All Ping

Image by: Tony and Debbie

Since the first flickering images emerged from a cranky projector in the 1890s, music has always been an integral accompaniment to the moving image. In the early days it was a pianist/organist or a record spinning merrily around a phonograph – but now we have the movie composer.

Usually brought in at the last minute, it’s incredible they’ve had the time to write anything at all. But the past few decades have shown time and time again that the crème de la crème of the film composing fraternity can more than rise to the challenge. Sometimes their music is even more memorable than the movie itself.

Here are ten of my favourite film music maestros.

Bernard Herrmann

Known primarily for his association with Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho, North by Northwest), Herrmann’s magnificent film music career began with Citizen Kane and finished with Taxi Driver. A notoriously belligerent and cantankerous man, his volatile personality nevertheless informed classic scores for romance (Ghost and Mrs Muir), sci-fi (Day The Earth Stood Still), fantasy (Jason and the Argonauts), and horror (It’s Alive). Often imitated, but never bettered.

Danny Elfman

Former frontman of rock band OingoBoingo and Tim Burton’s go-to composer, Elfman is the premier tunesmith of choice for summer blockbusters (Batman, DickTracy, Hulk, Spiderman). He’s also an adroit tunesmith of smaller-scale movies (Dolores Claiborne, Good Will Hunting). All that andwrote the theme from TheSimpsons.

John Williams

The most well-known, popular and revered composer of modern times, Williams has scored all but one of Steven Spielberg’s films and has composed classic score after classic score. Jaws, Star Wars, ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter. His incredible corpus of work speaks for itself. And even in his early 80s, he’s not slowing down – he’s signed on to score the new Star Wars movie.

Jerry Goldsmith

There’s definitely been a gapingfilm music void since the tragic passing of once pony-tailed maestro Goldsmith in 2004. He brought mastery and craftsmanship to everything he wrote, from Planet of the Apes to Alien, Papillon to Total Recall,Star Trek to Gremlins. Like a true artist, he embraced all genres and styles, and was one of the pioneers of interpolating synthesisers with symphony orchestra.

Alex North

From the same era as Herrmann, North was one of the first film composers to incorporate jazz into the movie music milieu, such as in his pioneering work forA Streetcar Named Desire and The Misfits. He was more than capable of earth-shatteringly epic sounds though, with his unforgettable music for Spartacus, Viva Zapata and Cleopatra. He was also a close friend of the aforementioned Goldsmith, fact fans.

Elliot Goldenthal

One of the new breed of film scorers, Goldenthal’s music is an eclectic and often eccentric confluence of musical nuances. His sound world is distinctly individual, with the old-school Herrmann being the closest approximation in terms of a unique and bold – often uncompromising – style. Interview With A The Vampire, Batman Forever, Public Enemies. Dark, diverse, distinctive, and often devilishly dangerous.

Howard Shore

Shore is now the definitive and unmistakable sound of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings/Hobbit films. But he’s also crafted superior work for Canadian horror director David Cronenberg (his awesomely operatic The Fly, Dead Ringers), Silence of the Lambs, as well as the occasional comedy (Big, Mrs Doubtfire).

Nino Rota

The circus sound to Federico Fellini’s deliriously freakish filmic carnivals, his sound encapsulates the free-spirited, off-kilter world of eccentric European movie making. He wrote 150 film scores, ten operas and five ballets as well. Amarcord, La Dolce Vita and The Godfather are among his most famous scores.

John Barry

The sound of 007, Barry provided the James Bond series his inimitable aural landscape, from Dr No to The Living Daylights. His use of lush strings and horns became his signature sound, receiving accolades and awards for his work (and unforgettable themes) on Born Free, Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves and Chaplin.

James Horner

Horner’s always been one to divide the critics, with the frequent accusation being he’s the most prolific self-plagiarist on the planet. But that’s nothing new and something of a redundant argument when you consider the self-borrowing of other composers through the decades. I defend him though, because all his scores have a class, integrity, passion and gravitas to them – just listen to Braveheart, Aliens and Apollo 13.