[Nicolai P. Zwar]

It’s hard for me to think of music as just “melody”. Melody is just one element of music, So there is also harmony, rhythm, texture, timbre, dynamics… etc.
Because a great composer can take a melody and do great things with it, whereas a melody might in itself have potential, but if that isn’t realized, it’s just a “melody”.

So to really answer the question, I guess one should “reduce” all the melodies to just performed with a recorder at the same speed. I’ve always loved the melodies Goldsmith came up with, especially for trumpet (like Alien, Chinatown, First Blood, etc.), so I considered him a great melodist overall. Same with Morricone or Barry.