It takes a certain skill to reflect the on-screen action and enhance it with rhythm and melody. You need a commanding knowledge of the emotions music can convey and the instruments with which to convey it.
Here are the Top 10 people who have mastered that ability.
Notable Films: Fight Club
The power of a good soundtrack is to draw the viewer into the feel of the film. The obscure, dark, electronic, driving soundtrack put together by The Dust Brothers for "Fight Club" broke all film music conventions and inexorably brought you into the gutter with the rest of the characters in the movie. This was The Dust Brothers first and, at the time of writing, last foray into movie soundtracks.
Notable Films: Psycho
Composing the music for all the Hitchcock movies from 1955 to 1964, this included the monstrously famous "Psycho" shower scene, with the intense, sharp violins. No doubt one of the most recognisable pieces of film music ever created. Nice one, Bernard!
Notable Films: The Kill Bill series
Not only was he the leader of the Wu-Tang Clan, but after the group ended, he proceeded to move into Film Music, collaborating with Quentin Tarantino on "Kill Bill" - producing all the original music for it. The Cult Hit was so famed for its music that when the words "Original Music by the RZA" came on the screen in the cinema, the audience clapped.
Notable Films: Alien, Rambo, The Omen, Total Recall
Goldsmith has to be one of the most prolific film composers ever, writing literally hundreds of film scores in his lifetime (over 200!) He was a great innovator, using digital effects to compliment the orchestra such as in the score for "Alien".
Notable Films: Signs, The Sixth Sense, Space Jam. The Dark Knight
Howard started his big-budget musical work on the chick-flick "Pretty Woman", going through pretty much every genre film until he found a friend in M. Night Shyamalan, proceeding to score all his suspense-thrillers from "The Sixth Sense" onwards. He is a master at raising the hairs on your neck - just listen to the chilling 3-note motif in "Signs" if you don't believe me.
Notable Films: Toy Story, Monsters Inc, Meet the Parents
I'm sure anyone would smile when hearing the intro music to Toy Story. Randy Newman is everyone's friend. So much so that Family Guy felt the need to parody his film-music style; that's when you know you've made it. After 15 Oscar nominations, he finally got one for his song "If I Didn't Have You" in "Monsters Inc", beginning his speech with "I don't want your pity!" You can't knock his sense of humour!
Notable Films: The Lord of the Rings, The Silence of the Lambs, Se7en
Shore is certainly no stranger to epic and dark scores after creating the soundscapes behind the immense "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. In fact, that was so popular that he toured the world with a symphony orchestra performing the music from it. He's also composed for the opera, making an operatic version of the film "The Fly". I'd love to see the stage costumes for that.
Notable Films: The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Dark Knight
Hans Zimmer has been noted as one of the first film composers to incorporate elements of both orchestral music and electronic into his productions. Whether it's the purely synthesised and sampled soundtrack to "Driving Miss Daisy" or the sweeping scores of "The Lion King" and "Pirates of the Caribbean", Hans has always portrayed the film with the right tools for the right job!
Notable Films: Titanic, Braveheart, Avatar
As the co-writer of "My Heart will Go On" from the film "Titanic", James Horner is the composer of some of the most recognisable film music ever. His heavy use of Celtic elements in his music, as well as not shying away from Electronica has made his style distinctive and perfect for epic films such as the previously mentioned "Titanic", the massive "Braveheart" and the biggest selling film of all time, "Avatar" (surpassing the previous biggest selling film of all time - "Titanic"!)
Notable Films: Star Wars, Superman, E.T., Jurassic Park, Jaws, Harry Potter
It is positively scary to see the back catalogue of John Williams. He is behind almost every memorable film score in recent times. It is possibly his ability to work with great film-makers such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who understand the importance of music, combined with his love for the leitmotif - essentially the part of the music that you remember and find yourself humming while you're leaving the cinema.
Undoubtedly the greatest film composer of all time; perhaps one of the greatest composers in history. Who else can boast such a variety of music that can evoke such a range of emotions? As a wise YouTuber once said: John Williams is the man.
