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American Film Institute (AFI) revealed the top 25 film scores of all time in The Big Picture--AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores, a one-night only presentation on September 23 produced by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association in cooperation with AFI. A jury of over 500 film artists, composers, musicians, critics and historians selected John Williams' iconic score from the classic film STAR WARS as the most memorable film score of all time. John Williams is additionally noteworthy as the most represented composer on the list with three scores making the top 25.

Rounding off the top 10 were film scores ranging in theme from sweeping epics to westerns, including: GONE WITH THE WIND (#2), composer Max Steiner; LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (#3), composer Maurice Jarre; PSYCHO (#4), composer Bernard Herrmann; THE GODFATHER (#5), composer Nino Rota; JAWS (#6), composer John Williams; LAURA (#7), composer David Raksin; THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (#8), composer Elmer Bernstein; CHINATOWN (#9) composer Jerry Goldsmith; and HIGH NOON (#10), composer Dimitri Tiomkin.

Spanning a century of film music and counting down from 25 to number one throughout the evening, Principal Conductor John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra performed excerpts from each of the winning scores, many of them accompanied by favorite movie scenes shown on the Bowl's big video screens. While television broadcasts have announced the previous eight installments of AFI's 100 Years... series, this event marks the first time an AFI countdown was revealed before a live audience.

Manus Celer Dei wrote:I would have said ESB had a better score. If only for the Imperial March.

Isolder74 wrote: I think they are lumping all the Star Wars Films togather

Dangermouse wrote:

Isolder74 wrote: I think they are lumping all the Star Wars Films togather

I am not sure if that is true. The AFI cite specifically cites Star Wars IV: A New Hope and gives only ANH's release date. I think they are considering the score from Star Wars only, not the entire series.

I think its interesting that the newest score is from 1986 (The Mission); most scores on the list are before the 80s.