For me, its John Barry on multiple occasions
Somewhere in Time
Dances With Wolves
“We Have All the Time in the World” from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
I see he did Peggy Sue Got Married? Thats a weird combo, I’ve seen the movie but I’ll have to revisit it.
Bear McCreary. Wrote all that haunting music in Battlestar Galactica, and responsible for a lot of the music in Outlander.
Rachel Portman. She wrote the music for The Human Stain and Chocolat, among others.
I grew up on films featuring John Williams’ scores.
I grew up on films featuring Ennio Morricone’s scores.
I also love Barry’s themes to Midnight Cowboy and You Only Live Twice which, curiously, start with vaguely similar melodies.
Many great ones by Elmer Bernstein, with The Magnificent Seven maybe my favorite.
Not James Horner. Buh duh duh duuuuuuuuh.
Hans Zimmer’s stuff is fantastic. Gladiator and Interstellar are two of my favorites.
Nino Rota is best known for his music for The Godfather, but here are a few more:
Dam Busters March by Eric Coates
His career stretched nearly 50 years. His best known movie music is as iconic as it gets and never fails to evoke emotion. You’ve heard it a million times and recognize it instantly even if you don’t know the composer’s name:
Bernard Herrmann. He did music for Alfred Hitchcock films (The Man who Knew too much, North by Northwest, Psycho) and Ray Harryhausen movies (Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, The Mysterious Island) and random SF/Fantasy/Horror flicks (The Day the Earth Stood Still, It’s Alive). He did most of my favorite film music.
That said, my overall favorite is probably James Horner’s opening for The Rocketeer
And, as with F.U. Shakespeare, Elmer Bernstein’s score for The Magnificent Seven
Plus, of course, John Williams’ great James Bond scores.
Wait, which James Bond movies did John Williams score?
Sorry – I miswrote, having a previous post in mind. I mean his many pop culture scores – Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Superman, etc.
I agree that Williams’ music is iconic. I was someplace, an office perhaps, and the Superman theme was playing in the background. It was immediately recognizable.
As in so many instances, I’m going with Tom Waits here.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is probably my favorite score ever. The Ecstasy of Gold (when Tuco is running through the graveyard looking for a particular marker) is amazing. I splurged on a fourth-row ticket to see him conduct an orchestra in NYC several years ago, but he had to cancel for health reasons. Never had another chance to see him.
Harry-Gregson Williams has long been my favorite, not just in movies but also in videogames.
John Williams – his Star Wars stuff generally, but his score for The Empire Strikes Back, in particular. It’s the best of all the SW films, and one reason why is the great music.
NFL Films has a lot of bespoke music that they’ve had composed and recorded for use in their various highlight videos and films, by a number of different composers. About 15 years ago, when I was playing a lot of Madden (which featured many of those NFL Films tracks), I discovered this piece, “Heroes of War,” by David Robidoux. I know very little about his other work, but it’s one of my very favorite soundtrack pieces.
The first time I saw Days of Heaven, I was in awe of Ennio Morricone.
But move me? He showed up just as the U-Haul did, and sure, he helped lighten the beer cooler, but he didn’t lift a finger when we were trying to pivot the hide-a-bed out the door…
Dude, Sam Spence got my arm and ear gashed open just a month ago…I put on Autumn Thunder started running in slow motion and then decided it was a good idea to wrestle my 16 year old son…then i fell onto the sharp corner of my desk