Which composers do you consider brillant at writing memorable melodies
- This topic has 23 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 3 weeks, 2 days ago by
.
-
Posts
-
This is a topic coming up again and again. And as I am a fan of remarkable movie themes this overwhelmes for me all discussions about musical styles and genres.
Which composers do you consider brillant at writing great and memorable melodies?
I also find this discussion interesting because different poeple seem to have different preferences in that are. Some people find Hans Zimmer’s Time from INCEPTION a great memorable theme. For me it’s just a bland 4 chord look without melody.
Let’s see if the discussion here goes further than just simple name dropping.
Henry Mancini. Pick up any album of his, and there are at least 5 or 6 tracks that are just as memorable as the hit.
I would say it’s the film composers who’s themes are becoming a standard play on various Classical Music stations etc, cementing them as ‘All Time Classics’ and living beyond their films, thus establishing themselves with the more ‘general’ public.
That would include John Williams, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, James Horner, Maurice Jarre, Henry Mancini and yes, Hans Zimmer, who resonates with the more modern generation.
On a more personal level, the likes of Lee Holdridge, Bruce Broughton, David Newman, JNH, Jerry Goldsmith etc have written many a memorable theme to me.Most film composers never wrote a standard. A short list of those who have:
Henry Mancini
Michel Legrand
Victor Young
Bronislaw Kaper
David RaksinThere must be others, but these are the only ones I can think of a 8 in the morning.
Henry Mancini is a good pick.
I am not convinced when it comes to melody quality of Hans Zimmer. First examples from his book are usually PIRATES OF THE CARIBEAN (written by Klaus Badelt) or THE LION KING (based on Elton John songs) or the song from Gladiator (co-written by Lisa Gerrard).
But my favourite tune smiths in movie soundtracks are more or less John Williams, Elmer Bernstein, early Alan Menken, Miklós Rózsa, Ennio Morricone, Joe Hisaishi, John Powell, Ryuichi Sakamoto, John Barry and some more.
And there are composers who undoubtedly write memorable tune. But I don’t really resonate with them. Like Maurice Jarre, James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith (he wrote some great melodies, but nor for successful movies), Danny Elfman, Franz Waxman. Several melodies from these composers have grown on me over time. But the hardly ever immediately click with me.
All named I would also pick. I would also add Tiomkin as like Thors wrote somewhere he “invented” the theme song. Also Lalo Schifrin. He might not always had that melody but the Mission Impossible theme alone deserves being named (even if it might be more a “riff” than a melody) 😉
Poldeouris wrote also some good themes that stick. And there are French composers like Delerue who also wrote lots of great melodies.Yes. That is another aspect. There are some composer who were kind of one hit wonders. Schifrin might be one. Or a handful.
I really love a big amount of Philippe Sarde’s work. And his score for TESS is super brillant and memorabe. Like LES CHOSES DE LA VIE. But has he many great melodies? Probably yes. I am unsure here.It’s hard for me to think of music as just “melody”. Melody is just one element of music, So there is also harmony, rhythm, texture, timbre, dynamics… etc.
Because a great composer can take a melody and do great things with it, whereas a melody might in itself have potential, but if that isn’t realized, it’s just a “melody”.So to really answer the question, I guess one should “reduce” all the melodies to just performed with a recorder at the same speed. I’ve always loved the melodies Goldsmith came up with, especially for trumpet (like Alien, Chinatown, First Blood, etc.), so I considered him a great melodist overall. Same with Morricone or Barry.
I never considered Goldsmith a ‘tunesmith’. Even though he could churn out a great theme, his strength lies elsewhere (like, say, variations on a theme, or rhythmical figures and phrasings).
For sure, I would agree on John Williams, James Horner and Henry Mancini. Brilliant tunesmiths, all of them.
Tiomkin, as Malte mentioned, was THE tunesmith of the Golden Agers, although the tunes often lacked a bit of complexity.
Zimmer was a great tunesmith in his “golden period” (between 1988-2003), not so much in the last two decades. Besides, he’s more about other things, like painting in musical colours.
I agree on Delerue, although he really only had ONE tunesmith strength — the bittersweet melody.
Of the other people on my top 10 list, I need to give a shoutout to Giorgio Moroder and Ennio Morricone. Although Morricone often played around with classical melodies rather than composing them for their own sake — inverting them, changing them, commenting on them (like having one note off, or a weird rhythmical backdrop). But he could write melodies like few others.
Obviously, there are tons others. Burt Bacharach, A.R. Rahman, Elmer Bernstein, George Fenton, Patrick Doyle, Harold Faltermeyer, Klaus Doldinger, Marc Shaiman, Michael Kamen, Randy Edelman….and so on. All of them known for their melodic finesse.
Depends on what you mean by “tunesmith”. Goldsmith didn’t write popular melodies the way Mancini did, yet I find his melodies considerably more interesting and captivating. ALIEN has one of the most fascinating melodies in all of film music I’d say, but obviously, it’s not a popular tune, it’s not really suitable to become a (pop) song. “Ilia’s Theme” from STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE is another favorite melody of mine. Other favorite melodies from Goldsmith include PSYCHO II, HOUR OF THE GUN, PAPILLON, A PATCH OF BLUE, PLANET OF THE APES (perhaps the only 12-tone melody I find myself whistling), etc. among many others. I definitely think Goldsmith was a great melodist, and prefer his melodies to those of more “popular tunesmiths”.
I agree on Delerue, although he really only had ONE tunesmith strength — the bittersweet melody.
Indeed, but what a strength!
Goldsmith for sure wrote a lot of great themes and he could work with them. As Nic wrote music is more than just the melody. Also what one finds a great melody someone else might find boring and unmemorable.
It’s hard for me to think of music as just “melody”. Melody is just one element of music, So there is also harmony, rhythm, texture, timbre, dynamics… etc.
Because a great composer can take a melody and do great things with it, whereas a melody might in itself have potential, but if that isn’t realized, it’s just a “melody”.I disagree here. I chose melody on purpose. There are composers who care a lot about harmony and rhythm. But they don’t give a damn about melody. They just turn the scale into a nice piece by pleasant harmonization. Can be nice or boring. But as soon as you change two chords you basically have a new piece.
But take John Williams’ melody of the Raider’s March. You would recognize that melody at any harmonization. That is why Williams can and often does vary the harmonization of his themes a lot. That is, what I like about this melody thing.
In the Raiders example you recognize a strong melody. The stronger it is the more independent it is from harmony and rhythm. I guess, a reason why classical composers often used folk tunes in their pieces because these have usually strong melodies, too.Of course you can recognize the melody of RAIDER’S OF THE LOST ARK theme everywhere. Just like you could recognize Goldsmith’s PLANET OF THE APES melody everywhere. That’s, I guess, somewhat the point of a melody: it’s a musical sequence of notes that you recognize regardless of harmony, rhythm, melody, etc…. those things.
But nevertheless I view melody as just one part of composition, and not even the most important part (not the least important part either… I suppose it depends on the type of composition… I think all elements of a composition are obviously important… but different compositions may pronounce different elements more, or set them into the foreground). Take Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, or Hindemith’s Symphonische Metamorphosen. The melodies of these compositions are by Diabelli or von Webern, but the compositions are clearly by Beethoven and Hindemith respectively. But the melodies themselves are not theirs, and melody is important of course.It’s like you said, classical composers (and film composers as well) use folk sometimes folk tunes in their pieces… to do something with them. Take Mahler’s first symphony, where the famous “Frère Jacques” children’s canon becomes a somber and sarcastic funeral piece. And it sounds like Mahler. For THE RIVER WILD, Jerry Goldsmith used “The Water Is Wide” as a basic melody for the score, yet the resulting score sounds 100% like Jerry Goldsmith, in fact, the theme becomes very much his own, as they way it is used, it hardly sounds like the traditional song. But it remains recognizable.
Here’s a variation of Williams’ RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK… it’s obviously the melody, instantly recognizable as Raider’s, yet here it doesn’t sound like an adventure theme, but it’s a smooth piece of evening jazz:
I mean, melody is one of the basic building blocks of music, so most compositions have some form of melody, even something like Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps” has melody, even though the melody is often used fragmented and brutally torn apart… which is kinda the point of the piece.
But I still see melody as just one aspect of a composition.
But I still see melody as just one aspect of a composition.
Fair enough. But the point of the thread is not great compositions with melody as just one of many aspects of it but about composers particularly good at writing great melodies, regardless how they use them in their compositions.
And regarding Planet of the Apes, I am not sure to which melody you are referring there. But I don’t regard any of those I remember as great.
Melody is rather an incidental element of that score, I would say. Like in most of Jerry’s scores. Here I am with Thor.The Raiders March piece is nice. 🙂
This is a bit like we touched upon in the Prejudice of the Melodic thread, i.e. the degree to which melody is the most important ingredient of music.
I think, though, that what Gerate has in mind is the ‘hummability’ of it all. While PLANET OF THE APES certainly has melody in it, you have to go searching for it a bit, as opposed to the in-the-face hummability of “Raider’s March”.
Fair enough. But the point of the thread is not great compositions with melody as just one of many aspects of it but about composers particularly good at writing great melodies, regardless how they use them in their compositions.
Yes, I understood. Which is why I pointed out that I find that not so easy to answer. Thinking about this I notice that I find that a tricky question. I find talking about melody isolated from composition like talking about the protagonist of a novel without discussing the other aspects of the novel.
If nothing else, whatever makes a great melody by itself, seems to be a totally subjective, it is whatever sequence of notes one likes. (Nothing wrong with that, of course.)And regarding Planet of the Apes, I am not sure to which melody you are referring there. But I don’t regard any of those I remember as great.
Melody is rather an incidental element of that score, I would say. Like in most of Jerry’s scores. Here I am with Thor.The entire score of PLANET OF THE APES is basically constructed around a 12-tone melody, that is the prominent melody already introduced in the “Main Title” (prominently on the flutes at around the 50 second mark, then taken up by the oboes at around 1:15) and that is referenced throughout the score. It’s not incidental to the music, but rather the one central unifying element of the score; the melody is central to the film score’s construction.
But the fact that you regard this melody as incidental whereas I see — well, better “hear” — this as the central component in the score shows how subjective musical, and especially melodic, experience of music is. I think it’s one of the great film score melodies. (It’s not a particularly hummable melody, I would grant that… but then, what 12-tone melody is…)
The entire score of PLANET OF THE APES is basically constructed around a 12-tone melody, that is the prominent melody already introduced in the “Main Title” (prominently on the flutes at around the 50 second mark, then taken up by the oboes at around 1:15) and that is referenced throughout the score. It’s not incidental to the music, but rather the one central unifying element of the score; the melody is central to the film score’s construction.
But the fact that you regard this melody as incidental whereas I see — well, better “hear” — this as the central component in the score shows how subjective musical, and especially melodic, experience of music is. I think it’s one of the great film score melodies. (It’s not a particularly hummable melody, I would grant that… but then, what 12-tone melody is…)
Haven’t listened to this in a long time. Good inspiration to listen again. Thanks for that!
If nothing else, whatever makes a great melody by itself, seems to be a totally subjective, it is whatever sequence of notes one likes
Right. And this is the point where the topic really becomes interesting. These sensitivities for melody seem to be a matter of experience, probably in a formative age. But probably can be trained as well.
Maybe one could say that in general popmusic the melody/hook in regards of hummability takes much more the center stage than it is in “more complex” works like classical or film scores. I had to work myself into those first as well.
And thanks, Nic, for the pointer regarding PLANET OF THE APES. Although it is one of my favorite scores and I know exactly the flute melody in the Main Title you refer to, I think I somehow never realized the overarching use of that melody. Of course Goldsmith generally builds his scores in that way so I should have known that 😉
Yeah, I have always loved Goldsmith’s Planet of the Apes, it’s one of my all time favorite film scores as well, and amazing that one could write a 12-tone serial composition for a pop culture science-fiction film.
The 12-note theme is everywhere in that score… for example, in the cue “The Search (Continues)” (depending on the album you have), that erratic flute melody from the “Main Title” is played much slower on the strings (and eventually brass) and evokes the seemingly desolate and empty planet…It’s hard for me to think of music as just “melody”. Melody is just one element of music, So there is also harmony, rhythm, texture, timbre, dynamics… etc.
Because a great composer can take a melody and do great things with it, whereas a melody might in itself have potential, but if that isn’t realized, it’s just a “melody”.But when a composer sets out to write a memorable melody, the other elements you mention (harmony, rhythm, texture, timbre, dynamics) are likely to come later, certainly the last three will. Granted, harmony and rhythm are tied to melody, but they also don’t have to be in the forefront of the composer’s mind. The rhythmic and harmonic variations can come later.
Indeed… could well be. Not sure if that’s always the case, but probably most of the time. “Melody” is probably most often the starting point.
Indeed… could well be. Not sure if that’s always the case, but probably most of the time. “Melody” is probably most often the starting point.
I should clarify that I am really talking about situations where the film composer is deliberately setting out to write a hit song, like “Moon River.” If we are talking about melody as related to a full score, then I agree with you, melody is only one element to be considered.
Ah, ok.
As far as hits are concerned, popular songs everybody knows… I’d say Henry Mancini and John Barry with “Born Free” and various Bond songs are probably hard to beat as far as number of hits are concerned.
Maurice Jarre wrote “Lara’s Theme” for DR. ZHIVAGO, which is probably also one of the most famous film themes ever and has been recorded with and without vocals countless times. Or “White Christmas”, written for the movie HOLIDAY INN, has become one of the most famous Christmas songs of all time even.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.