[GerateWohl]

Every great film score is great in its own way. I don’t think there is a universal formula, no checklist that guarantees greatness. In my view, many, or even all the things you mentioned — elevation, emotion, memory, imagination, intellect, style, balance — these are all valid, these can all be used to analyze and judge a piece of film music “great”, but another film score may come along that subverts all of these and be just as great.

To avoid misunderstanding. The criteria that I came up with have no ambition to be a template for objectively great scores. It are just measures for my personal taste what I consider great. Others might see it differently. But after about 45 years of paying distinct attention to film scores in countless movies I have come to know what I like and what works for me.
For example I for my part was a little disappointed over Shore’s Lord of the Ring scores. I have come to like it over the years quite a bit after I got used to it.
But especially when it comes to the music for the orks and alike for this fantasy World I wished we got a score a little less conventional and more original, something more in the direction of Goldsmith’s Planet of the Apes, just in a more contemporary style.