Hans Zimmer - Danny Elfman - Michael Kamen etc

[Felix Neumann]

I am a very great fan of some Soundtracks, especially Hans Zimmer´s "Gladiator"! "The Rock" is also an awesome Soundtrack. The LOTR Trilogy I like a lot. Great stuff!!

 

[HandsOfDespair]

Hahahahahaaha, don't even get me started on MGS (die-hard fanboy since '02), though really, most of the music for all 4 of the games has been the resident Japanese composers in the development team; HGW really only did the music to the key cinematics (including the definitive MGS theme which they LEFT OUT OF MGS4 GODAMMIT - I was SO looking forward to it kicking it in at some emotional moment of MGS4 that would just reduce me to tears, but it never happened, and OOoooh do I still get steamed about it ). Deus Ex has a fantastic score as well, despite the cheesy synth-ness of it; really fits the whole cyberpunk atmosphere that I love so much.

Did you know that the mgs theme was actually a rip-off of an old russian theme? That's why it isn't present in mgs 4

 

[Metaltastic]

Seriously? Like, copyright issues? That's news to me, where'd you hear that? (not challenging you, I'm just curious, cuz it really bothered me that they left it out!)

 

["Evil" Aidy]

Anyone here into Fabio Frizzi or Goblin?

 

[Kadmium]

Howard Shore's soundtracks to the Lord of the Rings are fantastic. I have the Complete Recordings editions (3 or 4 CDs per movie) and I highly recommend them. There's an annotated score (ie, a massive collection of liner notes) available on the soundtrack website, which explains all the tracks, the themes in them, and what they represent. It's really quite a fascinating read.

Other than that, I'm a huge Hans Zimmer fan. Gladiator, the Last Samurai and the Pirates of the Caribbean films are among my favourites.

And speaking of old Russian songs, everyone probably knows most of the Tetris themes are old Russian folk songs. Not many people have heard the originals, or knew that they have lyrics, though, so...[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hDmE0BuXxM]Music A - Korobeiniki[/ame]

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Movie composers, while good, bow at the feet of the real composers.

Shostakovich, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, all make Williams/Elfman/Zimmer look like metalcore-pop imposters to the tr00 kings of the br00tz.

 

[colynomial]

If you're looking for pure bombastic neo-romanticism: Immediate Music. They do something like 80% of the trailer music in Hollywood. It is disgustingly epic. Their catalogue isn't technically available to the public (only to legitimate movie producers, thus you can't purchase it) but you can find both their Abbey Road sessions and "Themes for Orchestra and Choir" on most torrent sites.

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3351472/Immediate_Music_-_Themes_For_Orchestra_And_Choir

I have the Abbey Road stuff if you want it let me know.

Otherwise, some of my personal non-Zimmer favourites are the Kingdom Of Heaven soundtrack by Gregson-Williams (great instrumentation), Van Helsing by Silvestri (youtube: Transylvania 1887) and the Zodiac Score by David Shire (very dark, brooding score).

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Movie composers, while good, bow at the feet of the real composers.

Shostakovich, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, all make Williams/Elfman/Zimmer look like metalcore-pop imposters to the tr00 kings of the br00tz.

I've never understood people who say this. I disagree. I just bought Shostakovich's 11th and I love it, it's fucking brilliant -- but to say he's better than John Williams is like saying Metallica is better than Arch Enemy. Clearly Shostakovich was an OG but really Williams' work is like a hyper manifestation of that music. He's taken something great and brought it to the next level.

 

[Gustavo_Loureiro]

Movie composers, while good, bow at the feet of the real composers.

Shostakovich, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, all make Williams/Elfman/Zimmer look like metalcore-pop imposters to the tr00 kings of the br00tz.

what a heresy..

 

[HandsOfDespair]

Seriously? Like, copyright issues? That's news to me, where'd you hear that? (not challenging you, I'm just curious, cuz it really bothered me that they left it out!)

And the explanation is there : http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/12/mgs_theme_left_out_of_mgs4_due_to_legal_issues-2.html

And like you I was really disappointed that the theme wasn't in mgs 4. Best serie ever. I hope the movie will be good.

 

[Metaltastic]

Wow, that really is unmistakable - not only is there the main melody, but the secondary melody in there as well; no doubt about it, whoever wrote the MGS theme definitely plagiarized! (and I guess it wasn't HGW according to that article) Oh well, it's not so bad now that I know why, but still...

 

[poidaobi]

The Rock - Navy Seals Theme! Hans Zimmer. Love that one.

 

[jacare]

I really dig Ennio Morricone ! And of course, the guys mentioned above: John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Vangelis...
Also, I REALLY dig classical music... especially Beethoven, almost all Baroque music, Schumann, Korsakov, Stravinsky, Brahms... man... there's so much good music. You only listen to shit if you want to ! .

 

[Rez]

I'm a sucker for a big symphonic sweeping theme so yeah a lot of those mentioned float my boat.
I am a big fan of Michael Kamen in particular his Band of Brothers stuff but I've noticed that he sometimes recycles his themes. I don't have my ipod with me but there is a piece in the Band of Brothers suite that is blatently used in the Highlander soundtrack some 15ish years earlier... Still, top bloke (I even forgive him his metallica stuff which I thought was crass and pointless)

John Barry has done some amazing soundtracks for Bond films....

Is Zimmer the guy who did Gladiator? The battle theme in that has Holst spinning in his grave I'm sure

 

[Let it burn...]

The score for the dark knight is pretty rad

and the soundtrack of Juno is just awesome

 

[Rez]

Just in case anyone is interested...

The Michael Kamen recycled motif:
Highlander soundtrack - Scotland 1536/Clan McLeod at around the 38 second mark but the motif is pretty much the major one for the piece
Band of Brothers - Suite one at around the 1.47 mark but again one of the main motif's from the piece

As I say, still a great composer IMO

I've just remembered that the soundtrack to Silence of the Lambs by Howard Shore is pretty darn special....

Moving away from soundtracks, what Tolga Kashif did with the Queen Symphony is outstanding....

 

[James Murphy]

i'm a huge score buff, and my interests primarily lie outside the norm.. IOW, while i like Stars Wars, Lord oF The RIngs, etc... they aren't my faves. we've already had a thread about exactly this subject not very long ago, in which i already listed my favorite composers.... here we go again i guess: Paul Haslinger, Ramin Djawadi, Tyler Bates, Steve Jablonski, Danny Elfman, Maro Beltrami, Klaus Badelt, John Powell, Brian Tyler, John Murphy, Javier Navarrete, James Newton Howard, Michael Dynna, Graeme Ravell, David Julyan, Clint Mansell, Charlie Clouser, Alan Silvestri, Atli Ovarsson, etc.

Search Function should turn up the original thread... it was pretty long and detailed from everyone.

 

[Chryst Krispies]

Clearly Shostakovich was an OG

OG's REPREZENT.

PALESTRINA WAS THE O OG.

 

[James Murphy]

Movie composers, while good, bow at the feet of the real composers.

Shostakovich, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, all make Williams/Elfman/Zimmer look like metalcore-pop imposters to the tr00 kings of the br00tz.

You are comparing two types of music with very different purposes.

Classical music... and for simplification let's stick to full Symphonic works... is meant to invoke the entire picture; certainly the visuals, and in many cases even the "story" is left up to the mind of the listener.

Movie scores are designed and written to "underscore" the existing picture and story.... to heighten the dramatic and emotional impact of a complete story and visual that is already there... and it has to do so without stepping on the dialogue or being incongruous with the action, etc.

To use an animal kingdom analogy, the two are certainly members of the same Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, and Family... but they diverge at Genus and Species.

i would agree with you totally if movie scores were not written for and to film, but rather were presented as complete symphonic works. they aren't though... so it kinda makes it pointless to compare them.

 

[HandsOfDespair]

I really love movie and videogames soundtracks. Silent hill serie soundtracks, metal gear, fable 1 and 2, all the final fantasy, are among my favorite videogames soundtracks. For movies, I really love the soundtracks by Philip Glass, and all the big names like Elfman, Gregson-Williams, John Williams, but I find Zimmer soundtracks a bit repetitive from a movie to another, the themes are sometimes pretty similar.