# Favorite peice of film music



## RonOrchComp (Sep 28, 2020)

Any film, any composer, any era, any genre. Film music only. From an OST album, or directly from the film itself.

Me:

Duel Of The Fates (Star Wars/John Williams)


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## ptram (Sep 28, 2020)

Prokofiev, Alexandr Nevskij, The Battle on the Ice.


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## dcoscina (Sep 28, 2020)

Too many to choose from...at the moment it’s this

This one is also pretty amazing


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## telecode101 (Sep 28, 2020)

..


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## NekujaK (Sep 28, 2020)

Carter Burwell's score for Waterland, a relatively obscure 1992 film with Jeremy Irons and a young Ethan Hawke. Great film, hauntingly beautiful music.



Carter Burwell - Waterland


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## purplehamster (Sep 28, 2020)

The Born King - Daniel Pemberton


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## dcoscina (Sep 29, 2020)




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## tf-drone (Sep 29, 2020)

Antarctica - Vangelis


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## Studio E (Sep 29, 2020)




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## telecode101 (Sep 29, 2020)

..


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## Karl Feuerstake (Sep 30, 2020)

dcoscina said:


> Too many to choose from...at the moment it’s this
> 
> This one is also pretty amazing




I love the Hunt from Planet of the Apes! The wild horn rips and low trombone bends capturing the horror of seeing the Ape Men's face the first time gives me the goosebumps.

I regret to have not seen this version of Superman yet; that was a very moving scene, and it's compelled me to find the whole film. Cheers!


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## JohnG (Sep 30, 2020)

Kind of tough to grapple the criteria to the ground. "Best film music" can encompass quite a lot; best for the scene, best as a piece of concert music (serious), funniest, most unexpected -- a lot to consider.

The score T. Newman wrote for "Little Women" is just amazing for that film and that story. But the music for "Parasite" is some of the most odd, unexpected, and appropriately off-kilter I've heard in some time, including the onscreen performance at the climax.

The long suite-like series of cues at the end of "King Kong" dazzles me every time, but so does his (JNH's) opening to "Dave," which is perfect, as is "Michael Clayton."

Then there's John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith -- take your pick, even though some of the above examples are getting on for 50 years old.

JG's "Mulan" is still an absolutely fantastic score, which elevates an excellent movie; tough to compete when it's a kids' movie though. Same issue with JNH's "Dinosaur," "Treasure Planet," etc.


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## JonS (Sep 30, 2020)

JohnG said:


> Kind of tough to grapple the criteria to the ground. "Best film music" can encompass quite a lot; best for the scene, best as a piece of concert music (serious), funniest, most unexpected -- a lot to consider.
> 
> The score T. Newman wrote for "Little Women" is just amazing for that film and that story. But the music for "Parasite" is some of the most odd, unexpected, and appropriately off-kilter I've heard in some time, including the onscreen performance at the climax.
> 
> ...


My 3 favorite composers are John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and John Barry, most of their scores are spectacular. My personal favorite is the score to "Shine" which is a movie I just adore too. "Michael Clayton" is a very good score, John, I agree!!


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## Jimmy Hellfire (Sep 30, 2020)

"The Tale Of Viktor Navorski" from "The Terminal" (John Williams). And "Sid's Kids" from one of the Ice Age films (John Powell). Speaking of Powell - also "Not So Fireproof". I like music that's over quickly.


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## JohnG (Sep 30, 2020)

not sure what "over quickly" means, Jimmy but certainly John Powell belongs on the list of really gifted and fun film composers, not only for but certainly not least being HTTYD.


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## robcs (Sep 30, 2020)

I’ll go old school. Korngold’s The Sea Hawk has always been one of my favourite scores. Also Vaughan-Williams’s score for Scott of the Antarctic.


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## Jimmy Hellfire (Sep 30, 2020)

JohnG said:


> not sure what "over quickly" means, Jimmy but certainly John Powell belongs on the list of really gifted and fun film composers, not only for but certainly not least being HTTYD.



That's my sarcastic way of saying that I enjoy short pieces.  John Powell often crams a lot of stuff and development in very short tracks and it still sounds light-footed and elegant. He can tell a story and be eloquent about it, but it's all in this small little jewel box.


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## dcoscina (Sep 30, 2020)

This is actually my favourite Goldsmith score. It has such stylistic diversity. It's terrific score. This scene is scored just beautifully



This is also bloody fantastic. 



and of course this... damn.... just damn. Ravel eat your heart out


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## JohnG (Sep 30, 2020)

@dcoscina you hang on to some really old score! Don't get me wrong, I guess I do too but not as much as you.

@Jimmy Hellfire so true about being somehow "light footed" despite the entire orchestra roaring along, tons of runs and figures in the winds and high strings, often a drum kit, choir, and frets too. Tough to be light footed with all that, but you're right, he does it.

Just listened to Powell's The Call of the Wild. Another feat of graceful and tasteful scoring. Not so crazy about the drum kit but that could have been introduced for any number of reasons.


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## ptram (Sep 30, 2020)

NekujaK said:


> Carter Burwell's score for Waterland


I've been long obsessed by his soundtrack for the Coens' _Barton Fink_. Now that I write it, I'll be obsessed again!

Paolo


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## telecode101 (Sep 30, 2020)

..


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## JohnG (Sep 30, 2020)

I don't buy that "20s" argument. I keep reading it and I think it's baloney. On the contrary, I felt that I spent half my life waiting for music to get out of the festering bog of the 1970s (when I was not in my 20s or anything -- just hate everything aesthetic about the 1970s). I think the great thing about Powell and Newmann and JNH is marrying that masterful craft to a host of folk, pop, rock recording techniques and FX, synths and other popular influences.

Film scoring is for regular people, not concert halls (for the most part), so I think that's appropriate.

*My Version of History*

If you grew up in the 1950s or 60s, you did have masterfully trained and experienced orchestrators. I find a lot of those scores pretty sappy, however, and over-burdened with tinkling filigree, but never mind.

Sadly, there was quite a dip in "masterful" in film soundtracks for a long time maybe mid-60s until the supernova of Star Wars hit theaters in about 1977 (which year depending on where you lived). During that time, some soundtracks came out in mono (not just on recordings -- in the theaters) and there were plenty of rubbishy quasi-pop scores that to me sound like lounge music or worse.

But "Star Wars" single-handedly revived orchestral music and movies, and made it seem fun and exciting. Young people in theatre seats will convince any producer about what's a good thing.

Then, you have the early 1990s Disney revival that pushed things along as well, plus J. Williams chugging along the entire time with brilliant orchestral and jazz-influenced scores.

Today I think we see some absolutely awesome use of technology, orchestra, different modes and so on. It's a fantastic time to be a composer, for that reason alone.


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## dcoscina (Sep 30, 2020)

JohnG said:


> @dcoscina you hang on to some really old score! Don't get me wrong, I guess I do too but not as much as you.



I'm honestly not too affected by most modern fare to be honest. And these examples are more current the most of what I'm listening to these days! ie Bartok, Ravel, Shosty, Mahler, Berg, etc etc.

However here are a couple current scores I love





(best score of the new century IMO)


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## JohnG (Sep 30, 2020)

lol -- fair enough. I absolutely love Bartok's "Miraculous Mandarin" and his string quartets. Berg ditto -- can't think of a single piece of his I don't like. Shostakovich and Mahler, as I think we've discussed, I just can't fall in love with, but Ravel, for sure he's absolutely wondrous.


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## dcoscina (Sep 30, 2020)

JohnG said:


> lol -- fair enough. I absolutely love Bartok's "Miraculous Mandarin" and his string quartets. Berg ditto -- can't think of a single piece of his I don't like. Shostakovich and Mahler, as I think we've discussed, I just can't fall in love with, but Ravel, for sure he's absolutely wondrous.


I updated my post with a couple modern examples.


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## dcoscina (Sep 30, 2020)

I love this entire trilogy. Both films and music. Powell killed it! He also developed the series musically and it becomes more and more symphonic by the third chapter. My personal fave of the three is the middle however. Like ESB, it's the darkest narratively.


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## Scottyb (Sep 30, 2020)

I usually love huge, earth shattering pieces. But, this one is up there for me. So much range! And honestly just such a sweet and uplifting piece. Millie Reflects/End Credits from The Boy Who Could Fly - Bruce Broughton


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## Henning (Sep 30, 2020)

I have always loved the score for Road to Perdition. The first track for the lovely Uillean pipes and Irish Flute:


Beautiful string writing and evocative piano playing in these two:


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## dylanmixer (Sep 30, 2020)

Anything written by Thomas Newman. The score for Road to Perdition is what made me want to become a film composer.


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## PuerAzaelis (Sep 30, 2020)




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## telecode101 (Sep 30, 2020)

..


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## KEM (Sep 30, 2020)

The entire opera siege in TENET, but more specifically the part where The Protagonist runs to the coat check and grabs the “bomb”, best action music I’ve ever heard without a doubt.

Another one of my all time favorites would be the free fall sequence from Mission Impossible Fallout, with that one it’s the surround sound brass rips as Ethan Hunt tries to wake up August Walker mid air, soooo sick!!


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## nolotrippen (Sep 30, 2020)

Constant Lambert, Anna Karenina, Heres' the Suite conducted by Bernard Herrmann


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## JohnG (Sep 30, 2020)

telecode101 said:


> Just wondering, was John Williams and Star Wars really that influential? Didn't he just follow someone else's footsteps -- his music is just associated with more special effects laden films that people who were little kids in the 70s became enamored with.



It was phenomenally influential. It was a bombshell. Hollywood turned on a dime from using pop/rock based underscore to the full symphony orchestra (plus choir). I don't know of any single score that has been more influential in the last 50 years.

Of course, it also came along with a blockbuster hit movie and one that charmed audiences around the world, so that unquestionably drove its influence.

And it was composed by the man whom I see as the greatest orchestrator since Ravel. No doubt, if you look at The History Of Western Music, you can see its antecedents, although I don't hear much Wagner, personally. Using leitmotifs maybe but meh on direct Wagner influence as such (unless you want to talk about Wagner's influence on everybody else which indirectly influenced Williams' heroes). It has been picked at since it was released -- some videos on Youtube suggest it's lifted from King's Row etc. and there may even be interviews where JW talks about his influences.

But yes it was stupendously influential if for no other reason than that it induced Hollywood to spend on orchestras once again.


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## mscp (Sep 30, 2020)

Favourite piece of (animation) film music...hmm. The word 'favourite' is a very conflicting one to me because my emotions vary from time to time, but I absolutely love:

- *Joe Hisaishi* for 'Kaze no Torimichi' (The Path of Wind) from My Neighbor Totoro.


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## LudovicVDP (Sep 30, 2020)

Man... Top 10 are already difficult... and you ask for a top one?

I've deleted 15 messages already because I can't decide.

So many beautiful scores... Too many... A lot of obvious scores... A lot of less obvious...
Can't decide.

Just to leave you with something I'll go off the usual charts and propose the adaptation of Francisco Tarrega - Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Mike Oldfield, played during the end credits of The Killing Fields, if you allow end credit music (which in this case is not really a score for any scene)

Short version (with clip)



Long (and better) version (without clip)


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## Arbee (Sep 30, 2020)

_The Firm_ was a special moment in film music for me, Dave Grusin with just his piano....

Here is some background to it in case of interest - https://www.grusin.net/the_firm.htm


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## Jeremy Gillam (Oct 1, 2020)




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## pbobcat (Oct 1, 2020)

I could have chosen from so many but I'm gonna go with a composer who seems relatively little known, Zbigniew Preiser.

From Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique:


And also related to Kieslowski (it was written as part of a tribute to him after his untimely death), but used to stunning effect in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life:


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## devonmyles (Oct 1, 2020)

I love Dave Grusin's Piano style and his terrific sense of melody in his compositions.
The 'On Golden Pond' score for me, has beautiful highs, sad lows with some happy stuff in the middle.
After all these years, the main theme still hits the spot with me.


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## mushanga (Oct 1, 2020)

PuerAzaelis said:


>



This suite is absolutely stunning...particularly the climax at 4:23. James Newton Howard - absolute genius.


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## Arbee (Oct 1, 2020)

devonmyles said:


> I love Dave Grusin's Piano style and his terrific sense of melody in his compositions.
> The 'On Golden Pond' score for me, has beautiful highs, sad lows with some happy stuff in the middle.
> After all these years, the main theme still hits the spot with me.



Thanks for mentioning this, my other all time Grusin favorite


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## devonmyles (Oct 1, 2020)

Arbee said:


> Thanks for mentioning this, my other all time Grusin favorite



_"Florescence". _Very nice indeed.


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## EvgenyEmelyanov (Oct 1, 2020)

Probably, this waltz from Oldboy <3


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## ptram (Oct 1, 2020)

The Coens, again. _O Brother, Where Art Thou?_ seems to me to be a fantastic trip at the roots of blues – and the story seems to just support the soundtrack.

Paolo


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## NekujaK (Oct 4, 2020)

Just watched this again tonight and was reminded how great the score is. Thank you Elmer Bernstein.


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## batonruse (Oct 4, 2020)

For me it's a tie between the main themes from "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and "The Impossible"


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## Yogevs (Oct 4, 2020)

Original Batman theme probably


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## nspaas (Oct 4, 2020)




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## Satorious (Oct 4, 2020)

I could pick any number of John Barry scores as favourites - no other composer has the same impact for me. That said if I have to single one out - it would be this one. It really takes me on a majestic journey in the first part, before battering me down emotionally in the second part (which often brings a tear to my eye) - this is what good film music has the power to do.


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## aaronventure (Oct 4, 2020)

robcs said:


> Also Vaughan-Williams’s score for Scott of the Antarctic.



RVW later arranged the score into a concert piece and published it as his 7th Symphony!


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## Michael Antrum (Oct 5, 2020)

John Barry for me. I think my all time favourite is ‘All Time High‘ from Octopussy:



A simple and hauntingly beautiful melody....

One name you don’t hear mentioned around these parts much is Ron Goodwin:



Its almost as if the Mosquito‘s machine guns were an orchestral instrument,



But another favourite of mine is Richard Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto:



Apprently it’s controverisal - not for me it isn’t....

Oh, and Dream of Olwen is good too, etc, etc, etc....


edit: Here‘s a lovely little story about John Barry from Michael Caine, which he told at the memorial concert a little while after his death...


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## Satorious (Oct 5, 2020)

@Michael Antrum - I went to the memorial concert, just like this story - it was wonderful but very poignant...


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## Michael Antrum (Oct 6, 2020)

Satorious said:


> @Michael Antrum - I went to the memorial concert, just like this story - it was wonderful but very poignant...



I would have loved to be there. John Barry is a local boy for me, from York. His father owned a chain of cinemas....


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## Mark Kouznetsov (Oct 14, 2020)

Impossible for me to pick an all time favourite of anything, really. But I most of all prefer current Japanese, French, Italian and Spanish composers (or composers that write scores that can stand on their own in general). Here's a few:



*Philippe Rombi - Un Homme Et Son Chien*



*Jean Claude-Petit - Cyrano de Bergerac *(both Rombi and Claude-Petit are my favourite of French film composers)



*Toshiyuki Watanabe - Toshiie and Matsu *(king of melody for ME, personally, his whole body of work)



*Ryuichi Sakamoto - The Fortress *(my favourite Japanese composer in general, love his style, his work ethic and the way he looks at art and life in general, legend in my books)



*Taro Iwashiro - The Crossing (*another of my all-time favs from Japan, hard to pick who I like the most, so I never do; not a single bad score from him, he also does concert work as well).



*Roque Banos - Evil Dead (*my absolute favourite of Spanish film composers, I love everything he does, his older work is even better. Always brings emotion to thrillers and horrors, not to mention his exceptional romantic stuff)


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## Mark Kouznetsov (Oct 14, 2020)

aaronventure said:


> RVW later arranged the score into a concert piece and published it as his 7th Symphony!



love him, his Sea Symphony is one of my favourites


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## ed buller (Oct 14, 2020)

It's ONE of my favorites. As a demonstration of how "Music" can add a completely different layer that takes the film somewhere else ...Ennio was the Master



For shear "Storytelling" This cue is Extraordinary. The harmony keeps shifting...getting darker and darker after it's triumphant and glorious entry.....ending in despair !



The woefully underrated Micheal Small. At his finest here. The menace !



The best title music of all time..Exciting, American...and relentless !



For breaking the mold...synths at their most symphonic 

best

ed


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## dcoscina (May 2, 2021)

ed buller said:


> It's ONE of my favorites. As a demonstration of how "Music" can add a completely different layer that takes the film somewhere else ...Ennio was the Master
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Great selection Ed!


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## Trash Panda (May 2, 2021)

It’s probably cliché, but I do not care.

Star Wars Imperial March and 007 main theme. I refuse to choose between them.


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## rnb_2 (May 2, 2021)

Even more cliché, possibly, but "The Asteroid Field" from "The Empire Strikes Back". From its opening with the bombastic, slowed-down version of the Imperial March, through the long, gradual build of tension through the middle, to the soaring, propulsive melody of the asteroid field proper (repeated twice), followed by a brief bit of the "love theme" right at the end, it really shows off so much of what an orchestra can do. The nice thing is, I actually am able to hear it anew since I joined VI-C and gained even rudimentary knowledge of orchestration and which instruments I'm actually hearing in the piece.

A huge factor for me was that it was before the age of home video. Unless you were insane or had theater connections, you couldn't see a "Star Wars" movie every day, but you could listen to the score over and over, to the point that the score actually *became the movie* in most respects — I actually knew the score for all three original films better than I knew the movies, because I'd listened to them so many times by the time I was able to buy the movies and watch them at home. To this day, it's actually shocking to me how much the score for ESB is either edited out or buried in the mix in the final film (much of even my favorite piece is quite muted).


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## Trash Panda (May 2, 2021)

rnb_2 said:


> Even more cliché, possibly, but "The Asteroid Field" from "The Empire Strikes Back". From its opening with the bombastic, slowed-down version of the Imperial March, through the long, gradual build of tension through the middle, to the soaring, propulsive melody of the asteroid field proper (repeated twice), followed by a brief bit of the "love theme" right at the end, it really shows off so much of what an orchestra can do. The nice thing is, I actually am able to hear it anew since I joined VI-C and gained even rudimentary knowledge of orchestration and which instruments I'm actually hearing in the piece.
> 
> A huge factor for me was that it was before the age of home video. Unless you were insane or had theater connections, you couldn't see a "Star Wars" movie every day, but you could listen to the score over and over, to the point that the score actually *became the movie* in most respects — I actually knew the score for all three original films better than I knew the movies, because I'd listened to them so many times by the time I was able to buy the movies and watch them at home. To this day, it's actually shocking to me how much the score for ESB is either edited out or buried in the mix in the final film (much of even my favorite piece is quite muted).


My 1 year old son tries to sing Star Wars lines, and he hasn’t seen a single movie yet. He just hears me humming or singing them.

His favorite is “Da-daa-da! Da-daa-da! Da-daaaa! Da-da-da-da daa!”


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## dan_k (May 5, 2021)

John Williams will always be my number one, and as such it’s pretty much impossible for me to choose any one of his iconic pieces. Having said that, something always brings me back to the Temple of Doom soundtrack and in particular the End Titles (I guess because it’s more of a “greatest hits” from the whole soundtrack):


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## darkogav (May 5, 2021)




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## Dave Connor (May 5, 2021)

This is great on so many levels. The music is outright great in any context. When a composer announces the main theme in the timpani, you have a supremely confident and competent musician at work. Then again, whether it’s the percussion or brass or string or wind-writing - all are supreme. To say nothing of the thematic material and writing to film throughout.

As with so many scores mentioned in this thread, you have a great film-maker (Stanley Kubrick) choosing a great composer. The result being a score no other composer could have done as perfectly.


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## Smikes77 (May 5, 2021)

This is mine...


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## I like music (May 5, 2021)

Smikes77 said:


> This is mine...



Been binging on this for the last three weeks. In my mind, one of the most awesome and bombastic themes ever, ever.


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## Double Helix (May 5, 2021)

Marvin Hamlisch is rarely mentioned in the pantheon of greatest film composers, but he wrote the love theme for my favorite film, so I will include this short excerpt here:



Randy Newman is another composer who gets attention but not as much as the Goldsmith/Zimmer/Horner/Newman/Herrmann/Williams all-stars, but here is the heroic "home run" theme from _The Natural_, another film in my top 5 ("Go pick me out a winner, Bobby")




Ennio Morricone's_ Cinema Paradiso_ end credits score is. . . there are no words. . .we have the music:


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## dcoscina (May 5, 2021)

JohnG said:


> @dcoscina you hang on to some really old score! Don't get me wrong, I guess I do too but not as much as you.
> 
> @Jimmy Hellfire so true about being somehow "light footed" despite the entire orchestra roaring along, tons of runs and figures in the winds and high strings, often a drum kit, choir, and frets too. Tough to be light footed with all that, but you're right, he does it.
> 
> Just listened to Powell's The Call of the Wild. Another feat of graceful and tasteful scoring. Not so crazy about the drum kit but that could have been introduced for any number of reasons.


That stuff is recent compared to most of what I'm listening to (Bartok, Shosty, Ravel, Varese)


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## river angler (May 5, 2021)

One of the most evocative sea themes ever written for a wonderful film...


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## dcoscina (May 5, 2021)

Here is another fave of mine


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## dan_k (May 6, 2021)

Smikes77 said:


> This is mine...



Excellent choice! One of my favourites, too.


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## maro (May 6, 2021)

Recently I saw this movie and was stunned with the Quincy Jones soundtrack


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