Discovering a film music composer in my own way

[Bespin 8,484]

Elmer Bernstein

• THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (AFI, Academy Award Nominee, Grammy Nominee)
• HAWAII (AFI, Academy Award Nominee, Golden Globe Winner)
• TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (AFI, Academy Award Nominee, Golden Globe Winner)
• FAR FROM HEAVEN (AFI, Academy Award Nominee, Golden Globe Nominee)
• SUMMER AND SMOKE (AFI, Academy Award Nominee, Golden Globe Nominee)
• THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (AFI, Academy Award Nominee)
• THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM (AFI, Academy Award Nominee)
• WALK ON THE WILD SIDE (AFI, Grammy Nominee)
• THE GREAT ESCAPE (AFI)
• SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (AFI)
• THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (AFI)
• Thoroughly Modern Millie (Academy Award Winner, Golden Globe Nominee)
• Trading Place (Academy Award Nominee)
• Return to the Seven (Academy Award Nominee)
• Ghostbusters (Grammy Nominee)
• Frankie Starlight
• Zulu Dawn
• Birdman of Alcatraz
• The Shootist
• The Sons of Katie Elder

[Bespin 8,484]

Richard Rodgers

• State Fair (1946) (Academy Award Winner)
• No Strings (1962) (Grammy Winner, Tony Award Winner)
• The Sound Of Music (1961) (Grammy Winner)
• South Pacific (1950) (Tony Award Winner)
• The King and I (1952) (Tony Award Winner)
• Cinderella (1957) (Primetime Emmy Nominee)
• Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years (1961) (Primetime Emmy Winner)

[Bespin 8,484]

I knew the name, but recently I watched on Youtube a round table of composers where he was invited... and I found the guy very sympathetic.

 

Patrick Doyle

• SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (AFI, Academy Awards Nominee, Golden Globe Nominee) (CD recently purchased)
• MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (AFI) (CD recently purchased)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (IFMCA Award Winner, Saturn Award Nominee) (Yes, of course!)
• Hamlet (Academy Awards Nominee)
• Murder on The Orient Express (IMFCA Nominee)
• Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Saturn Award Nominee)

 

Well, that's only a start!

[Jay 37,374]

Brave - his Pixar score - is good too

[Bespin 8,484]

Mychael Danna 🇨🇦

• Life of Pi (Academy Awards Winner, Golden Globe Winner, IFMCA Winner, Grammy Award Nominee, Saturn Award Nominee)
• Little Miss Sunshine (Grammy Award Nominee)
• Being Julia (IFMCA Nominee)
• The Nativity Story (IFMCA Nominee)

[Bespin 8,484]

I finally did it.

 

I threw my Sabrina CD in the bin, that's my new favourite album.

 

THE WAY WE WERE (Hamlish, 1973)

 

[Bespin 8,484]

Mark Isham

 

• A Rivers Runs Through It (AFI, Academy Awards Nominee, Grammy Awards Nominee)
• The Black Dahlia (IFMCA Winner)
• The Moderns (LAFCA Winner)
• Men of Honor (Grammy Awards Nominee)
• Nell (Golden Globe Nominee)
• Lions for Lambs (IFMCA Nominee)
• Racing Stripes (IFMCA Nominee)
• Fire in the Sky (Saturn Award Nominee)

[enderdrag64 624]

When I was a kid, I always liked Mark Isham for his work on October Sky.

 

I'm actually really surprised that film didn't get nominated for anything: feel good based-on-a-true-story film with a super memorable main theme - you would think the awards shows would eat that kind of thing up.

[publicist 4,643]

5 hours ago, Bespin said:

Mark Isham

 

• A Rivers Runs Through It (AFI, Academy Awards Nominee, Grammy Awards Nominee)
• The Black Dahlia (IFMCA Winner)
• The Moderns (LAFCA Winner)
• Men of Honor (Grammy Awards Nominee)
• Nell (Golden Globe Nominee)
• Lions for Lambs (IFMCA Nominee)
• Racing Stripes (IFMCA Nominee)
• Fire in the Sky (Saturn Award Nominee)

 

The Cooler.

[Bespin 8,484]

3 hours ago, publicist said:

 

The Cooler.

 

[Bespin 8,484]

Who is the "new" hot composer to discover now?

[Jay 37,374]

I think Andrea Datzman is pretty hot

 

 

 

[Bespin 8,484]

Thomas Newman is a renowned composer known for his remarkable contributions to the world of film scores. With a career spanning over 4 decades, Newman has composed music for a diverse range of films, captivating audiences with his unique style and emotive compositions. In this presentation, I delve into a curated list of what can be considered the essential scores of Thomas Newman.

• 1991-Fried Green Tomatoes

• 1992-Scent of a Woman

• 1992-The Player

• 1994-The Shawshank Redemption

• 1994-The War

• 1998-Meet Joe Black

• 1999-The Green Mile

• 2000-American Beauty

• 2002-Road to Perdition

• 2003-Angels in America

• 2003-Finding Nemo

• 2004-A Series of Unfortunate Events

• 2005-Cinderella Man

• 2006-The Good German

• 2011-The Adjustment Bureau

• 2011-The Help

• 2011-The Iron Lady

• 2012-Skyfall

• 2013-Saving Mr Banks

• 2015-He Named Me Malala

• 2015-Spectre

• 2016-Finding Dory

• 2016-Less Than Zero

• 2016-Passengers

• 2019-1917

• 2019-Tolkien

[Tom Guernsey 2,287]

58 minutes ago, Bespin said:

Thomas Newman is a renowned composer known for his remarkable contributions to the world of film scores. With a career spanning over 4 decades, Newman has composed music for a diverse range of films, captivating audiences with his unique style and emotive compositions. In this presentation, I delve into a curated list of what can be considered the essential scores of Thomas Newman.

• 1991-Fried Green Tomatoes

• 1992-Scent of a Woman

• 1992-The Player

• 1994-The Shawshank Redemption

• 1994-The War

• 1998-Meet Joe Black

• 1999-The Green Mile

• 2000-American Beauty

• 2002-Road to Perdition

• 2003-Angels in America

• 2003-Finding Nemo

• 2004-A Series of Unfortunate Events

• 2005-Cinderella Man

• 2006-The Good German

• 2011-The Adjustment Bureau

• 2011-The Help

• 2011-The Iron Lady

• 2012-Skyfall

• 2013-Saving Mr Banks

• 2015-He Named Me Malala

• 2015-Spectre

• 2016-Finding Dory

• 2016-Less Than Zero

• 2016-Passengers

• 2019-1917

• 2019-Tolkien

I appreciate that any starting point list is going to be super subjective, possibly even more so for Newman where his different styles attract substantially different admirers. However, I suggest that any exploration of his music should include Oscar & Lucinda and Little Women, which are broadly my favourite two Newmans cores. The Church of Glass from the former is perhaps the single most beautiful composition he's written to date, an absolutely gorgeous choral piece, but the rest is no less superb, mixing his trademark unusual instrumentation with more substantive orchestral writing. Little Women is more standard orchestral, but wonderful in its delicacy and the finale, Under the Umbrella, is another cracking cue.

 

To the above, I'd also add How to Make an American Quilt (if you like Little Women, you'll probably like this), The Horse Whisperer, Bridge of Spies and, as a bit of a random suggestion, the end credits from Little Children - the rest of the score is fine enough, but the nearly 8 minute end credits is a standout.

 

I do recommend Silva's decent 2CD summary of his career to 2017, even if it doesn't include anything from Oscar & Lucinda, which feels like a significant oversight. It's more skewed towards the orchestral end of things, but a good starting point if you don't have the time or money for the full scores!

[Bespin 8,484]

@Tom Guernsey There are so many great scores in the discography of Thomas Newman!

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,287]

3 minutes ago, Bespin said:

@Tom Guernsey There are so many great scores in the discography of Thomas Newman!

 

My work here is done ;-)

[Schilkeman 964]

When I had music streaming, I would pick a composer and download every available album and listen to them. I have a gift (pretty useless mind you) for recognizing the potential artistic merit of music, even if it doesn’t speak to me immediately. I make a mental note to get back to it at a different time. I found a lot of great soundtracks this way. As I’ve switched back to cds, I now have a long list of osts to buy that will last me several years before I need to do this exercise again.

[Bespin 8,484]

Well, I don't have a gift. I have to listen to the same piece many times before it ingrains itself in my mind. However, once it's there, it stays with me forever!

[Bespin 8,484]

While conducting research on the web, I stumbled upon the OFTA, which was previously unknown to me.

The Online Film & Television Association (OFTA), established in 1996, is an organization that annually recognizes outstanding achievements in film and television through its awards.

They also have an award called the 'Film Hall of Fame,' which aims to reward soundtracks from the past but in a 'woke' version (meaning they reward composers who have not been canceled I guess). I'm not exactly sure what that means, but don't expect to find scores from Danny Elfman, for example, hahaha.

https://www.oftaawards.com/film-hall-of-fame/film-hall-of-fame-scores/

[Bespin 8,484]

I found the course details for a seminar on Film Music History by John Burlingame on the web.

 

It's always interesting to discover the selected composers and their works when its done by an expert.

 

I would like to share the composers and works selected... I reworked the section titles a bit.

Source: https://pdfcoffee.com/history-of-film-music-pdf-free.html

 

____

 

1. Transition to Sound and Pioneering Efforts (the 1930s)

* Max Steiner - RKO, Warner Bros.
(King Kong, Gone With the Wind, Now Voyager,  Casablanca)
* Alfred Newman - United Artists, 20th Century-Fox
(Wuthering Heights, The Song of Bernadette, How the West Was Won)
* Herbert Stothart - MGM
(The Good Earth, The Wizard of Oz, Random Harvest)
_______

2. The Golden Age

* Erich Wolfgang Korngold
(The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, Kings Row)
* Miklos Rozsa
(Double Indemnity, Spellbound, Quo Vadis, Ben-Hur)
* Franz Waxman
(Sunset Boulevard, A Place in the Sun, The Spirit of St. Louis)
* Dimitri Tiomkin
(Lost Horizon, High Noon, The Alamo)
* Victor Young
(For Whom the Bell Tolls, Shane, Around the World in 80 Days)
______

3. Exploring New Frontiers

* Bernard Herrmann
(Citizen Kane, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Vertigo, Psycho)
* David Raksin
(Laura, Forever Amber, The Bad and the Beautiful)
* Hugo Friedhofer
(The Best Years of Our Lives)
* Hans J. Salter
(The Wolf Man)
* Roy Webb
(Cat People, Notorious)
_____

4. Emerging Talents of the ‘50s and ‘60s

* Alex North
(A Streetcar Named Desire, Spartacus, The Misfits)
* Leonard Rosenman
(East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Fantastic Voyage)
* Elmer Bernstein
(Man With the Golden Arm, Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird)
* Jerome Moross
(The Big Country)
_____

5. Emerging Talents of the ’60s and ‘70s

* Jerry Goldsmith
(Planet of the Apes, Patton, Chinatown, Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
* Henry Mancini
(Touch of Evil, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Pink Panther)
* John Barry
(Goldfinger, The Lion in Winter, Out of Africa)
_____

6. Jazz Composers in Film

* Johnny Mandel
(I Want to Live!, The Sandpiper)
* Quincy Jones
(The Pawnbroker, In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night)
* Dave Grusin
(On Golden Pond, The Firm)
* Terence Blanchard
(25th Hour, Inside Man)
_____

7. Emerging Talents of the ‘70s and ‘80s

* Lalo Schifrin
(Cool Hand Luke, Dirty Harry, Enter the Dragon)
* Jerry Fielding
(The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, The Outlaw Josey Wales)
_____

8. Renaissance of the Symphonic Score

* John Williams
(Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars, Schindler’s List)

****

9. European Composers

* Ennio Morricone
(The Good, the Bad & the Ugly; The Mission)
* Nino Rota
(8 1/2, Romeo and Juliet, The Godfather)
* Maurice Jarre
(Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago)
* Georges Delerue
(Jules et Jim, Day for Night, Agnes of God)
* Michel Legrand
(The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Thomas Crown Affair, Summer of ’42)
_____

10. Classical Composers in the Cinematic Realm

* Leonard Bernstein
(On the Waterfront)
* Aaron Copland
(The Red Pony, The Heiress)
* Sergei Prokofiev
(Alexander Nevsky)
* Dmitri Shostakovich
(Zoya, Michurin, Hamlet)
* William Walton
(Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III)
* Ralph Vaughan Williams
(41st Parallel, Scott of the Antarctic)
* Malcolm Arnold
(The Bridge on the River Kwai)
* Toru Takemitsu
(Dodes’ka-den, Ran)
* Richard Rodney Bennett
(Murder on the Orient Express, Equus)
* John Corigliano
(The Red Violin)
* Philip Glass
(Kundun, The Hours)
____

11. The Influence of Television

* Laurence Rosenthal
(Peter the Great, Young Indiana Jones Chronicles)
____

12. Musical Styles and Developments of the 1990s and Beyond

* Alexandre Desplat
(The Queen, Argo, Grand Budapest Hotel)
* Danny Elfman
(Batman, Edward Scissorhands)
* Michael Giacchino
(The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up)
* Elliot Goldenthal
(Alien 3, Frida)
* James Horner
(Braveheart, Titanic)
* James Newton Howard
(The Sixth Sense, The Village)
* Randy Newman
(The Natural, Avalon)
* Thomas Newman
(American Beauty, Finding Nemo)
* Rachel Portman
(Emma, The Cider House Rules)
* Howard Shore
(The Lord of the Rings trilogy)
* Alan Silvestri
(Forrest Gump)
* Hans Zimmer
(Gladiator, The Dark Knight, Inception)
____

 

[GerateWohl 4,373]

22 hours ago, Bespin said:

I found the course details for a seminar on Film Music History by John Burlingame on the web.

 

It's always interesting to discover the selected composers and their works when its done by an expert.

 

I would like to share the composers and works selected... I reworked the section titles a bit.

Source: https://pdfcoffee.com/history-of-film-music-pdf-free.html

 

____

 

1. Transition to Sound and Pioneering Efforts (the 1930s)

* Max Steiner - RKO, Warner Bros.
(King Kong, Gone With the Wind, Now Voyager,  Casablanca)
* Alfred Newman - United Artists, 20th Century-Fox
(Wuthering Heights, The Song of Bernadette, How the West Was Won)
* Herbert Stothart - MGM
(The Good Earth, The Wizard of Oz, Random Harvest)
_______

2. The Golden Age

* Erich Wolfgang Korngold
(The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, Kings Row)
* Miklos Rozsa
(Double Indemnity, Spellbound, Quo Vadis, Ben-Hur)
* Franz Waxman
(Sunset Boulevard, A Place in the Sun, The Spirit of St. Louis)
* Dimitri Tiomkin
(Lost Horizon, High Noon, The Alamo)
* Victor Young
(For Whom the Bell Tolls, Shane, Around the World in 80 Days)
______

3. Exploring New Frontiers

* Bernard Herrmann
(Citizen Kane, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Vertigo, Psycho)
* David Raksin
(Laura, Forever Amber, The Bad and the Beautiful)
* Hugo Friedhofer
(The Best Years of Our Lives)
* Hans J. Salter
(The Wolf Man)
* Roy Webb
(Cat People, Notorious)
_____

4. Emerging Talents of the ‘50s and ‘60s

* Alex North
(A Streetcar Named Desire, Spartacus, The Misfits)
* Leonard Rosenman
(East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, Fantastic Voyage)
* Elmer Bernstein
(Man With the Golden Arm, Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird)
* Jerome Moross
(The Big Country)
_____

5. Emerging Talents of the ’60s and ‘70s

* Jerry Goldsmith
(Planet of the Apes, Patton, Chinatown, Star Trek: The Motion Picture)
* Henry Mancini
(Touch of Evil, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Pink Panther)
* John Barry
(Goldfinger, The Lion in Winter, Out of Africa)
_____

6. Jazz Composers in Film

* Johnny Mandel
(I Want to Live!, The Sandpiper)
* Quincy Jones
(The Pawnbroker, In Cold Blood, In the Heat of the Night)
* Dave Grusin
(On Golden Pond, The Firm)
* Terence Blanchard
(25th Hour, Inside Man)
_____

7. Emerging Talents of the ‘70s and ‘80s

* Lalo Schifrin
(Cool Hand Luke, Dirty Harry, Enter the Dragon)
* Jerry Fielding
(The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, The Outlaw Josey Wales)
_____

8. Renaissance of the Symphonic Score

* John Williams
(Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars, Schindler’s List)

****

9. European Composers

* Ennio Morricone
(The Good, the Bad & the Ugly; The Mission)
* Nino Rota
(8 1/2, Romeo and Juliet, The Godfather)
* Maurice Jarre
(Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago)
* Georges Delerue
(Jules et Jim, Day for Night, Agnes of God)
* Michel Legrand
(The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Thomas Crown Affair, Summer of ’42)
_____

10. Classical Composers in the Cinematic Realm

* Leonard Bernstein
(On the Waterfront)
* Aaron Copland
(The Red Pony, The Heiress)
* Sergei Prokofiev
(Alexander Nevsky)
* Dmitri Shostakovich
(Zoya, Michurin, Hamlet)
* William Walton
(Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III)
* Ralph Vaughan Williams
(41st Parallel, Scott of the Antarctic)
* Malcolm Arnold
(The Bridge on the River Kwai)
* Toru Takemitsu
(Dodes’ka-den, Ran)
* Richard Rodney Bennett
(Murder on the Orient Express, Equus)
* John Corigliano
(The Red Violin)
* Philip Glass
(Kundun, The Hours)
____

11. The Influence of Television

* Laurence Rosenthal
(Peter the Great, Young Indiana Jones Chronicles)
____

12. Musical Styles and Developments of the 1990s and Beyond

* Alexandre Desplat
(The Queen, Argo, Grand Budapest Hotel)
* Danny Elfman
(Batman, Edward Scissorhands)
* Michael Giacchino
(The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up)
* Elliot Goldenthal
(Alien 3, Frida)
* James Horner
(Braveheart, Titanic)
* James Newton Howard
(The Sixth Sense, The Village)
* Randy Newman
(The Natural, Avalon)
* Thomas Newman
(American Beauty, Finding Nemo)
* Rachel Portman
(Emma, The Cider House Rules)
* Howard Shore
(The Lord of the Rings trilogy)
* Alan Silvestri
(Forrest Gump)
* Hans Zimmer
(Gladiator, The Dark Knight, Inception)
____

 

Wonder why in the european composers section there is such a focus on French composers and why British composers like Christopher Gunning, Patrick Doyle or William Alwyn are so under represented. But of course you must focus on something.

[Bespin 8,484]

@GerateWohl For my defense, it must be admitted that I am diverting a course focused on the history of film music to create, in fact, a kind of "best-of" of essentials here. If you were to look at his original course, there are other weeks dedicated, for example, to animated films (Disney, Pixar), to the era when there were "supervisors" for film music, to the scores composed around existing "songs" too, etc. Undoubtedly, in his course, he addresses many more composers at a high level than what is listed here. Nevertheless, I found it relevant because even for me, it provides a small list of composers and works to discover.