John Towner Williams is an American composer and conductor. In a career that has spanned seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable and critically acclaimed film scores in cinema history. He has a very distinct sound that mixes romanticism, impressionism and atonal music with complex orchestration. He is most known for his collaborations with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and has received numerous accolades including 26 Grammy Awards, five Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. With 54 Academy Award nominations, he is the second-most nominated person, after Walt Disney, and is the oldest Oscar nominee in any category, at 91 years old.
Bernard Herrmann was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in composing for films. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest film composers. Alex Ross writes that "Over four decades, he revolutionized movie scoring by abandoning the illustrative musical techniques that dominated Hollywood in the 1930s and imposing his own peculiar harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary."
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to enhance the dramatic narrative and the emotional impact of the scene in question. Scores are written by one or more composers under the guidance of or in collaboration with the film's director or producer and are then most often performed by an ensemble of musicians – usually including an orchestra or band, instrumental soloists, and choir or vocalists – known as playback singers – and recorded by a sound engineer. The term is less frequently applied to music written for media such as live theatre, television and radio programs, and video games, and said music is typically referred to as either the soundtrack or incidental music.
Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for five films in the Star Trek franchise and three in the Rambo franchise, as well as for films including Logan's Run, Planet of the Apes, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Patton, Papillon, Chinatown, The Omen, Alien, Poltergeist, The Secret of NIMH, Medicine Man, Gremlins, Hoosiers, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Air Force One, L.A. Confidential, Mulan, and The Mummy. He also composed the fanfares accompanying the production logos used by multiple major film studios, and music for the Disney attraction Soarin'.
The Jaws soundtrack is the music composed and conducted by John Williams for Steven Spielberg's 1975 film Jaws. The soundtrack is particularly notable for the 2-note ostinato which represents the shark, a theme so simple that Spielberg initially thought it was a joke by the composer.
Jurassic Park: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the film score to the 1993 Steven Spielberg film of the same name, composed and conducted by John Williams. Alexander Courage and John Neufeld served as orchestrators.
Saving Private Ryan: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album for the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg. The album was produced by composer John Williams and distributed by DreamWorks Records. Recorded in Symphony Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, the scores were performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with two of the ten compositions featuring vocals from the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. The soundtrack runs for just over an hour, while the film itself lasts over two hours.
Kung Fu Panda (Music from the Motion Picture) is the score album to the 2008 film Kung Fu Panda. The album features original score composed by Hans Zimmer and John Powell, and a cover of the classical song "Kung Fu Fighting" performed by CeeLo Green and Jack Black (who also plays Po, the lead character). The album consisted of traditional and orchestral score, infused with Chinese music, where Zimmer visited China to study the traditions and culture. As a process, the score was recorded with mostly Chinese traditional instruments, and the China National Symphony Orchestra also performed the score. The 17-track album was released by Interscope Records on June 3, 2008.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 is a motion picture soundtrack to the 2010 film of the same name, composed and conducted by Alexandre Desplat. The soundtrack was nominated for the 2010 IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for a Fantasy Film and the 2010 Satellite Award for Best Original Score.
Logan: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the score album to the 2017 film of the same name, featuring the Marvel Comics character Wolverine. It is the tenth installment in the X-Men film series and the third and final installment in the Wolverine trilogy following X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and The Wolverine (2013). The film is directed by James Mangold, and featured musical score composed by Marco Beltrami, having previously worked together in the predecessor.
Music from the Motion Picture: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is the soundtrack for the 2011 computer-animated action/adventure film The Adventures of Tintin directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, based on Belgian cartoonist Hergé's comic book series of the same name. The film score is composed by John Williams, which is the first time he had composed the score of a film since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) as well as his first score for an animated film. The score was released on 21 October 2011 by Sony Classical Records. Williams received a nomination for Best Original Score at the 84th Academy Awards for his work in the film.
Lincoln (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score album to the 2012 biographical historical drama film Lincoln, based on the Doris Kearns Goodwin's 2005 biography Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, a semi-biographical novel that covers the final four months of United States President Abraham Lincoln's life. The film is directed by Steven Spielberg, from a screenplay written by Tony Kushner and featured musical score composed by John Williams, Spielberg's frequent collaborator. The orchestral score was recorded at Symphony Center, Chicago by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Chorus. It was released by Sony Classical on November 2, 2012.
War Horse (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score album to the 2011 film of the same name directed by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg's norm collaborator John Williams composed and conducted the score for the film, the second score composed the same year by Williams for Spielberg after The Adventures of Tintin. The score featured a 90-piece orchestra performing the orchestral music and was recorded during March and April 2011. It was released on 21 December 2011 by Sony Classical Records, four days prior to the film's release. The soundtrack was also released in German in February 2012, to accompany with the dubbed release of Gefährten in Germany.
The BFG (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score album for the 2016 film of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg. It featured a musical score composed by Spielberg's regular collaborator John Williams and was released on July 1, 2016 (the same date as the film's release) by Walt Disney Records.
Bridge of Spies (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the Steven Spielberg-directed historical drama film Bridge of Spies, released by Hollywood Records, alongside the film on October 16, 2015. It is the second Spielberg film not to be scored by John Williams after The Color Purple (1985). The film was scored by Thomas Newman, who replaced Williams in March 2015, due to health complications. The score was critically acclaimed and received nominations for Academy Award for Best Original Score and BAFTA Award for Best Film Music in 2016.
The Post (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score album to the 2017 film of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg. The film's musical score is composed by Spielberg's regular collaborator John Williams, in his twenty-eighth collaboration with the director, and is a combination of traditional instrumentation and orchestration. The album was released digitally by Sony Classical Records on December 22, 2017, and was released in CDs on January 12, 2018, coinciding with the film's limited and wide theatrical release in the United States. The album received positive reviews and earned several nominations at award ceremonies, including Critics' Choice Movie Award and Golden Globe Award for "Best Original Score".
The Iron Giant is the 1999 animated science fiction film directed by Brad Bird for Warner Bros. Feature Animation. The film featured original score composed by Michael Kamen, in his first and only collaboration with Bird, as all his future films were scored by Michael Giacchino beginning with The Incredibles (2004). The score featured additional performance from the Czech Philharmonic symphony orchestra at Prague, conducted by Kamen himself and recording of the score happened within one week.
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is the soundtrack album to the 2012 film Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, the third instalment in the Madagascar franchise. The album was released on June 5, 2012 by Interscope Records, and featured original songs and score, produced by Hans Zimmer, who worked on the franchise's previous instalments. The album featured popular dance singles, accompanying few original songs written specially for the film.
Rise of the Guardians: Music From The Motion Picture is the score album to the 2012 of the same name, composed by Alexandre Desplat. The film marked Desplat's maiden score for a computer-animated film as well as his DreamWorks' film, not to be scored by either Hans Zimmer or his Remote Control Productions family of composers. The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and AIR Studios in London and features collaborations with London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices performing. In addition to Desplat's score, an original song "Still Dream" written by David Lindsay-Abaire and performed by soprano singer Renée Fleming, was featured in the film's end credits. Both Desplat's score and Fleming's original song was included in the film's score album, released by Varèse Sarabande on November 13, 2012 and received positive response praising Desplat's compositions.
Inside Man (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2006 film Inside Man directed by Spike Lee. The soundtrack featured several themes from the film score composed by Terence Blanchard, Lee's regular collaborator and the track "Chaiyya Chaiyya Bollywood Joint", which is a remixed version of the song "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from the Hindi film Dil Se.. (1998). This song is played in the opening credits of the film, while its remix (performed by Panjabi MC) is appeared in the end credits. It was first released in physical formats on March 21, 2006 by Varèse Sarabande. Most of the themes featured in the film consisted of a old-school rhythm and blues flavor, which was to match Denzel Washington's career.
