Please help share film composer/directors's favourite film scores in this thread. Here are the ones I know.
Thomas Newman's top 5 film scores of all time:
1. Chinatown - Jerry Goldsmith - ”For its mood — it fits the time and place perfectly.”
2. To Kill a Mockingbird - Elmer Bernstein - ”Very effective, it just works.”
3. Psycho - Bernard Herrmann - ”Unique and utterly unusual.”
4. The Wizard of Oz - Herbert Stothart - ”Sure, I love the songs, but the score itself is excellent.”
5. King Kong - Max Steiner - ”There's a total sense of popcorn fun. It's a fountainhead score - the beginning of something new.”
Elliot Goldenthal's top 5 film scores of all time:
1. Cape Fear - Bernard Herrmann - ”He was the first minimalist. The score was played at a volume where it wouldn't compete with the movie's sound effects.”
2. La Strada - Nino Rota - ”It brought together the carnival and sensual elements of the church.”
3. Altered States - John Corigliano - ”With this soundtrack, he reinvented orchestration in film scoring.”
4. On the Waterfront - Leonard Bernstein - ”His only score had the sky-soaring melodic beauty of the American school.”
5. The Informer - Max Steiner - ”This has both Irish and Celtic folk melodies combined with a sweeping orchestral tapestry. It's brilliant.”
Leonard Rosenman's top 5 film scores of all time (in no order, although we can assume the Herrmann score is his #1):
Psycho - Bernard Herrmann Jaws - John Williams Gone with the Wind - Max Steiner Patton - Jerry Goldsmith East of Eden - Leonard Rosenman
He included himself among the 5 best film scores of all time.
Ryuichi Sakamoto's top 10 soundtracks of all time (in no order):
Stalker, Solaris, Mirror - Eduard Artemyev Nostalghia (a concert work inspired by the Tarkovsky film) - Toru Takemitsu Shochiku 120th Anniversary Soundtrack Collection (compilation) - Numerous composers ranging from Toru Takemitsu to Joe Hisaishi Yojimbo - Masaru Sato Seven Samurai - Fumio Hayasaka Fellini and Rota (compilation) - Nino Rota Once Upon a Time in the West - Ennio Morricone A Streetcar Named Desire - Alex North Beneath the Planet of the Apes - Leonard Rosenman Solaris - Cliff Martinez
John Barry's 10 favourite film scores of all time (in no order, although his #1 is Streetcar):
A Streetcar Named Desire - Alex North Juliet of the Spirits - Nino Rota The Adventures of Robin Hood - Erich Wolfgang Korngold The Sea Hawk - Erich Wolfgang Korngold The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - Max Steiner Star Wars - John Williams The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Ennio Morricone Once Upon a Time in America - Ennio Morricone The Big Country - Jerome Moross Chariots of Fire - Vangelis
Hans Zimmer's top 7 film scores of all time (in no order, although he has said at another time that Once Upon, the Morricone score is his #1):
Once Upon a Time in America - Ennio Morricone The Mission - Ennio Morricone Blade Runner - Vangelis Midnight Express - Giorgio Moroder Close Encounters of the Third Kind - John Williams The Shawshank Redemption - Thomas Newman Avalon - Randy Newman
John Carpenter's top 10 film scores of all time:
1. Vertigo - Bernard Herrmann - ""A dark, haunting score. Music for a love story, conceived in a nightmare." 2. North by Northwest - Bernard Herrmann - "Funny and suspenseful. One of Hermann's best." 3. Rio Bravo - Dimitri Tiomkin - "Dimitri Tiomkin at his best. The tension themes are great." 4. The Quatermass Xperiment - James Bernard - "James Bernard at his creeping, crawling, spine-tingling best." 5. Forbidden Planet - Louis & Bebe Barron - "The first electronic score for a movie. Weird and haunting." 6. Sorcerer - Tangerine Dream - "Tangerine Dream score the literal heart of darkness." 7. Straw Dogs - Jerry Fielding - "The music expresses the character’s inner turmoil and conflicts." 8. Journey to the Center of the Earth - Bernard Herrmann - "Hermann’s opening theme goes as low and as dark as possible." 9. Horror of Dracula - James Bernard - "James Bernard used to sing the title of the movie he was scoring. In the British release, it was Drac – u – la…" 10. The Magnificent Seven - Elmer Bernstein - "This became standard fare for scoring Westerns. The music channelled Aaron Copland."
Interesting that Thomas Newman did not mention any of his father's scores.
Yes. I consider his father to be one of the greatest of all film composers, as well as my personal second-favorite. But if his son doesn't share my appreciation for his father's talent, that helps explain why I have cared so little for that son's work.
Otherwise, I believe it was agent Richard Kraft who wrote in the FSM magazine in 2004 that Desplat's GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING was the final new score which Goldsmith ever told him he had enjoyed. That's not the same as Goldsmith saying it was among the greatest scores of all. (This thread's topic.)
Richard Rodney Bennett mentioned many times that he had great admiration for:
Michel Legrand- The Thomas Crown Affair Leonard Rosenman - East of Eden & Rebel Without A Cause Jerome Moross- The Big Country Leonard Bernstein- On The Waterfront John Williams - Earthquake Alex North - Streetcar Named Desire
I seem to remember a comment made by Bennett about Rosenman's Fantastic Voyage, but unfortunely I can't remember what he said except that it was among the lines that it was impressive.
Edit: Oh yes, speaking of Fantastic Voyage, I also seem to remember Lalo Schifrin's two favourite film scores of all time were Rosenman's Fantastic Voyage and Goldsmith's Patton, but I am unable to find the source.
James Horner loved Morricone's "The Mission". Even screened the film at an event back in 2007 or so.
James Horner said it was his favourite score when asked at the BAFTA conversations in 2015. In other interviews in the late 80s and early 99s he also sighted Mike Oldfield’s The Killing Fields and To Kill a Mocking Bird by Elmer Bernstein as scores he really admired.
In most of my later interviews with composers, I'd ask them what they're favorite scores are (so, start at the end and work your way up to probably Safan): http://rejectedfilmscores.125mb.com/interviews.html
Interesting reading all the fav of the composers.Me personally ,I find it nearly impossible to rank , name only 5 in a favorite list.
I try and try but they just don't fit Only one score always makes it to no.1 and that's SPARTACUS. I guess it´s not just how much you like one score but it´s more a matter of has this score a film historical impact.So probably there would be some score which is not necessarily once favorite when it comes to the joy of listening, but because the score is an important stepping stone within the film scoring history.
In Bernard Herrmann's famous 1972 Sight and Sound interview, he cited THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (1931) by Karol Rathaus, IVAN THE TERRIBLE by Prokofiev, and several scores by Vaughan Williams and Walton. Of the latter he preferred MAJOR BARBARA and ESCAPE ME NEVER to the Shakespearean scores. He also expressed great admiration for Alfred Newman.
In Bernard Herrmann's famous 1972 Sight and Sound interview, he cited THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (1931) by Karol Rathaus, IVAN THE TERRIBLE by Prokofiev, and several scores by Vaughan Williams and Walton. Of the latter he preferred MAJOR BARBARA and ESCAPE ME NEVER to the Shakespearean scores. He also expressed great admiration for Alfred Newman.
Because Newman was probably the only conductor Herrmann trusted to touch his music, and Herrmann also spoke highly of Franz Waxman's score for "Taras Bulba" and Vic Mizzy's score for "The Night Walker".
