What are your top 10 soundtrack score one hit wonders and dabblers?
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There are some composers where you are not hugely impressed by their work. But there is one score from these composers which you find exceptionally great.
You might like some scores of these composers good enough. But just one stand really out. Or they just wrote one score.
Which are these?My list would be something like this:
Black Dahlia – Mark Isham
The Last Unicorn – Jimmy Webb
Clash of the Titans – Laurence Rosenthal
Watership Down -Angela Morley
The Dark Crystal- Trevor Jones
Moby Dick – Philip Santon
Conan The Barbarian – Basil Poledouris
The Matrix Trilogy – Don Davis
The Others – Alejandro Anemabar
Magnolia – Jon BrionI know, some of these don’t have a reputation as one hit wonder. But for me they are.
First of all, pretty wild to see Isham, Jones and Poledouris on your list, GerateWohl — great composers with a variety of scores on their resume.
This question can be answered in a number of ways — there are composers where I only have one score, because I’m not familiar with the rest of their work. Or I AM familiar with their work, but have only landed on one to own. Or they’ve just done one, or close to one. Etc.
So taking ALL of that into consideration, I would need to list literally HUNDREDS of “one-off” titles in my collection. But I’m going to limit myself to famous or semi-famous composers with pretty extensive catalogues (in film music and/or non-film music), and choose 10 from them. So maybe something like:
Air – THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
Carter Burwell – ROB ROY (well, plus the WSA compilation)
Goblin – SUSPIRIA (plus a compilation)
Jerome Moross – THE BIG COUNTRY
Michael Land – THE DIG
Paul van Dyk – ZURDO
Sergei Prokofiev – ALEXANDER NEVSKY
Simon Franglen – AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
Toto – DUNE
Tom Tykwer & co. – PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERERGood list, too.
I thought Goblin has quite a record of famous scores, e.g. the Euro cut of Dawn of the Dead.Tom Tykwer & co. – PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER
I find their score for Babylon Berlin quite good as well.
Many seem to claim Daft Punk’s Tron Legacy to be a great singular score effort.
Yeah, with Goblin I like quite a few individual themes, but outside SUSPIRIA, I’ve rarely grabbed on to the scores as a whole.
Daft Punk’s TRON: LEGACY definitely needs to be on the list, although I have all their studio albums as well, so it’s certainly not alone in my collection.
Not sure, if you are familiar with Babylon Berlin. But the score has a nice Golden 20s sound.
Yes, I’m familiar with it, somewhat. Didn’t quite do it for me when I sampled it awhile back, but I probably need a systematic walkthrough of that whole Tykwer/Klimek/Heil world again. LOLA RENNT is another cool one that I need to reassess.
Not quite sure how to approach the subject… there are definitely some scores mentioned here where only one work stood out, or only one work I’m really familiar with… possibly because the people didn’t write all that much film music to begin with. Jon Brion, for example, wrote a good score for Magnolia (the score as a whole was heavily influenced by Hans Zimmer’s music for THE THIN RED LINE and Richard Wagner), but I don’t really know any other Jon Brion film scores (though I know his work with singer/songwriter Aimee Mann… I guess that’s how he came to score Magnolia in the first place?).
By Tom Tykwer I really love CLOUD ATLAS.When it comes to Philip Sainton, Daft Punk, Toto, Franglen, I basically only know (and like) the film scores mentioned here… so I fully align with you here.
Of course, I could mention Leonard Bernstein… who only wrote one film score, but a very good one.
Let’s see.. I try to look for some more composers who fit the bill… where one score really stands out for me, or one score.
So here goes.
Apart from the ones mentioned so far, for me it is:
Stanley Myers, where I absolutely love THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES. I do have some other scores by his, and I know his Cavatina is world famous, but it’s THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES that stands out for me.Then there are Andrew Belling’s WIZARDS and and Danny Zeitlin’s INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.
Myers is an interesting case. If you take “Cavatina” out of the equation, my only connection to him was THE WITCHES for many years, which I saw with my mom in the cinema when it came out. But then as I discovered his Zimmer connection later on, I started to explore his back catalogue (both the things he did with and without him) and found several things to enjoy. I hope to discover more.
These as the ones I can think of right now:
Stephen Oliver – Lady Jane
Roy Budd – Phantom of the Opera
Clint Mansell – The Fountain
Don Davis – The Matrix
Joe Kraemer – MI5
Daft Punk – Tron Legacy
Joe Hisaishi – The General
Carter Burwell – FargoBtw, Thor, you don’t like Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé?
Btw, Thor, you don’t like Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé?
Of course. So much so that when I watched a classical quiz show on Danish TV a few months back, I prided myself in catching this within seconds, whereas the piece left the “expert panel” stumped. 🙂
But Prokofiev is one of those composers where I’ve otherwise heard bits and bobs over the years, but never set out to explore properly, or amass a collection of any kind. Beyond NEVSKY, that is (and the John Williams album from the 70s).
By the way, you should do a thread on classical music recommendations! I know we sometimes get them in the “What are you listening to now?” thread that you once started, but would be neat with one on its own.
I watched a classical quiz show on Danish TV a few months back
Which show is this? Would be fun to watch, as classical music quiz shows haven’t been a thing in Norway for decades.
Which show is this? Would be fun to watch, as classical music quiz shows haven’t been a thing in Norway for decades.
Prokofiev’s symphonies and piano concertos are very worth exploring.
I second that! IVAN THE TERRIBLE is also a good score. The concert scenario arranged by Christopher Palmer and conducted by Neeme Järvi is great. Haven’t heard the 2CD version conducted by Frank Strobel though.
Hm, I could have sworn I had replied on this topic months ago. Apparently I haven’t… too many “top 10” topics probably 🙂
Yikes, I would never consider Rosenthal a one-hit wonder, not with a score like The Miracle Worker to go with Titans though the latter does stand out as a listening pleasure for sure. The former’s a truly memorable accomplishment for a from-stage-to-screen production if ever there were.
Yes, there are lots more wonderful Laurence Rosenthal scores besides CLASH OF THE TITANS.
Same with Basil Poledouris… there are so many great scores apart from the two CONAN scores. From his wonderfully small scale piano score for IT’S MY PARTY to the sweeping epic FAREWELL TO THE KING, Poledouris was one of the greats in my book.For anyone not familiar with Rosenthal’s output, the WSA album from two years ago is a great gateway in.
The guy turns 100 next year. Amazing.
For anyone not familiar with Rosenthal’s output, the WSA album from two years ago is a great gateway in.
Exactly that album led me zo the conclusion that Clash of the Titans is the only score of his that I like and find interesting enough.
While Rosenthal may not be my top favorite I like a lot of his scores. CLASH OF THE TITANS as mentioned, BECKET, ROOSTER COGBURN, METEOR, the mini series like PETER THE GREAT, ANASTASIA, CATHERINE THE GREAT or his YOUNG INDY scores.
YOUNG INDY is his best work bar none, even if it’s outshined by McNeely’s. I echo PETER THE GREAT and THE MIRACLE WORKER from above. And MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE MEN, which few have heard (of). Never cared for CLASH…sacrilege, I know.
Moving beyond “one hit wonders” for a moment, I’ve always been fascinated by composers (be it classical, electronic, pop/rock, whatever) that have mostly stayed within their field, but then DABBLED in film music on a few occasions. So what is ‘dabbling’? Well, just to have some form of parameters for this purpose, let’s say the composer must have scored no more than FIVE films in his or her entire career. Doesn’t matter if they’re composed within the same timeframe or spread out.
With that in mind, what are some dabblers and dabbler scores you’d like to recommend?
Denny Zeitlin’s INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
Perfectly fits the description of someone who “dabbled” in film music. His “dayjob” is as a widely respected professor of clinical psychiatry, and his “nightjob” is as a composer of modern and experimental jazz and performer of piano and various keyboards/synthesizers.
He “dabbled” in film music by writing one of the best science-fiction scores of the 70s, for Philip Kaufman’s INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (which I love, both score and film), but turned down subsequent offers to score more movies… maybe because he didn’t have time for a third career. 🙂Apart from Leonard Bernstein (who wrote only one film score), perhaps also John Corigliano, who wrote less than five film scores, and is mostly know for his classical works?
My top on that list is Jimmy Webb with his The Last Unicorn score.
And I liked a lot Badly Drawn Boy’s score for About A Boy. But, to be honest, I don’t know if he has a hundred scores on his record.And even though I am not a fan of that score, Neil Young’s appoach for Jim Jarmush’s Dead Man, just improvising on the guitar during the movie I found interesting.
These should fit:
– John Corigliano: only three scores unless I missed anything else (Edit: Sorry, duplicate, missed he was mentioned already)
– Philip Saiton: Moby Dick is the only score I thinkIt all started when I played FLOWERS OF WAR by Qigang Chen, as mentioned in the “What are you listening to?” thread – a composer that has only THREE film scores, AFAIK. The rest is concert music.
But speaking of Chinese people, I think Tan Dun would qualify too, with five film scores?
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