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Posted: |
Feb 6, 2019 - 7:53 AM
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By: |
Leorx
(Member)
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Rank them after who you think did the best work most recently after your preference. Recently, meaning in the 21st century.
Note that I do not necessarily mean the 5 best living film composers, but the ones that have done the best work more recently according to you (in the 21st century). Elliot Goldenthal would make my list of top 5 living film composers, but he hasn't done that much in almost two decades in order to make it into my top 5.
My top 5 best working film composers right now would include:
1. Thomas Newman
2. Cliff Martinez
3. Lim Giong
4. John Williams
5. Ennio Morricone
(6. Elliot Goldenthal)
Morricone hasn't done much lately, but apparently he is scoring at least an upcoming film, so I am still counting him here.
Here is why I ranked them the way I did:
Newman and Martinez are best film composers working right now, even if it was some years ago since both of them did a really good score (especially Drive for Martinez, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel especially for Newman). Since these two scores of theirs that I just mentioned, they have done some good, solid work like say for instance The Neon Demon for Martinez and Passengers for Newman, but the aforementioned scores were their most recent best work. Who ranks the higher then? Ultimately I deicded to give Newman the edge, partly because of his score for Angels in America, which I probably even love more than Martnez's magnum opus Solaris, although if we would have excluded Newman's elegant televison score Angels in America as we maybe should have if we are limiting ourselves to only film music (since Angels in America is technically a television score), then Martinez would perhaps take the top spot).
For me, Newman and Martinez are ahead of everyone else when it comes to doing good work right now. But as I said before, it has been a handful or so of years since both of them did a really good score that went beyond good/solid.
Giong is with Martinez, the two best electronic film composers working right now, having done some wonderful work over the past 2 decades with the two best living directors, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Jia Zhangke. I probably re-visit Giong's best film music more than anything Williams has done in the last 2 decades and Giong's hit-rate is way higher than Williams's, who has done quite a few scores recently that I don't care for, such as The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse, The Book Thief and The BFG for instance. All competent scores, don't get me wrong, but unimpressive and pretty dull ones. Some of Giong's scores doesn't always make for outstanding standalone listens out of context, but I almost consistently like and connect with his often unconventional approach that probably scares away a lot score fans, especially those with a preference for traditional scores.
I find Williams and Morricone pretty close to each other when deciding who did the best work more recently, say in the new century, but I choose to favor Williams over Morricone mainly because the fact that I like A.I. more than any Morricone score from this century.
Going forward, since Morricone and Williams are old, and because Goldenthal seem to have semi-retired from film scoring, it does seem to me like Newman and Martinez are the brightest spots in film scoring right now and going foward. Giong to a lesser extent because I haven't heard anything from him yet that can stand with Newman's or Martinez's best.
Who are the 5 best film composers working right now according to you, how would you rank them after who has done the best work recently?
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didn't Morricone announce "retirement" recently and that he's only going to do films for one director now?
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1. James Newton Howard
2. Thomas Newman
3. Abel Korzeniowski
4. Joe Hisaishi
5. John Williams
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John Scott
Lee Holdridge
Cliff Eidelman
Edmund Butt
Randy Kerber
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TOP 25 OF THE PAST FIVE YEARS
01. Hans Zimmer
02. James Newton Howard
03. Tom Holkenborg
04. Benjamin Wallfisch
05. Ludwig Göransson
06. Daniel Pemberton
07. Marco Beltrami
08. Jeff Russo
09. Joe Kraemer
10. Bear McCreary
11. Blake Neely
12. Clint Mansell
13. Lorne Balfe
14. Alan Silvestri
15. Thomas Newman
16. Andrew Lockington
17. Michael Giacchino
18. Dario Marianalli
19. Abel Korzeniowsky
20. Steve Jablonsky
21. Johnny Greenwood
22. Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
23. Craig Armstrong
24. Alexandre Desplat
25. John Powell
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What does " best" mean???
Best means favorite 
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Williams Morricone Shore Elfman Zimmer
I'm kind of guessing on Shore and Elfman….I've tried and tried to open up to recent film composers but most of them just don't move me.
I had a monumentally hard time picking five, but I'm completely confident in Williams and Morricone. And were I to pick the greatest composers today, period, it would be those two and probably Penderecki.
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Posted: |
Feb 10, 2019 - 5:14 AM
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By: |
Mark
(Member)
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I like Lokutus's shout for Junkie XL and Mica Levi....... I must say I rarely get excited by new scores -back in the 80's when Barry, Goldsmith, Morricone etc were about, when Poledouris was getting going etc ...I was also looking out for what films they were scoring and frequently came out of the cinema having been wowed by music in films.....nowadays that is a rarity for me. Levi's score for Jackie and Under the two Skin and some of Junkie XL's scores have really made an impression on me too. Both of these would possibly push for my top 5, as would Soren Hyldgaard and Johan Johansson, but both sadly passed last year. So for me my top 5 would be....
1. Morricone, by some distance
2. Shore (i cant believe he has not had more votes)
3. Soderqvist
4. Martinez
5. Junkie XL
with Zimmer, Desplat, Levi, Rombi bringing up the rear
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Tomohisa ISHIKAWA
Kenichiro SUEHIRO
Ryuta IIDA (R·O·N)
Jun ICHIKAWA
Go SAKABE
Now here are composers I haven't checked out yet, thank you.
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