How many of you have a favorite film composer who's NOT John Williams

I'm not asking for your favorite besides him; I'm just wondering for how many of you John Williams is not your favorite composer.

 

Williams is my favorite.... so i guess i don't apply to the question

 

Danny Elfman, Max Steiner, Bernard Hermann, Franz Waxman, Elmer Bernstein, Alfred Newman, and Maurice Ravel (technically, he didn't score a movie, but his stuff is sourced a lot).

 

It's actually a five way tie. Max Steiner, Franz Waxman, Alfred Newman, Miklos Rozsa and Alex North.

Williams ranks just below them along with Jerry Goldsmith, Hugo Montenegro, John Barry, Hugo Friedhofer and Dimitri Tiomkin.

There are various minor composers who's work is not represented on CD from the 40's through 70's that I like the music when watching the movies.

 

I really love Bruce Rowland.

TVB.

 

Not me.

 

Danny Elfman is my #1 favourite with Williams down at #2 (which isn't bad). I find Elfman's music a lot more intellectually challenging and somewhat more relatable to my own lifestyle.

Wierd, huh?

 

Contemporary composers: Ennio Morricone, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer (why do people pick on him? ), Carter Burwell, Thomas and Randy Newman, and yes, James Horner. (looks around)

Classic film composers: Dmitri Tiomkin (one of his apprentices was none other than a young John Williams) He's mostly unknown and underated, but he had so many great scores. The Guns of Navarone, High Noon, Rio Bravo, Red River, It's a Wonderful Life, etc..

I also admire Miklos Roscza, Alex North (Spartacus has a haunting theme), Victor Young (Shane, Around the World in 80 Days), Alfred Newman (related to Randy and Thomas), and Maurice Jarre. And Vangelis is cool too.

 

Randy Newman

 

Oh, I forgot to add one of my absolute favorites, Jerry Goldsmith.
I think he's a wonderful composer. He made lots of great scores to really BAD movies (such is the life of a composer). I absolutely LOVE his score for "Our Man Flint" and "Under Fire".

Jerry Goldsmith!

 

Well, you guys probably all know that my fav. is Basil Poledouris.

 

Well, my FAVORITE is John, but if I had to pick otherwise, it would either be Hans Zimmer or James Horner.

And, a preliminary selection would be Don Davis (The Matrix, Jurassic Park III).

 

Hans Zimmer; Gladiator is my favorite, while I also enjoy Pearl Harbor and Hannibal.

 

For those of you who are partial to Hans Zimmer's scores, you should be aware that it's not necessarily Hans Zimmer you like. Hanz Zimmer is part of a company that he created called "Media Ventures" which has several composers on its staff. Each Zimmer score is actually 5 different composers working together and Zimmer just "signs off" on the music. John Powell (who recently left media ventures) is one of those who was working under Zimmer. He did the score for "Evolution" (great score by the way).

It's very similar to grad students working under a professor - the grad students do all the work and the professor gets the credit.

I'm not saying that it's a bad thing - exactly the opposite. It distributes the work load so composers don't go stark raving mad. But, I'm just making sure that everyone knows what is actually happening on a "Hans Zimmer" score.

Even my hero Danny Elfman did the same sort of thing on his early scores, and still does. Shirley Walker was co composer to many of his first films. Notice how once Shirley Walker stopped working with Elfman, his scores changed abruptly.

 

[rant]What?!?! nobody mentions mark snow?? his work on the x-files has brought us to feel the shows and the movie like no one else could![/rant]

 

James Horner, hands down.

 

Danny Elfman!

 

I tie Williams with Jerry Goldsmith. Both are deemed as GODS in my eyes!

 

I'm a little shocked there are some people who feel guilty about liking James Horner. I mean, Titanic's score really was excellent.

But more than that, Star Trek II might have been the best-scored space film other than TESB and, now, AOTC.

 

I like Alan Silvestri a lot.

 

Nobuo Uematsu.

Oh wait, he's not a film composer...

 

Patrick Doyle

 

JonathonVandergriff:

>>>>>>>>For those of you who are partial to Hans Zimmer's scores, you should be aware that it's not necessarily Hans Zimmer you like. Hanz Zimmer is part of a company that he created called "Media Ventures" which has several composers on its staff. Each Zimmer score is actually 5 different composers working together and Zimmer just "signs off" on the music. John Powell (who recently left media ventures) is one of those who was working under Zimmer. He did the score for "Evolution" (great score by the way).>>>>>>>>>>>>

That's interesting. I had a feeling something like that occured but didn't know which films it was for. Is there any way to find out specifically which film Hans Zimmer "took credit" for? I don't think it's a bad thing either, but I hope the work of the lesser-known guys gets attention one of these days.

I know John Powell did Shrek and Chicken Run, both had great scores.

And the recent film, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, has a good theme, and I was surprised to see Hans Zimmer in the credits. The only thing is, it didn't quite feel like a Hans Zimmer score -- sort of out of his style and too simplistic for Hans. I have a feeling that Spirit may have had many other composers working on it instead.

 

Are you crazy?! Williams' music is very intelectual. Although Elfman's music is good, too.

 

Williams is the daddy as far as film composers go,but i also like Danny Elfman,alot of his themes are really cool !!!