[Kirk Tsai]

Listening again to the RCA Gerhardt series, and realize how much I love film music. So here's my favorite composers, and my favorite five (if they have done so much) scores of theirs in order.

1. John Williams -- The Empire Strikes Back, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, Superman: The Movie, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Star Wars: A New Hope

2. Erich Wolfgang Korngold -- Adventures of Robin Hood, King's Row, The Constant Nymph, Escape Me Never, The Sea Wolf

3. Bernard Herrmann -- Vertigo, Three Worlds of Gulliver, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Jason and the Argunauts, Cape Fear

4. Ennio Morricone -- The Mission, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good Bad and Ugly, The Legend of 1900, Cinema Paradiso

5. Franz Waxman -- Prince Valiant, Bride of Frankenstein, Taras Bulba, Sunset Boulevard, Spirit of St. Louis

6. Sergei Prokofiev -- Alexander Nevsky, Ivan The Terrible I & II

7. James Horner -- Legends of the Fall, Braveheart, Glory, Apollo 13, Field of Dreams

8. Elmer Bernstein -- To Kill a Mockingbird, Age of Innocence, The Great Escape, Far From Heaven, The Ten Commandments

9. John Barry -- Dances With Wolves, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Somewhere in Time, Raise the Titanic, You Only Live Twice

10. Patrick Doyle -- Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Dead Again, Great Expectations, A Little Princess

[Rand]

Well, let's see, how about:

Bernard Herrmann - The Ghost and Mrs Muir

Erich Wolfgang Korngold - King's Row

Franz Waxman - Peyton Place

Elmer Bernstein - The Magnificent Seven

Dimitri Tiomkin - The Alamo

Jerry Goldsmith - Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Randy Edelman - The Last of the Mohicans

Danny Elfman - Edward Scissorhands

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

John Barry - Dances With Wolves

[Patrick McCart]

Bernard Herrmann and Carl Stalling.

Also, I love the silent film scores of Carl Davis and Robert Israel.

[SteveGon]

I pretty much enjoy the work of all of the composers already listed.

One not mentioned is Zbigniew Preisner who is best known for his work with Krzysztof Kieslowski. I recently picked up the soundtrack to The Decalogue and like it quite a bit.

[Jack Briggs]

Don't forget Max Steiner.

[Walter Kittel]

No list of film composers would be complete without...

Jerome Moross - The Big Country

I also like -

Gabriel Yared - Map of the Human Heart, The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley

Vangelis - Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner, 1492: Conquest of Paradise

Of the composers already listed, favorites include

Ennio Moriconne
Bernard Hermann
Max Steiner
Franz Waxman
Angelo Badalamenti
John Barry

- Walter.

[Jim_K]

Some favorites already mentioned

Bernard Herrmann
Ennio Morricone
John Williams
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Elmer Bernstein
John Barry
Jerry Goldsmith
Danny Elfman


and some favorites not previously mentioned

Akira Ifukube
Basil Poledouris

[Justin Doring]

My list of favorite film composers is fairly predictable:

John Barry
Elmer Bernstein
Bruce Broughton
Patrick Doyle
Jerry Goldsmith
Bernard Herrmann
Maurice Jarre
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Jerome Moross
Ennio Morricone
Alfred Newman
Alex North
Basil Poledouris
Miklós Rózsa
Max Steiner
Dimitri Tiomkin
Franz Waxman
John Williams

[Pascal A]

Along the same vein as Zbigniew Preisner's work with Krzysztof Kieslowski, I am genuinely impressed by Eleni Karaindrou's work for Theo Angelopoulos' films. I don't know if this makes any sense, but her evocative, melancholic compositions make me "feel deeply". Anyway, she's consider a national treasure of sorts in Greece, and is often referred to as the "The Tenth Muse". I love her work.

Another one is Michael Nyman, particularly his compositions for Patrice Leconte's Monsieur Hire and The Hairdresser's Husband, and also Andrew Niccol's Gattaca.

[Simon_Lepine]

I like all the usual suspects like Herrmann, Morricone et the others mentioned in this thread, just wanted to add some horror composers I like, namely John Carpenter and Goblin

[Lew Crippen]

I too like most of the usual suspects. To those already mentioned, I’ll add

Nino Rota