Going way back here, Korngold’s score for “The Adventures of Robin Hood” has always been one of my favorites.
Forgot to mention this one from Robert Altmans wierd take on Phillip Marlowe, The Long Goodbye. Its a great theme as a stand alone but Altman recycles it throughout the film using different singers and different styles. A good film unless you are a Marlowe purist. Watch for a Schwartzenegger cameo as a bodyguard pre plastic surgery and in his underwear.
The Omega Man has a fantastic soundtrack. Perfectly encapsulates the 70’s idea of a last man on Earth. I love it. Ron Grainer wrote it and there really isn’t anything else like it.
Korngold, Waxman, Tiomkin, John Barry, etc. but Toru Takemitsu is a name that should never be left off lists like this.
He did a fantastic job, IMO, on Blade Runner.
The Bounty is fantastic. I sweat just listening to it.
I’m quite partial to Marcello Giombini’s score for Sabata. Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncp-NzeGu64
Another vote for Morricone, The Untouchables, 1987
So many of the above…
plus I love the Harry Potter soundtracks.
My mother’s boss knew Lalo Schifrin. Her boss was a sociologist at a university, who knew Schifrin from sociology circles – Schifrin was trained as a sociologist, and worked as one for a while before going over full time to writing scores.
I remember him more for the original Mission Impossible TV theme music.
Is there a list of longest surviving original scores? I know the MI score has been re-written, but you can still clearly hear the original TV score in it, dating back to the, what, early 60s?
probably going to be from one of the long running TV series
Mission Impossible 1968
Dr Who from 1963 - various reinterpretations but the same thing
Coronation Street ( British long running soap) 1960, I assume it is still the same have not seen it for a long time
Agreed. One of my two favorite soundtracks. I would have posted it but the OP specified “orchestral” and BR is of course 90% Vangelis himself on synthesizers.
My all-time favorite is from 1954’s The High and the Mighty, by Dmitri Tiomkin.
Here is another - Samuel Barber: Overture to The School for Scandal
Creature From the Black Lagoon
Offering The Towering Inferno
Why don’t you evacuate the people off of the roof with helicopters? They keep running out of gas before they can get up there! - MAD magazine
These aren’t too shabby either:
Ennio Morricone - L’ Arena (Il Mercenario)
James Horner - Willow Theme (okay, a bit stretching on the “original” part)
Christopher Young - Hellbound (Hellraiser)
Miklos Rosza - Overture for 1959’s Ben Hur
Bill Conti - Main Theme for Masters of the Universe (a gem on a pile of dung)
Bill Conti and Rocky wasnt to bad either
Thanks, I haven’t heard that one in ages!
A few more for your entertainment:
Roy Budd - Main Theme for Get Carter
Danny Elfman - Wolf Suite Part 1 (The Wolfman)
Alex North - Love Theme (Spartacus)
Jerry Goldsmith - Main Theme for Papillon
Craig Armstrong - Escape (Plunkett & Macleane, unfortunately the ending flows into the next piece)
Luis Enriquez Bacalov - My Name is King (His Name was King:))
Bruno Nicolai - Main Theme for *Adios, Sabata *(poor guy always stood in Morricone’s shadow but made many brilliant scores)
Nora Orlandi - Il Cacciatore (One Hundred Thousand Dollars Per Killing, another brilliant , often overlooked composer)
Ennio Morricone - Rabbia e Tarantella (Allonsanfans)
Not altogether orchestral, but you just can’t pidgeonhole this genius who died much too young: Francois de Roubaix - Main Theme for Dernier Domicile Connu (sounds familiar eh?;))