YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE FILM SCORE ALBUMS!!!

Hi, franz.

Maybe it's funny because I have C. Young's CREATION on CD but it never popped into my mind.
I haven't listened much to CREATION, so that's probably why.
Christopher Young is one composer (amongst many) whose music I collect regularly and I wish I could place THE GIFT into my top 50 albums but there's simply no room for that.

Here's 3 more composers who fell off my top 50, but reside in my top 60: Robert O. Ragland, Andre Previn and Maurice Jarre.
Hope we can chat in more detail about our faves #51 through #100 after the top 50 in this thread are completed ... whichever calendar year that will occur in is Timmer's guess.

I've seen the name of Richter, but never heard his music yet. Thanks for mentioning him, Thor.

As for being 'commercial', I don't recall if THE VILLAGE was successful in any other way than its music.
But if you imply Hollywood mainstream, bear in mind that I have been collecting soundtracks from mainstream movies for a 20+ year period (starting around 1985 and subsiding after 2007).
Even though I have a lot of 'em, most of 'em are not within my personal favorites.

During the past half-dozen years, my interest vears away from albums from new releases and focuses instead on vintage recordings - especially Italian soundtracks. From 2008 onwards, my discs on Piero Piccioni (and quite a number of others) has increased manifold.

Don't think THE VILLAGE was too popular with the critics, though.

If JNH's VILLAGE is a popular soundtrack, that aspect didn't figure into my selection of it.

Kalidor!? Kalidor???


#45 ENNIO MORRICONE - RED SONJA


Hot on the heels of CONAN THE DESTROYER came this turkey from Dino DeLorentis starring the Amazonian nit-wit Brigitte Neilson in the title role and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Kalidor*. I've always loved this score with it's quirky, prancing title theme and wonderfully ethereal choral work for the more 'magical' scenes. I expect I may be alone in my love for this score and favouring it over so many Morricone classics. The album I've chosen here is the 2011 Perseverance release, the old Varese release where the score was presented in the form of two lengthy suites wouldn't have made my list as it contains his score to BLOODLINE which I have little interest in.

*I have no idea why Arnold's character wasn't named Conan. A rights issue perhaps? Does anyone here know?

RED SONJA....certainly didn't expect that on anyone's list. I don't think I've ever seen the film or heard the score, although I've obviously been aware of it for almost three decades.

True! Veritably unmissable like The Last Movie, Last Year In Marienbad or PLan Nine From Outer Space.

Good! Anyone who likes Last Year In Marienbad deserves everything he gets!

There is another Morricone score left in my list, but this time its:

No 45:

Jurassic Park (1993) by John Williams

John Williams has certainly written more complex and more subtle music. But never did he find finer melodies than for this score. It is one of the few occasions that I am aware of, that an instrumental main theme was released as a single.
Anyway, there is also some genius action music in this score. One of the true musical icons that the maestro has crafted. Bold orchestral romp from start to finish, there is awe and wonder, terror, lyricism, whatever you want. I feel like a puppet on strings when Williams manipulates my emotions. Nobody does it better.

Volker

I agree with his pick, but obviously not the placement. FAR, FAR too low!

There have been too many to mention.

Leaving aside such composers as John Barry, Henry Mancini, Ennio Morricone who've had hundreds of instrumental theme releases on singles, I can name ( off the top of my head ) these singles from Williams scores...

Jaws
Star Wars
Superman ( my copy is a picture disc )
E.T. ( a high charting single here in the UK )
Close Encounters

No, but they went the opposite route and did this awesome version.

^ Awsome score and album! When it came out it was played everywhere hereabouts.

#45: THE NIGHTCOMERS (1971) by Jerry Fielding, on Intrada CD (2008).

40 entries ago, my #5 = THE MECHANIC. THE NIGHTCOMERS fittingly serves as a bookend as my final Fielding soundtrack selected for these last numbers of the Top 50.

Both of these titles denote my opinion that Jerry Fielding wrote his most impressive film scores in collaboration with director Michael Winner, who helmed both.

THE NIGHTCOMERS is unique because it is a prequel to Jack Clayton's THE INNOCENTS from a decade earlier: Jerry Fielding wrote for a prequel to a film scored by Georges Auric!

THE NIGHTCOMERS is also very different from THE MECHANIC with respect to harmonic vocabulary.
The majority of THE NIGHTCOMERS' duration is tonal, communicating Olde English countryside pastoralism with outbursts of childhood frivolity.
A brutal undercurrent exists, though, as a S&M relationship develops between the 2 adult protagonists which affects the children and leads to multiple deaths by film's end.

I believe Fielding himself mentioned that the 'waltz' theme which eventually underscores a death scene is 12-note but couched in tonal (and more audience friendly) idioms.

THE NIGHTCOMERS' soundtrack history is an interesting illustration on the evolution of soundtrack collecting.
No album was done when the film was released. By 1977, Tony Thomas produced an LP program with most of this music on a non-commercial pressing. This program content was later re-issued on a Bay Cities CD compilation and finally issued in its most complete form by Intrada as a stand-alone CD.

For me, THE NIGHTCOMERS surpasses the JANE EYRE of John Williams (regarding English pastoralism) and Elmer B.'s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD in terms of musical depiction of childhood.