What do you consider the greatest score you ever heard for a movie? Who was the composer?
Well, I can only think of a few that even stick out to me and they are completely different genres
"Pink Panther" (Henry Mancini) puts a smile on my face every time I hear it. One of my fondest memories came from a different Mancini song "Baby Elephant Walk" (which I guess he wrote for a movie I never saw called "Hitari"). Anyway, I used to wake up my daughter who was about a year old, by putting my Mancini record on and playing "Baby Elephant Walk" and turning it up. I'd walk into the bedroom to get her and she'd be hanging on to the top of the railing jumping up and down and laughing because she loved that song so much. Boy do I miss those days :(
Others
"Sky Fall" (James Bond movie - theme song written and sung by Adele) very dramatic and showcases Adele's talent. Was played as its theme song in Bond's Sky Fall (played by Daniel Craig) in which he appeared to be a goner as he sunk deep into the sea.
"You Could Be Mine" (Terminator 2 - theme song written by Axel Rose, sung by Guns and Roses) radical riffs that pretty much summed up the radical movie...LOL
My vote for single theme song would have to go to Adele's "Sky Fall" for it's perfection in voice quality and synced with the scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XqdBiifUj8
If you mean musical scores throughout entire movies I'd probably go with some of Tarantino's movies. He had a way of putting eclectic songs together that actually enhanced all his movies. He even used "Bang, Bang" an enhanced re-digitized version of Nancy Sinatra used in "Kill Bill" to create the dramatic opening of "killing" Beatrix (The Bride) played by Uma Thurman. Regardless, he always tended to bring excellent (however eclectic) songs into his movies...for example, using a late 50's teen song "Woo Hoo" sung by the modern Japanese band, "5.6.7.8" during a slaughter scene...or Daryl Hannah coming to kill Beatrix while whistling "Twisted Nerve"....LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxJrdCIejus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BzQ0ytaJtk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CamXKi002Q
Tarantino also picked the musical scores for "Desperado" starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. Like I said earlier, he had eclectic tastes and married songs to scenes that enhanced the movie. It was cool that the movie used the lead singer Tito as one of the bad guys in the movie (he was the guy who ran his finger across his throat to signal to Cheech to shoot the guy with Tarantino). [as a side note before someone jumps all over me, Tarantino did NOT write Desperado - that was done by Robert Rodriguez who collaborated with his best friend Tarantino to put the music together]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfWTOgWybys
A scene from "Desperado" sung by Tito and Tarantula called "Back to the House"
That's all I got. There are some great scores in some Christmas movies, but can't put my finger on any
I am a REAL fan of movie musicals, so for me, there are simply too many to name, but my personal list is probably headed by the Irving Berlin classics (White Christmas, Holiday Inn... I'll stop there!).
As you all probably know, most (but not all) movie musicals started out as Broadway shows.... so.... I've got to mention the obvious Broadway names (Sondheim, Gershwin, Bernstein, Lloyd-Webber).
But it may be that Steven Schwartz is my favorite, because he's roughly my age, went to school here in PA (Carnegie Mellon) and writes the type of music I often compose.
Some may ask, "Steven who?" Well, he wrote the music and lyrics to Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, The Baker's Wife and... last but not least... Wicked.
IMHO, Wicked could be the greatest Broadway musical ever (truly brilliant music/lyrics... a masterpiece that is on a par with, or better than, the greatest works of any of the above-mentioned Broadway composers).
Bob
THANKS for being the first to answer Jolly. I love the Baby Elephant Walk. But I'm not looking for songs. I'm looking for overall musical scores as the necessary background music. For example, here's my all-time favorite score:
BEN HUR by Miklos Rozsa.
Quote from: jimv on May 11, 2022, 09:30:51 AM
THANKS for being the first to answer Jolly. I love the Baby Elephant Walk. But I'm not looking for songs. I'm looking for overall musical scores as the necessary background music. For example, here's my all-time favorite score:
BEN HUR by Miklos Rozsa.
Okay...thanks for clearing that up. I believe music is instrumental (no pun intended) to the success of movies, shows, etc. There are some brilliant composers out there like my favorite Gershwin or Aaron Copland. I personally thought Henry Mancini was a genius, but he defined a completely different genre than Gershwin or Copland
Quote from: jimv on May 11, 2022, 09:30:51 AM
THANKS for being the first to answer Jolly. I love the Baby Elephant Walk. But I'm not looking for songs. I'm looking for overall musical scores as the necessary background music. For example, here's my all-time favorite score:
BEN HUR by Miklos Rozsa.
jim: Thanks for reminding me that I missed a chance to mention the "music-without-lyrics" guys like John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman.
I revere all three of them and consider them on a completely different "plane" from my meager vantage-point (on the bottom looking up!!!).
I also want to give "honorable mention" to the guy who composed the theme to the Perry Mason original TV show. LOL!!! His name is Fred Steiner.
Bob
Here's a couple more on my list:
2. BIG Country by Jerome Moross
3. MAGNIFICENT SEVEN by Elmer Bernstein
I've never had the opportunity to watch a Broadway show in NYC, but I did watch two shows while in London back in the 90's. However, the music was irrelevant in both. Being a pianist (not exactly Chopin, but I can hammer out some songs) I ended up playing a bit of classical stuff in my life...my favorite probably being Beethovin's, Sonata 14 (better known as Moonlight Sonata to most) that I play quite well. I also got pretty good at Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, but never good enough to want to be on stage playing it before a crowd. I spent half my life trying to perfect Malague
I have watched my fair share of musicals. Anything with Fred Astaire in it is accompanied by a great score. If I have to choose though, my favorite movie scores are:
Holiday Inn - Not sure of the composer
Yankee Doodle Dandy - George M. Cohan
&
The Nightmare Before Christmas - Danny Elfman
There are a lot of great ones though.
Quote from: ozzie on May 12, 2022, 01:05:52 PM
I have watched my fair share of musicals. Anything with Fred Astaire in it is accompanied by a great score. If I have to choose though, my favorite movie scores are:
Holiday Inn - Not sure of the composer IRVING BERLIN
Yankee Doodle Dandy - George M. Cohan
&
The Nightmare Before Christmas - Danny Elfman
There are a lot of great ones though.
Still NOT what I'm looking for. THANKS anyway, ozzie.
not sure but here goes.
Rocky - Bill Conti
The Godfather- Nina Rota
The Good Bad Ugly -Ennio Morricone
The Princess Bride. Or maybe it just that I think Mark Knopfler is a incredible musician.
Bill
I was also going to say the Good, The Bad and the Ugly as my #1
After that
Rocky
Jaws
Any of the Indiana Jones Movies
Nigh Noon
Magnificent Seven
ET
The Godfather
Psycho
Star Wars
Any of the Pink Panther movies (come on, I stasrt humming it as soon as I think of it)
The Third Man
Quote from: LennG on May 15, 2022, 09:28:40 PM
I was also going to say the Good, The Bad and the Ugly as my #1
After that
Rocky
Jaws
Any of the Indiana Jones Movies
Nigh Noon
Magnificent Seven
ET
The Godfather
Psycho
Star Wars
Any of the Pink Panther movies (come on, I stasrt humming it as soon as I think of it)
The Third Man
Len: Good list. I never seem to think of either The Godfather or The Third Man when answering a question like this, but those IMO are two great choices. Bob
A movie that I just thought of that should probably be on this list...Chariots of Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSav51fVlKU
Quote from: Jolly Blue Giant on May 19, 2022, 12:55:30 PM
A movie that I just thought of that should probably be on this list...Chariots of Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSav51fVlKU
I don't really remember the entire score but the theme music was magnificent.
You can also add
The Exorcist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfIOEdIEqbo&ab_channel=GeekMusic-Topic
Halloween
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT4FY3NrhGg&ab_channel=RodrigoCantillano
And for Bob--Theme from the Third Man (I just love that Zither music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsR8H8u24kE&ab_channel=AntonKaras-Topic
Assault on precinct 13. 1976 by John Carpenter
They died with their boots on. 1941 Max Steiner
Ok, I just watched two movies last night and for non-musicals I noticed how much a part of the movie the music was.
The music set the tone for so many scenes. These two films were the first two in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. "The Curse of the Black Pearl" & "Dead Man's Chest".
The music adds so much to the feel of the story and helps to take you wherever the characters go. Light when it needed to be and quite stirring, bold and accenting the action at more frantic times in the picture.
I have seen both pix before but watching last night, it's funny that this thread discussion kept entering my mind. So now I think I know what Jim's original purpose was in starting this thread.
Good thread!
A couple of my favorites have been identified so far. Here are two underdogs, both by the legendary composer, Maurice Jarre, that are both powerful and touch the core of my soul:
The first, is "Jesus of Nazareth" (1977):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Btjcoo3Wlg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Btjcoo3Wlg)
The second, is "Shogun" (1980):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56FK7m8V38g (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56FK7m8V38g)
I rate these as two of the greatest television miniseries I have ever watched in my lifetime. There certainly are others I have thoroughly enjoyed (e.g. The Blue and The Gray, Backstairs at the White House, Marco Polo) but with less impressive musical scores.
Peace!
Grease. It must be doing something correct
Rocky
Titanic
The Batman ( Robert Pattinson)
Rocky horror
Dirty dancing
Wizard of oz
Quote from: ralphpal on May 23, 2022, 01:16:18 AM
Grease. It must be doing something correct
Rocky
Titanic
The Batman ( Robert Pattinson)
Rocky horror
Dirty dancing
Wizard of oz
Ah, another Rocky Horror fan. I LOVED the score to that movie and still find myself humming Time Warp every once in a while.