[Thor Joachim Haga]

Born 1938:

Howard Blake — retired?

The sublime THE SNOWMAN, the somewhat aggravating FLASH GORDON, bits and bobs in British TV (RED DWARF, was it?). But I’ve never really dived deep into his work.

Charles Calello — retired?

Not familiar with him.

Paul Chihara — still active

Not terribly familiar with him. I think he did a lot of 70s TV in the US, right? I don’t have a single work of his, but I’m slightly familiar with I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN (1977, featuring a cameo of Danny Elfman in what is probably his first interaction with film ever) and PRINCE OF THE CITY, for example.

John Corigliano — still active?

A towering figure in contemporary concert music, and his handful of film scores qualifies him. ALTERED STATES is fascinating (easy to hear where his student Goldenthal picked up some inspiration), I like THE RED VIOLIN and REVOLUTION too.

Eric Demarsan — still active

Again, not terribly familiar with his work, but LE CERCLE ROUGE is great.

Sven Libaek — retired?

A big name in jazz, and with Norwegian roots. I know he worked a lot with Hanna-Barbera.

Denny Zeitlin — still active

Famously only did INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

Jonathan Tunick — retired

I associate him with musicals, first and foremost, and his work with Sondheim. I’m honestly totally unaware of any of his original film scores or compositions.

Bruce Smeaton — retired

Great, underrated Australian composer (that I sometimes confuse with fellow Aussie Bruce Rowland — who’s still a year or two away from qualifying for this list). PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, ICEMAN and ROXANNE, I’m familiar with. Never explored much else.