# What film composers create music for the sake of creating music?



## timbit2006 (Oct 18, 2022)

Are there any major film composers who have created music for the sake of creating music rather than writing a score for a film? Just like many of us will write a song and release it here or to a small crowd, what other major industry composers do this sort of thing?

I'm looking mainly if some major composers also have their own individual passion projects where they are free to 100% write from free creative inspiration rather than whatever a director maybe told them or something.

There's no "Composer Discussion" subforum or anything else that seemed suitable for this question so I hope it is fine here.


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## KEM (Oct 18, 2022)

I’ve always wondered this as well, all the big film composers seem to only make music when it’s for a project, whereas a lot of the film composers that started out in bands or as normal artists and such (Trent Reznor for example) still make albums away from what they do in film, I can’t say I’ve ever seen someone that started out as a film composer start making music for themselves


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## goalie composer (Oct 18, 2022)

John Powell writes material outside of film scores


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## liquidlino (Oct 18, 2022)

Jóhann Jóhannsson
. Beautiful music too.


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## rhizomusicosmos (Oct 18, 2022)

Bernard Herrmann and Erich Wolfgang Korngold both wrote concert works. The latter's Violin Concerto in D major is frequently performed and was written after his "retirement" from film composing.

Elliot Goldenthal writes a lot of concert and stage works:


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## Great Zed (Oct 19, 2022)

Elfman has been composing a lot for concert recently. I know Howard Shore, James Newton Howard and John Williams do concert works as well.


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## Bee_Abney (Oct 19, 2022)

Does Philip Glass count as a major film composer? He's done a lot of films, but I wouldn't think of that as a defining feature of his career.

Wim Mertens, perhaps? Probably the same.


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## JohnS (Oct 19, 2022)

Mark Knopfler counts?


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## Harzmusic (Oct 19, 2022)

Heard this Piano Concerto by Howard Shore a few years ago in Prague, along with the Prussian Requiem by John Powell.


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## Mars (Oct 19, 2022)

Steven Price has released a great album in 2022 from personal compositions, Our Eternal Sky :


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## timprebble (Oct 19, 2022)

Yann Teirson (imdb) has been releasing music & doing interesting things with modular


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## JohnG (Oct 20, 2022)

Two Steps from Hell’s composers do — both Nick Phoenix and Thomas Bergersen have numerous albums out there and will no doubt release more.

In fact they are primarily artists, who also have buckets of trailer and media credits. At the risk of oversimplifying an undeniably complex process, with those guys latter grow out of the former, rather than the other way around.

Overall, I’ve been rather disappointed with the concert works of some of my favourite movie composers. Maybe they have too much time???


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## LudovicVDP (Oct 21, 2022)

Danny Elfman indeed:


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## TomislavEP (Oct 21, 2022)

Vangelis, without any doubt. He was living proof of a true artist who created art primarily for his own creative enjoyment and the almost scientific study of music. His goal was not fortune and glory and he was never a slave of the music or film industries. However, despite his timeless talent, Vangelis was also lucky to be noticed by other accomplished artists in high positions, such as Ridley Scott, who recognized his qualities and gave him a "carte blanche", so to speak. Indeed, Vangelis always worked by listening to himself first and was never under influence of trends or imposed demands.

The only other film composer who I would mention here is probably Ennio Morricone. I've recently watched a film by Giuseppe Tornatore about Morricone's life and work that confirmed his somewhat "maverick" attitude and approach, despite his output and success.


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