Favorite movie composers?

[Nick]

Who are your favorite movie composers? What are your favorite pieces they've composed? What's your favorite work of theirs (album)?

 

[pompayyy]

My favorite composer is Vangelis. He composed the music for several films (most notably: Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner). Also, he was in the awesome Greek Prog Rock band called Aphrodite's Child.

 

[Ozymandias]

Hans Zimmer. Hands down
His scores are so epic and amazing XD

-Inception
-Dark Knight Trilogy
-The Lion King
-Crimson Tide
-Gladiator

 

[Flushed]

The only two I can actually think of are John Williams and Andrew Lloyd Weber. Both have composed music for several different productions (in Weber's case I think it's more of plays than movies). Williams I know from Star Wars and Harry Potter, and Weber from Phantom of the Opera, which, as you probably know, revolves around the music so it better be good haha.

 

[King Koop]

Bernard Herrman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC5AzFc3coo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7lrO4Xqx70

Danny Elfman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcCYhDu4_ZY

Virgil Thompson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THDLkcm54F4

 

[Livewire]

70's & 80's = John Williams, no contest.

90's through Present = Hans Zimmer, no contest.


I mean come on. We're talking about Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, The Lion King, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. Music from cultural icons in film. Zimmer is sitting on the composer throne right now, and he ought to.

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

Bernard Herrmann is undoubtedly the best. When you compose the amazingly dispate scores for Psycho, Vertigo and Taxi Driver, you're the best in my mind. Marvin Hamlisch comes close, what with his honky-tonk plinky-plonk piano music for The Sting and The Informant! but that's mainly because I'm a sucker for pianos. When it comes to more modern composers, Jon Brion, Cliff Martinez and Carter Burwell never fail to surprise me. Alexandre Desplat is very dependable, but is often capable of real musical majesty (e.g. the Birth score). There's Joe Hisaishi, famed Ghibli composer as well, and countless others that I'm forgetting. But those are the ones that spring to mind.

 

[Controversial?]

If anyone says James Horner I was personally tear their ****ing throat out.

If anyone says John Williams I will propose to them in an orchestral performance of the Star Wars soundtrack at the Royal Albert Hall. :P

So John Williams wins.