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Top 10 Favorite Film Composers


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I know this has been asked before, but just not by me. :music:

So -- here are mine: (Granted, their place on the list variates according to score, my mood, new discoveries/additions, etc.)

---BUT AS OF RIGHT NOW---

1. John Williams

2. James Newton Howard

3. Alan Silvestri

4. Marc Shaiman

5. James Horner

6. John Barry

7. Randy Newman

8. Jerry Goldsmith

9. Rachel Portman/Elmer Bernstein

10. Hans Zimmer (and crew)

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1. John Williams

2. Alex North

3. Miklos Rozsa

These 3 guys are the masters of the epic, I love epic scores :(

4. Bernard Herrmann

5. Jerry Goldsmith

6. James Horner

7. Howard Shore

8. Don Davis

9. Alan Silvestri

10. Leonard Rosenman

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1. John Williams (or else I wouldn't be posting on a JW message board)

2. James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith (a tie!)

4. Alan Silvestri

5. David Arnold

6. Randy Newman

7. David Newman

8. Dennis McCarthy

9. Miklos Rosza

10. Wendy Carlos

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Cool! I would love to get a collection of Korngold scores. I'm not too familiar with the older composers, unfortunately.

But I will make forth the effort to change that soon. :(

"Guest" - did you like Badalamenti's score to Mulholland Drive?

Dan - curious

;) "The Beyondness of Things" from "The Beyondness Of Things" (Barry)

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1. John Williams

2. Jerry Goldsmith

3. James Horner

4. Michael Kamen

5. Hans Zimmer

6. Danny Elfman

7. David Arnold

8. Howard Shore

9. John Powell

10. Alan Silvestri

The top 3 are in order, the rest are all in one big group. Perpetual fourth place, if you will.

~Conor, who really like his movie composers

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I only have heard so many composers, so try to hold back your rage at my choices.

1. John Williams

2. Alan Silvestri

3. Jerry Goldsmith

4. Marc Shaiman

5. Michael Kamen

6. Phillip Glass

Those are mostly the only composers I have heard. I also have heard some stuff by Zimmer and Horner, but I don't think they're anything special.

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I like your list, Jason. I should help you out with discovering more composers.

Dan - choosing not to notice Jason's issues again

:music: "Nocturne with no Moon" from The Legend Of 1900 (Morricone)

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1.) John Williams

2.) Alan Silvestri

3.) Elmer Bernstein

4.) Danny Elfman

5.) Howard Shore

6.) John Barry

7.) James Horner

8) Hans Zimmer

9.) Michael Kamen

10.) Jerry Goldsmith

(I don't know much by some of the lower composers on the list, so that's subjective.)

Ray Barnsbury

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In No Particular Order (except #1!!! :music: )

John Williams

James Horner

Jerry Goldsmith

Hans Zimmer

Rachel Portman

James Newton Howard

Danny Elfman

Basil Poledouris

Howard Shore

Alan Silvestri

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1. John Williams

2. Hans Zimmer

3. Alan Silvestri (This guy is slowly creeping up :music: )

4. John Debney

5. Trevor Jones

6. Randy Newman

7. Jerry Goldsmith

8. Basil Poledouris

9. James Newton Howard

10. Danny Elfman

Justin - :)

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1. John Williams

2. Danny Elfman

3. Alan Silvestri

4. James Horner (although he's written as much crap as good scores)

5. David Arnold (although he hasn't done anything good in a while)

6. Jerry Goldsmith

7. Marc Mancina

8. Hans Zimmer

9. James Newton Howard

10. John Debney

-Jason, who just realized those are almost all of the composers he has more than 3 CDs of, and who has 300+ score cds.

:music: The Lost World (complete)

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1-John Williams

2-Jerry Goldsmith

3-John Barry

4-James Horner

5-David Arnold

6-Bruce Broughton

7-Alan Silvestri.

8-DannyElman

9-Ennio Morricone

10-?

K.M.Who mostly has almost all Williams albums and boots,lots of Goldsmith,some Horner and a few Barry...the rest is a mixed bag which I don't listen to often.

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I like your list, Jason.  I should help you out with discovering more composers.

Dan - choosing not to notice Jason's issues again

:music: "Nocturne with no Moon" from The Legend Of 1900 (Morricone)

What issues are these again? And by the way, I forgot to put Danny Elfman on my list.

-Jason

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John Williams

Alex North

Bernard Herrmann

Miklos Rozsa

Jerry Goldsmith

Alan Silvestri

David Arnold

John Barry

Howard Shore

Don Davis

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I'll not include Williams (who is the number one) and so i'll include another name.

Not in a particular order...

1. Jerry Goldsmith

2. Basil Poledouris

3. John Ottman

4. Alan Silvestri

5. John Debney

6. Danny Elfman

7. Christopher Young

8. Carter Burwell

9. Trevor Jones

10. Joel Mcneely

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1. John Williams

2. Danny Elfman

3. Michael Nyman

4. Nino Rota

5. Patrick Doyle

6. Gabriel Yared

7. John Barry

8. Maurice Jarre

9. James Horner

10. Hans Zimmer

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Like your list Tippett :) Remind me of my own. But..... these other people. I find it hard to comprehend how you have Danny Elfman so high.

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Why Elfman such a high place?

Because I love so much his scores for Edward Scissorhands, Sommersby and Black Beauty. I must admit: the last few years, he can't impress me anymore... So, maybe for this reason, I shouldn't have put him that high place.

Morgaine

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1. John Williams

2. Jerry Goldsmith

3. Hans Zimmer

4. Max Steiner

5. Alex North

6. John Barry

7. Thomas Newman

8. Trevor Jones

9. Danny Elfman

10. Alan Silvestri

Most of this list is subject to change(it depends on my mood, I guess), but I guarantee that the top 2 will NEVER change! :!:

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In no particular order (other than Williams at the top):

1. John Williams

2. John Barry

3. James Horner

4. Patrick Doyle

5. Erich Korngold

6. Jerry Goldsmith

7. Michael Kamen

8. Trevor Jones

9. Lee Holdridge

10. William Walton

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1. John Williams

2. Ummm... Hold on....

I then have no particular order because I'm not a HUGE film buff, film score buff, or classical music buff. But here are a few that I do like...

-Vince DiCola (Transformers: The Movie & Rocky 4. I'm probably his greatest promoter! LOL! Nobody else knows who he is or if they do they almost never talk about him!)

-John Barry (The Black Hole got me INTO Williams' Star Wars scores, and then the rest is history. However, I don't have much of his music because whenever I hear it in a film, it all sounds too similar to The Black Hole for me to desire searching it out.)

-James Horner (I LOVE Braveheart. But I don't like anything else much at all... bores me.)

-Bill Conti (Love his Rocky 1-3, & 5 scores, but have nothing else of his...)

-Danny Elfman (Love his Batman scores, but oddly I have nothing else of his...)

-Basil Poledouris (Conan The Barbarian is an awesome score... Riders Of Doom is unbelievable. Have little else.)

-John Debney (Cutthroat Island is a very fun score, but I have nothing else of his.)

-Jerry Goldsmith (I have a bunch of his CDs... 2nd to Williams in quantity... but I can't get into his music at all, except maybe ST:TMP, and even that only slightly. Dunno why... not my thing I guess.)

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For what it's worth:

1) You-know-who

2) Jerry Goldsmith

3) James Horner

4) David Arnold

5) Alan Silvestri

6) John Barry

7) Basil Poledouris

8) Randy Edelman

9) Bruce Broughton

10) Michael Kamen

- Uni

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Present:

Elmer Bernstein

Bruce Broughton

Danny Elfman

Elliot Goldenthal

Jerry Goldsmith

James Newton Howard

Thomas Newman

Basil Poledoris

Rachel Portman

John Williams

Past:

Georges Auric

Aaron Copland

Georges Delerue

Hugo Friedhofer

Bernard Herrmann

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Alex North

Sergei Prokofiev

Nino Rota

Max Steiner

Dimitri Tiomkin

Franz Waxman

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Present:

Elmer Bernstein

Bruce Broughton

Danny Elfman

Elliot Goldenthal

Jerry Goldsmith

James Newton Howard

Thomas Newman

Basil Poledoris

Rachel Portman

John Williams

I hope that dosen't mean that Williams is on the bottom of the list? :music:

Justin -Who will have another chat with Eplicon about where his loyalties lie... 8O :sneaky2:

:mrgreen: Here I Am Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (Hans Zimmer)

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Why is Jerry Goldsmith so damn high on many of the lists? Quite frankly I think he is (at least currently) one of the weakest Hollywood composers around. At best, his scores don't get in the way of the movie. What puzzles me most is why everyone seems to think his score for Star Trek - The Motion Picture is so brilliant. It may be, well, experimental but that most certainly does not make it a good score (I find it difficult watching the movie and not finding the music annoying at worst and amusing at best - especially that wretched Klingon theme that haunts Trek to this day). That's just one example. There are, IMHO, many more to choose from.

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I hope that dosen't mean that Williams is on the bottom of the list? 8O

Heh. I prefer to alphabetize my list just to be objective. Of course, next time to appease you, I will do the order in reverse. :(

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Okay, for whatever is worth, these are my guys:

1. John Williams (surprise, surprise 8O )

2. Alan Menken (yup, the disney guy!)

3. Andrew Lloyd Webber (if he counts)

4. Hans Zimmer (except for the early or drama scores)

5. James Newton Howard (Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense exclusively, oh well and the disney scores)

5. Randy Newman

I'll leave it at five, because otherwise the list would go on tangents.

-ROSS, who in one week will be going through the worst time of his life (I'm sure Luke Skywalker, the poster, knows what I mean: selectivity . . .)

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Why is Jerry Goldsmith so damn high on many of the lists? Quite frankly I think he is (at least currently) one of the weakest Hollywood composers around. At best, his scores don't get in the way of the movie. What puzzles me most is why everyone seems to think his score for Star Trek - The Motion Picture is so brilliant. It may be, well, experimental but that most certainly does not make it a good score (I find it difficult watching the movie and not finding the music annoying at worst and amusing at best - especially that wretched Klingon theme that haunts Trek to this day). That's just one example. There are, IMHO, many more to choose from.

Jerry certainly aint my favourite composer. I dont have that many scores of his right now. But i do admire him incredibly for taking risks and moving with the times. That man has changed his clothes so many times it amazes me. Of course, in taking that risk he has sometimes produced some pap. But he also scored some classic scores. He's rare in that he seems prepared to shed his entire style for which he is known, and do something utterly different for a movie. And not many film composers like taking that risk. I do prefer his older style though to be honest. Poltergeist,Omen2,ST motion picture etc. But i adore that main theme to Basic Instinct for example. So its all subjective really.

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Off the top of my head. The first three are more-or-less in sequence.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

John Williams

Miklos Rozsa

Bernard Herrmann

Franz Waxman

Sir William Walton

Aaron Copland

Nino Rota

Elmer Bernstein

Max Steiner

I would have included Prokofiev, Patrick Doyle and Victor Young (if only for "The Quiet Man"), but I had to restrict myself to ten!

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I couldn't name 10 composers that are my favorites since I don't have 10 favorite composers.

John Williams is my favorite without a doubt.

I love Jerry Goldsmith.

I like John Barry and James Horner.

I also love Pino Donaggio, composer of Carrie, Dressed to Kill, the Howlling, Raising Cain and Tourist Trap.

Joe, who is proud to be Pino's only apparant fan on this board.

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I also love Pino Donaggio, composer of Carrie, Dressed to Kill, the Howlling, Raising Cain and Tourist Trap.

Joe, who is proud to be Pino's only apparant fan on this board.

I just watched "Don't Look Now" again the other night. What a creepy film. It's the second time I saw it, and I'm still trying to put the whole thing together. I have the Daphne DuMaurier short story around here somewhere. I definitely must read it, to see what exactly was her and what was Nicolas Roeg. Anyway, unusual approach by Donaggio, for a ghost story, but very effective.

Then I watched "The Thing" remake, scored by Morricone, who was obviously taking lessons from John Carpenter. Hopefully he didn't blow the paycheck all in one place.

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1. John Williams

2. Alan Silvestri

3. Jerry Goldsmith

4. Marc Shaiman  

5. Michael Kamen

6. Phillip Glass

I also need to add Elmer Bernstein after hearing the main theme for the Magnificent Seven, and Hans Zimmer after hearing the stuff that he wrote for Backdraft.

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John Williams

Ennio Morricone

Hans Zimmer

Nino Rota

Angelo Badalamenti

James Horner

Danny Elfman

This Was My list. I forgot to log on when I posted. And why is there only 1 other mention of Ennio Morricone? :?

Jason

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