Movie Score Composers

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Does anyone else adore the scores from movies?
I'm talking about the instrumental and/or orchestral compositions specifically for each movie, not the soundtracks (songs with lyrics).
Which movie composers do you like best?


A few of my favorites:

Randy Newman (The Natural, Maverick)
Thomas Newman (How to Make an American Quilt, Finding Nemo)
Marc Isham (Nell, At First Sight)
George Fenton (Ever After, Groundhog Day)
Marc Shaiman (Heart and Souls)
James Newton Howard (My Best Friend's Wedding)
Michael Kamen (Three Musketeers, Mr Holland's Opus)
Patrick Doyle (Great Expectations, Much Ado About Nothing)
John Williams (too many good ones to name)

I could add:

William Walton (Henry V)

Ralph Vaughan Williams (Scott of the Antarctic)

Jerome Moross - The Big Country

Alfred Newman - How the West Was Won, The Robe, A Man Called Peter, and countless others

Alfred Newman, of 'what, me worry?' fame?...

I like the one who scored all the Star Trek (natch.. shows and movies, and a few others...Gold-something (well, obviously I haven't been paying enough attention...

elancee, thanks for bringing me to this thread

These are stunning and wow to me but of course there is more if I start digging...

James Horner "Bicenntial Man" (1999)

Christofer Young "Entrapment" (1999)

Lalo Schifrin "Rollercoaster" (1977) and "Bullit" (1968)

Mark Mancina "MoneyTrain" (1995) "Speed" (1994 I think....)

John Williams "Jurrasic Park" (1996)

Ooh, James Horner! I forgot him. He did Titanic!

and I forgot to mention Titanic

I love danny elfmans work and the soundtrack for slumdog millionaire is great too.

I suppose two of the most memorable uses of original music in the movies would be Psycho (Bernard Hermann) and Jaws (John Williams), but I don’t think I’d listen to those soundtracks on their own for pleasure.

My own favourites would probably be

Ennio Morricone (in particular for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Once Upon A Time in America)
Vangelis (in particular for Blade Runner, and also for Chariots of Fire – even if it does sound a bit dated after all these years)
Philip Glass (for Koyaanisqatsi)
Ryuichi Sakamoto (for the first few minutes of The Last Emperor and for Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence)
Michael Nyman (for The Piano)
Ry Cooder (just for that slide guitar stuff from Paris, Texas)
Roy Budd (for Get Carter)
John Barry (for the James Bond stuff)
Sonny Rollins (for the first couple of minutes of the Alfie theme)
Bernard Hermann (for Taxi Driver)
Marvin Gaye (just for one track: ‘T Plays it Cool’ from Trouble Man)
Francis Ford Coppola (yes, the director - for Apocalypse Now – well, only the track called ‘Voyage’ really)
Popol Vuh (for Aguirre: Wrath of God)
Brian Eno (for the Prophecy theme from Dune)

Thomas Newman is my absolute favourite.

Ennio Morricone! Glad you mentioned him. I like the music from Untouchables and the Mission!

Tidbit: did you know that Randy Newman, Thomas Newman and Alfred Newman are related? Check out the last paragraph of this article <click>

John Williams
Danny Elfman
Bernard Herrmann {His score for "Psycho" is probably his best}
AR Rahman
David Arnold {Zoolander}

But my absolute favorite composers
are Randy Newman and Thomas Newman.

Are they brothers or cousins?

Cousins. Alfred is Thomas' father, Randy's uncle.

I could chat for eons with anyone who loves score music. It's the only kind of music I listen to, for the most part. I love it more than anyone could know. Here are just some of my favorites (not even thought out, I could list 30-50 more that rank among my favorites):

Ennio Morricone - Once Upon a Time in the West
Ennio Morricone - The Mission
Ennio Morricone - The Untouchables
Edward Shearmur - Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
John Debney - The Passion of the Christ
John Debney - Cutthroat Island*
Howard Shore - All 3 Lord of the Rings
Jerry Goldsmith - The Mummy
Jerry Goldsmith - The Edge
Jerry Goldsmith - Air Force One
John Williams - Superman
John Williams - Jurassic Park
John Williams - 1941
John Williams - Indiana Jones
John Williams - Rosewood
John Williams - Jaws
Nino Rota - The Godfather
James Horner - The Rocketeer
James Horner - Titanic
James Horner - Star Trek II
Alan Silvestri - The Mummy Returns
Alan Silvestri - Back to the Future
Alan Silvestri - Cast Away
Alan Silvestri - The Polar Express
David Arnold - Independence Day

*Probably my all-time favorite score

Anthony

Danny Elfman
Angelo Badalamenti

Goldsmith!, that's the guy!

Thought it was Goldberg, or some variation...