FSM # 25: Favourite film scores of entire film history?
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We’ve done a number of variations of these over the years (usually by decade or individual year), but due to a recent thread over on JWFAN, I decided to go through the entire film history and choose my favourites. I don’t expect anyone else to share theirs; it’s a lot of work, but I thought it would be interesting to share mine here too.
Also, I’m sure I’ll have to replace some of these as I remember favourites I’ve forgotten in a respective year. It’s a dynamic list. I’ve tried to keep a balanced list of scores I love to listen to, and scores that work great in their movie — even though they are very different areas.
1895-1907: No original scores (that we’re aware of)
1908: L’Assasinat de Duc de Guise (Camille Saint-Saens)
1909: ?
1910: ?
1911: ?
1912: ?
1913: ?
1914: Cabiria (Ildebrando Pizzetti, one original piece)
1915: The Birth of a Nation (Joseph Carl Breil)
1916: Intolerance (Joseph Carl Breil)
1917: ?
1918: A Dog’s Life (Charlie Chaplin, although composed later)
1919: ?
1920: ?
1921: Markens grøde (Leif Halvorsen)
1922: Nosferatu (Hans Erdmann)
1923: La Roue (Arthur Honegger)
1924: Greed (William Axt)
1925: Battleship Potemkin (Edmund Meisel)
1926: ?
1927: Metropolis (Gottfried Huppertz)
1928: ?
1929: ?
1930: Der Blaue Engel (Friedrich Hollaender)
1931: City Lights (Charlie Chaplin)
1932: ?
1933: King Kong (Max Steiner)
1934: Madame Bovary (Darius Milhaud)
1935: Captain Blood (Erich Wolfgang Korngold)
1936: The Plow that Broke the Plains (Virgil Thomson)
1937: The Prince and the Pauper (Erich Wolfgang Korngold)
1938: Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Prokofiev)
1939: The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (Erich Wolfgang Korngold)
1940: Rebecca (Franz Waxman)
1941: 49th Parallell (Ralph Vaughan Williams)
1942: The Jungle Book (Miklos Rozsa)
1943: The Song of Bernadette (Alfred Newman)
1944: Jane Eyre (Bernard Herrmann)
1945: Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Prokofiev)
1946: The Best Years of Our Lives (Hugo Friedhofer)
1947: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Bernard Herrmann)
1948: Bicycle Thieves (Alessandro Cicognini)
1949: Passport to Pimlico (Georges Auric)
1950: Sunset Boulevard (Franz Waxman)
1951: Quo Vadis (Miklos Rozsa)
1952: Viva Zapata! (Alex North)
1953: Julius Caesar (Miklos Rozsa)
1954: Sansho the Bailiff (Fumio Hayasaka)
1955: The Man With the Golden Arm (Elmer Bernstein)
1956: The Ten Commandments (Elmer Bernstein)
1957: Peyton Place (Franz Waxman)
1958: The Big Country (Jerome Moross)
1959: Ben Hur (Miklos Rozsa) – tricky year, Sleeping Beauty and The 400 Blows are very close
1960: The Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein)
1961: King of Kings (Miklos Rozsa)
1962: To Kill a Mockingbird (Elmer Bernstein)
1963: The Leopard (Nino Rota)
1964: The Fall of the Roman Empire (Dimitri Tiomkin)
1965: The Agony and the Ecstasy (Alex North)
1966: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Ennio Morricone) – but something in me really wants to select Not With My Wife You Don’t! Seriously. One of my JW favourites of the 60s.
1967: Our Mother’s House (Georges Delerue)
1968: Planet of the Apes (Jerry Goldsmith) – but what a year in terms of film music!
1969: The Reivers (John Williams)
1970: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch (Arne Nordheim) – unless Jane Eyre counts, being a TV movie
1971: Get Carter (Roy Budd)
1972: L’Apocalypse des Animaux (Vangelis) – but Solaris and Images a very close second
1973: Papillon (Jerry Goldsmith) – but Cinderella Liberty a close second
1974: The Towering Inferno (John Williams)
1975: Jaws (John Williams)
1976: The Omen (Jerry Goldsmith)
1977: Star Wars (John Williams)
1978: Superman: The Movie (John Williams)
1979: Alien (Jerry Goldsmith)
1980: The Empire Strikes Back (John Williams)
1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark (John Williams)
1982: Blade Runner (Vangelis)
1983: Return of the Jedi (John Williams)
1984: The Neverending Story (Giorgio Moroder & Klaus Doldinger)
1985: Ladyhawke (Andrew Powell)
1986: Aliens (James Horner)
1987: Empire of the Sun (John Williams) – but Pelle the Conqueror a close second
1988: Midnight Run (Danny Elfman)
1989: The Abyss (Alan Silvestri) – but The Last Crusade a close second
1990: Edward Scissorhands (Danny Elfman)
1991: Hook (John Williams) – but Beauty and the Beast a close second
1992: Alien 3 (Elliot Goldenthal)
1993: Jurassic Park (John Williams)
1994: The Shawshank Redemption (Thomas Newman)
1995: Waterworld (James Newton Howard) — but Crimson Tide and Heat a close second
1996: The Rock (Hans Zimmer & Nick Glennie-Smith)
1997: Titanic (James Horner)
1998: The Thin Red Line (Hans Zimmer)
1999: The Mummy (Jerry Goldsmith), but Snow Falling on Cedars a close second (what a year!)
2000: Gladiator (Hans Zimmer)
2001: A.I. – Artificial Intelligence (John Williams)
2002: Whale Rider (Lisa Gerrard)
2003: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Howard Shore)
2004: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (John Williams), but Crash and Passion of the Christ a close second
2005: Memoirs of a Geisha (John Williams)
2006: World Trade Center (Craig Armstrong)
2007: El Greco (Vangelis), but Transformers a close second
2008: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (James Horner), but Standard Operating Procedure a close second
2009: Avatar (James Horner)
2010: Inception (Hans Zimmer)
2011: Jane Eyre (Dario Marianelli)
2012: Life of Pi (Mychael Danna)
2013: Prisoners (Jóhann Jóhannsson)
2014: The Unknown Known (Danny Elfman)
2015: The Duke of Burgundy (Cat’s Eyes)
2016: Nerve (Rob Simonsen)
2017: Valley of Shadows (Zbigniew Preisner)
2018: Videoman (Waveshaper & Robert Parker)
2019: A Hidden Life (James Newton Howard)
2020: Blood Machines (Carpenter Brut)
2021: Pleasure (Karl Frid)
2022: Benedetta (Anne Dudley)
2023: The Creator (Hans Zimmer)
2024: Challengers (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)
2025: Marty Supreme (Daniel Lopatin)
2026: ??I know I have question marks for ’26, ’29 and ’32. There are some great movies these years, but not a lot in terms of score, or original score.
By the way, you can choose not to partake in this, or choose your start year later. But it was a good idea for a topic at the time; although it requires a bit of surplus energy. Wanted to choose a special topic for the anniversary 25th edition of the ressurection series. If you’ve already shared your list in that thread, you can copy/paste.
As subjective as these bes of lists are. Didn’t we have a similar topic about decades or so?
Some silent movie scores I would maybe list (there are more as many movies had several ones)
1913 Der Student von Prag (The Student of Prague) (Joseph Weiss – said to be the first original German score)
1921 Im Kampf mit dem Berge (In Sturm und Eis) (Paul Hindemith)
1923: La Roue (Arthur Honegger – Paul Fosse must be added here. Honegger wrote the overture and around 5 pieces only – the rest – 7+ hours is basically a compilation by Fosse)
1924 Die Nibelungen (Gottfried Huppertz)
1926 The Adventures Of Prince Achmed (Wolfgang Zeller)
1927 Napoleon (Arthur Honegger)
1928 October (Edmund Meisel – don’t know the Shostakovich one)
1929 The New Babylon (Dmitri Shostakovich)As subjective as these bes of lists are. Didn’t we have a similar topic about decades or so?
Nope, not that I can recall. Only top 10 favourite soundtracks in general. But there have been such topics on other forums. Thanks for the silent tips! I’m aware of most of those. Can’t stand Hindemith, though, sorry.
Btw, did Shostakovich really write an actual score for the silent OCTOBER? I somehow remmeber that it was just using music? There is a symphonic poem of the same name but that is from 1967 and not written for the movie. And of course the 2nd symphony.
Nope, not that I can recall. Only top 10 favourite soundtracks in general. But there have been such topics on other forums.
Maybe I confused that. Although we’re small there is already a lot! 😉
Can’t stand Hindemith, though, sorry.
I have two version of this score and that is quite nice (the RCA Victor one is more symhponic while the NDR Symphony Orchestra is more like it was probably performed with as smaller “Salon ensemble”). I am no fan or export with Hindemith but it is far more accessible than otherworks I heard by him.
Btw, did Shostakovich really write an actual score for the silent OCTOBER?
I’ve always assumed he did. Tall Guy is the person to ask, if he still pops by here.
And impressive listing, Thor. I am afraid, I neither have the knowledge nor a strong opinion on most of these years.
What jumped to my eye was just, no matter how much I like Waxman’s Rebecca, to me it can’t surpass Rózsa’s Thief of Bagdad.
And if I ever wrote such a list, then The Treasure Of Sierra Madre won over Bycicle Thieves and E.T. won over Bladerunner.But I am not good at this silent movie and Golden Age stuff. Very punctual knowledge only.
What jumped to my eye was just, no matter how much I like Waxman’s Rebecca, to me it can’t surpass Rózsa’s Thief of Bagdad.
And if I ever wrote such a list, then The Treasure Of Sierra Madre won over Bycicle Thieves and E.T. won over Bladerunner.THIEF OF BAGDAD is great, but the alluring sensuality of REBECCA is to die for. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE is one of the few Steiner scores I actually like, but can’t hold a candle to the life-affirming beauty of THE BICYCLE THIEVES. And E.T. Well, it’s one of my top 10 favourite John Williams scores. Both E.T. and BLADE RUNNER constituted analysis chapters in my thesis. But if push comes to shove, it has to be BLADE RUNNER. It’s like nectar from the gods. 1982 was a great year.
I’ve always assumed he did. Tall Guy is the person to ask, if he still pops by here.
I just searched a bit since it interested me. It seems he hasn’t, it is not named on any entry about him when film scores are listed. Seems they just used his music later on. This article refers to the conductor Frank Strobel also did compile his music for the movie:
https://www.schostakowitsch.de/Berichte/Panzerkreuzer-Potemkin/And hier in English about that on his own site:
https://www.frankstrobel.de/en/projects/battleship-potempkinBut maybe Tall Guy knows more.
Hmmm. So it’s a bit like BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, perhaps, where a later version used existing Shostakovich music instead of the original Meisel?
It’s an interesting list Thor. I will see what I can come up with. I do think that, as the years pass the choices will be progressively more difficult.
This was my list from that FSM tbread:
1975 THE MIRROR – Eduard Artemyev
1976 ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 – John Carpenter
1977 SORCERER – Tangerine Dream
1978 MIDNIGHT EXPRESS – Giorgio Moroder
1979 STALKER – Eduard Artemyev
1980 AMERICAN GIGOLO – Giorgio Moroder
1981 THIEF – Tangerine Dream
1982 CAT PEOPLE – Giorgio Moroder
1983 RISKY BUSINESS – Tangerine Dream
1984 TUFF TURF – Jonathan Elias
1985 THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE – Thomas Newman
1986 AT CLOSE RANGE – Patrick Leonard
1987 BEVERLY HILLS COP II – Harold Faltermeyer
1988 A WORLD APART – Hans Zimmer
1989 JESUS OF MONTREAL – Yves Laferriere
1990 NAVY SEALS – Sylvester Levay
1991 GREEN CARD – Hans Zimmer
1992 1492 CONQUEST OF PARADISE – Vangelis
1993 STREETWISE – Jonathan Elias, Alex Lasarenko, Fritz Doddy
1994 THE STAND – W. G. Snuffy Walden
1995 FAIR GAME – Mark Mancina
1996 THE FAN – Hans Zimmer
1997 FACE/OFF – John Powell
1998 ENEMY OF THE STATE – Trevor Rabin, Harry Gregson-Williams
1999 AMERICAN BEAUTY – Thomas Newman
2000 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II – Hans Zimmer
2001 PEARL HARBOUR – Hans Zimmer
2002 WHALE RIDER – Lisa Gerrard
2003 MONSTER – BT
2004 NATIONAL TREASURE – Trevor Rabin
2005 CRASH – Mark Isham
2006 COCAINE COWBOYS – Jan Hammer
2007 TRANSFORMERS – Steve Jablonsky
2008 PASSENGERS – Edward Shearmur
2009 THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 – Harry Gregson-Williams
2010 COP OUT – Harold Faltermeyer
2011 TRANFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON – Steve Jablonsky
2012 RED HOOK SUMMER – Bruce Hornsby
2013 PAIN & GAIN – Steve Jablonsky
2014 IT FOLLOWS – Rich Vreeland
2015 FREEHELD – Hans Zimmer, Johnny Marr
2016 EDDIE THE EAGLE – Matthew Margeson
2017 BLADE RUNNER 2049 – Hans Zimmer, Benjamin Wallfisch
2018 CARGO – Thorsten QuaeschningHmmm. So it’s a bit like BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, perhaps, where a later version used existing Shostakovich music instead of the original Meisel?
Often those original silent film score often were rather local and Meisel’s was primarily for the German premiere. I doubt it was regulary peformed or even outside Germany.
This was my list from that FSM tbread:
No synths, no Jon 😉
Often those original silent film score often were rather local and Meisel’s was primarily for the German premiere. I doubt it was regulary peformed or even outside Germany.
Yes, I also don’t know of many other performances of BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN with the original Meisel music at the time. Of course, it has received lots of scores since then, ranging from Michael Nyman to Pet Shop Boys to Eric Allaman. And most physical releases have the excerpts from the various Shostakovich symphonies.
But OCTOBER was different, it seems. I had to double check on Wiki, as I wasn’t aware that Meisel had written the original for this too. I always thought it was an original Shostakovich score from the get-go. As it turns out, it WAS a new original score (and not like the BATTLESHIP situation), but written many years later, in 1966. And later turned into a tone poem, which is where I first heard it – I think on one of my dad’s classical records.
As it turns out, it WAS a new original score (and not like the BATTLESHIP situation), but written many years later, in 1966. And later turned into a tone poem, which is where I first heard it – I think on one of my dad’s classical records.
I did find that tone poem as well but there is no mention it was a film score originally. Infos I found say “composed in 1967 for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution” only. For example here: https://schostakowitsch.de/Schostakowitsch/Sein-Werk/
Wiki says: “The original 1928 score was written by composer Edmund Meisel. In 1966, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote a new soundtrack for the film, which later appeared as a tone poem ‘October’ Op.131 where Shostakovich’s famous ‘Partisan’ theme makes an appearance.[8] Sound effects (such as the shouting of crowds, gunshots, glasses breaking) were added to the film after its initial release by co-director Grigori Aleksandrov. This soundtrack is the one used on most DVD releases of the film.”
As we all know Wikipedia is not always a reliable source. Wikipedia also has a lengthly entry about that tone poem and it does not mention the movie:
October, Op. 131, is a symphonic poem composed by Dmitri Shostakovich to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution in 1967. He was spurred to compose the work after reencountering his score for the Vasilyev brothers’ 1937 film Volochayev Days [ru], reusing its “Partisan Song” in October. Although Shostakovich completed the work quickly, the process of writing it fatigued him physically because of his deteriorating motor functions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_(Shostakovich)
Same text here https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Dmitri-Shostakovich-October/3162?langid=1&sl-id=2
I think we have a confusion with the movie due to the same name generally. Fact is for sure though that Schostakovic music was tracked to the movie.
Still here, Thor :). As if I wouldn’t be!
DDS’s first film score was “New Babylon” in 1929, so “October” (subtitled “Ten Days That Shook the World”) was retrofitted at some stage with excerpts from his symphonic output. Not sure I’ve ever seen it all the way through, but I’ve just sampled it, and the 12th symphony is certainly in there. Of all his symphonies, this is the one that gets the most opprobrium, usually for sounding like film music…
He did write a 12-minute symphonic poem in 1967, which timewise falls between his 13th and 14th symphonies, the most troublesome and dangerous works of his later career. I can’t recall immediately, but I suspect this might have been one of those works written to keep the apparatchiks off his back while he privately went about his more dissident compositions.
If I get around to making a list of favourite scores per year, 1964 would be Shostakovich’s year, for Hamlet, even above other fantastic scores for Fistful of Dollars, Pink Panther, Goldfinger and others.
Thanks for the info! Yes, Wikipedia is not always reliable on such matters.
Damn, if he didn’t write an original score for OCTOBER, that means I must re-evaluate 1928 now. I’ve never heard the original Meisel. I should re-familiarize myself with THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC again, as I haven’t seen the film since I was a student.
Still too many open slots in those early years in the teens and twenties. I do welcome suggestions for the years in which I have a question mark!
Do you mean just one slot per year? Not sure how representative a list I could make, as obviously there are some years were favorites would be bundled up, whereas there are other years where to pick a favorite is easy because of lack of competition.
I’ll have to think about it, and yeah, would be a “dynamic” list if I ever get around to it.Yes, just one per year. But as you can see, I had to make a few extra comments on a couple of years.
Damn, if he didn’t write an original score for OCTOBER, that means I must re-evaluate 1928 now.I’ve never heard the original Meisel.
I have a condensed version – it is a bit repetitive – of it ripped from a VHS years ago I think. My library has a DVD with it and Potemkin with the scores I am going to lend sometime I get the chance. The music it generally a bit like his Potemkin.
I should re-familiarize myself with THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC again, as I haven’t seen the film since I was a student.
I have seen that with different music – even live in a church with organ and some solist I think years ago – but never any original.
For 1913 I could suggest RICHARD WAGNER which has a original score by Giuseppe Becce working around Wagner itself since thte music was stil copyrighted back then (and he played the title role himself):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0003330/
I have never heard it completely for unknown reasons. There was even a CD release of it I don’t have. But this would be more “historical importance” so far and not personal favorite…
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