Reed brought up an interesting point on one of the Pikey's postings that I have taken the liberty of expanding. All thoughts are welcome, this list is by no means comprehensive. Remember, these are what I consider essentials because they're high water marks in film history or a watershed for the folks that wrote them and not just because they're fun to listen to (That's the You own it, you love it, but you would never admit to it List. That being said Waterworld, Krull and First Knight are a few of my absolute favorites in that category).
In no particular order I submit film scores that every wannabe (like us) film composer should own or be familiar with:
Star Wars IV-VI - Duh. Like I'm going to start anywhere but here (Star Wars films are like Tchaikovsky symphonies; there are three of them and they are numbered 4, 5 and 6).
The Lord of the Rings (obviously Howard Shore's and not the well-crafted but crappy animated score by Leonard Rosenman)
Jaws
Superman
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Schindler's List
Planet of the Apes
The Omen
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
The Battle of Britain (both the Ron Goodwin and William Walton scores, conveniently packaged on one disc available from Varese Sarabande)
E.T.
Braveheart
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Vertigo
North by Northwest
Psycho
Batman
The Sea Hawk
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
The Magnificent Seven
To Kill A Mockingbird
Ben-Hur
Spellbound (Rozsa, 1945)
The Thin Red Line (is this Hans Zimmer's greatest score? it's incredible)
Alexander Nevsky (probably one of my top 5 greatest ever)
Patton (probably one of the greatest exercises in film scoring economy; 30 minutes of music for a 3-hour film. and not all of it was used in the final version).
Romeo and Juliet (Nino Rota)
El Cid
The Red Violin
Altered States (we may as well include it)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Mission
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Prince Valiant (Franz Waxman, 1954; the first film in cinemascope!)
Star Trek II
King of Kings
Signs
The Jungle Book (Rozsa, 1942)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Alex North's unused score)
The Matrix (an incredible use of post-minimalist concert hall technique blended into a one-of-a-kind score. I have a "bootleg" copy of the score that I recorded from the dvd, if anyone is interested)
Henry V (1989: singlehandedly revived Shakespeare and established the careers of both Ken Branagh and Patrick Doyle, whose Hamlet score is actually a much more refined composition)
10 comments:
How did you listen to Goblet of Fire??? I would very much like to hear it, too!!!
Harry Potter Soundtrack
Sweeeeeeeeeeet!!!
Looks like it's time to break out the old minidisc recorder!
Now that I've brought it up, Leonard Rosenman's score for the animated Lord of the Rings back in the '70s runs counter to my Melody vs. Structure posting earlier. It's a well-constructed composition, but it's not a very interesting piece in the long run. Actually I think it has more to do with the fact that Rosenman's music isn't very expressive in an emotional way to begin with.
There is no Godfather III, it was all just a government conspiracy to induce mass delusions upon the world population...it doesn't exist, it's a figment of our imaginations!
(or it might as well be!)
Final Fantasy:TSW is definately in the top five film scores of at least the last decade anyway. No one paid attention though because the movie was panned so terribly (and not necessarily deservedly so).
Bernard Herrmann's music was probably the most original force in Hollywood for a long time. When everyone else was basically writing in a post-Romantic style he was writing with a more modern sound. For a long time people thought his music was heavily cliche-ridden until they realised that he created the cliches! I believe his greatest scores are The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and North by Northwest. Vertigo and Psycho are great, but I think the others are better. I think that's why I like his and Miklos Rozsa's music so much. They're so much more "modern" sounding for their time.
BTW - I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've only seen The Godfather once and I've never seen II. Yes I know the sequel is far superior to the original.
That being said, I think that Nino Rota's music is absolutely terrific. I don't know Italian cinema that well but between his and Ennio Morricone's contribuions I should learn more.
Well it seems like this died a quick death.
Yeah, apologies too, I was kinda busy havin' a baby and all (not literally of course)...
Then again, no one else has really made a solid contribution to this yet either, so I guess it's just up to the two of us...yeah, I think we're qualified!
At any rate, this one's going to take a little time anyway.
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