Biblical or Roman Epic - Miklos Rozsa (who else?)

Western - Ennio Morricone (so what if they're of the Spaghetti variety)

Spy Flick - John Barry (none other)

Horror - Jerry Goldsmith (tough category. Strong points could be made in favor of Hans J. Salter)

Science Fiction - Jerry Goldsmith

Swashbuckler - Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Crime Drama - I couldn't think of a definitive King but Lalo Schiffrin comes to mind.

Action - Ditto, and forgive me for not choosing one of the contempory Zimmerite composers.

Fantasy - Bernard Herrmann

Suspense Thriller - Bernard Herrmann

Adventure - John Williams

Live Action Super Hero - Danny Elfman

Animated - James Horner (Nope, not Alan Menkin. And I'm sure there are some great Japanese composers for Anime that could be Kings in this category).

I realize that there are some composers not mentioned here such as Alfred Newman, Alex North, Jerry Fielding, Jerome Moross and about two dozen others. These are great composers but I don't think they ever established themselves in or dominated one or more film genres.

OK, sound off and feel free to add any genres I may have overlooked.

Western - Elmer Bernstein

Horror - John Carpenter

Marc
NP: The Truman Show

Maybe Franz Waxman could be another and I do see a strong case for Les Baxter.

Let me also add James Bernard and Harry Robinson to my list also, two important genre composers that I thoughlessly left out. And, of course, you're obviously right about Waxman also.

I still think of THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD as the scariest score I've ever heard -- an unlikely masterpiece woven from the threads of a barely coherent story by Max Ehrlich (who cowrote the bizarre but intriguing SAVAGE IS LOOSE with Frank DeFelitta, who in turn later wrote the fascinating THE ENTITY -- a really GREAT novel and a FINE, underrated movie with a SENSATIONAL lead performance by Barbara Hershey, who often rubs me the wrong way, but not here) -- and wrote AND directed the oddball TV movie DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW.)

fantasy - come on guy's James Horner has got to be up there....Can't believe no one mentioned him?!

Western - Well, There's room for your Morricone's and your Bernstein's, personally I like both!, To this list I would add Tiomkin, Newman, And Barry!

inasmuch as I've said the same thing over at the LOTR thread, sure, Horner may well be the king of epic fantasy, at least in the past 20 years. KRULL, WILLOW, THE LAND BEFORE TIME, BALTO, PAGEMASTER, etc. etc. etc. He certainly deserves a nod.

Roy Budd and crime: What's he done besides GET CARTER? (Did he even DO GET CARTER? I never saw the original. Saw the blaxploitation remake with Bernie Casey, though.)

I'm asking because I don't know. So tell me awready! (pseudo-accent kicking in)

Epic-- Rozsa (El Cid, Ben Hur), North (Spartacus, Cleopatra, 2001), Prokofiev (Nevsky, Ivans), Poledouris (Conan the Barbarian)

"erotic thriller"-- Goldsmith (Basic Instinct-- duh!) plus some Morricones

Hitchcock thriller-- Herrmann

postmodern Hitchcock thriller-- Herrmann (Obsession), Williams (The Fury), Donnagio (Blow Out), Goldsmith (Basic instinct)

action/thriller-- Goldsmith (Total Recall, The Challenge, The Wind and the Lion, Extreme Prejudice, Take a Hard Ride, Rio Conchos, The Mummy, 13th Warrior, Caboblanco, First Blood, Rambo III, Alien Nation, High Velocity, Contract on Cherry Street, Ransom, Capricorn One, Lonely Are the Brave, Air Force One), Scott (Lionheart, Man on Fire, Shoot to Kill, The Deceivers, Shogun Mayeda, Red King White Knight, The Whistle Blower), Fielding (The Wild Bunch, The Killer Elite, Chato's Land, The Getaway, The Mechanic, The Big Sleep, The Enforcer, The Gauntlet), Williams (Black Sunday, Jurassic Park, 1 and 2, The Phantom Menace, The Empire STrikes Back), Barry (The Specialist, The lIving Daylights, The White Buffalo), Poledouris (STraship Troopers, Robocop, On Deadly Ground, Under Seige 2, Quigley Down Under, The Jungle Book), Shire (Taking of Pelham 123), Schifrin (Rush Hour, Enter the Dragon, Bullit), Kamen (Lethal Weapon 1, 4, Highlander), Young (Rapid Fire), Cooder (Streets of Fire, The Long Riders, Trespass, Johnny Handsome)

comedy-- Morris, Kaper, Goodman, Newborn, Bernstein

western-- Goldsmith all the way (hardbit nihilism rocks!) Except for Fielding's apocalyptic blowout of the genre. Westerns--what a sham!

kungfu-- Schifrin (Rush Hour, Enter the Dragon), Scott (Lionheart), Young (Rapid Fire), Williams (Phantom Menace)

samurai-- Sato (Yojimbo, Sanjuro), Hayasaka (Seven Samurai), Goldsmith (The Challenge), Williams (Phantom Menace)

Giant animals-- Ifukube (Godzillas and goofy Kong), Scott (King Kong Lives), Barry (KIng Kong), Steiner (King Kong), Williams (Jurassic Parks), Goldsmith (Baby), Mancini (Tarantula), Kaper (Them!), Herrmann (Harryhausen)

Horror-- Morricone (4 Flies on Grey Velvet, Woman in a Lizards Skin, Stendhal Syndrome, Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Holocaust 2000, Exorcist 2, The Thing), Goblin (Suspiria, Buio Omega, Tenebre), Goldsmith (Alien, The Omen, I, II, III, The Mephisto Waltz, Reincarnation of Peter Proud, Warlock, Poltergeist), Young (The Vagrant, Hellraiser I, II, Urban Legend, Tales from the Hood, The Fly II), Shore (The Brood, The fLy, Dead Ringers, Silence of the Lambs, Seven)

HIstoric/War-- Freidhofer (Best Years of Our Lives), Newman (Diary of Anne Franke), Fried (Paths of Glory), Goldsmith (Patton, Tora Tora Tora, The Sand Pebbles, The CHairman, Inchon, MacArthur, Under Fire), Delerue (Salvador, Dien Bien Phu), Morricone (Quiemada, Nostromo, The Mission, Casualties of War), Williams (JFK, Nixon, Born on the 4th of July, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan), Cooder (Geronimo an American Legend), Safan (Son of the Morning STar), Poledouris (Farewell to the King, Flight of the Intruder), Scott (England Made Me, William the Conqueror, Ruby, The Shooting Party), Bernstein (Genocide), Van Otterloo (Soldier of Orange)

straight-up drama-- Raksin, Rozsa, Freidhofer, Newman, Morris, North, Delerue, Morricone, Goldsmith, Williams, Bernstein, Scott, Sarde, Broughton

chick getting sucked down the toilet movies-- Goldsmith (Deep Rising)

(I guess if you know what you're doing, you can handle just about all of it)

Having grown up with Rozsa, Waxman, A. Newman, Herrmann, North, Moross, Ifukube, Steiner, Raksin, Friedhofer, Skinner, Salter, Mancini, Baxter, Stevens, Frankel, Morricone, Antheil, M. Arnold, Auric, E. Bernstein, and a few others, I just can't get that worked up about either composer. Goldsmith and Williams seem more like the dying embers of this illustrious group rather than the peak.

I wish everyone could just accept my feelings as my own and not take them personally or as any sort of judgment of their tastes. That's just the way it is for me, if I could change my feelings about this, I would, but I can't.

You really don't know how it pains me to make this confession, I am so fond of so many people here, and antagonizing or offending them is absolutely the last thing I want to do.

those are your feelings and you are well entitled to them; and that is all anyone need say about it. That is all I'M going to say. We agree more often than we don't; if we DIDN'T, though, you'd REALLY be in trouble. But hey, that turns out to be Bizarro-World.

Always your pal (I am a loyal fellow),

"Hank"

Keep yer chin up, brother Tom. As best you can. Hey, I well know it's often none too possible. But we must persist. It's the nature of how we're made. Assuming there's a real reason we're here at all, but I can't possibly go into that one right now.

Your friend,

"Hank"

NP: SANJURO TSUBAKI (Masaru Sato)

(BTW, this is about composers who DOMINATE in their genre's, not a list of movie scores they do in each genre.)

On to Horror -- I really think John Carpenter is very good at "atmospheric" music. The most distinguishing feature being the heart beat motif the pervades what is going on on the screen.

Rats, staff meeting calls.

Action (present day) - Zimmer, HG Williams

Action (past) - Goldsmith

Drama (present day) - Goldsmith, Williams

Epic - Williams, Horner

Fantasy - Elfman

Cabaret/ jazzy style - Grusin

That's about what I could think of now.

I find it very noble of you to care so much for the feelings of others. I believe all of us here will not be offended by the personal preferneces of a fellow member. Goldsmith and Williams happen to be my favorite composers, I owe them a lot. Yet I respect your opinion and have no ill feelings whatsoever about you.

In this day and age I believe we must go back and practice the freedom of being honest to ourselves and our fellow man practicisng courtesy and respect at the same time. You sir have done that in a marvelous way.

Scott

As far as the rest of the post is concerned:
Biblical or Roman Epic - Miklos Rozsa

Western - Elmer Bernstein
Spy Flick - John Barry (none other)

Horror - Jerry Goldsmith

Science Fiction - Jerry Goldsmith

Swashbuckler - Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Crime Drama - Gosh, really don't know

Action - Goldsmith

Fantasy - Bernard Herrmann

Suspense Thriller - Bernard Herrmann

Adventure - John Williams

Live Action Super Hero - Don't understand

Animated - James Horner (I can deal with that)

Space Fantasy- John Williams

Suspense - John Williams

Henry, tell me about Detroit.

What's to tell about Detroit you didn't already know? Mr. G will be there June 1-4. I THOUGHT you were going, but I may have mixed up my messages. I keep em, I can go back and look.

Actually, on the strength of your previous posts, you might not want to BOTHER seeing Mr. G in concert ... who knows. But a lot of us are planning on being there. (And we're all mostly still using our pseudonyms, I wonder how we'll recognize each other.)

I haven't got specific travel plans yet, but I sure as hell PLAN on being there.

Your pal,

Children's Fantasy - Richard Band (Prehysteria, Dragonworld, Josh Kirby: Time Warrior, etc.)

Western - Goldsmith (Take a Hard Ride, Wild Rovers, 100 Rifles, Hour of the Gun, etc.)

SciFi - a triumvirate of Goldsmith, Williams, and, yes, Richard Band

I can't pick kings of any other genres.

As for Genre Kings:

Sci-Fi: Jerry Goldsmith(many Sci-Fi scores and they are all great!), John Williams(Star Wars, Close Encounters... those are Sci-Fi no matter what people say!)

Shakespeare Scores : Patrick Doyle(I think he deserves that role!)

Adventure: John Williams(to many to name and they are all classics!)

Children Scores: John Williams(Hook, E.T., Home Alone),

Western: Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith

Comedy: Elmer Bernstein(he has composed many great comedy scores)

Dark/Burtonesque Genre: Danny Elfman

I will come back and name some more later tonight!

Thanks,
Aaron

....and *despite* that....I think you have done much wrong to neglect Christopher Young.

Don't beat yourself up, your oppinions are valid, I don't have any problem with what you said!
easy there fella

H, Roy Budd did indeed write Get Carter, When I put him in the crime genre, maybe I should have put him in Action/Suspence as in The Black Windmill,Diamonds,Fear is the Key etc.

timmer

I've never wanted to give the impression that I dislike Jerry, to the contrary, I like him very much. And even if I don't absolutely love everything he's written, he's still better than 90% of everything else out there. As I've stated on other posts (although, to be honest I'm not sure if it was over here or at FSM), I've attended several speeches and concerts he's give here in Kansas City at the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC). He a very entertaining guy, and unless he's in a bad mood (which he was on one visit) he's most willing to speak and answer even the most silly of questions. I certainly wouldn't waste such time on someone that I didn't think the world of.

I've had the pleasure of button-holing him a couple of times, and when I asked him his opinion of James Horner and Chris Young (of course, Chris as grown enormously as a composer since then) the resulting reply was hilarious and unprintable! I haven't seen Jerry again since the early '90s, so I have yet to see the ponytail in action! How could I miss that.