Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Composer's Lounge Name your favorite soundtrack composer.

Mine would have to be Thomas Newman. He has a knack for writing incredibly gorgeous themes. My favorite works of his are Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty, Erin Brokovich (sp?), Road To Perdition, and Green Mile.

His music really carries a movie to a much higher level.

I suggest to anybody enjoying soundtracks to give these a try.

I must admit having a soft spot for John Williams, to me his music is instantly recognisable and his orchestrations are usually very lush. Virtually everyone knows a movie theme that he has written, and that's no mean feat....

I do enjoy Thomas Newman though, and I think Shawshank especially is quite interesting as it adds to the atmosphere of the film without being too intrusive, and yet manages to be really original at the same time which is what scoring to accompany picture is all about.

I must admit though, that when I go to the cinema to see a film I really concentrate hard on the score, and I am finding more and more with a lot of the newer up and coming film composers that they ultimately lack a unique voice - went to see Stardust at the weekend, and although the music fit the film it just sounded like any other fantasy movie and didn't really bowl me over. Oh well, not that I could do any better....

Rachel Portman
Carter Burwell

I may be too old for this ( ), but I still love Alan Menken's musicals. Newsies, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Little Shop of Horrors...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZZEAKTc4Y4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd07uvkTeKo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOtMizMQ6oM

Yeah, I have to agree about Thomas Newman? Give the Angels in America theme a listen. It shows that there are still new things you can do with an orchestra. He provides originality in a music genre that really needs it! And his melodies are great..

I like all the above but also really like John Barry.

rada
www.pianopassions.com

Barry's hallmarks are the Bond films. I have some of his own compositions also that were presumably written for his own pleasure, and they are instantly recognisable, very easy to listen to and quite nice indeed.

A few of my faves:

Alan Silvestri - Forrest Gump
Vangelis - Blade Runner, The Bounty
Yann Tiersen - Amelie
John Williams - Star Wars, Memoirs of a Geisha, numerous others...

Hans Zimmer, of course

ddh, Hans Zimmer's "Crimson Tide" is one of my all-time favorites. Stunning!!!

Alan Silvestri's "Forrest Gump" is also a lesson in melodic writing. Simple & elegant. The theme for Forrest Gump supposedly came to him in 10 min. Wow!

I like Silvestri, too. The Contact soundstrack was very good.

And although we're talking soundtracks and not songs, I have to mention a towering genius of movie songwriting:

Randy Newman.

Ahh, Blade Runner soundtrack by Vangelis is outstanding, one I forgot to mention is Ennio Morricone...

I absolutely love the music in Cinema Paradiso

I also like Yann Tiersen, John Barry and John Williams.
Another one for me is Zbigniew Preisner.

I have Preisner's Requiem for my Friend and 10 Easy piano pieces, which I love. Which films did he write for?

1. Ennio Morricone's "Once Upon a Time in America"
2. Ennio Morricone's "The Mission"
3. Ennio Morricone's "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso"
4. Randy Newman's "Ragtime"
5. Ennio Morricone's "Legend of 1900"

Hans Zimmer (I will confess to really liking the Muppet Treasure Island soundtrack enormously)

Mike Oldfield (Okay, he only did ONE soundtrack "The Killing Fields", but he's one of my all-time favorites, so I have to mention him!)

James Horner (yes, "Titanic" can still make me cry.)

Yann Tiersen (Amelie and Goodbye, Lenin)

Clint Mansell (Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain, which is currently one of my favorite soundtracks).

And how could I forget Vangelis, whose "The Bounty" and "Bladerunner" soundtracks are simply stunning?

Aaaggh! I can't believe I forgot Mark Knopfler, too, my favorite rock star! "Local Hero" is beautiful, as is "The Princess Bride."

Heaven & Earth - Kitaro
The Piano - Michael Nyman

Preisner's most famous scores are probably for Dekalog, The Three Colours Trilogy, Aberdeen, The Last September, The Secret Garden, The Double Life of Veronique and Fairytale.

I would recormmend the album 'Preisner's Music', which is a compilation of pieces from his film scores, recorded live underground in a Polish salt mine!