hall" composers who dabbled in film scores.  I certainly only engage with their film work as concert pieces, hardly ever as dramatic underscore.

 

I tend to list composers I think of as "of the movies".

[Nick1Ø66 7,790]

My list seldom changes. In no particular order:

 

Williams

Horner

Barry 

Silvestri

Shore

[Holko 11,953]

John Williams for almost everything he's ever done

Howard Shore for Middle-Earth

Hans Zimmer for Pirates, Inception, and his scores from the last century

Elmer Bernstein for most of what he touched

Miklós Rózsa for being a fellow countryman and also a number of masterpieces

 

Silvestri was close to being here for BttF and Forrest Gump

Also Powell for HTTYD

[Josh500 1,620]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

My favorite Michael Giacchino scores are LOST, Tomorrowland, Super 8, and the Star Treks.  As for how many I own, its literally every one ever pressed to disc.

 

How about Rogue One? Is that worth owning?

11 minutes ago, Holko said:

 

Miklós Rózsa for being a fellow countryman and also a few masterpieces

 

 

I only know Ben Hur. JW even conducted a piece from this film in one of the Sony compilations.

30 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

So this is all-time, not currently working?

 

 

Yes.

 

47 minutes ago, Thor said:

1. John Williams 

2. Danny Elfman

3. Elliot Goldenthal

 

...or something. I'm a completist of the first three.

 

 

So how many approximately do you own from these composers? And which are your favourite Elfman and Goldenthal scores? 

[Jay 45,403]

5 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

How about Rogue One? Is that worth owning?

 

I don't think its very good at all.

[Josh500 1,620]

1 minute ago, Jay said:

 

I don't think its very good at all.

 

I haven't even seen the film yet. 

 

How much of JW's music is incorporated in the score?

[Jay 45,403]

Not much

[Bilbo 4,267]

Williams

Shore

Horner

Desplat

 

 

After that Powell, Ottman, and JNH are hovering fairly close together

[Nick1Ø66 7,790]

I read a study recently that confirmed something I think most of us already knew...in popular music, as people get older they tend to remain interested in the type of music they came of age with and eventually settled into.  Obviously musical tastes change, but boomers by and large remained into 60's music and people in their 40's and 50's today for example like 80's music, and so on. Of course, there are tons of exceptions to this, some people are very forward thinking and make a point of embracing new music...but that's a general rule. Our musical tastes at some point stop evolving.  You might be into punk rock as a teenager, then alternative in your 20's, etc., but eventually your tastes just kind of settle and you tend to stick with that.

 

So I wonder how that applies to film music. If you came up with Williams and Goldsmith and Horner, are you less apt to fully embrace guys like Gia and Desplat and Powell, even if you can appreciate them?

[Thor 9,337]

39 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

So how many approximately do you own from these composers? And which are your favourite Elfman and Goldenthal scores? 

 

Williams: Some 200 physical items. And then a bunch of digital things. 

 

Elfman: Some 100 albums, plus an additional 15 Oingo Boingo

 

Goldenthal: 32 albums, plus some extras.

 

Top 5 Elfman at the present time:

 

1. The Nightmare Before Christmas

2. Edward Scissorhands

3. Standard Operating Procedure/The Unknown Known

4. Black Beauty/Sommersby

5. Wisdom

 

Top 5 Elliot Goldenthal at the present time:

 

1. Alien 3

2. Heat

3. Interview with the Vampire

4. Golden Gate

5. Final Fantasy

 

5 minutes ago, Nick1066 said:

I read a study recently that confirmed something I think most of us already knew...in popular music, as people get older they tend to remain interested in the type of music they came of age with and eventually settled into.  Obviously musical tastes change, but boomers by and large remained into 60's music and people in their 40's and 50's today for example like 80's music, and so on. Of course, there are tons of exceptions to this, some people are very forward thinking and make a point of embracing new music...but that's a general rule. Our musical tastes at some point stop evolving.  You might be into punk rock as a teenager, then alternative in your 20's, etc., but eventually your tastes just kind of settle and you tend to stick with that.

 

That isn't necessarily true. Obviously, we are very connected to the music we listened to in our formative years (13-20) -- whether that music predated that period or not -- but one's taste definitely evolves over the years. For example, for the last 15 years or so, I've been more interested in the calm and textural and ambient than the big and boisterous action music that I used to listen to in the 90s.

 

But I like to think that the music taste that was formed in my formative years has become part of my "DNA" (it will never go away) while I still continue to explore other stuff.

[Holko 11,953]

37 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

I only know Ben Hur. JW even conducted a piece from this film in one of the Sony compilations.

 

If you're interested, I recommend checking out this release, a very nice recording of a concert from his best works. The Amazon samples are highly compressed, it sounds leagues better.

[James 120]

1. Williams (our entire cinematography life summarized  in all your discography )

2. Horner & Goldsmith (so many wonderfull scores)

3. Steiner & Barry (masters)

4. Ennio Morricone (audacious compositions)

5. Elfman & Zimmer (cool modern guys)

 

[Nick1Ø66 7,790]

One interesting thing, to me, about making these lists is considering a composers lifetime output vs. their best work.

 

For example, Howard Shore makes my list almost entirely based on one series of films he scored...which edges out someone like Goldsmith, who has many more scores that I enjoy than Shore does, but none of which I appreciate nearly as much as Shore's masterpiece. So based on my own criteria, Shore edges Goldsmith out.

 

On the other hand, Silvestri, Horner and Barry are on there not because a single score of theirs ranks among my top 5 (though Braveheart might come close) but based on their entire body of work.

 

Williams, of course, has both. Many, many scores I enjoy, some of which are among my all time favourites. To say nothing of the films that accompany those scores.

[Disco Stu 15,517]

2 minutes ago, Nick1066 said:

One interesting thing, to me, about making these lists is considering a composers lifetime output vs. their best work.

 

For example, Howard Shore makes my list almost entirely based on one series of films he scored...which edges out someone like Goldsmith, who has many more scores that I enjoy than Shore does, but none of which I appreciate nearly as much as Shore's masterpiece. So based on my own criteria, Shore edges Goldsmith out.

 

On the other hand, Silvestri, Horner and Barry are on there not because a single score of theirs ranks among my top 5 (though Braveheart might come close) but based on their entire body of work.

 

Williams, of course, has both. Many, many scores I enjoy, some of which are among my all time favourites. To say nothing of the films that accompany those scores.

 

I tend to lean towards overall body of work with these lists.  But certainly my top 3 (the ones set in stone for all eternity) satisfy both paradigms.

[nightscape94 968]

My list is probably boring, but...

 

Williams - far above and beyond anyone else on the list.  I would put him on my list of favorite composers in general.

Horner

Goldsmith

Elfman (although nothing much recently tickles my fancy, except for Rabbit & Rogue)

Goldenthal

 

I'm trying to make a concerted effect in getting to know more Korngold (more familiar with his concert works), Rozsa, Steiner, Tiomkin, Herrmann, North, etc

[publicist 4,650]

Goldsmith

Morricone

Williams/Horner (kind of blend into each other)

Barry

Delerue

[Kasey Kockroach 2,668]

Jerry Goldsmith

John Williams

John Powell

Bruce Broughton

Christopher Young

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,262]

Zimmer, Williams, Shore, North, Goldenthal/Morricone

[Josh500 1,620]

Wow, Elfman and Goldenthal are really popular here.

 

Personally, I don't much like Elfman (the best thing he's done is The Simpsons theme, IMHO), and I don't know any Goldenthal score at all!

 

[Jay 45,403]

If you like Elfman's Batman scores, you'll probably like Goldenthal's Batman scores.

[Josh500 1,620]

2 minutes ago, Jay said:

If you like Elfman's Batman scores, you'll probably like Goldenthal's Batman scores.

 

I thought it was okay. The main theme is cool, yes, but that's it, and even by this I'm not so impressed that I want to start an Elfman collection... 

 

 

[Smaug The Iron 760]

John Williams

Howard Shore

Alan Silvestri

Hans Zimmer

Danny Elfman

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,517]

1 minute ago, Josh500 said:

 

I thought it was okay. The main theme is cool, yes, but that's it, and even by this I'm not so impressed that I want to start an Elfman collection... 

 

 

 

If he doesn't connect with you, he doesn't connect with you.

 

I was recently reminded that "Finale" from Big Fish is one of my hands-down favorite Elfman cues of all time.  That's 11 minutes where I love every single second.

[Josh500 1,620]

3 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I was recently reminded that "Finale" from Big Fish is one of my hands-down favorite Elfman cues of all time.  That's 11 minutes where I love every single second.

 

This?

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,517]

That's part of the cue!  The full 11 minute track on the OST is just great.  Among his most emotionally satisfying writing.

[Josh500 1,620]

By the way, just because there are different many Hans Zimmer fans here.

 

Anybody know the score to Hannibal? How is it? I recently saw this score for 2 bucks. 😂 

[Jay 45,403]

Many consider it one of his best.

[Josh500 1,620]

Just now, Jay said:

Many consider it one of his best.

 

Really? Do you have this too?

[Jay 45,403]

Zimmer's score to Hannibal?  No.

 

The only Zimmer scores I own are Crimson Tide, The Rock, The Peacemaker, Black Rain, Broken Arrow, and Drop Zone.

[Josh500 1,620]

The only Hans Zimmer score I own is Lion King, which is quite good actually. 

 

 

[Nick1Ø66 7,790]

7 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

The only Hans Zimmer score I own is Lion King, which is quite good actually. 

 

 

Hakuna Matata is the highlight of his career. 

[Disco Stu 15,517]

2 minutes ago, Nick1066 said:

 

Hakuna Matata is the highlight of his career. 

 

Except Elton John wrote it

[Nick1Ø66 7,790]

2 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Except Elton John wrote it

 

Damn. Well there goes my opinion of Zimmer. 

 

Wait...does that mean he didn't write "I just can't wait to be King" either?!!!  WTF you're killing me.

[BloodBoal 8,216]

[Disco Stu 15,517]

He did write "Mufasa's Death" (the highlight of the score) though