How many times have we seen this particular question come up? I have noticed that score fans love to make lists and rank composers and scores and I must confess that I have also given into that temptation occasionally.

It occurred to me when I was responding to Lou Goldberg’s anniversary post about his preference for Maurice Jarre over John Williams that this is really a question that doesn’t have a lot of meaning for me.

As I was responding, I realized that there were works by Jarre that I enjoyed as much as anything John Williams had done. So who did I enjoy more? Both. Neither. Further, I realized that works by Jarre that I had previously dismissed as nothing special, I liked. Works by Williams that I had previously lionized were “okay”. I also discovered that there were composers who I only really enjoyed a few scores from with the rest doing little for me at the present.

Further, it occurred to me that this had happened with almost every composer that I have collected. From Addison to Zimmer, I find that my appreciation of a particular score or composer changes according to factors that have little to do with music and everything to do with what else that happens in my life. So, I guess I don’t really have a favorite anything. Instead, I have things that I REALLY like right now.

SO, I am resolved to adhere to course I have been following:

Judge each work on its individual merits, not what I thought of the other composer’s works.

Listen to other people’s opinions, but make up my own mind.

Try new composers or scores even if I think I might not like them.

So my questions are:

Is this an experience that others have had?

Is the question “What is your favorite….” valid or does it require qualifiers?

Why do we feel like it is necessary to have “favorites’ anyway?

I open the floor for discussion amongst our august assembly.

I do have favorites. Certain scores may sit in their cases gathering dust, but
they’ll eventually be played again. They are like classics to me, and each
listening opens venues of new listening experiences. For me classics are
like Conan, Ben Hur, Magnificent Seven, etc. I rarely tire of these, but I don’t
listen to them constantly. (A little like reading Shakespeare with a new
interpretation.)

Some scores are disappointing to me as stand alones and
may be only played a few times and then are relegated to the bottom of my
CD pile. When I first hear a score that I like, I’m guilty of playing certain tracks
over and over until I tire of them. I keep thinking that I should only play them
a few times and then put them away for a month or so; then they’ll sound almost
new when I replay them. Problem is I get addicted to a certain theme and just
keep playing it until one day it sounds a little wearisome. Then I’ll pull out
one of my classics. (Does this make sense?) This year, I played The Egg
Travels from Dinosaur and track 9 from Mission to Mars way too much. I needed
to put them away in order to enjoy them later, but at the time they seemed like
my favorites.

NP Dying Young...left this alone for a few months, and now the lovely theme
seems fresh to me.

Seriously, I know what you are talking about when you mention playing tracks repeatedly until they seem stale and then taking a breather.

I just put on Taras Bulba last night and I was unprepared for how good it sounded (Thanks Joan!). It was so dynamic and driving. I loved it and I know that it will be annoying all the rest of my family for a few weeks!

Maybe the question that people are asking is "What are your perennial favorties"? By this I mean what scores do we always come back to renew our love of film music.

My favorite score to drive to is Cutthroat Island. I find it quite amusing at how often the music fits the scenery.

As for playing tracks over and over... Twilight Zone Movie's Overture was one that I couldn't stop listening to. I just couldn't get enough of the marvelous "Kick the Can" theme (0:45 to 1:15.) What I absolutely love about this specific arrangement is the french horns that enter and surround the strings. It really blew me away the first time I heard it.

Just off the top of my head I'd say that there are SO many reasons why we like particular scores that it is indeed difficult to express why (isn't that great? I have no idea what I'm talking about!), but it occurs to me that nobody lives in a vacuum, and that certain moments in our past must have influenced very heavily in our own tastes of today (the crass example would be songs that were played when we first fell in love).

Everything may be an extension of that. What are the roots of our personal likes? I'm sure it all boils down to specific moments or phases in our past. I don't think that people develop without outside influences, so I'm not going to suddenly and for no apparent reason like rap music for example, but that's maybe because it's so far removed from the tastes which I have gradually developed. That connective tissue with the past may be really important.

It's all subjective, isn't it? I may appreciate Mozart (or even rap, if I knew what it was about) intellectually, but until it intrudes on my life in an emotional way it won't go beyond mere appreciation.

OR SOMETHING!

Thank goodness we all have such glorious and varied personal taste

On this and other boards there has been much discussion about film music as music divorced completely from film (Never saw the movie, loved the music as music) as opposed to not caring for the score until you have seen it in the film. I raise this, as an example; of something that you can easily see is totally subjective and personal. For one person the fact that is film music is incidental to his enjoyment of the music, to the other it is key. I can think of examples of both: I have never seen Taras Bulba (although I will try to now) but I really enjoyed it. I thought the song “When she loved me” was okay, but once I saw it in Toy Story II, I was completely floored and now, whenever I hear it, those images are stamped into my brain.

Would I have really got into film music if I hadn’t been fed a steady diet of Mancini, Montovani and classical music as a child. Would I have been a fan of older films if I hadn’t been a Sci-fi fan? As a kid, I got exposed to older films through Sci-Fi Theater and I gradually got interested in other films because Black and White didn’t bother me. In my mind, all these things led to my love of film music.

Would I love Return to Oz (movie and score) if I hadn’t read every Oz book when I was kid?

Would Raise the Titanic and Titanic be among my favored scores if I hadn’t been reading about the ship for over 20 years?

Would Lord of the Rings work as well for me if I hadn’t read the books?

Would I like Jane Eyre better if I could shake the cold, dishrag limp grasp of Jane’s character in the book from my mind?

Would Under Fire resonate with so strongly if I hadn’t been politically aware?

Every day is new.

I love a really well-made cheeseburger, but I'm not going to love three or four of them every day for a whole week.
Is there anyone reading this who eats the very same kind of food at every meal, every day of the week?

I doubt it.

The beauty of food is (among other things) its infinite variety. A different flavor for every morning, noon and night of every new day.

The same is true of music.

Just as I would never want omelettes at every meal for a month, I would not want my musical listening limited to such an extent.

My musical "favorites" ebb and flow throughout my life experience.

Mr. Ruger, you said:

"I find that my appreciation of a particular score or composer changes according to factors that have little to do with music and everything to do with what else that happens in my life."

I disagree with that statement at the point of "appreciation", because my appreciation and respect for composer and composition does not change, however I agree with that statement to the extent that the ever-changing seasons and times of my days determine which musical selections will most fulfill me at any particular moment.

SIDEBAR: MEMORIES

Those many different moments of our lives take on themes as we choose the music to accompany them. For instance:
Bonita & I moved into our home 16 years ago, and during the days that we worked side by side, moving and cleaning and knocking ourselves out, we played Randy Newman's The Natural in the background. That score became "The Soundtrack" for the upheaval and re-rooting of our life together, and now... anytime that we hear that score, we both are transported back in time to those days when we were in the process of moving.

Music has a unique ability to become part of the fabric of our lives, and because of that, we interpret certain compositions in a most subjective manner. What a wonderful thing! We all have a different soundtrack for our lives!

NP: Hollow Man Goldsmith

Joan, I didn't see the movie, but this score is neither dissonant, nor is it atonal.
The main theme and the underlying scoring are the very embodiment, the essence of translucency, and eventual invisibility, in that the qualities and textures of the music resemble the visual equivalent of a sleek patch of fog rapidly dissipating, or perhaps the stream of smoke eminating from a cigarette, and gradually vanishing into the atmosphere.

Light a match, and observe the stream of smoke as it disappears...

Once more, Meistro Goldsmith perfectly captures the HEART of the thing...
I know this, and I didn't even see the movie!

I put together a top 10 list of composers just as a reference, a way of saying this is where I'm coming from. It turned out to be a top 12 list as I couldn't chop 2 off and not feel their omission.

Jarre made the list, Williams did not--an unpopular taste choice to be sure. But once you start to analyze it, the whole thing breaks down. Certain Williams scores top other Jarres, one-shot scores by some composers that didn't make the list are better than most of the scores by comosers who did, etc.