Who is your favorite movie music composer and why?

I like "Moonlight Sonata", Beethoven and "Adagio for Strings", Barber. Why? Probably because they are quite deep, emotional, melancholic pieces.

JOHN WILLIAMS. 'nuff said.

-Thomas Newman: Pixar movies, Revolutionary Road, Road to Perdition

-Alexandre Desplat (I met him, by the way): Benjamin Button, Birth, New Moon, Julie & Julia, Fantastic Mr. Fox

-Michael Brook: Into the Wild, Inconvenient Truth

-Danny Elfman: Tim Burton movies, Spiderman

-Hans Zimmer: Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3, Dark Knight, Kung Fu Panda, The Holiday

-James Horner: Avatar, Titanic, Land Before Time

-Nicholas Hooper: The last two Harry Potter movies

-Klaus Badelt: Pirates of the Caribbean 1

I love movie scores. Of course, Alan Menken is great, too. He did most of the Disney animated classics.

Why do I love them? They're beautiful and they make me feel good. Take a look at Josh Kramer's album "Beginnings." He's a really good composer.

John Williams - I usually a not a fan of the soundtracks in movies, but sometimes a certain interlude will pique my interest - and then when I check the composer it's ALWAYS John Williams. It's getting creepy.

I also like Gilbert and Sullivan from the opera The Pirates of Penzance (among others). They're AWESOME.

And Howard Shore of LOTR fame.

Yeah, Hans Zimmer is also awesome.

And that's about it.

Hope this helps!

In addition to those you mentioned, Jerry Goldsmith, who did the Patton soundtrack, and Danny Elfman (Beetlejuice, etc.) and whoever it was that composed the music for the Space Battleship Yamato / Starblazers series.

Danny Elfman because Oingo Boingo.

Chris, wake up to yourself.