What is your favorite film score?

Forums: Music, Film, Classical Music, Jazz, Film Music
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So what is/are your favorite film score(s)?

Are they original compositions commissioned for the film? Or an anthology of masterworks already composed for reasons outside of the film like 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Is your favorite score a jazz composition? Classical chamber or orchestra works? Something else?

Can and do you listen to film scores outside of their movie context?

Here is an example of one of my favorite scores:
The score for Princess Mononoke by Joe Hisaishi

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Type: Discussion • Score: 17 • Views: 7,189 • Replies: 72

@tsarstepan,

Without a doubt my favourite is Phil Glass' score for Koyanisqaatsi

I can absolutely listen to this on its own with the movie, but its power is born of the perfect spiritual marriage of music and film.

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@hingehead,

Philip Glass is a great and prolific film composer:
His many documentary film scores such as The Thin Blue Line (1988) and The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003);
His score for the B(ee) horror movie Candyman (1992) is extra chill inducing;
Kundun (1997);
and Notes on a Scandal (2006).

I don't understand how he hasn't won an Oscar for Best Original Score.

Damn you Academy!! Mad

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A few come to mind right away: Bernard Hermann's score for Vertigo, Angelo Badalamenti's score for The Straight Story, and Lalo Schifrin's score for the first Dirty Harry movie.

To what extent I appreciate the scores on their own, without the movie, is a great question. Hermann's is the most subtle and orchestral of the three, requiring a lot of concentration. Badalamenti's is the most melodic and consistent, and therefore the one I have listened to from beginning to end the most.

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@Gargamel,

I'm impressed by Angelo Badalamenti's dreamy scores for the Twin Peaks television show and related films.

AS for scores that can be listened to away from the film, the first notable score that I remember buying was John William's Schindler's List score. I remember buying the CD months before seeing the film.

Listening to the score (prefilm) could bring tears to my eyes. A deeply moving work of music. Still one of my all-time favorite film scores I have ever listened to.

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Right off the top of my head these are the film scores I love and listen to all the time - but especially in my car:

1) Tommy (the who)

2) Quadrophenia (the who)

3) The Piano

4) Crazy Heart

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@aidan,

When I was a wee kid in 1959 or 1960 I went to see THE BIG COUNTRY with Gregory Peck . The theme music was really qwell melded with the opening scenes of the flick. I later found out that this was the forst music score that used orchestral syncopation as a gimmick for a Western Movie Score. It became a popular gimmick with later TV "Adult" westerns.http://www.youtube.com/watch? <br /> <br /> v=u6vREiRNMFc

The LAst of the Mohicans had a good theme also

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twepYLbAhNo&feature=related

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Wendy (of course he/she was still Walter when he she scored it) Carlos score for A Clockwork Orange, you'll never think of Singing in the Rain the same way again

another fave is the film score to Jesus Christ Superstar

A C O and J C S are the only soundtrack i've ever owned

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@djjd62,

My all time favorite is the JAy Unger piece that was a theme for "The Civil War" series on PBS. Its called the Ahsokan Farewell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hyoYQ7EMdY

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@farmerman,

My fav theme from the "Spaghetti Qesterns" has been Morricones "For A Few Dollars More".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4x7RchYCMc

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Israel KamakawiwiOle, did a version of "Over the RAinbow" from the movie "Finding Forrester", Its a version that we love to just put on and listen to. never realized that he diesd, but looking at the huge guy he was, Im not surprised that he didnt last longer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I&feature=fvw

Also, the ending theme from "Master and Commander: L Musica del Notturno has always been a favorite "casting off" music for us as wed leave dock for open water . Its a neat little ditty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPDyuulIZ1Y&feature=related

Also, the end theme from "Ghost and the Darkness" has been a fav >I cant seem to fond it on Youtube .

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Amadeus is pretty obvious, of course. However, it opens with the first movement of the 25th symphony, which i had never heard before. He only wrote two minor key symphonies, both in G Minor--the 25th and the 40th. I've heard the 40th until i'm sick to death of it. But i had never heard the 25th before, and it is very dramatic.

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Mark Knopfler performing a piece from one of my favourite films - Local Hero.
Delightful storyline & his musical score was just perfect for it.
One of the few times after seeing a film that I've rushed out & bought the soundtrack. Loved it.

A couple of short snippets from the film, if you're interested ...

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@djjd62,

just realized i also owned a vinyl copy of Koyanisqaatsi back in, as they say, the day

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I've always been a fan of this song.

A
R
T

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I hope it's OK to post a second film score I really liked?
The Constant Gardener.:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-xUpvOYWak

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I love concert music, so I would have to nominate "Fantasia" as one of my favorites. I never can listen to "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" without thinking of Mickey Mouse.

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I fall into the category of liking the music from such films as The Graduate, The Sterile Cucku, Midnight Cowboy, High Noon and other lower brow efforts.

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What is your favorite film score?

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