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Name 50 Worthwhile Film Composers...okay, name 25.....20???

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Author	Topic: Name 50 Worthwhile Film Composers...okay, name 25.....20???

Ron Pulliam Oscar® Winner	Incredible as it seems, Thor has 450 links to filmcomposers at his website. FOUR HUNDRED-FREAKIN'-FIFTY! He seems a tad obsessed whether anyone else's is "larger," too. My question: Can anyone name 50 - that's F-I-F-T-Y -- decent, working film composers? Or TWENTY-FIVE? Maybe TWENTY....sure.... Ron
posted 11-29-2000 02:51 PM PT (US)

wistiti Oscar® Winner	1 Bruce Broughton 2 Gary Chang 3 David Arnold 4 Craig Armstrong 5 John Barry 6 David Bell 7 Elmer Bernstein 8 Steve Bramson 9 Marco Beltrami 10 Richard Rodney Bennett 11 Murray Gold 12 George S. Clinton 13 Michel Colombier 14 Vladimir Cosma 15 Klaus Doldinger 16 Norbert Schneider 17 Don Davis 18 Patrick Doyle 19 Ross Edwards 20 John Debney 21 Cliff Eidelman (does he still compose?) 22 Steve Dorff (or Stephen Dorff, I can't remember which is which and who is who) 23 Anne Dudley 24 Stephen Endelman 25 Randy Edelman 26 Brad Fiedel 27 Louis Febre 28 Robert Folk (stuck in comedies but still around) 29 John Frizzell 30 Charles Fox 31 Richard Kendall Gibbs 32 Nick Glennie-Smith 33 Elliot Goldenthal 34 Michael Gore 35 Michael Gibbs 36 Joel Goldsmith 37 Jerry Goldsmith 38 Christopher Gordon 39 Harry Gregson-Williams 40 Gavin Greenaway 41 Lee Holdridge 42 James Horner 43 James Newton Howard 44 Joe Hisaishi 45 Mark Isham 46 Ron Jones 47 Trevor Jones 48 Jan AP Kaczmarek 49 Kevin Kiner 50 Arthur Kempel 51 Michael Kamen 52 Wojciech Kilar 53 Rolfe Kent 54 Francis Lai 55 Daniel Licht 56 Dennis McCarthy 57 Joel McNeely 58 Stefano Mainetti 59 Hummie Mann 60 Alan Menken 61 Charlie Mole 62 Ennio Morricone 63 Mark Mancina 64 Mark McKenzie 65 Thomas Newman 66 David Newman 67 Michael Nyman 68 Randy Newman 69 Julian Nott 70 John Ottman 71 Basil Poledouris 72 Nicholas Pike 73 Rachel Portman 74 John Powell 75 J.A.C. Redford 76 Jeff Rona 77 J.Peter Robinson 78 Graeme Revell 79 Richard Robbins 80 Trevor Rabin 81 William Ross 82 Philippe Sarde 83 Craig Safan 84 Steven Scott Smalley 85 Richard Stone 86 Christopher L. Stone 87 John Scott 88 Mark Shaiman 89 Howard Shore 90 Alan Silvestri 91 Mark Snow 92 Ken Thorne 93 Alessio Vlad 94 Shirley Walker 95 Patrick Williams 96 John Williams 97 Alan Williams 98 Mark Watters 99 Debbie Wiseman 100 Christopher Young 101 Gabriel Yared 102 Hans Zimmer 103 Eric Wurst 104 David Wurst Now you may not like any of them, but I either like or love the music of most of them. If I don't like everything by everyone here, I at least look forward to anything composed by these people. Hope you had a nice reading time.
posted 11-29-2000 03:12 PM PT (US)

OHMSS76 Oscar® Winner	Gary Chang!?!? Steve Dorff!?!? The Wurst's counting as two!?!?? when they've only done ONE film which is unreleased!!!!Right????? Just wanting to fan the flames a bit....'fraid Ron is right on this one for the most part.... MoJoJoJo
posted 11-29-2000 03:31 PM PT (US)

John C Winfrey Oscar® Winner	On the above list: very interesting. I am familar with around 80 of those. Ron, I would say that at least 50 of those are good to very good. At least. John.
posted 11-29-2000 03:32 PM PT (US)

Richard Oscar® Winner	Hasn't Garry Chang done about 3-4 films? -Island of Dr, Moreau -George Wallace (Did he do George Wallace?) I don't know anymore but I have a feeling he has, hmmm, maybe I'm wrong.
posted 11-29-2000 07:09 PM PT (US)

Hard Target Oscar® Winner	Here's my list of worthwhile composers: Jerry Goldsmith John Williams James Newton Howard Christopher Young Hans Zimmer Danny Elfman James Horner Thomas Newman Randy Newman Mark Isham Lalo Schifrin Dave Grusin Bruce Broughton Trevor Rabin Mark Mancina John Powell Alan Silvestri Graeme Revell Ennio Morricone Phillipe Sarde Elmer Bernstein Terence Blanchard Michael Convertino Randy Edelman Mark McKenzie Basil Poledouris Carter Burwell Cliff Eidelman Joel McNeely George Fenton David Arnold Howard Shore George S.Clinton Trevor Jones Gabriel Yared David Newman Marc Shaiman John Ottman Elliot Goldenthal Mark Mothersbaugh Bill Conti John Debney Shirley Walker Alf Clausen Chris Boardman John Barry Maurice Jarre Mychael Danna
posted 11-29-2000 09:46 PM PT (US)

wistiti Oscar® Winner	quote: Originally posted by OHMSS76: Gary Chang!?!? Steve Dorff!?!? The Wurst's counting as two!?!?? when they've only done ONE film which is unreleased!!!!Right????? MoJoJoJo First, they've all done more than one or two films. Second, if they have not been lucky like Horner to score a Star Trek or like Don Davis to score a Matrix, and become as (relatively) famous as these two are, it does not prevent all of them from being great composers. You will also notice that some composers on the list are mainly scoring TV series (David Bell, Ron Jones). If they have not been able to get a major scoring assignment I doubt it's their fault, considering how good their music really is. You may question TV composers considered as film composers, but many (GOLDSMITH ring a bell?) began in TV series and radio shows. Should I exlude him because he used to work in TV? As for the Wursts, they may have composed for Fantastic Four which was unreleased, but if you check the credits on many movies at your local video store (USA/Canada), you'll notice their names pop up rather often. (Look for the Columbia TriStar Home Video, LionsGate Films, TVA International, Motion International or Trimark logos). OH MY GOD I FORGOT FENTON Thanks Hard Target for mentioning him in your list. http://us.imdb.com/Name?Chang,+Gary http://us.imdb.com/Name?Wurst,+Eric http://us.imdb.com/Name?Wurst,+David http://us.imdb.com/Name?Dorff,+Steve
posted 11-30-2000 06:03 AM PT (US)

Ron Pulliam Oscar® Winner	I knew you guys could "name" 50 composers or more....heck, even Thor could name 450. But on those lists, I count about 26 names I feel are excellent (or better) composers. Many of the names, admittedly, are unknown quantities to me in terms of their work. I've seen some of the films they've been credited with scoring but the scores made no impression on me with the films. I suspect the "bulk" of them are journeyman musicians...nothing wrong with that....but what I'm after are highly creative, exciting composers. That narrows all lists down considerably. Ron [Message edited by Ron Pulliam on 11-30-2000]
posted 11-30-2000 08:29 AM PT (US)

wistiti Oscar® Winner	Well, obviously some things are a matter of taste. But the 100+ composers I've mentioned are only the ones who have grabbed my attention. I have not named others (Carter Burwell, Mychael Danna, Normand Corbeil, Elia Cmiral, Jean-Claude Petit, etc.) whom I have heard about and heard their music, but don't care about either their music or them. I'll give you this much, the music of many among them has seriously dropped in quality over the past two or so years. (Blame Titanic for lowering the standards). Many are not in top form these days, but we all have our ups and downs. So do film composers. Maybe one of these days the others will catch your ear.
posted 11-30-2000 02:52 PM PT (US)

John C Winfrey Oscar® Winner	I really liked David Bell's score for Dead Man's Walk, the TV film where two Indians in two locales kill off hundreds by themselves and they cannot be shot. One a Comanche and one an Apache. Actually, it was a fairly interesting film about the fellows from Lonesome Dove in the 1840's in the early history of Texas and Mexico. Bell had some very good themes in this. Best, John.
posted 11-30-2000 03:50 PM PT (US)

SBD Oscar® Winner	My list(s): Top ten favorites (in no particular order): David Newman Alan Silvestri Jerry Goldsmith Shirley Walker Chris Young Basil Poledouris John Williams John Debney Marc Shaiman Danny Elfman These guys will be big: Julian Nott Rolfe Kent Michael Tavera Daniel Licht Louis Febre (listen to his fine work in two direct-to-video Scooby-Doo flicks - SD and the Witch's Ghost & SD and the Alien Invaders - and try to convince me he's not a protege of John Debney) These guys used to be big (and should be again): Bruce Broughton Craig Safan Cliff Eidelman John Morris Laurence Rosenthal These guys deserve to be big: Marco Beltrami (in a way, he's already big, but it's really a matter of typecasting; someone get this guy a romantic comedy!) Richard Band Richard Gibbs Bill Conti Robert Folk Former orchestrators: Mark McKenzie Hummie Mann William Ross Everyone else: Graeme Revell Randy Edelman Randy Newman James Horner Ennio Morricone Patrick Doyle John Ottman Carter Burwell David Arnold James Newton Howard Michael Kamen Thomas Newman Hans Zimmer Mark Mothersbaugh Howard Shore Trevor Jones George S. Clinton Harry Gregson-Williams John Powell Rachel Portman Elmer Bernstein John Carpenter
posted 12-18-2000 07:19 AM PT (US)

H Rocco Oscar® Winner	Composers I will buy "blind" include: Jerry Goldsmith Akira Ifukube John Williams Christopher Young Carter Burwell John Scott Howard Shore Elliot Goldenthal John Barry Other excellent composers include: Danny Elfman Thomas Newman Randy Newman Hans Zimmer Rachel Portman Shirley Walker Wojciech Kilar John Corigliano Michael Kamen Ennio Morricone Francesco DeMasi Bruce Broughton Lee Holdridge Relative newcomers of promise include: Patrick Doyle Jon Brion Marco Beltrami Daniel Licht John Powell Harry Gregson-Williams Joel Goldsmith (not really a newcomer, being in the business for nearly 25 years already, but only recently doing prominent works) Rarely writing stuff of interest anymore: James Horner Trevor Jones Pino Donaggio Richard Band (sorry Captain James!) Leonard Rosenman (well, he's not even WORKING anymore) Nino Rota (because he is dead) Bernard Herrmann (because he is dead) Toru Takemitsu (because he is dead) Masaru Sato (because he is dead) Fumio Hayasaka (this guy is VERY LONG dead, and left us FAR too young, but watch/listen to RASHOMON or SEVEN SAMURAI and imagine what might have been.) [Message edited by H Rocco on 12-18-2000]
posted 12-18-2000 10:18 AM PT (US)

Quill Oscar® Winner	My top 20: (in no particular order) James Horner Jerry Goldsmith John Williams Trevor Jones Randy Edelman Basil Poledouris David Newman Thomas Newman James Newton Howard Hans Zimmer Marc Mancina Trevor Rabin Ennio Morricone Craig Armstrong (sorely under-utilized) Craig Safan (MIA) Cliff Eidelman Danny Elfman Elliot Goldenthal Don Davis David Arnold I know these are all fairly unoriginal choices, but I like 75-100% of the work. Some might say Armstrong or Davis can't qualify due to the volume of work they've done...but the old saying holds true.."It's not the quantity--it's the quality."
posted 12-18-2000 11:31 AM PT (US)

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