The 10 Most influential Film Scores of all Times

Everyone has his own opinion about  averything and that is right, in this case the list is about the most influential original scores of all times (not necessary the bests), and this kind of point of view always raises controversy, but I have wanted to share my own preferences on that subject . I know many of you probably will disagree with more than one of the choices , but here we go, feel free to leave your comments or your own list.

1) 2001 a Space Odyssey, 1968, Richard Strauss, Johann

Strauss Jr. Aram Khachaturian y  György Ligeti: Director Stanley Kubrick used music by classical composers instead of the score that Alex North composed for the film, and used Ligeti's works without his consent, sparking a great controversy. In spite of all this the soundtrack is wonderful, because Kubrick created a kind of poetic dance between its filmic vision and the music of the great masters, in my opinion the use that the director does of the introduction of Thus I speak Zarathustra by Strauss caused such a association with dawn that it became a cliche..

2)The Godfather 1972, Nino Rota: Another classic of film score, the Italian composer Nino Rota better than anyone could draw the world of the Italian mafia through music , and two years later he won an academy award for his work to the sequel of this film.

 

3)Psycho 1960, Bernard Herrmann: What  we can say about this super classic  of the movies?  who has not listened the music  of  the shower sequence  that  has become  a suspense  genre  standard  imitated  and  parodied  countless  times in film and TV.

4)Jaws 1975 John Williams: The great composer John Williams won his very first academy award for this extraordinary score that could keep everyone under suspense until the end of the movie.

 

5) Gone with the wind 1939 Max Steiner: Marvelously lyrical and romantic this beautiful score belong to the golden age of Hollywood  films written by the extraordinary Austrian composer Max Steiner.

6)Chariots of Fire 1981, Vangelis: Despite it is not my favorite style of sound I have to recognize the enormous contribution that this soundtrack has made to improve and enrich the vocabulary of film  music and that is why is here.

7)The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 1966, Ennio Morricone: This Score is the fruit of the collaboration of Master Ennio Morricone with the director Sergio Leone and it helped to establish a genre (Spaghetti Western) absolutely recognizable and distinguishable using among other important elements, an unusual orchestration that combine traditional symphonic instrumentation with guitars, whistling, gunshots  human voices and noises.

8)The Lord of The Rings Trilogy: 2001-2003: Master Howard Shore created a Sound Landscape dark and deep to accompany the colossal trilogy that was based on the books written by J.R.R. Tolkien.

9)The Dark Knight  2008, Hans Zimmer: A masterpiece of film scoring, in my opinion Master Hans Zimmer has redefined the concepts of film composition with his work along the years and this extraordinary score is an example of that.

10) Star Wars 1977, John  Williams: I think this is one of the most recognizable Scores in the History of films, and is undeniable its impact in the popular culture of our times. The  uses of Leitmotiv as an emotional anchor to every of the principal characters is one of the multiple reasons that makes this score unforgettable to the great audiences.

My Favorite Star Wars Themes

Being a symphony orchestra musician  admirer of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Mahler ,Puccini and many other great masters, special place in my preferences has the music master John Williams has written for the Star Wars saga.

The harmonic treatment, wonderful themes that features each of the characters making use of Wagnerian leitmotif, the rich and varied orchestration and that special ability to effectively mix the score with the film attest to the mastery of John Williams to music for film.


  Of all the films so far we have my favorite is The Empire Strikes Back .Its darker and deeper tone, the path each character takes, also the fact that it left in expectation to The Return of the Jedi made it similar in my opinion to a second movement of a symphony that attacca toward the next movement.

 It is in this film which is introduced for the first time the Imperial March one of my favorite tracks and I think one of the most if not the most famous of the whole saga.

 To animate waiting until December 18 when a new chapter of the saga will premiere,I wrote a quartet for basses using two of the most famous themes of the series, I hope you like.