Best Movie/TV Score Composer - #1

[Cloned]

If there's interest I'll keep doing more polls.

I don't think it's fair to group classical/non-media composers like Beethoven with guys like John Williams, so this is just the latter group for now.

Suggestions on who should be added or removed are welcome!

Personal thoughts:

Williams has a strong case for #1, but my personal homer vote goes to Giacchino, who I think could eventually overtake Williams if he keeps producing scores like he has. His score to Rogue One is insanely good. Elfman and Silvestri probably have the most memorable themes. Goldsmith IMO never got the full recognition he deserved because his career overlapped with Williams'. Zimmer is the most successful with his own unique style.

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[Trap Jesus]

Mica Levi is my personal favorite

 

[Guardian17]

James Horner is my favorite especially for the score to Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan.

Basil Poledouris is my honorable mention for Conan The Barbarian.

 

[frisco]

Goldsmith is the standard for movie scores.

My Best-Carey

 

[Babe Ruth]

Williams will probably (deservedly) win this poll, but damnit.. Bernard Herrmann's season 1 Twilight Zone outro, is one of the sickest TV themes of all-time. I think it's tension and mood represented the Twilight Zone perfectly. I guess it was replaced & eclipsed by the more famous jingle tho..

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Lalo Schifrin is I think my favorite, though I'm not a huge fan of film scores (Mike Patton has done a few sweet ones, and since I'm a groupie, I might change my vote to him in the next few years). Schifrin has done a lot of stuff, going in every direction, you're probably most familiar with his Mission: Impossible TV theme, but I've got a real soft spot for his work on Amityville.



Also, his discarded soundtrack for The Exorcist got more than a few people excited at some point (I'm putting the original discarded trailer as a spoiler, might cause seizure - you can listen to it and watch your feet):

Spoiler

 

[macleod50]

Goldsmith is the standard for movie scores.

My Best-Carey

I'm glad there is someone else out there that feels this way. Goldsmith is my favorite with Silvestri and Horner right behind him.

 

[NyQuil]

I like how Zimmer changes up his style for different films.

Horner recycles so much of his stuff that it pushes him down a peg.

Listen to Aliens and then Clear and Present Danger sometime.

 

[Tuggy]

I don't know enough about others to say #1 but my favorite recent would be Max Richter. Composer on The Leftovers. The music in that show and everything is just great.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

I don't know enough about others to say #1 but my favorite recent would be Max Richter. Composer on The Leftovers. The music in that show and everything is just great.

Big fan as well. They use him in Arrival and he does the music for the My Brilliant Friend TV adaptation. Fantastic stuff.

Edit: Of course I went to the interwebs to listen to some of his stuff and apparently the piece that's in Arrival has been used a bunch of other times in movies including Shutter Island (which I don't remember) and most recently in Togo. Very popular it seems.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

John Williams is probably an overwhelming winner here, right?

Morricone would be my second choice.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I like how Zimmer changes up his style for different films.

Don't want to beat a dead horse here, but Schifrin must be considered as one of the most versatile film composer. Consider the horror scores I posted above, the Mission: Impossible TV theme (you know the one), and his great score for Carlos Saura's Tango...

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Still thinking about this. Even if Williams isn't your personal favorite his utter dominance of the field in the last 50 years is undeniable. Obviously there's a subjective component to things like this (you dig him or you don't) but the objective measures of his career are staggering. Not just volume of work, but prominence of work. An absurd number of award nominations (52 Oscar nominations!) and wins to accompany it as well.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

There isn't a debate about it, John Williams.

 

[kihei]

Nino Rota.

Principal composer for Federico Fellini and also composed the score for The Godfather. I can't think of a Fellini movie without hearing Rota's score in my head, especially 8 1/2.

 

[Eisen]

Poledouris for Conan alone.

 

[KingBran]

IMO its Elfman or Williams. Mansell and Gioccino are there too. I would round out my top 5 with Raman Djuani.

And I know I butchered some of their names. Im on my phone and too lazy to scroll up / google.

 

[Cloned]

A little promo for Giacchino:



So good. 6:00 to the end gives me goosebumps every time. To me, it's the definition of emotionally gripping.