Your ten favourite film scores?

Top of my list:

Lifeboat - Directed by Hitchcock - film score by Hugo Friedhofer

The use of music in this film epitomizes the restraint I think most directors need in their use of film music. Film music should enhance and aid in telling the story, but not be a crutch to save a poorly written or acted moment

Solaris - (1972) directed by Tarkovsky - Original Music by Eduard Artemiev

Also fantastic use of Bach throughout. You could understand the film from only the images and the music without any of the dialog.

Pi - Directed by Darren Aaronofsky - film score by Clint Mansell

I must say I preferred his style on this film to what he would do later on. The selectivity of when he used sound made its effect that much more powerful when it came in.

Eraserhead - directed by David Lynch - Soundtrack by David Lynch and Alan Splet

Mullholland Drive - directed by David Lynch - Score by Angelo Badalamenti

On the Waterfront - Score by Lenny Bernstein

Brother from another planet - score by Martin Brody and Mason Daring.

This ones definitely not classical and there are a few 80s pop songs that have fallen out of style, but otherwise a very enjoyable experience.

Un Chien Andalou - Music by Luis Buñue and a bit of Wagner spliced in there.

Didn't Carter Burwell get his start with The Coen Brothers on "Blood Simple" and has scored all of their films? Graeme Revell also does some really nice "incidental" music on the Rock soundtrack for "S.F.W." ...and Hal Hartley both Directs & Scores his films -- mostly independant, but totally quirky ( see "Henry Fool" ) So many great soundtracks have "catchy" themes & Grandiose orchestrations. I am more attracted to compositions that have a quirky, odd nature about them -- sometimes a "spaciness"... sometimes iwth "tinkley" percussion. I like those composers who can combine this "quirkiness" with music where things seem "odd"... a subtle soundtrack that denotes that.... something is not quite "right" :) It's so interesting to hear these people and see the similarities in style, appear in all of this movies!! Other than that... my faves -- David Byrne -- The Last Emperor (1987) Mark Knopfler ( Dire Straits ) -- Local Hero (1983) // The Princess Bride (1987) Vangelis -- Chariots of Fire (1981) // Bladerunner (1982) // Year of Living Dangerously (w/ Maurice Jarre, 1983) Tangerine Dream -- Sorcerer (1977) // Thief (1981) // Risky Business (1983) // Wavelength (1983) // Firestarter (1984) // Legend (1985) // Three O'Clock High (1987) // Near Dark (1988) Maurice Jarre ( Father of Jean-Michel Jarre ) -- Ryan's Daughter (1970) // The Year of Living Dangerously (1983) // A Passage to India (1984) // Witness (1985) // The Mosquito Coast (1986) // Dead Poets Society (1989) // Ghost (1990) // Fearless (1993) Rachel Portman -- Life Is Sweet (1991) // Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) // Benny & Joon (1993) // The Joy Luck Club (1993) // Sirens (1993) // The Road to Wellville (1994) // Emma (1996) // The Cider House Rules (1999) // Chocolat (2000) Richard Robbins -- The Bostonians (1984) // A Room with a View (1985) // Howards End (1992) // The Remains of the Day (1993) { my all=time fave soundtrack !! :} // The Golden Bowl (2000) Thomas Newman -- Men Don't Leave (1990) // The Rapture (1991) // Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) // Scent of a Woman (1992) // How to Make an American Quilt (1995) // American Beauty (1999) // Pay It Forward (2000) // Road to Perdition (2002) // Angels in America (2003) // Finding Nemo (2003) // Cinderella Man (2005) // Jarhead (2005) // Revolutionary Road (2008) Edit -- ...and Carter Burwell :) Blood Simple (1984) // Raising Arizona (1987) // Miller's Crossing (1990) // Barton Fink (1991) // Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) // Kalifornia (1993) // The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) // Rob Roy (1995) // Fargo (1996) // Conspiracy Theory (1997) // The Big Lebowski (1998) // Gods and Monsters (1998) // Mystery, Alaska (1999) // Three Kings (1999) // Being John Malkovich (1999) // Before Night Falls (2000) // Hamlet (2000) // A Knight's Tale (2001) // The Man Who Wasn't There (2002) // Adaptation. (2002) // Intolerable Cruelty (2003) // The Ladykillers (2004) // No Country for Old Men (2007) // Burn After Reading (2008) // Twilight (2008) // A Serious Man (2009) // Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

This was somewhat difficult..

I could agree with Psycho, On the Waterfront and of course A Clockwork Orange but I would substitute the latter for

The Shining (1980) of course not really a score as such, Tarantino works the same wonders of arrangement with Pulp Fiction (1994) obviously not classical in the least mind but definitely a favourite.

I don't know what the rules be ?

City Lights (1931) magical, I'm a big Chaplin fan ( :

Morricone's Once Upon a Time in America (1984) and

Bernard Hermann's score to Taxi Driver (1976) are probably my two favourite scores.

The Thin Red Line (1998),

Schindler's List (1993),

Mulholland Drive (2001),

Alien (1979).

I really can't decide on a 10th.

My favorite film score by a quote--classical--unquote composer is Alexander Nevsky by Prokofieff.

Second would probably be The Red Pony by Aaron Copland.

I'm surprised that the list included The Good, The Bad, and They Ugly by Ennio Morricone but not the other two great spaghetti Westerns.

I agree with Nick that the Harry Potter music is nice.

As I have indicated in reply to earlier questions, John Williams borrows ideas from earlier composers,

but he does so with good effect.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is nice.

The theme song is ingenious in that the intervals are complex until the last phrase, where the intervals are more simple.

It is more common for the last phrase to be more complex in some way.

How about the famous guitar solo in Les Jeux Interdits (Forbidden Games).

Tchaikovsky often gets praised for the second movement of his Fourth Symphony, in which he writes a lovely melody on straight eighth notes.

The same can be said for this melody, which is straight quarter notes in 3/4 time.

Okay, I'll bite. I like movies too. My favorite film scores (no particular order)--or at least ones that seem to be iconic and memorable

The Magnificent Seven--Elmer Bernstein (also his theme for The Great Escape)

Bridge on the River Kwai--Malcolm Arnold (who adapted "Colonel Bogey March" by F.J. Ricketts (under Kenneth Alford)

Lawrence of Arabia--Maurice Jarre

Psycho-Bernard Hermann

The Mission--Ennio Morricone

The Godfather--Nino Rota (who also scored Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet)

Goldfinger--James Barry--who gets a special "shoutout" for all his other James Bond themes

Breakfast at Tiffany's--Henry Mancini

The Pink Panther--Henry Mancini

Star Wars--John Williams

I realized I really kind of have about 12 there, but I could have listed even more memorable themes that have entered pop culture.

A special honorable mention should go to "2001: A Space Odyssey" for its use of Richard Strauss's

"And Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (Also Sprach Zarathustra)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWnmCu3U09w&feature...

To kill a Mockingbird- Elmer Bernstein

Quigley Down Under-Basil Poledouris

Magnificent Seven-Elmer Bernstein

Zulu- John Barry

Dr. Zhivago- Maurice Jarre

Red Pony- Prokofiev

Sunday in New York-Peter Nero

Help-Beatles

The Man with the Golden Arm-Elmer Bernstein

Anything by Aaron Copland

The Lord of the Rings theme tune

The Eternal Vow from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

The main theme from Schindler's List

The Magic Flute

I'm not sure what else but those are definitely my top 4 in order from the favourite downwards.

Good question, Del - it's a challenge to come up with some films no-one else has thought of yet. But a brain-stretching exercise is grand way to start the day!

My first instinct is to list some of my favourite "composer" films such as "Farinelli," "Tous les Matins du Monde" and "Le Roi Danse" - but instead, I've got a few Australian films that incorporate some classical music in their soundtracks:

1. "Travelling North" (Vivaldi's e minor bassoon concerto recurs throughout this film.)

2. "Last Days of Chez Nous" (Bach harpsichord concerto)

3. "Shine" (the story of autistic pianist David Helfgott)

4. "Passion" (the story of Percy Grainger, focusing primarily on his somewhat unorthodox sexuality)

5. "Gross Misconduct" (arias from Puccini's operas)

6. And there's a disturbing New Zealand film "Heavenly Creatures" which incorporates some of Mario Lanza's original operatic recordings.

7. Talking of Puccini, how can we forget Glenn Close slitting her wrists to "Madama Butterfly" in "Fatal Attraction?"

I'll add more as I think of them.

Hafwen x

Pan's Labyrinth

Hero

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Corpse Bride

Edward Scissorhands

The Harry Potter series

The Ring (Both versions)

Memoirs of a Geisha

Psycho

The Godfather

1. Amadeus

2. Amadeus

3. Amadeus

4. Amadeus

5. Amadeus

6. Amadeus

7. Amadeus

8. Amadeus

9. Amadeus

10. Amadeus

Other than that, I like Jerry Goldsmith's score for the 1992 movie "Rudy", and Dario Marienelli's score for the Keira Knightley version of "Pride and Prejudice".