Yesterday, I wrote about the many film scores that stood out to me from childhood through high school and college up through 1990 (just to round of the decade).  Now a few scores that made me take notice at the time from 1991 through the this year to make the arch complete (with less prose towards the last few years).

In 1991, some friends dragged me to see the new Star Trek movie (they were up to #6).  I was not much of a Trek fan (hence the lack of Goldsmith’s music being listed in yesterday’s column for this series).  But Cliff Eidelman’s score for this outing really made me take notice.  Maybe it was its similarities to Holst’s “The Planets” but it was the first time in a long time that I made an effort to find a score and felt less guilty about it (as opposed to increasing my classical collection).  Then there was Doyle’s music for Branagh’s film noir revisit, Dead Again.  I loved this music and had yet to realize its actually updating of Bernard Herrmann’s music.  When I was drug to see The Prince of Tides I sat irritated by a score that made me wonder why it tried so hard to be like John Williams’ music.  Of course, now, I love this gorgeous piece by James Newton Howard.  Finally, I returned to my score purchases (the only other score I purchased that year) with Hook one of my favorite Williams scores.  I must have played this CD to death for years after, almost as much perhaps as my Star Wars and Raiders LPs.

In 1992, Disney’s Aladdin reminded us all how good an animated film could be and the next few years, as I began to pay attention again to the Oscar film music category, it would drive me nuts that these scores would win over other ones.  But Alan Menken’s score here is near perfect and still wears its age like many another Disney score.  The other film whose score was most effective that year was Elliot Goldenthal’s music for Alien3.  I ended up moving before I bought this CD, but it was on my radar.  This was the first Goldenthal CD that really made me add yet another favorite to my list (so that’s Doyle, Elfman, and Goldenthal, plus Williams so far if you are keeping track).

1993 was a transition year of moving and settling in to life.  But Doyle’s delightful music for Much Ado About Nothing found its way into my CD player and remains a personal favorite.  Williams had an amazing year with two scores that also became favorites, each drastically different than the other.  Of course, there was first Jurassic Park with its great action music and main theme.  But nothing compared to the heartbreakingly amazing music for Schindler’s List –a score that would bring tears to my eyes for long after the images had passed.

It was about this time that I began to take a cursory notice in film music.  Maybe my classical collection was just pretty much “full” with minor holes.  There were three scores that stood out to me though in 1994.  The first was David Arnold’s music for Stargate.  I actually hung out in the theater to hear the entire end credit run just to see who wrote the music and to enjoy it in surround sound.  It made the slowly growing film score section in my library.  Goldsmith’s fun score to The Shadow also led me to start looking for some of his other music.  (It’s kind of funny that I came around to hear this great film composer from some of his lesser material!)  Though it was a while before I actually bought the score CD, I remember thinking that Thomas Newman was also a composer worth watching for when The Shawshank Redemption came to a close.  What a great score mixing non-traditional and traditional elements. 

I know Braveheart was the big picture of 1995, but it just didn’t do anything for me and neither did its music.  For me the interesting period film was Rob Roy, and I still like it.  It was the first Carter Burwell score that caught my attention and is another of those well-played CDs in my collection.  I caught Maurice Jarre’s score to A Walk in the Clouds while viewing the film on cable and fell in love with it as well.  It took a long time for me to find this in a used bin but the wait was worth it.  Sabrina, another Williams score, I picked up in a cut-out store having never seen the movie.  This is a gorgeous score with two fantastic thematic ideas (even 2 great little songs).  And I realized that maybe I should think about exploring the stuff I had missed a lot more.

I moved again in 1996 but caught a number of great films that year on cable that I missed in the process.  Of course, Arnold’s return in Independence Day confirmed that I had another composer’s music to add to my favorites list for sure.  Marco Beltrami’s “Sydney’s Theme” from Scream also caught my attention but I didn’t think much of the rest at the time.  Randy Edelman’s gorgeous music for Dragonheart is another recent personal favorite and David Newman’s score for the uneven adventure film, The Phantom, had me heading immediately to the CD store for a copy.  I also began acquiring Elfman & Goldsmith scores whenever I saw them.  The surprise for me though was Williams’ music for Rosewood which was a different sound than I had expected in places with some great choral music.

My ears now fully ready to experience film music more fully, I enjoyed 1997 immensely.  There were some great scores that year.  Arnold’s Tomorrow Never Dies was my favorite drive CD, especially in rush hour traffic.  I literally went from the theater to the CD store to buy a copy of Beltrami’s music for Mimic (a personal favorite of mine to this day) as well as for Sphere (Goldenthal) which was a somewhat disappointing film but has a great score.  Goldsmith’s music for The Edge really struck a chord with me more than his other work that year and found its way into my car a lot on the drive to work.  Alan Silvestri’s music for Mousehunt was also great fun (loved that bassoon part, especially as a bassoonist!).  John Williams wrote three amazing scores revisiting The Lost World and providing a wonderful choral piece for Amistad.  But it was the richly-scored Seven Years in Tibet which I returned to time and again.  Finally, Chris Young’s score for The Man Who Knew Too Little is my favorite guilty pleasure score of the year.

I began writing for a couple of Film Music magazines in 1998 and continued to expand my own appreciation and awareness of this genre.  I found myself thoroughly enjoying Shaun Davey’s delightful Celtic-tinged music for Waking Ned Devine.  Ennio Morricone entered my music collection through the wonderful The Legend of 1900—I think the scene where 1900 plays an improvised piano piece to be one of the best pieces of music to picture ever.  Trevor Jones fantastic score for Dark City was another of those pieces that is underrepresented on CD.  I argued with my website colleague about the merits of Stephen Warbeck’s Shakespeare in Love.  I said it would win the Oscar for best music way before anyone else thought it would.  It began at least a 5-6 year run of being dead on in picking the 5 scores picked by the Academy for recognition this year.  Saving Private Ryan was a devastatingly powerful film, and Williams’ score was superb staying with an approach he used somewhat in Midway years earlier.  The Prince of Egypt also has a great sequence with music and imagery that occurs when Moses stretches out his hand over the Red Sea and the waters are pulled up to flourishing French horns.  Wow what a great musical moment.  The songs were not as good seeming to trail off too much just when you wanted them to grow. 

1999 was filled with anticipation for The Phantom Menace and we all know how that ended up.  But Williams music was a great listen on CD.  Don Davis’ music for The Matrix was among the CDs though that most struck me due to its inclusion and expansion of minimalist tendencies into the fabric of the score.   Rachel Portman’s gorgeous music for The Cider House Rules caused me to seek out her other music.  But Howard’s music for The Sixth Sense was the score that made me rethink his talent and led to a few runs to used CD stores to pick up some of his other music. 

Being a reviewer means that you get some music most people will never probably hear.  Sometimes that’s too bad because you’d miss out on some great music.  It’s worth trudging through the drech in case you find a jewel.  In 2000 I received a pile of Spanish film score CDs.  It was a big challenge, but the article that resulted still gets a few email inquiries to this day.  It was my first exposure to Roque Banos in his score for Obra Maestra that hints at the Golden Age of Hollywood and features a great waltz theme.  I have heard nothing by Angel Illarremendi since, but his score for Yoyes I believe to be one of the best scores of this year.  Chicken Run was a score so full of fun and inventiveness that so perfectly matched its film that it also made it into the drive time often that year.  It’s a lot of fun. 

By this century, I had tons of new music.  It was sometimes hard to keep up with my own musical interests between reviewing music and exploring 50 years of film music I had missed.  I’ve written about my favorite scores since then in other forums.  2001 though had several great film scores that are worth looking at if you are interested. 

Blanchard: The Caveman's Valentine

Horner: Iris

Kent: Kate and Leopold

LoDuca: Brotherhood of the Wolf

R. Newman: Monsters, Inc.

Shore: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Williams: A.I.

                 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Maybe I’m just getting too old to revisit these past few years.  But, I think I’ll list my favorites for the next few years since some are still pretty fresh in the minds of many.  These are not my thoughts as to the “best” of the year but really just the CDs I seem to return to the most to hear.  So from 2002:

Bernstein: Far From Heaven

Glass: Naqoyqatsi

Kaczmarek: Unfaithful

Ottman: Eight Legged Freaks

Shore: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Williams: Catch Me If You Can

                 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

                 Minority Report

For 2003:

Charest: The Triplets of Belleville

Debney: Elf

Desplat: Girl with a Pearl Earring

Doyle: Secondhand Lions

Heffes: Touching the Void

Shore: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

For 2004:

Beltrami: Hellboy

Giacchino: The Incredibles

Kaczmarek: Finding Neverland

Suby: The Butterfly Effect

Williams: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

                 The Terminal

Wiseman: Arsene Lupin  

For 2005:

Doyle: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Fenton: Valiant

Gold: Doctor Who—Series One (television score)

Gregson-Williams: Kingdom of Heaven

Kantelinen: Mother of Mine

Ottman: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Rombi: Joyeux Noel

Williams: Revenge of the Sith

                 War of the Worlds

                 Memoirs of a Geisha

                 Munich

For 2006:

Desplat: The Painted Veil

              The Queen

Isham: The Black Dahlia

Navarrete: Pan’s Labyrinth

T. Newman: The Good German

Zimmer: The DaVinci Code

And so far this year, a few scores that continue to be in my listening pile:

Giacchino: Ratatouille

Shire: Zodiac

Zimmer: Pirates of the Caribbean—At World’s End

I've caught up mostly with the pile of CDs for review here.  Lots of traffic on the blog, so thanks to all you peekers out there.

Celebrating a birthday Saturday, and so with that in mind, I decided to list here a few favorite film scores that influenced my musical tastes when I saw the films.  I didn't get to watch Bond films until ABC began regularly scheduling them so much of Barry's music for that series went mostly unnoticed, apart from the Bond theme (Monty Norman's contribution).

If you grew up in the late 1960s and early 1970s your primary film viewing, apart from TV, was whatever old re-issue came to town.  I grew up in North Dakota mostly, so that meant many of the films I saw as a kid were already 10 years old or older.  Disney was focussing mostly on cheap live-action family stuff so there was not much to catch new on a regular basis.  So my list starts a little before my actual birthyear and obviously I was not going to some of these films as a 4-year old!  So I'm going mostly chronological here through about 1990.

 I was a big fan of those old Ray Harryhausen features, primarily The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, but loved Herrmann's music in Jason and the Argonauts (1962).  This style shows up in my own music a lot, I realized years later.

My father loved comedy so it is no surprise that we saw all the Pink Panther films.  Mancini's 1963 score for the title film is still a favorite.  Don Knotts comedies were a staple at kiddie matinees, and my all-time favorite is The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1965) with that wonderful organ theme by Vic Mizzy.  Mizzy's music was a pretty steady diet in a household watching re-runs of The Addams Family and Green Acres!

Musicals were a steady part of our movie watching on TV and in the occasional trip to the Drive-In or theater.  My dad had an LP of The Happiest Millionaire (Sherman Brothers) which I must have played to death.  I don't ever recall seeing the film.  Along with Mary Poppins, this was my most favorite of the Disney musicals.  Bricusse's 1967 score for Doctor Dolittle was also a favorite.  That is one of those "ok" films that still chokes me up because it struck a chord as a kid.  I remember reading all those Dolittle books in elementary school and this annual film made an appearance usually during school vacation breaks insuring its repeated viewing.  Then there was 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  And yes, there is only 1 Willy Wonka and he was played by Gene Wilder.

Planet of the Apes (1968) and its subsequent films were staples of movie-of-the-week on CBS, where I first heard the music of Goldsmith.  I liked the music from Escape from the POA (1971) the most, followed by Rosenman's score, especially those religious sequences with the choral music in Beneath the POA (1970).

Those hilariously bad star-studded Airport films were also a staple.  I guess my parents figured we would never be on a plane so it was ok to watch them crash and burn.  Though I'm sure we heard Alfred Newman's music in various older films replayed on TV, this is the only score I can recall having really been able to experience his music in at all. 

My collecting music habits, inspired by my dad's music business, meant that I was always seeking out new music, mostly classical.  But for some reason I acquired a cheap 8-track tape (!) of Mancini's Oklahoma Crude (1973).  I recently bought a CD of this score, imported from Spain on RCA, and you know, it's not anything spectacular, kind of like Mancini does the Nashville Brass, but it is good fun with a fantastic main title.

1974 was Ape time.  Planet of the Apes became a TV series which I watched (I guess I was one of the 500 who actually saw the series!).  Friends and I had those character dolls from the Ape movies (which I wish I still had somewhere).  And that meant that Lalo Schifrin's theme was a regular in my ears.

Bennett's Murder on the Orient Express also came out that year, though I would pick it up on TV.  I was a big Agatha Christie fan at the time and so this was a great film to see as a young person.  Love that great waltz from this score.

Either my parents were tired of my asking to go to the movies, or they had discovered a cheap babysitting tool.  But I remember going to see 1975's The Hindenburg in the theater where the final crash, completely with a burning man walking towards the camera, haunted my dreams for weeks.  Shire's score was great, and finally is on CD from Intrada.  We also were able to see Midway the following year with a minimal score by John Williams.  King Kong was the big hyped film (no pun intended) in 1976.  I don’t remember much other than the love theme Barry wrote for the film.  It was again, Mancini’s score to Silver Streak which struck the greatest chord with me and which I was overjoyed to finally see released a couple of years ago. 

Then there was 1977.  Most of us who are film score fans point to this as a watershed in their awareness of film music.  This was the year that Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger appeared (surprised you didn’t I) and slugged off to the theater to see this mediocre film with a wonderful score by Roy Budd.  BUT, that summer, a friend of mine invited me over to hear this awesome new orchestra record he bought.  Turned out it was Star Wars.  I was hooked.  I never saw the film in its first-run, only when it was re-issued before The Empire Strikes Back.  But I had the action figures, the action sets, and had memorized that music and overplayed my record hundreds of times by then.  I don’t think my parents had any idea if I owned anything else, to tell you the truth.  I even bought Williams’ LP of Close Encounters which had a hilarious disco version on a bonus 45-sized “extra” disc.

John Williams was my film composer of choice.  I never saw Jaws, but its sequel was good enough for me.  That score LP received more play than other scores by the composer far after it passed from the public eye.  Jaws 2 is my favorite score of this period next to Star Wars.  Superman was fine, but I was not really into the whole superhero thing by this point and the film seemed boring to me as a kid—though I bought the 2 LP set for the music, I rarely played more than the first side of the first LP.   

The Empire Strikes Back (1980) would also find its way into my collection, but received less play than my other Williams discs.  It didn’t strike the chord that made 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark LP the other most played score album of my collection.  That year I also managed to see Ghost Story after having read Straub’s book.  It’s my favorite Sarde score with a great mix of bells and organ.

1982 was the beginning of my move to cassettes.  So, it was that music to E.T. that pretty much played uninterrupted for hours.  Other scores that year that I remember were Trevor Jones’ music for The Dark Crystal, and the scary Goldsmith offering for Poltergeist. 

IMAX began to appear in 1983 and it was here that I first heard Basil Poledouris’ amazing little score for Flyers.  It was released a few years ago on CD and I was able to rediscover and relive those first moments of being wowed by a huge screen.  Never thought I would fly in a plane, so this was the closest I thought I would ever get!  It was also the final chapter year for Star Wars.  Call me crazy but I like the original Return of the Jedi choral entry in the finale (not fond of the Ewok music but love the way the choir enters in—gives me goosebumps every time I hear it).

I graduated in 1984 and that year there were three film scores that stood out to me.  Ghostbusters (not just Ray Parker’s song) was a cool musical approach that I remember going to the store to get only to discover that there was no score LP available.  Varese corrected that a few months ago…YEEHAW.  Lee Holdridge’s music for Splash is also wonderful featuring a great love theme.  And finally, the last really good Williams action score for a while, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, appeared.  The cassette I had was alright but the highlights seemed to be the “Anything Goes” sequence, Short Round’s music, and the “Parade of Slave Children”.  Not much to sustain two sides of listening.

College kept me busier than I had expected.  I was studying hard so film music took a back seat to the many art music discoveries during this time.  There were a few things that caught my ear though.  The first was Danny Elfman’s music for Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.  I think it was the unique sound more than anything.  Mancini’s music for Lifeforce (even in its screwed up re-edited use) also struck me as wonderful and we now can actually hear what he wanted in a 2 disc set I reviewed here earlier this year.

My interest in film music waned a bit during the mid-1980s as orchestral scores took a back seat to pop songs and disco.  I remember hearing Horner’s music in Aliens (1986) and later in Willow (1988), both of which sounded like cheap imitations of John Williams.  But I had hope it would get better.  Elfman’s music struck me again in 1988 when Beetlejuice appeared thus creating a fan for his music and for Tim Burton films.

Three films in 1989 made me rethink that film music was worth my attention.  Patrick Doyle’s score for Henry V made me want to hear more only to discover it was his first effort.  Still played that CD tons and then went out to find William Walton’s music as well for the older Olivier film.  (That’s what being a film music fan means, you end up following tons of tangents only to become a fan of another great composer.)  Elfman’s Batman score was the second film score CD I bought that year and I began to wonder what ever happened to John Williams (though I had been faithfully purchasing his Boston Pops LPs since 1981).  Finally, Horner’s music for Glory just really impressed me, especially the choral work.  (It wouldn’t last for long….lol)

By the following year, I was a devoted Elfman music fan hearing in his music something which only later would remind me of Bernard Herrmann and send me off to collect and rehear his film music.  I sat through Dances with Wolves and while Barry’s score was gorgeous, I just did not get it, though I love to let it wash over me now.  Finally, I thoroughly enjoyed Total Recall and was appalled when the theater cut off the end credit roll before the identity of the film’s music appeared…never went to that theater again and I even wrote to the distributors that this had happened.  But it was the beginning of a rediscovery of the great Jerry Goldsmith’s music.

So there you have it, roughly the first quarter-century of my film music enjoyment.  Tomorrow, I’ll bring you up to today.

While it may seem like random thoughts, I realized that now I need to go relisten to all this great music.  Maybe you will want to to….