[Nick Zwar]

Oh wait, I think, Chinatown has a dedicated album arrangement of the main theme. And Pappillon, too. So, maybe I am wrong about this point.

There were quite a few albums where Goldsmith did specific album arrangements or made recordings just for the album. Apart from the ones mentioned stuff like HOUR OF THE GUN, CAPRICORN ONE, FIERCE CREATURES, UNDER FIRE, The FLYNN movies, and many more.

I agree with you that Williams is more “traditional”, while Goldsmith is more experimental (which is why I tend to prefer Goldsmith over Williams, though I both are obviously great). I don’t have any problem with all the later electronics in his music precisely because these were experiments and often unlike anything I have heard. LINK for example… an orchestra with Simmons drum performing aggressive circus music, RAMBO 2 with aggressive rattle snake like electronics, and so on. These were sounds I haven’t heard before, so that was interesting.
I also don’t think Williams is a better melodist than Goldsmith, but that is of course totally subjective. But Goldsmith wrote some of my all time favorite movie melodies (FIRST BLOOD, A PATCH OF BLUE, RIO CONCHOS, ILYA’S THEME, and more), and tends to have more varied and unusual instrumentation. So if pressed, I’d pick Goldsmith over Williams, but I’m sure most people would chose otherwise. (Then again, I’d pick Boulez over Shostakovich too, and I’m sure most people would chose otherwise.)

There is no question that Williams is more in the public mind than Jerry Goldsmith, and that is because — apart from the undeniable quality of his music — the enormous amount of hyper-successful films — and perhaps even more importantly, film franchises — his name is attached to. JAWS, STAR WARS, INDIANA JONES, SUPERMAN, JURASSIC PART, HARRY POTTER… just a few examples… these are ALL still very much present in the public consciousness. And it’s hard to think of these movies without having Williams splendid film scores in the ear. Movies like PATTON, PAPILLON, CHINATOWN, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL are easily as good and have film scores just as good, but they are not “main stream franchise” event movies.