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Mar 14, 2021 · These 10 great music movie composers have scored music to some of the biggest, most well-known movies in history and worked with the best auteurs.
- Jake Dee
In 1977, John Williams re-popularized the epic cinema sound of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz Waxman and other composers from the Hollywood Golden Age: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) became the best selling score-only soundtrack of all time, and spawned countless musical imitators.
- 4 min
- John Williams. Possibly one of the most prolific film composers of all time, John Williams has written music for over one hundred films. He’s particularly known for his huge orchestral pieces, tailored perfectly to the score of a piece — he oftens watches the entire movie without a soundtrack to decide what to write for it.
- Hans Zimmer. Our next composer, Hans Zimmer, might not be as much of a household name as John Williams, but he is equally as prodigious in the film world.
- Max Steiner. Born in Austria in 1888, Max Steiner was a child prodigy and began composing professionally by the age of fifteen. He was one of the earliest film composers, having moved to California when talking pictures first became popular.
- Ennio Morricone. Most famous for his series of “Spaghetti Western” films in the 1970s and 1980s, Ennio Morricone was an incredibly prolific Italian composer who wrote the music for almost 500 movies during his lifetime.
- Maddy Shaw Roberts
- Joe Hisaishi. Japan’s answer to John Williams, Joe Hisaishi is his home nation’s most celebrated film composer, whose long-running collaboration with Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki has often drawn comparisons to the American film composer, and his partnership with Steven Spielberg.
- Rachel Portman. In 1997, Portman became the first female composer to win an Oscar in the Best Score category, for her soundtrack to the adaption of Jane Austen’s Emma.
- Thomas Newman. Thomas Newman, whose father is the great Oscar-decorated composer Alfred Newman, started composing for synthesisers, before beginning to incorporate electronic and orchestral instruments.
- Maurice Jarre. A giant of 20th-century film music, French movie maestro Maurice Jarre penned the much-loved scores for Lawrence of Arabia, Ghost and Doctor Zhivago.
- Star Wars (1977) For a film in the ‘space opera’ genre, only a soundtrack of operatic proportions could suffice – and it’s safe to say that John Williams delivered in spades.
- Schindler’s List (1994) It’s hard to imagine a more perfectly poignant score for Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List than the one that John Williams wrote, but even the composer himself had his doubts.
- E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) As the wise director Steven Spielberg once said, “Without John Williams, bikes don’t fly” – and this is precisely the score that proves it.
- Jurassic Park (1993) No one does awe and wonder quite like John Williams – and his main theme for Jurassic Park is no exception. You can’t help but get a sense of the magnificence and sheer scale of these prehistoric creatures from his stately music.
In 1977, John Williams re-popularized the epic cinema sound of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz Waxman and other composers from the Hollywood Golden Age: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) became the best selling score-only soundtrack of all time, and spawned countless musical imitators.
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