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Who's the greatest NON-living film composer?

NoamL

Winter <3
The point of this question isn't to be morbid, it's just that our discussions focus a lot on composers who are active today and their films.

Who do you think is the greatest film composer who's passed on? Especially in terms of their movies & music continuing to have relevancy and emotional impact for us now. And are there any whose music, without alteration of style, would still be kicking ass in modern Hollywood?

EDIT: (I have a personal favorite, and also a suspicion of which composer most people shall name - which aren't the same person! - but I will leave the discussion completely open ended for the beginning...)
 
There are a lot of great guys so I guess it is not possible to talk of THE greatest. Hm so some of my personal heroes would be Nino Rota (Godfather II, Il Gattopardo), Jerry Goldsmith (Alien, Star Trek), Bernard Hermann (Vertigo and other Hitchcock movies), Marvin Hamlisch (The Sting) and Toru Takemitsu (for his ultra dark score for Akira Kurosawa´s RAN)
 
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Miklós Rózsa

Alfred Newman

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Bernard Herrmann


I personally think the music of all of these would still work today. Especially for a director that knew how to actually pace scenes for emotional impact. The problem would be finding a director who knew how to actually put together a coherhent story, as opposed to non-stop action, all the time.

 
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James Horner

Did I win?

Nope...it's Beethoven, first, last and always:

9th:
  • "A Clockwork Orange" (1971)*
  • "Cruel Intentions" (1999)
  • "Dead Poets Society" (1989)
  • "Die Hard" (1988)
Fur Elise:
  • "Django Unchained" (2012)
  • "Patch Adams" (1998)
  • "Rosemary's Baby" (1968)
7th:
  • "The King's Speech" (2010)
  • "Mr. Hollands Opus" (1995)
  • "X-Men: Apocalypse" (2017)
5th:
  • "The Breakfast Club" (1985)
And so on, endlessly...

*“Oh bliss, bliss and heaven... Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh... And then, a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now... I knew such lovely pictures - ”


 
Nope...it's Beethoven, first, last and always:

9th:
  • "A Clockwork Orange" (1971)*
  • "Cruel Intentions" (1999)
  • "Dead Poets Society" (1989)
  • "Die Hard" (1988)
Fur Elise:
  • "Django Unchained" (2012)
  • "Patch Adams" (1998)
  • "Rosemary's Baby" (1968)
7th:
  • "The King's Speech" (2010)
  • "Mr. Hollands Opus" (1995)
  • "X-Men: Apocalypse" (2017)
5th:
  • "The Breakfast Club" (1985)
And so on, endlessly...

*“Oh bliss, bliss and heaven... Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh... And then, a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now... I knew such lovely pictures - ”


Sorry, but he was not a Film Composer. Thank you for playing!:thumbsup:
 
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