I am looking for movie music to add to my collection of lyric-less ear entertainment. I like almost anything, and am open to new and strange things.
Suggestions?
I recommend Michael Nyman’s work in Peter Greenaway’s films. I especially like his soundtracks for “The Draughtman’s Contract,” “A Zed and Two Noughts,” and “Drowning By Numbers”. This album is a good sampler: http://www.amazon.com/Nyman-Greenaway-Revisited/dp/B001DELXF8/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1231879528&sr=8-1
Why don’t you list of a few of your current favorites?
Otherwise, you can’t go wrong with just about anything written by Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, Georges Delerue, Franz Waxman, or Elmer Bernstein.
Try the scores from:
Jaws
2001
Close Encounters
Alien
I know I like John Williams, John Barry, James Horner, Danny Elfman (in small doses), Javier Navarrete, Alexandre Desplat…etc. I don’t know a lot of names really, only moveis that I loved to “hear” like Dances with Wolves or On Golden Pond or even Braveheart.
I really am open to everything though!
The first CD I bought was Jurassic Park, before I even had a CD player. It’s still one of my favorites.
James Horner’s score for Titanic was damn good, too.
Does it have to be film scores? I love this two disc collection of J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin played by Rachel Podger.
I’ve got a collection of John Williams scores (Everyone’s heard his stuff, so it’s easy to like)
I’m also a big fan of Bernard Hermann, having grown up listening to his brooding, moody stuff. He did several films for Hitchcock (Psycho and North by Northwest prominently among them. Hitchcock put Hermann on the other side of the camera in hhis remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much – he was directing the orchestra in Albert Hall on-camera.) and scored several of Ray Harryhausen’s flicks – most notably The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts. Great stuff! There’s at least one collection of his film scores out there, along with the individual films.
If you’re looking for odd electronics stuff, you can get Louis and Bebe Barron’s score for Forbidden Planet. Or Wendy Carlos’ scores (One album has Clockwork Orange and other stuff on it.)
I second anything by Jerry Goldsmith – enormous stylistic variety, and all of it magnificently crafted. There are a number of good anthologies of his work available too.
For something a bit more obscure, I recommend Christopher Young’s Hellbound: Hellraiser II soundtrack. At turns majestic, brooding, and all likely to appeal to a fan of Williams and Horner.
This is great stuff!
I had forgotten about Wendy Carlos, she (he?..) has some awesome stuff!
Thanks for the replies, I am downloading, and patiently waiting to hear.
The Natural. Also, I fell asleep watching a movie last night, but as I drifted in and out, there was one part that had no dialogue that was really cool. The movie is Fractured, with Anthony Hopkins.
Mark Knopfler has done some amazing work for soundtracks, including Local Hero, The Princess Bride and Last Exit to Brooklyn. A few of the tracks have lyrics (Gerry Rafferty sings on a beautiful Local Hero song), but, by and large, it’s all wonderful instrumental stuff (and not all of it his incomparable guitar work – much of it is orchestral). There’s even a compilation of some of the best on an album called Screenplaying, which you can sample here. Just noticed the price of the MP3 download for the *Screenplaying *album – you will get more than $7 of enjoyment out of that album, believe me.
Also, Ennio Morricone’s work for The Man with No Name series (The Good, the Bad & the Ugly, et al.) is quite good, as is his soundtrack for Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables.
Soundtracks (classical style unless otherwise noted)
[ul]
[li]Christophe Beck - Buffy the Vampire Slayer soundtracks [/li][li]Christopher Franke - Babylon 5 soundtracks, others. ambient/electronic[/li][li]Murray Gold - Doctor Who (current series) soundtracks[/li][li]Randy Newman - Disney/Pixar soundtracks: Toy Story, Monsters, Inc, A Bug’s Life[/li][li]Yoko Kanno - Cowboy Bebop soundtracks. Great jazz. [/li][li]Howard Shore - Lord of the Rings soundtracks[/li][li]Alan Silvestri - Back to the Future soundtracks, many others[/li][/ul]
Non-soundtracks
[ul]
[li]David Arkenstone - ambient/electronic[/li][li]California Guitar Trio - classical arrangements and pop covers[/li][li]Canadian Brass - classical and pop covers by a 5-man brass band[/li][li]Don Dorsey - electronic renditions of Beethoven and Bach[/li][li]Los Angeles Guitar Quartet - mostly classical arrangements[/li][li]Paragon Ragtime Orchestra - orchestral arrangements of old ragtime favorites[/li][li]P.D.Q. Bach (Peter Schikele) - absurdist classical music. [/li][li]Chris Thile/Nickel Creek - Mixed original folk music w/ vocals and pretty instrumental pieces arranged for mandolin & guitar[/li][li]Tim Weisberg - Jazz/electronic [/li][/ul]
*** Ponder
Broken Flowers has an Ethiopian Jazz soundtrack. I think there are no vocals, at least no English vocals. Mulatu Astatke is the main artist.
The best soundtracks I’ve heard in years are TRANSFORMERS (make sure you get the original score, not the “music inspired by”) and HITMAN.
Patrick Doyle’s soundtrack for Henry V.
Hans Zimmer - Pirates of the Carribean, Gladiator, Thin Red Line, Crimson Tide, Black Hawk Down, The Rock, Pearl Harbor
Jerry Goldsmith - Rudy, some Star Trek films
James Horner - Legends of the Fall, Titanic
Rachel Portman - The Legend of Baggar Vance
Randy Edelman - Last of the Mohichans (a must have), Dragonheart, The Bruce Lee Story, Every movie trailer ever made
“Grand Prix” by Maurice Jarre
Perhaps my favorite movie soundtrack: Sweet and Lowdown
I love Horner’s score for The Rocketeer. It had depth and resonance, and old-movie majesty to it. Disney must’ve felt so, too – they re-used it several times for some of their trailers.
I like several of Jerry Goldsmith’s scores, especially the one he did for Patton.
I still like the old James Bond scores, especially the ones that John Barry did.