Favorite Hollywood composers?

[Admiral Valdemar]

Hmm, I found "Dream Is Collapsing", "Mombasa" and "Time" to be the best tracks. Though I'm kind've relistening to the melancholic tracks of The Descent again.

[Elfdart]

You can't go wrong with Max Steiner:

[The Yosemite Bear]

Henry Mancini and Ennio Marricone, dammit some of the best music in movies have come from those two.

though Mancini is mostly known for TV, (Green Hornet, Peter Gunn, Remington Steele etc.) he did give movies and the animated cartoons the wonderful Pink Panther Theme.

[Big Orange]

Hans Zimmer has really progressed and developed as a composer in a relatively short space of time: The Peacemaker from 1997 had a pretty repetitive and generic action-thriller score done by Zimmer, though he was already getting much better with Gladiator and PotC: The Curse of the Black Pearl by the early 2000s.

And I really like Jerry Goldsmith's main theme for the otherwise schlocky and offensive King Solomon's Mines (a blatant Indiana Jones rip-off).

[Shroom Man 777]

I do not like how in Gladiator, The Rock and Pirates it sounded as though Hans Zimmer was just reusing his generic "bombastic action scene music" music.

I'm gonna go with Ennio Morricone. That guy is amazing. Why the fuck does Hollywood not use more guys like him? Man, every movie you see nowadays sounds like it's got music from Hans Zimmer or Danny Elfman or John Williams and just those guys. Bah.

[Rye]

Gladiator wasn't that generic; (I don't have it on hand) but I distinctly recall a variation on Mars, bringer of war in it that was kinda cool.

Here we go:



I love fucked up music, here's an "inspirational" one from Irreversible, by Thomas Bangalter, one half of Daft Punk.



The Advent Children version of "One Winged Angel" from FF7 is bollock-tearingly awesome. Kinda cheating since it's not hollywood, but fantastic, talented composer. Nobuo Uematsu.

[Whiplash]

Hmm, I found "Dream Is Collapsing", "Mombasa" and "Time" to be the best tracks. Though I'm kind've relistening to the melancholic tracks of The Descent again.

From Inception, the best is easily 528491, then listen to Dream is Collapsing right after, it flows right into it.

Are you kidding? David Arnold does amazing work, even if the last two Bonds didn't have a full 60-90 minutes of music I really liked (they really aren't his best with only a select few tracks worth hearing outside the context of the film). His best works were more like StarGate, ID4 and TND, or the main theme to Wind Commander

The Bond scores haven't been good as of late, I don't even think I once acknowledged it mid movies.

Don't let the analogy put you off, it's still Zimmer, just with a more Bond kind of aura given the film's plot.

I actually bought it yesterday without having seen the film.

Um ... you kind of need to see the film to fully get the context of the scores. I've honestly never heard of anyone doing this before.

As for my favorites, of course I'm gonna say Hans Zimmer, but I'll also throw in Danny Elfman (Terminator Salvation and Wanted, at least that's I know him), John Murphy (28 Days later), Nicholas Hooper (Half-Blood Prince, easily the best of the Harry Potter scores), I'll also give some credit to Michael Giacchino for Star Trek, the entire thing doesn't stand too well on its own, but with the movie, the entire thing is great.

[Terralthra]

I must agree about Star Trek's music. The best part of that movie was the main theme. The lead-in from the the violins playing over clarinets to the timpani bringing in the brass...it's sumptuous. My favorite "moment" of the movie - the Enterprise rising out of the atmosphere of Titan - is only as epic a moment as it is because of the main theme rising with the ship.

The moments that the theme is reprised with solely the baritones and euphoniums are also great.

[JLTucker]

Don't let the analogy put you off, it's still Zimmer, just with a more Bond kind of aura given the film's plot.

I actually bought it yesterday without having seen the film.

Um ... you kind of need to see the film to fully get the context of the scores. I've honestly never heard of anyone doing this before.

Of course I didn't listen to it before seeing it and I didn't even imply that I did.

[Whiplash]

Of course I didn't listen to it before seeing it and I didn't even imply that I did.

My bad, I didn't see the date of your post.

So why didn't you like it (I'm just curious)? I'm literally "rocking out" to that shit as I type this.

[Rye]

This thread reminds me; I did a cover of John Murphy's "Surface of the Sun" that I might as well post here.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1612143/surface.mp3

[JLTucker]

Of course I didn't listen to it before seeing it and I didn't even imply that I did.

My bad, I didn't see the date of your post.

So why didn't you like it (I'm just curious)? I'm literally "rocking out" to that shit as I type this.

I love it now, after listening to it on a mediocre sound system. It's not very good through headphones.

[Whiplash]

You need better headphones, I love it on my speakers, but its almost as good on a decent pair of skullcandys.

[JLTucker]

You need better headphones, I love it on my speakers, but its almost as good on a decent pair of skullcandys.

Your chest vibrates while listening to it with your headphones?

[The Yosemite Bear]

oh and Mancini




Ennio Marricone



so you can see why I like them

[Whiplash]

Slight necro, but after listening to the score for 'The Social Network', I'm gonna say that Trent Reznor's & Atticus Ross' work for that movie are definitely worth listening to.

[JLTucker]

Slight necro, but after listening to the score for 'The Social Network', I'm gonna say that Trent Reznor's & Atticus Ross' work for that movie are definitely worth listening to.

It's pretty good, but I can't listen to it over and over because I don't love that style of music. Of all the Oscar buzz surrounding The Social Network, it's doubtful that it will receive a nomination for best score due to the use of "In the Hall of the Mountain King."

[Whiplash]

Say what you will about their version of 'In the Hall of the Mountain King', but in context of that scene, it worked.

[JLTucker]

Say what you will about their version of 'In the Hall of the Mountain King', but in context of that scene, it worked.

It's a great track, don't get me wrong, but I was just pointing out that it will most likely be disqualified for an Oscar because of that track, just like Inception's score suffers the same fate because of the use of Édith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien."

[Thanas]

Basil Poledouris has been named already in this thread, but I just wanted to throw one work by him out:



One of the best choral pieces I have heard in a movie.

[Isolder74]

Edit: Double posts are evil!

[Isolder74]

Just off the top of my head:

Alan Silvestri
Basil Poledorus
Bernard Hermann
Danny Elfman
Ennio Morricone
Hans Zimmer
Howard Shore
James Horner
Jerry Goldsmith
John Williams

Probably some I'm forgetting.

Well Henry Mancini for one.

The Great Mouse Detective.

[Elfdart]

Basil Poledouris has been named already in this thread, but I just wanted to throw one work by him out:



One of the best choral pieces I have heard in a movie.

Poledouris was one of the best. My favorite was Quigley Down Under. The main theme was sort of an up-tempo version of the score he did for Lonesome Dove, but this score includes much more variety in its themes, from the fight music to the slower parts:



It helps that it's a fun movie, where a great villain gets his comeuppance in such a humiliating manner:

[The Yosemite Bear]

finally someone besides me whose pro-mancini, I have always found his work to be rather fun. So he did both a lot of Television, and a lot of movies.