The Best Music in Film

Favourites

Musicians

(see also: Directors)

Sight & Sound

Q: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much?

Badly Drawn Boy
(Mercury Music prize winner Damon Gough composed the music for About A Boy)
"One that always springs to mind is Midnight Cowboy (1969). There are quite a few good moments in that soundtrack. There is the John Barry side of the score which is brilliant just as a thematical thing, which even if you're just listening to the soundtrack takes you back to moments in the film. It's a universal piece of music which stands alone, which is cool. And you've got the Fred Neil song as well which kick-starts the whole film; that's the most memorable bit of the whole film. Jon Voight is stood on the street and the start of 'Everybody's Talkin' kicks in and its just perfect again; the perfect balance of image and sound. It is really eclectic: the Barry stuff, the Neil song, which is very memorable, and then there's all this weird psychedelic music by bands of the day, for example, Elephant's Memory. There's so much diversity in that soundtrack. On a simple level, I'm a big fan of Michael Nyman's work, stuff like The Piano (1993); so together. The stuff he wrote made the film so perfect."
Cinematic Orchestra
(Rescored Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera)
"Well, I think one of my favourite film soundtracks is O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000). The soundtrack is a compilation of old folk, bluegrass and gospel. It is a wonderful score, or should I say a wonderful compilation. The soundtrack in this specific film is so choreographed to the movie and visa versa. It poses the question, what came first the movie or the music? The soundtrack has such a feel good quality which enhances the specific scenes......"
Coldcut
(Coldcut are Jonathan More and Matt Black, DJs and remixers who are often credited with inventing 'Big Beat')
"Bladerunner (1982). The film is perfect and the music matches the film. Coldcut's first engineer Raine Shine assisted Vangelis on it."
John Luther Adams
(Composer from Alaska. Former percussionist with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and the Arctic Chamber Orchestra)
"My favourite film music is in The Drums of Winter (1988) by Leonard Kamerling and Sarah Elder. This music was not composed for the film. The music is the subject of the film. In The Drums of Winter we see and hear traditional songs of the Yup'ik people of Western Alaska performed with dances in the intimate setting of the potlatch ceremony. The sound and the cinematography are equally strong. There is no narration, no one who tells us what to think. Rather than watching from the outside, we feel as though we're inside the dance house experiencing each moment with the community."
Barry Adamson
(Performed in the groups Magazine, Visage, and The Bad Seeds and contributed music to Lost Highway and The Beach)
"I think it has to be Bernard Herrmann's score for Taxi Driver (1976). The combination of the 'Travis Bickle' inner world portraiture, set amongst the seedy urban NY (at that time) landscape, Herrmann's depth of musical vision (for me) amazingly surpasses the idea that Scorsese wanted, of Herrmann merely repeating Psycho (1960) which he throws in a lick from, anyway). He even sets us up in Travis' past by use of military drums that echo Bickle's past disturbance of the Vietnam war, commenting on his ability to 'snap into a distorted regimen once his obsessions have ensnared him. Genius."
David Arnold
(Composed the music for Independence Day, Zoolander)
"Absolutely impossible for me to say that I have one enduring favourite. I have many and they change fairly frequently. There are scores that I admire for their technical or musical complexity, structure and approach, others that I like for their sheer emotional power, some which combine all the above and others that simply appeal to me and I haven't got a clue why. Ask me tomorrow and I may have a different list but among my many favourites are On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Taxi Driver (1976), Robin Hood, Once Upon a Time in America (1983), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), E.T. (1982), Psycho (1960), 633 Squadron (1963). Which all adds up to a greatest hits of popular films and scores really, but I guess that's why they're popular."
Charles Bernstein
(Composed the music for A Nightmare on Elm Street)
"I have many favourite film scores. Some are well known, such as Ennio Morricone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Some of them are less well known, such as Jerry Goldsmith's A Patch of Blue (1965), or Under Fire (1983). And some are virtually unknown, such as Luis Bacalov's Polish Wedding (1998), or Patrick Williams' Julian Po (1997). The reasons, of course, vary with each individual film, but the overriding reasons are essentially the same. They are distinctive, unique to the film, thematic, evocative, memorable, unified, and well written."
Claude Bolling
(Composed the music for California Suite)
"Of course, most of the scores by John Williams and Bernard Herrmann"
DJ Brahms
(House and techno DJ performing Big Beat)
"My favourite soundtrack music would have to be the soundtrack music to the movie A Clockwork Orange (1971). While the music was not composed for the movie (obviously) Kubrick does an amazing turn with very familiar songs in an unfamiliar setting. This irony is best seen in the scene where the kids are raping and beating people up to 'Singin' in the Rain'. Also the scene of 'Ode to Joy' playing while Alex is watching scenes of horror such as the atom bomb and the holocaust is fantastic."
Neil Brand
(Composer and silent film accompanist. Rescored South, Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic and Alfred Hitchcock's The Ring. Recently composed a new jazz score for E. A. Dupont's Piccadilly)
"For musicality, my favourite score is Alex North's for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) - the music is so deep inside the characters that every emotional twist is marked musically - you can play the score alone and see the shots in your head in real time, it's so closely integrated. Also jazz is the only language for that play in that location and, like all good scoring, it tells you so much more than you can see. I have learnt an enormous amount about both dramatic scoring and musical voicing by listening again and again to that score. For understatedness, John Williams's Schindler's List (1993) is superb - I came out of that movie convinced there was only a few minutes of music in it - when I heard the 75 minute CD every scene the music underscored came straight back to mind. Finally for minimalism the Howard Shore soundtrack for Cronenberg's Crash (1996) is a masterpiece, cold, mesmeric and stripped down to the barest essentials. It's always great to hear a forthcoming movie summed up in the first few notes you hear."
Joanna Bruzdowicz
(Frequent composer for Agnès Varda's films, including Vagabonde)
"I have two favourite soundtracks: The first, the real 'classic' in this field: Psycho (1960), by Bernard Herrmann, because of his wonderful use of strings, some kind of Bela Bartók sound (my favourite composer too) and incredible 'maitrise' of growing tension and my fear. The second is: The Firm (1993), by Dave Grusin. I was fascinated by the piano-suspense-jazz, played by the composer himself. The only piano sound for all very dramatic situations was great discovery, huge musical pleasure. I always pretend, that is not necessary to have 120 musicians in film music score to get the real dramatic expression!"
Gavin Bryars
(Minimalist British composer who composed scores for independent film-maker Stephen Dwoskin)

"I'm afraid I have two answers to this question and perhaps you will only find one of them legitimate within the terms of the question but I'll answer anyway. The first answer creates the same kind of problem as when Elisabeth Schwarzkopf selected eight of her own recordings for her Desert Islands Disc selection.... (i) I have spent most of my professional life avoiding writing music for films preferring to write for live situations - concerts, music for dance or theatre, or writing operas. However I relented when I was working on my second opera, for ENO which was staged by Atom Egoyan. I received an invitation to write music for a film being produced in British Columbia based on a text by the poet PK Page, who is an old family friend of Atom's. He said that I should look at this proposal very seriously (PK was then 84 years old, and her husband Arthur was approaching his hundredth birthday) and so I went to Victoria to meet the Russian director of the film, Anna Tchernakova. In the event, not only did I decide to work on the film, but also Anya and I got married and now have a four year old son. I do think, though, that the music for this film (eventually entitled "Last Summer") works exceptionally well. Anya did several things which made this so. I wrote the music in response to the narrative and to the treatment which Anya had made rather than produce music for specific cues. This music was performed in concert, and the concert was filmed. This enabled the music to be both featured as concert music, and underscored for the majority of the film. But in addition Anya had cast PK Page herself in the film's central role and PK also appears, as herself, in the concert footage where she reads the opening part of the narrative. The consequent ambiguity I find quite magical. (ii) A very different, and more traditional use of music which I admire is that which George Auric wrote for Jack Clayton's film of the Henry James story The Innocents. Here we have the opposite where the music does not feature in the foreground but exists at the same level as environmental sound but in a remarkably subtle way. Auric, of course, was a follower of Erik Satie (Auric was a member of the 'École d'Arcueil') and Satie was himself an important composer for film with his pioneering music for the René Clair film Entr'acte."
William Camilleri
"My favourite film soundtrack is The Lion King (1994) as this music stands alone in its own right, as well as having a very good theme-by this I mean good melodic lines; emotion which is rare in most films: majesty and power. Added to this I like the way Hans Zimmer included Elton John's songs thus making the whole thing appealing to all age groups, which contributed to making it a worldwide hit."
Eliza Carthy
(Folk singer and fiddle player)
"Vojislav Aralica and Dejan Sparavalo's music for Black Cat White Cat. I love the way that the music is absolutely expressing the core and soul of the culture that is presented in the film. It makes it so you can almost taste and smell the film; the best film music does that for me. It is hard to tell where the score stops and the on-screen party starts, it's that good."
Carl Craig
(Detroit techno pioneer)
"Since I grew up with and grew into electronic music, I have always loved the Vangelis score to Blade Runner (1982). He had a way of capturing the mood of the what's on the screen. When I hear one of the compositions from Blade Runner I visualize the scene that it accompanied. I think that's the greatest challenge of composing music for film."
Mamadou Diabaté
(Composed the music for Moussa Sène Absa's Madame Brouette)
"My favourite music track is Titanic (1997). I like the emotion of the movie, it gives you the same feeling that the music plays. Celine Dion's voice brings you to the past and the deep feeling from that time period."
Robert Farnon
(Composed the music for Raoul Walsh's Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.)
"Henry Vth (1944), in its marvellous balance of music and sound effects. The music was good in the battle scene that it didn't need any sound effects."
Simon Fisher Turner
(Composed the music for many Derek Jarman films, including Caravaggio, The Last of England and The Garden, and recently Mike Hodges' Croupier and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead)
"Favourite soundtrack at the moment The Jungle Book (1967). Wonderful story/great musicians/wonderful songs/beautiful score."
Lisa Gerrard
(Composed music for The Insider, Gladiator, Ali and Whale Rider)
"My Favourite film is Stalker (1979), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky with music by Eduard Aremiev, I love this film because to partake in it you must use your own imagination, and it is a poetic science fiction that is capable of crossing the bridge of the voyeuristic and places you into an experience of haunting intimacy."
Christopher Gordon
(Composed the music for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World)
"Hook (1991) by John Williams is one of the great symphonic film scores that have largely gone unnoticed. Because he was able to use his themes from an earlier unfinished stage show about Peter Pan it meant that the music was in his blood when he came to write Hook. The result is an extraordinarily rich and cohesive score."
The Handsome Family
(Husband and wife alt-country stars Brett and Rennie Sparks. Provided additional music for Bullet on a Wire)
"It would be a toss up between the music of Morricone and Rota. But I guess I'd have to go with Morricone. He is such a deft orchestrator, he uses such a varied and enormous tonal palette - whips, whistles, guttural vocalizations, electric guitar, etc. He uses pastiche and caricature without descending to banality. And, bottom line, the music from the spaghetti westerns is so evocative of the west. It has actually influenced western American music. Bands like Calexico and others have been so influenced by this music that is has become a sub-genre of country."
David Hirschfelder
Original music for Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth (1998) and Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom (1992)
"My all-time favourite film score is Ennio Morricone's for The Mission (1986). I love it because Maestro Ennio not only fully embraces the concept of melody, he also imbues that score with such great choices with regard to orchestration, featuring a totally non-gratuitous use of world music elements, which was really ground-breaking for its time. Thus, the music composed for that film stands alone, whilst it also propels the narrative so effectively yet unobtrusively."
David Holmes
(Composed the music for Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight)
"There's so many.... John Barry's score for Midnight Cowboy (1969), Klute (1971) and Marathon Man (1976), composed by Michael Small, De Sade 70 (1969), music by Bruno Nicolai), Once upon a time in America (1983, music by Ennio Morricone), Pierre Bachelet's music for Histoire d'O (1975)...contemporary films would be John Brion's music for Punch-drunk Love (2002), Nathan Larson's for Tigerland (2000), Love Liza by Jim O'Rourke (2002), Angelo Badalamenti's music for Mullholland Dr. (2001), Mark Mothersbaugh's for The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)..I could literary go on all day, but I gotta say that my favourite at the minute would be The Conversation (1974) by David Shire. But it's not just the score! It's the overall treatment of sound, which in a way I would also consider music, especially in the case of The Conversation (1974), were the sounds heard by the surveillance equipment almost feel like part of the score."
Trevor Horn
(Former member of the groups The Bugles and Yes. Composed the music for Toys and Coyote Ugly, and was executive music producer on Mona Lisa Smile)
"My favourite film soundtrack is Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1982) by Ruche Sakamoto. It has a beautiful melody and a really haunting atmosphere."
Klive Humberstone
(Part of Sheffield based band 'In The Nursery'. Started the 'Optical Music Series' to compose scores to silent movies)
"When asked this question, my mind always goes back to my first viewing of Wim Wenders Wings of Desire (1987). The images and the music merged effortlessly - both complimenting each other. The music in the film is by Jürgen Kneiper - I don't know any other works that he has done - but the music in Wings of Desire beautifully evokes the spirit and mood of the tortured mortals and sombre angels within the films storyline."
Nigel Humberstone
(Part of Sheffield based band 'In The Nursery'. Started the 'Optical Music Series' to compose scores to silent movies)
"My initial reaction was to list Roland Joffé's The Mission (1986) with Ennio Morricone's mesmerising score, but on reflection my favourite and most memorable film soundtrack would have to be another Morricone score, Sacco and Vanzetti (1971) directed by Giuliano Montaldo. The vocal contribution by Joan Baez is particularly haunting and the film has remained in my memory despite only one viewing 20 years ago."
Dick Hyman
(Regular music arranger for Woody Allen's films, including Sweet and Lowdown, Bullets over Broadway and Everyone Says I Love You)
"I think My Fair Lady (1964) is the best film musical I've ever seen and sets the standard for such vehicles. As to underscoring, I very much admire David Raksin's music to Laura (1944) for its subtle enhancement of the implied emotions, which is what film music is ideally about."
Mark Isham
(Composed the music for The Hitcher, Point Break, Short Cuts and Quiz Show)
"Whenever I am asked this, the first thing that pops into my mind is Nino Rota and his themes for Fellini's movies. In trying to figure out why, after all these years, his music still seems to answer your question, I can only come up with the fact that rarely does a filmmaker create such a unique emotional environment and rarely does a composer match it so exactly. And at the same time, supply themes that are truly memorable, that one cannot help but hum as one leaves the theatre or drives in one's car, 30 years later!"
Fred Karlin
(Composed the music for Michael Crichton's Westworld )
"I have no single favourite score, but I have many favourites. I look for three basic qualities in a score: a strong unifying concept that in most cases sums up the essence of the film; melodic material unique to the film that defines and as a rule helps to explain emotionally its psychological subtext; and music that is able to stand apart from the film. Although good film music is primarily responsible for serving the needs of the specific film and will not by any means invariable work well apart from the film, when looking for favourite scores this does become desirable. Keeping that criteria in mind, I would certainly include the following ten scores on my list of favourites, any of which I would have been proud to have written: Body Heat (1981; John Barry) Basic Instinct (1992; Jerry Goldsmith) Braveheart (1995; James Horner) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977; John Williams) East of Eden (1954; Leonard Rosenman) Edward Scissorhands (1990; Danny Elfman) Once upon a Time in the West (1968; Ennio Morricone) North by Northwest (1959, Bernard Herrmann) The Red Violin (1998; John Corigliano) To Kill a Mockingbird (1962; Elmer Bernstein) Although these titles only go back as far as 1954, there are others on my list of favourites that go back into the thirties and forties, including Charlie Chaplin's score for Modern Times (1936, arranged/orchestrated by David Raksin and Edward B. Powell), a work that sums up Chaplin's approach to scoring comedies touched with pathos; Spellbound (1945; Miklós Rózsa), in which Rózsa demonstrates the power of a specific solo instrument to express the psychological state of a character, in this case Gregory Peck (who plays "Dr. Edwards"); The Best Years of Our Lives (1946; Hugo Friedhofer), for which the composer greatly enriches the harmonic vocabulary of film music by drawing upon the Americana suggested by Aaron Copland; and Ben-Hur (1959; Miklós Rózsa), definitive of his spectacular epic scoring."
Jan Kaspersen
(Danish composer who wrote the music for Den Blå Munk)
"I have a few favourites and this one pops up in my mind: Otto Preminger´s Anatomy of a Murder (1959) with music by Duke Ellington. His band with star soloists like Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Ray Nance etc. plays Duke´s music that matches the different moods in the film perfect. I would like to emphasize the opening of the film, where the music together with the pictures puts up a strong tense atmosphere. To me it is close to a masterpiece."
Kid Koala
(Chinese-Canadian DJ. Contributed to Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead)
"The soundtracks for Edward Scissorhands (1990) and In the Mood for Love (2000) have been my travel cd wallet for the last 4 tours. The music from these films is just amazingly dreamy... and they are great records to draw to when you are waiting at the train station."
Kris Kristofferson
(Country singer/songwriter. Composed music for The Last Movie and acted in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Heaven's Gate)
"I thought Bob Dylan's soundtrack on Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) was awesome. It had the flavour of the film, it felt organic, emanating from the action. 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door' took the Slim Pickens/Katy Jurado death scene to a new level of artistry and emotion."
Borut Krzisnik
(Composer for theatrical productions who recently worked with Peter Greenaway on The Tulse Luper Suitcases)
"Nino Rota: Prova d'Orchestra (1979), directed by Federico Fellini. Beside the fact that I like this soundtrack as a stand-alone music, what makes this film special is the role of the music in it. There is a very close interaction between visuals and music. The whole film takes place during the orchestra rehearsal and - analog to the orchestra rehearsal itself - music is in the very core of the film action, in the story itself. First, the role of the music is basic for that film and not something which is added after the shooting and editing and secondly, it is certainly not just parallel action or illustrative/ornamental support the way it is pretty much customary in current film. This specific role of the soundtrack which is interwoven with the film action - in fact, it is film action itself - is very specific compared to the majority of film production."
David Mansfield
(Composed the music for Heaven's Gate and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood)
"Anton Karas' The Third Man (1949) because I am a string player and so much enjoy the virtuoso performance on the Austrian zither. And it lives totally independently from the film while serving it perfectly."
Branford Marsalis
(A regular saxophonist on Spike Lee's films, including Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X and Do the Right Thing)
"That's a tough one. I don't do favourites. I would say Elmer Bernstein's score for The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Dmitri Shostakovich's score for Battleship Potemkin (1925). I love them because it is reflective of a time when the music could be challenging and (obviously with Potemkin) there was no fear that it would detract from the dialogue. In addition there is the notion that the composer was trusted to do the right thing and did not feel the need to placate the director, who generally speaking has no concept of music. In addition, I must add that I appreciate most of John Williams' and Terrence Blanchard's work. The wide berth given to them by Spielberg and Lee is quite refreshing in these times."
Marcus Miller
(Composed the music for Siesta (1987) with Miles Davis, Above the Rim and House Party)
"My favourite soundtracks are the ones that actually serve as a character in the films. Films where the music is like an additional actor. John Williams Star Wars (1977) does this. So does Isaac Hayes' Shaft (1971) score. Quincy Jones' In The Heat of the Night (1967) is fantastic also."
Jeff Mills
(One of the biggest names in American techno. In 2000 composed an alternative soundtrack to Fritz Lang's re-edited Metropolis)
"My favourite soundtrack would have to be György Ligeti's contributions of 'Atmospheres', 'Lux Aeterna' and 'Requiem' to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). I adore his work in this film. Because of the multi-dimensional aspects 2001: A Space Odyssey encompassed, I believe that those that played key roles in producing such a story must have required an enormous psychological depth. The thing I liked to most about this film was that it never really allowed the viewers to believe they understood and knew about the time in which it happened, the place or exact location in space or the outcome of the situation. Like Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, Wally Veevers and others, Ligeti is guilty of creating one of best films ever created."
Angela Morley
(Composed the music for The Heart of a Man and Watership Down (1978). Frequently composed for television, including Hancock's Half-Hour)
"I'll answer Laura (1944) because it creates the persona of a character that is thought to be dead."
Daniel Mudford
(With Pete Woodhead, composed the music for Shaun of the Dead)
"My favourite soundtrack is Eraserhead (1976) by Alan R. Splet and David Lynch. Somehow, I heard the soundtrack on CD before the film. After hearing it, the sound of building sites, crying children, screaming trains, clanging radiators, all the sounds which one would normally try and ignore, became music. This is the only soundtrack which made it easier to live in this world."
Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian)
(Lead vocalist with Belle and Sebastian who contributed to the soundtrack for Todd Solondz's Storytelling)
"I think, right off the bat, my favourite soundtrack to a film is the music to a film called Two Way Stretch (1960) starring Peter Sellers. It's a black and white comedy from Britain from around1960. The sort of thing you were brought up with, with endless reruns on public television. The thing is, when you get a bit older, inherent taste and memory sorts the wheat from the chaff. You have a feeling that you want to see certain films again. This is indeed a corker; Sellers is always a gem around this time. The script is cheeky and compelling, and you've got this terrific soundtrack pushing home every gag and setpiece. The main theme is basically a brass ensemble of some kind playing a very catchy refrain. Trumpets and trombones and a drum kit add a lot of swing to the proceedings. It's so British, you can't imagine anything quite so catchy and cheeky and...”working class” coming from France or Italy. The main theme is one of my top hundred tunes that I whistle while I'm doing the sweeping up. Another of my top hundred, and another example of unmatchable musical excellence, matched to pictures, must be all the music to the children's' animation Mr Ben. I play a game with myself sometimes. How many of the different Mr Ben themes can I whistle or sing? I usually get about five or six or something. And that's after not seeing it for about 25 years! There must be something there if it's dug in so deep. The instrumentation of the time is peerless in my view. Xylophone, flute, chugging brass, drums that sound like they've been played in a padded cell under a duvet."
Monty Norman
(Wrote the James Bond theme and composed the music for Dr. No (1962) and Terence Fisher's The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1959))
"Over the years there have been many wonderful film soundtracks but probably my favourite is Elmer Bernstein's big-band score for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) Groundbreaking stuff, and inspirational for composers in the usage of popular music for contemporary subjects."
Will Oldham (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy)
(Singer songwriter, aka Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. Starred in Matewan)
"I like the music from Ulysses' Gaze (1995). I'm sure it has to do with the state of mind I was in, very hungry and open."
John Ottman
(Composed the music for Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects and X2)
"I'd say there are so many, and most of them are ones Goldsmith did in the 60's and 70s. These were 20 years of sheer genius. I love to find little gems that no one's heard of, and a TV mini series Goldsmith scored in the 70s called Masada (1981) is one of my all time favourites. There's a sheer excitement and passion you can feel behind the music, and again, orchestrational inspiration and originality throughout."
The Pastels
(Scottish indie band who composed the music for David MacKenzie's The Last Great Wilderness (2002))
"It's impossible to ignore Godard's genius with music and sound, but in terms of what a composer has brought to a film, I'd choose Roman Polanski's Cul-de-Sac (1966) by Krzysztof Komeda. The main piece is instantly memorable and is as important as the images in defining the atmosphere of the film. Polanski obviously recognises this, and in places surrenders dialogue to the music, pushing the levels absolutely to the limit in what feels almost like mono blocks, right in the middle of the sound design. Even now this sounds completely fabulous and bold, and outside of the film, on it's own, it's still a beautiful series of musical pieces."
Jocelyn Pook
(Worked on soundtracks for several Derek Jarman films and composed the music for Eyes Wide Shut and L'emploi du temps)
"Michael Nyman's music for The Draughtman's Contract (1982) blew me away when I first saw the film. At that time it was so unusual to use music in that way, as a separate, distinctive, driving voice. Likewise Stanley Kubrick's bold use of music in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). I also like film music with memorable tunes that you're humming for days later - Ennio Morricone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), music for Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968), Love Story (1970) - still lodged in the brain 25 years later... and Badalamenti's music for Twin Peaks was wonderfully atmospheric. I think Björk's score for Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (2000) is brilliant and original in the way it uses various found sounds from the scenes (clunking factory machinery, trains etc) to drive the music. Talking of trains, I also enjoyed the quirkiness of Benjamin Britten's score for Night Mail (1936). More recently, my current favourite is the music for the wonderful Belleville Rendez-Vous (2003). Innovative and delightful, with memorable musical moments such as the four elderly ladies making their 'sonata for kitchen utensils and fridge'. It's a scandal that it didn't win the Oscar this year for best soundtrack!"
Zbigniew Preisner
(Composed the music for numerous Krzysztof Kieslowski films, from No End to Three Colours Red, Louis Malle's Damage and Charles Sturridge's Fairytale A True Story)
"This is a very difficult question and the answer is still more difficult, because there are plenty of films which I cannot imagine without their soundtrack music. Just think about Fellini's films with music by Nino Rota, about a great film The Mission (1986) with music by Ennio Morricone or about Chariots of Fire (1981) with music by Vangelis. If I were to pick the one and only out of them, I think I would choose The Godfather (1972) with brilliant music by Nino Rota."
André Previn
(Composed the music for Bad Day at Black Rock, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Long Day's Journey into Night)
"I have several favourite film soundtracks: William Walton's Henry V (1944), Hugo Friedhofer's The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The Sea Hawk (1940)."
Alan Price
(British rock musician of the 60s and keyboard player with The Animals. Composed music for Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital)
"E.T. (1982) - John Williams - because I was Chairman of the panel when it won the BAFTA award and I persuaded everyone else on the Jury."
A. R. Rahman
(Popular Bollywood composer. Composed the music for Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan)
"There are many of them ... One of my favourite film scores is Cinema Paradiso (1988) ..cos the music expresses everything and imprints the emotion in your heart ..may be for your life time.."
Josh Ritter
(American folk singer who's work has featured in Six Feet Under)
"I love the soundtrack to The Deer Hunter (1978). It is so respectfully used that the music is at times the main character. I think the final night before the boys are all shipped off to Vietnam is one of the great moments. All sitting around listening to the piano, not knowing what's to come. Man that's an incredible scene. I really enjoy and respect Cameron Crowe and Wes Anderson for how how well they treat the songs they use in their movies. They obviously really enjoy making movies and the music they use really shows the kind of enthusiasm they have for the whole process."
Ryuichi Sakamoto
(Composed music for Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and Gohatto, and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor and The Sheltering Sky)
"Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). Because, to me, most film music doesn't reach the quality of "pure music" such as Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Bartók, or whoever. Herrmann's Psycho is one of few exceptions."
Lalo Schifrin
(Composed the music for Norman Jewison's The Cincinnati Kid, Peter Yates' Bullitt and many others)
"My favourite soundtrack is Alexander Nevsky (1938) with music by Sergei Prokofiev, because in it, he and the director, Sergei Eisenstein, elaborated and put in practice the concept of audio-visual counterpoint."
Geoff Smith
(Recently conducted a live soundtrack on the hammered dulcimer to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
"My favourite soundtrack is A Fistful of Dynamite (1971) by Ennio Morricone (directed by Sergio Leone, starring Rod Steiger and James Coburn). I love this soundtrack so much because I always find it extremely moving and uplifting: particularly the wonderful main theme. It gives me strength, hope and sustenance. For example, the scene (with the main theme) where the bridge is blown up captures something that is timeless and truthful yet unfashionable in the current climate: that is, that revolutionary moments, resistance and struggle can be spiritual, uplifting and beautiful. The special character of this main theme means that it is peculiarly suited for use in relation to various scenes in the film: scenes that, on the surface, are contrasting and might seem to be in need of very different themes. These scenes comprise violence, memories of friendship and carefree happy times as well as memories of tragedy - total personal and political betrayal. This same main theme works so perfectly for all these scenes. Most composers are not able to achieve this. That is, to encapsulate everything in one 'pan-theme', and so capture the essences, meanings and soul of the film. This is the nature of genius."
Tomasz Stanko
(Jazz musician and composer. Wrote the music for Michal Rosa's Cisza)
"I've been the most enchanted with Ennio Morricone's music for Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in America (1983). It evokes some indefinite longing impressions, a state of suspended nostalgia, a charm. I love this music. But there are many composers that I appreciate very much. Krzysztof Komeda whom - having worked with - I've know the best, was a great composer, he could "feel" a picture and cold rightly enrich it with his beautiful motives. I also like very much composers from the Hollywood school, such as Jerry Goldsmith, for his score for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974) in particular."
John Surman
(Jazz musician. Composed the music for Chimère and Respiro)
"I´m writing as someone who has a particular interest in jazz and thus am fascinated by the way that this area of the music has been used in the cinema. From the 50s through to the 70s and beyond, one whiff of the city, crime or drugs and out came the jazz big-band scores! Some great stuff too! Quincy Jones In Cold Blood (1967) and In the Heat of the Night (1967) - I think it was Johnny Mandel who wrote the score for I Want to Live! (1958) and it's hard to imagine The French Connection (1971) without Don Ellis´ unique score. For me, however, one of my real favourites has to be the Miles Davis improvisations for Louis Malle´s film Lift to the Scaffold (1958)- there's a certain poignancy that really adds to the dialogue and gives that extra insight into character and situation."
June Tabor
(British folk singer)
"Maurice Jarre's music for Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The interrelation between camera and score is exemplary."
Neil Tennant
(Singer of the Pet Shop Boys, who contributed songs to Scandal and The Crying Game)
"Ryuichi Sakamoto's music for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Oshima, 1982) because it makes the film. The soundtrack really pushes the dynamic – revealing the film's emotional heart through a repeated musical motif which is amazingly powerful. It's a very unstereotypical soundtrack, managing simultaneously to be Japanese and western, an idea that is central to the tension of the film's story. The soundtrack also contained a version with vocals by David Sylvian, and I remember having to check the words of the lyric when I worked at Smash Hits magazine. It's difficult to imagine having a lyric like that nowadays, with the central line, 'My love wears forbidden colours', which is quite an old-fashioned, 'love that dare not speak its name' idea of being gay."
Linda Thomson
(British folk singer)
"Favourite score today is the score to Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979). In general I prefer artistes on soundtracks to proper " scores'."
Dickon Hinchliffe Tindersticks
(Violinist and arranger with the band Tindersticks. Composed the music for Claire Denis' films Nenette et Boni and Vendredi soir)
"My favourite soundtracks are those that go right to the heart of a film, that get inside the characters and drama in ways that visual images alone cannot. In Bernard Herrmann's score for Taxi Driver (1976) it is the music that expresses the raw emotions of Travis Bickle more than anything. His face is almost expressionless and his voice monotonic, but Herrmann's music - deceptively simple dark brass and low woodwind chords and stark percussion - take us to the very heart of his loneliness and alienation on the streets of New York. The music is both brutal and tender, beautiful and disturbing at the same time. It builds the tension of Bickle's desires and outbursts of rage and the world it creates is inescapable. If you listen to the soundtrack on its own, you are instantly back in the world of the film - inside Bickle's head."
David Boulter Tindersticks
(Member of Tindersticks)
"That's a very hard question, there are so many great soundtracks I love. But I suppose the one that really got me going was John Barry's The Ipcress File (1965). I'd grown up watching such films as this, so the music was familiar, but just listening to the music made me see something else, something that made me want to make music, music that could paint pictures in your mind without telling you what to think."
Amon Tobin
(Producer and DJ on Ninjatune Records)
"I like different ones for different reasons, some like John Barry's Jaws (1975) or Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo (1958) are my favourites because they interprate the action in the film so literally. If you had to think of how to make music that feels like an approaching shark or irrational nausea from standing on the edge of a tall building it's hard to imagine a more perfect interpretation. If I really had to pick one though then I'd have to go with Morricone's The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The theme from that film was one of the first pieces of music I can remember being obsessed with as a kid. I still get goosebumps whenever I hear 'ecstasy of gold' from that soundtrack. Just have amazing music"
Colin Towns
(Composer and music arranger on films and television, most notably Our Friends in the North)
"John Corigliano's score for Altered States (1980) really made an impact on me. John Williams writes and orchestrates beautifully (Catch Me If You Can, 2002). Krzysztof Komeda's score for Rosemary's Baby (1968) and Elliot Goldenthal's for Demolition Man (1993) lift my imagination. The last Matrix score (The Matrix Revolutions, 2003) by Don Davis was very strong."
Jonny Trunk
(Musician who also runs Trunk Records. Has reissued several soundtracks including The Wicker Man and Dawn of the Dead)
"This is almost an impossible question for me to answer, as it seems to change on a daily basis. Last week it was Dumbo (1941) - Frank Churchill was a genius. The week before it was The Chameleon by Lasse Fernlof. At the weekend it was The Wicker Man (1973). Yesterday it was Swedish Fly Girls (1970). The one today is Los Jóvenes viejos by Sergio Mihanovich, simply because it's the most beautiful foreign filmic jazz I've heard; it's brilliantly simple, occasionally stark, wonderfully played and it has a tune on it called "Waltz in 16mm" which is a title I wished I'd thought of. It's also only the second recording ever made with Ruben Barbieri, before he was nicknamed "Gato". It took me years to find a copy, because it was only issued in Argentina once, in 1962. Worth the wait."
Joseph Vitarelli
(Composed the music for The Last Seduction and She's So Lovely)
"La Strada (1954), Juliet of the Spirits (1965). I've always been obsessed with Rota. The Godfather-only Rota could suggest violence with a clarinet."
Debbie Wiseman
(Composed the music for Brian Gilbert's Tom and Viv and Wilde)
"This is a really hard question - there are so many great soundtracks it's hard to choose just one. Choosing from fairly recent films, I loved John Williams' music for Schindler's List (1993). It had a great single theme that carried with it dignity, hope, passion, loss - all in just a few simple notes! Simple, memorable melodies are what every film composer aspires to write, and I feel this score achieved just that. The music stands alone too. Even without the pictures it would be inspiring music. This, to me, is also the test of a good film music. If the score can stand up to be played on its own without the film, and yet somehow remind you of the story, and also be "true" music - then that is a great film score."
Pete Woodhead
(With Daniel Mudford, composed the music for Shaun of the Dead)
"My favourite film soundtracks are those that are so powerful that they burst forth from the films that contain them to demand your attention in their own right. I can think of no better example of this than the astounding fusion of synthetic sound and rolling, stoned blues created by Jack Nitzsche for Roeg and Cammell's 1970 opus Performance. The thrilling twists and turns of this score drive the film's strange elliptical editing like a monkey in a dodgem car and showcase musicians at the very height of their powers. Has Randy Newman ever sounded better than when he is riding on that 'Gone Dead Train?' I don't think so. Ry Cooder's ever distinctive bottleneck guitar work is also so superb that he was able to fashion it into several soundtrack recordings decades later. Ry's slide almost prepares you for 'Memo from Turner' one of Mick and Keith's greatest songs, and Jagger sings it like he knows this. The ever-eclectic Mr Nitzsche also includes a track by protorappers The Last Poets, sculpts sound shapes with Moogs that just scream menace and mayhem and tops the lot with dulcimers and Merry Clayton's vocal histrionics for good measure. Like all great soundtracks you just can't begin to imagine Performance without this incredible music but what makes it so special for me is that I can't imagine my life without it either."
Otomo Yoshihide
(Avant-garde musician and composer for Japanese films)
"Kaidan (directed by Masaki Kobayashi music and sound designed by Toru Takemitsu, (1964)). I love Toru Takemitsu and Takeo Yamashita's sound tracks very much"
Last Updated: 05 Sep 2006