Who do you think is as good a composer as Morricone?

[KevinJCBJK]

What does everybody think is William's best score? Just a smalll question.

Schindler's List is my all time favorite Williams score. Munich is great too. I've listened to the End Credits many times.

[Groggy]

hahaha, geez Groggy, relax my friend. You're going to blow up! 

Really? Even in my ranting posts I'm completely laid back. It's very easy to come across as pissed off about stuff via the Internet.

[Mw/NNrules]

Hans Zimmer, in an interview, discussing Ennio Morricone. Interesting comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy4WcQRKR18

[Mw/NNrules]

Really? Even in my ranting posts I'm completely laid back. It's very easy to come across as pissed off about stuff via the Internet.

Very true.

[Tucumcari Bound]

Hans Zimmer, in an interview, discussing Ennio Morricone. Interesting comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy4WcQRKR18

Thanks for this Wrath!

[J B]

I would say there isn't any other film composer as good as Ennio.  He's my favorite far and away.

My two distant second favorite film composers are Nino Rota and Bernard Hermann.  My favorite Rota score is La Strada, and my favorite Hermann score is probably Vertigo.

As far as John Williams goes, my favorite single piece of music that I've heard by him is Marion's theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I think it's really beautiful.  My favorite score overall by him is Jaws.

[Jill]

If dead men can also play, I think that bearded italian... hmmm, what's his name?  Oh, Verdi! Yes, that fellow is in tie with the Master. 

 

[KevinJCBJK]

Love the icon Jill!

[Cusser]

I'll say "ALMOST" for these two not mentioned so far (and I also like Williams, Barry, Bernstein, Elfman).....

Erich Wolfgang Korngold:
Captain Blood (1935)
The Prince And The Pauper (1937)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Juarez (1939)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
The Sea Hawk (1940)
The Sea Wolf (1941)
King's Row (1942)
The Constant Nymph (1943)
Between Two Worlds (1944)
Devotion (1946)
Of Human Bondage (1946)
Deception (1946)
Escape Me Never (1947)
The Magic Fire (1956) (after Wagner)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) (after Mendelssohn)
Give Us This Night (1936)
Hearts Divided (1936)
The Green Pastures (1936)
Anthony Adverse (1936)
Another Dawn (1937)
The Constant Nymph (1943)
Between Two Worlds (1944)
Devotion (1946)
Of Human Bondage (1946)
Deception (1946)
Escape Me Never (1947)
The Magic Fire (1956) (after Wagner)
 

Franz Waxman:
Taras Bulba (Academy Award nomination)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Fury (1936)
Captains Courageous (1937)
A Christmas Carol (1938)
The Young in Heart (1938) (2 Academy Award nominations)
Rebecca (1940) (Academy Award nomination)
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Suspicion (1941) (Academy Award nomination)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) (Academy Award nomination)
Objective, Burma! (1945) (Academy Award nomination)
Humoresque (1946) (Academy Award nomination)
Dark City (1950)
The Furies (1950)
Sunset Boulevard (1950) (Academy Award)
He Ran All the Way (1951)
A Place in the Sun (1951) (Academy Award)
Rear Window (1954)
The Silver Chalice (1954) (Academy Award nomination)
Mister Roberts (1955)
Peyton Place (1957)
The Nun's Story (1959) (Academy Award nomination)

[Groggy]

Let's sidetrack this discussion just a bit. Since someone asked favorite John Williams scores, what is your favorite of Maurice Jarre's? I think you can guess my answer.

[Ben Tyreen]

Let's sidetrack this discussion just a bit. Since someone asked favorite John Williams scores, what is your favorite of Maurice Jarre's? I think you can guess my answer.

  I didn't realize how many scores Jarre has done until I checked his IMDB listing, 166 musical scores!   And while there's a ton I enjoy, LoA, The Longest Day, The Train, a handful of good westerns, my favorite is probably for The Professionals.  I hear that main theme and it just gets me going.  Really sets the mood for the rest of the movie.

[Groggy]

The Professionals is a great score which tends to get overlooked. Good call Ben.

[moviesceleton]

I don't know if this is the 100% correct thread for this but I don't feel like creating another one...

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article3564154.ece

I don't know if the lack of catchy melodies is always a negative thing; Morricone has done many great scores that are more rhythm than melody based. But I agree on this: "these days scores were more likely to be written by keyboard players with computer skills learned at film schools rather than composers trained at music college" and it is audible. But I'd still choose an experimenting rhythm and sound based score that suits the movie well but doesn't necessarily work on it's own over the usual Hans Zimmer spectacle that can be added to any scene ever and it gives you the same "great emotions". BTW, that's not a statement against the man exclusively; he has his moments.

[Groggy]

Well, Zimmer is a pretty good composer when given the opportunity. Most of the "generic action scores" he does are for, well, generic action movies. Also, needless to say a lot of his score gets thrown out in such movies. Most directors today know nothing about how to use music and sound in their films.

Here is a great piece of music he wrote for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the Lord Cutler Beckett suite. Only bits and pieces of it were actually used in the movies, but I think this piece shows Zimmer has a good amount of talent. I'd definitely argue it stands very well on its own merits as a fine piece of music, and not just background noise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzOixdf8A00

Of course, there's always Alex North's Main Title for Spartacus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjb-CUPjGYU

And Jarre's Main Title for Doctor Zhivago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDkvSKvzUBI

[T.H.]

Morricone is easily the greatest film composer, it's not even close imo.

Below him, I would put Rota and Herrmann.

I hate hate hate hate corporate composers like John Williams, Hanz Zimmer, James Newton Howard, etc. etc. They're absolutely terrible. Their music is so lifeless, completely void of any emotion. It makes me want to vomit.