Obviously we're all fans of music here, and I'm betting almost everyone loves movies as well. So lets talk film music. Favorite scores, favorite composers, etc. Music is invaluable to a film - in fact, I'd go so far as to say I'm not sure I could sit through an entire film if it didn't have music. Film music, I've noticed, tends to be fucking fantastic more often than not. Even shitty movies have some wonderful scores.

My favorite film composers are Danny Elfman, Philip Glass and Carter Burwell (who I would say takes more than a page from Glass' book). Which is to say - I'm a fan of dark, quirky, lavishly melodic scores. Elfman has been suffering a lot lately - he gets used so much that some of his scores are merely pleasant but nothing truly gripping. But his past work is fucking untouchable. Beetlejuice, the first two Batman scores, Nightmare Before Christmas, etc. All wonderful. He also did a commissioned piece for a symphony orchestra entitled 'Seranada Schizophrenia' which is pretty magnificent.

Glass, though his film composing gig is more of a side-job, has also done some great stuff. The Hours, Secret Window, etc. I love it so much. Very haunting, morose, relaxing music.

Carter Burwell put out my favorite film score ever, for one of my favorite films ever: Being John Malkovich. Very Glass like, with a light of minor key arpeggios on the piano and glistening strings, etc. Great shit.

What about everyone else?

I adore Elfman's main theme for Men in Black.

Other than that, I don't know much about film score composers and such, but Basil Poledouris' soundtrack for Conan the Barbarian is stellar. One of the few things that can actually lure my goosebumps out of their hiding places.

Two other that come to mind are Vangelis' score for Blade Runner and Fight Club's whole soundtrack by The Dust Brothers. Two spot-on and individually awesome pieces of music.

Agree on Elfman's Men in Black theme. That whole OST is great stuff. Good movie, too, as far as goofy sci-fi comedy blockbusters go.

Yeah someone mentioned Conan, title track to that is amazing. The soundtrack to 1996 The Rock is also fucking epic. Gladiator also gets a nod here but I'm sure that is almost a given with all of us.

DOn't really listen to a lot of film music. Frankly most movies I've seen from the last few years have really boring music..just pleasant stuff that might as well be generated by a computer set to "epic", or "sad", or "stirring" as the need fits.


But I have been into collecting some old scores lately. Been listening to a lot of Morricone especially. Some of my favourite work of his is in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (a brilliant movie, too), Danger, Diabolik, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, A Fistful of Dollars etc. The man's done music for hundreds of movies and seems capable of anything, from beautiful orchestral pieces to jazz to loud psychedelic rock madness.

^ Have you heard the album The Director's Cut by Fantomas? Real cool version of Morricone's Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion theme on there. The whole album is just re-workings of classic movie themes, mostly horror.

I collect film soundtracks on vinyl, mostly horror/sci-fi, lots of giallos etc. My most recent acquisition was the Inseminoid soundtrack on LP, classic synth shit.

I got Lalo Schifrin's main theme for Enter the Dragon as my ringtone and used to have John Barry's main theme for Game of Death before it. And before that I had Riz Ortolani's "Drinking Coco" from Cannibal Holocaust. Big fan of film music.

Goblin have done soundtracks for a lot of horror films. Suspiria and Zombi are essential listening. Popul Vuh have also released a couple of soundtracks as well which are worth listening to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYqW-UyN5mg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub-B9cwtYl4

Van helsing's soundtracks are awesome.

I agree for the most part but there are exceptions for me such as the film, No Country For Old Men. The movie had very minimal music and and the vast majority of the movie had absolutely no music.



Carter Burwell also did the score for the film, Fargo, which is a favorite of mine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4NCC0dUXks

Among my top favourites are John Carpenter and Alan Howarth's score for Halloween 3: Season of the Witch (mediocre horror film but excellent synth score), Poltergeist III score by John Renzetti (the score goes hand in hand with the truly unusual creepy vibe of the movie), Lalo Schifrin's rejected score for The Exorcist, One Hour Photo by Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek (Short but incredibly haunting score), the incredibly moving score for Candyman by Phillip Glass, Cube (1997) score, the rest of the score is forgettable but Jonathan Elias theme for Children of the Corn and Inception by Hans Zimmer (Zack Hemsey has nothing on Zimmer, I liked Hemsey's Mind Heist song but his studio albums prove he can't replicate it's excellence).

No soundtrack thread can go without a mention of Ennio Morricone, undoubtedly one of the best and my personal favorite.

Angelo Badalamenti's stuff is usually pretty compelling, especially his collaborations with David Lynch.



I liked him in Koyaanisqatsi, at first I found the soundtrack for that film too oppressive but later realized that was exactly the point.

Baraka, another documentary, has some great ambient stuff including Dead Can Dance and Michael Stearns.

Has anyone but me noticed the increased presence of the Inception "BWONNNG!!!!" in modern blockbuster soundtracks? The newest Transformers movie was especially guilty of this.

For me, one cannot beat John Williams' soundtracks for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies.

Yes, Prometheus has something similar but with the original squealing from the first Alien teaser incorporated. They take something that's good and over use it to hell. They did the same with Requiem for a Dream and Saw.

God, every fucking trailer these days has some variation on that sound. It was awesome when District 9 did it, got perfected in the Inception trailer, and everything since has just been so transparent and pathetic.

I just got done watching Edward Scissorhands and it was a nice reminder of how Danny Elfman can be. I also like John Williams and Hans Zimmer, though probably not as much as I admire Elfman.

Ennio Morricone's work, especially with Sergio Leone's films, is peerless. I also like some of Hans Zimmer's stuff, esp. on Hannibal & Broken Arrow (Duane Eddy!). And James Horner's work on Star Treks II & III.

Barry De Vorzon's contributed about 3 spaced out tracks for The Warriors 1979, which oddly enough were enough to help make the ghetto flick the epic that it is. The opening sequence in the subways with the lights blazing by is cool as fuck. I wish he had done the whole film's score.

Yeah. The album's pretty neat, though a bit goofy at times. Still, great that they paid tribute to this amazing film and score, along with a bunch of others. The Devil Rides Out um, remix, is hilarious.

Another band that paid tribute to classic horror scores was Morte Macabre from Sweden. Pretty sure I've plugged them on here before, but they do great renditions of music from The Beyond, City of the LIving Dead and Rosemary's Baby, plus an utterly fantastic version of the "Quiet Drops" theme from Beyond the Darkness.

I'm off to investigate them.

Enjoy! They only have the one album out, Symphonic Holocaust, but I think there may be some cool/different live shit floating around.

Anima Morte are great in this vein too - all original material, but sounds like a lost collab. between mid-period Goblin and Fabio Frizzi. Awesome stuff.

The collection of songs Eddie Vedder wrote for Into the Wild remains one of my favorite albums ever.

Quoted for high degree of veracity.

Obligatory Howard shore LOTR trilogy mention. The lighting of the beacons track restores my faith in humanity every time.

Howard Shore has a special place in my heart because of the Silence of the Lambs score. Such a stirring main theme....

First time I see someone here appreciate that masterpiece. May I suggest you also check out the score for American History X by Anne Dudley. Very similar style in terms of thematic flow and orchestration of instruments. Plenty of woodwinds, very intimate sounding strings, very light on brass, and with some great dramatic choirs. If you liked Silence of the Lambs, chances are you will love this one.

On the Batman scores... Although the Danny Elfman ones are really good, I kind of prefer Elliot Goldenthal's take on the character. He described his music best when he said that he wanted to introduce a sense of power and flight, which IMO worked extremely well with the crescendos and diminuendos in his main theme. It's like the Batman himself was flying by under the cover of the night. Plus his scores tend to have some humourous overtones in them, constantly reminding that it's a comic after all, whereas I remember the Elfman scores to be super serious all the time. Hell, I thought the main theme in the original could've been an awesome black metal song (probably by Emperor).

Definitely going to agree with that. Going to second Philip Glass as well, his score to The Truman Show was excellent. For action movies, I think Tyler Bates does a great job. I especially like his score for The Watchmen. Theres this really weird independent (I think) movie I watched that had an amazing score, but I can't remember its name for the life of me. The score kind of reminded me of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The movie had this repeating theme where the character would always meet someone for coffee and give them a matchbook.

I really dig Joe Hisaishi's work on all of the Hayao Miyazaki's films, especially "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke". Definitely worth checking out.

i have the star wars ost on vinyl. it's fucking boss
hurray for goodwill!

Same here
I got it for five dollars at Singles Going Steady in Seattle.

There are three soundtracks that I listen to a lot.

1: the Fantastic Planet
very trippy psychedelic rock, some flutes, very interesting drum patterns, etc.
Great to get high to.

2: Santa Sangre
It gives a very dark ambiance, and at times it becomes very cheesy music. Very cool

3: Blood for Dracula (aka Andy Warhol's Dracula)
One of the most beautiful compositions right here. The main song is replayed through different instruments,
piano, classic guitar, ... a must have.

I love the music in Fargo as well,especially the main theme.

Just watched Tarkovsky's Stalker, and it had some excellent music in it. I'll have go back and check who did the score. Great pan-flute, woodsy sounding shit. Creates a chilling contrast to the industrial wasteland most of the movie takes place in.

One of the greatest movie of all time. I should watch it again because I don't recall the music
Talking of the SW ost, one of my best friend have a disco version of the songs from A New Hope, really fucking fun, especially stoned.

HmmHHmmmm....Glass has been mentioned, he's pretty rad. I also really enjoyed Veder's soundtrack work.

Hmm...I think Dario Marianelli's work with Pride and Prejudice (the new one) is fantastic as well. But, i'm a sucker for minimalist piano compositions.

I'm hard pressed to think of a single film score that is as awe-inspiring as Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for Inception.
The main titles send chills down my spine. His work on Batman Begins and The Dark Knight films are pretty kick-ass, as well. Especially the thematic Joker stuff.

Also, Danny Elfman can pretty much do no wrong. Batman, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, The Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.

The Inception score definitely had some great moments, but that huge farting noise was so irritating. Especially in the theaters.

Most of my picks have been nominated already so I'll try to avoid excessive repetition.

Massive kudos for the Morricone love - his works for Sergio Leone are more mandatory than words can say, but pretty much his entire career is a goldmine.

Jerry Goldsmith is right up there with Danny Elfman in terms of atmospheric creepiness in my book, wiith Christopher Young trailing not too far behind. (Unrelated uncanny aside: when I bought the rerelease of Diabolical Masquerade's Nightwork, I found that Blakkheim cites these exact same three composers as influences for his solo project in the liner notes - great minds think alike )

Howard Shore is ace, too. The LotR trilogy music is among my favourite film scores ever, and his many collaborations with David Cronenberg aren't exactly rubbish either.

Basil Poledouris is rightfully remembered for his Conan scores, but I can't be the only one who gets shivers from his Robocop theme, can I?

I can't remember who composed those right now, but I recall Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind featured several smooth, somewhat simiplistic piano pieces that I found incredibly moving.



On the other hand, I hereby declare that Lux Aeterna or whatever that goddamn snippet from IRequiem for a Dream that pops up every-fucking-where is called has to be one of the most inexplicably, grotesquely overrated pieces of fucking shit to ever exist. Just had to get this off my chest at long last - no intent to derail the thread, and if you happen to like it, good for you, nothing personal. Venting is nice