I considered making this a poll, but I realized there are just way too many out there. Who do you consider to be one of the best composers for film scores? What movie helped bring you to this conclusion? WHY do you like the composer so much? I personally have a few, but in order:

1) Danny Elfman. No one can top this genious. Everything from Rock (Oingo Boing) to Edward Scissor Hands (one of the prettiest scores ever written is Ice Dance) to Jazz (He arranged all of the music for Chicago.) This man can do everything and anything. I believe him to be the most unique.

2) Jan A. P. Kaczmarek. He is a rising composer, but his latest work is the music of Finding Neverland, which I find absolutely enchanting. He is very Danny Elfman-like in his arrangements and choice of melodies, but he is aboslutely brilliant. I am actually listening to Finding Neverland as I type this, and it never ceases to amaze me.

3) Probably Alan Silvestri. Although he did rip off almost the entire score of The Polar Express from Danny Elfman's Edward Scissor Hands, he did compose Forrest Gump and the music to Van Helsing (as bad a movie as that was, the music was pretty damn cool.)

Those are probably my top three. Other's would include Han Zimmer because of Gladiator and Pirates of Penzance, and possibly John Williams, although all of his music sounds the same to me. Superman, Starwars, Indiana Jones...they all have almost the exact same theme and chord progression and they are all big and grand and like..."HERE I AM! I WAS WRITTEN BY JOHN WILLIAMS! THIS MOVIE ROCKS WOOOOHOOOO!" However, I do respect the music John Williams wrote for Saving Private Ryan, Harry Potter, and the 2002 Winter Olympics. My two cents...is anyone else even into music enough to tell me their favorites or notice the music in movies more than the actual movie itself?

You forgot Badalamenti. He's awesome too.

Danny Elfman, yes,
But You forgot to mention Nightmare before Chrismas,
One of his best /-

Nightmare Before Christmas is one of his best, as is the Finale theme from Batman. Spiderman kicks major @$$ and the music is super intense, but Big Fish has such beautiful music...Although I still believe Edward Scissor Hands is his best score (he does too, from what I've researched.) It is actually one of the scores that he enjoyed writing so much, he didn't have a "ghost writer" do any of it for him.

great thread, reamus!!! :ok:

my favourite composers are:

hans zimmer (the score for "the thin red line" was just marvellous)
howard shore (love him for his "lord of the rings" and "seven" music)
vangelis (amazing job on "bladerunner")
ennio morricone (nearly all of his work were amazing, imo)

of course there are others like john williams and ferry corsten, but the ones
mentioned above have entered my eternal olymp of movie composers for
suere :)

Howard Shore yes, I did not forget about him. And while I loved the Lord of the Rings music...I dunno :bleh: It's a personal taste.

The Bladerunner music was awesome...yeah...I never knew who did it though, so thanks.

Ennio Morcione. He wrote the music for The Mission didn't he? Gabriel's Oboe is one of the prettiest songs, even if it is only a minute and a half long. That oboe is so gorgeous...mmm...I think I might start listening to it right now! :-p

I also loved Hans Zimmer work on Backdraft. Man that's got a kickass theme.

ennio morricone wrote the score of "once upon a time in the west" and
"untouchables"! he's one of the most impressive composers known to hollywood, imo!

I pretty much agree with you. Danny Elfman is my favourite composer aswell, his themes are just so amazing, its breathtaking! I think his best score was that of Nightmare Before Christmas, I still remember the lyrics
"find a deep cave to hide in
in a million years they'll find me
only dust
and a plaque
which reads: here lies poor old jack"

The theme he made for Fable is pretty good too

Those two are definetly high on the list!

Vangelis made some other great tracks (including Platoon, 1492 - the Conquest of Paradise,...)
Enzio made some great scores, but I can't say all of it is great. Him and Sergio Leone made around 200 moves together, but only - "only" - about 15 of them would be really great.

I'd also have to add Cole Porter (most of the old school musicals - like High Society, Singing in the Rain,...).

But what interests me more is this:

-Which soundtrack is on your top 10 list (not only music writen for the movie, but also music that was used in a movie, even if writen for a completely different purpose - like: Also Sprach Zharatustra (by Richard Strauss), that was brilliantly used in Kubrick's 2001 (writen by Arthur C. Clarke).

Elton John from the Lion King.