[Dr. Jacoby]

Yeah, it otherwise sounds a bit like the non film score fan saying “The best film music is which you don’t notice” 😉

Well, I have thousands of film scores, and I largely feel that the best film music should not call attention to itself, so I don’t know where that places me.

I guess it boils down to the fact that when I’m listening to an album, I don’t care how it functions in the film. I love the 20-minute suite of L. Bernstein’s On the Waterfront and Ellington’s Anatomy of a Murder album, but I didn’t think either of them worked at all as film scores in the respective films. I don’t know if the instincts of the composers were off, or if someone in the music department placed the music in the wrong locations.

Conversely, I like Carter Burwell’s music for Coen brothers films, and Michael Nyman’s music for Peter Greenaway films, but I would not enjoy these as standalone albums.