Alan Lynn wrote:

>I think I should expand my soundtrack collection...  Who are the best film
>composers? What are the best film scores?

Best film composers...the ones you like.

I like Goldsmith, Rozsa, Korngold, Herrmann, Rosenman, Raksin, North,
Waxman, etc.

Best film scores...the ones I like, many of which were written by composers
known primarily for their concert music: Planet of the Apes; List of
Adrian Messenger; Total Recall; The Rambo movies; etc.  all by Goldsmith.
Most anything written by Rozsa, especially The Power (which quotes his
Piano Concerto); The Lost Weekend; The Thief of Baghdad, etc.  Anything by
Herrmann.  The Cobweb; Edge of the City by Rosenman.  Bernstein's On the
Waterfront; Copland's Something Wild (much of which can be heard in his
Music for a Great City); The Red Pony; Of Mice and Men...many of the
Honegger scores are quite fine.  Things to Come by Bliss still holds my
attention.  Others...Scott of the Antarctic; Costal Command; The Flemish
Farm all by Vaughan Williams; Escape Me Never; Spitfire; by Walton;
Alexander Nevsky; Lieutenant Kije and Alexander Nevsky by Prokofiev; The
Big Country by Moross; Witches of Eastwick; Superman; Close Encounters;
Images by Williams; Ran by Takemitsu; The Humanoid by Morricone...

There are also many wonderful scores by Shostakovich.  There are also many
urecorded scores I would love to hear by Toch, Ginastera, Copland, Tansman,
Still, Searle, Rathaus, Kubik, Khachaturian, Gruenberg, Eisler, Antheil and
Auric that I would love to hear.

Karl