Soundtracks and Scores

While working on my Masters I had a course on film score analysis. We looked at scores from the 40’s into the 90’s. The best scores, in my opinion, were from the 50’s through the 60’s. There was a definite stylistic difference among composers of those periods and it’s striking to hear, and see, where many modern film score composers took their ideas from.
 
I have been listening to and collecting soundtracks since I was 8 or 9 years old. The first 2 soundtracks I ever heard were from the LOTR animated movie from 1978 (on 8 track!) and Star Trek The Motion Picture from 1979 on LP.

I have never understood why, but soundtracks somehow touch my deepest emotions/feelings- to the point of bringing me to tears sometimes. While many of the great soundtrack composers have already been listed here, there are a few that are missing that I found rather moving or powerful.

Here's a few I thought of to add to the list. Many of these are older, but some of these were the scores that made them big back in the day.

James Horner- Star Trek Wrath of Khan 1982 and Krull 1983.

Christopher Franke- Babylon 5 TV series 1992-1997. Christopher used to be the keyboardist for Tangerine Dream, who also happened to do the soundtrack for Tenchi the Movie- Tenchi Muyo in Love 1996.

Hans Zimmer- Man of Steel 2013, Inception 2010 , Interstellar 2014. He's already been mentioned, but everything he writes seems to be fantastic.

Shiro Sagisu- Neon Genesis Evangelion 1995 series + 5 later reboot movies.

Daft Punk- Tron Legacy 2010. If you've never heard this before, you'll probably be surprised at an electronic band's first and only soundtrack.

2001: A Space Odyssey, various composers

Toto- Dune (1984)

Johann Johannsson- Arrival 2016

Edward Shearmur- K-Pax 2001

I'm at work currently so these are just the ones I could think of. When I return home I'll look through my collection to see if there are any more that others might find interesting.
 
QuantumLogic said:
I have never understood why, but soundtracks somehow touch my deepest emotions/feelings- to the point of bringing me to tears sometimes. While many of the great soundtrack composers have already been listed here, there are a few that are missing that I found rather moving or powerful.
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I concur, and partly is because of the connection that we make to the stories, and how the music can bring us back to the moments that we first became acquainted with them. O perhaps it's a recognition of the principles that the stories have that resonated with us in some way. I think that the fact that the soundtrack is composed with a purpose in mind, that is then added as part of a whole, that is the music captures scenes and emotions and so on, adds a layer of connectivity that some other music might not have immediately.

QuantumLogic said:
Shiro Sagisu- Neon Genesis Evangelion 1995 series + 5 later reboot movies.
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Yes, this one is great, I personally tend to prefer the original series sound track.

 
And sorry for the double post, and even though this is technically Mozart as its composer, it is also the soundtrack to one of my favorite movies, Amadeus, and the pieces that they selected to score the movie were splendid!

 
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