Soundtrack Composers - It's A Knockout (Winner: Howard Shore)

[Corki]

The Band of the Red Hand is taking a short break in its search for our Dream Band after Freddie Mercury of Queen won the Male Vocalist part of the quest, joining Carlos Santana on Guitar, Geddy Lee as the bass player, and Within Temptation's Sharon den Adel as the female vocalist. Instead, for April, we are focusing on Soundtrack music and composers. You managed to nominate eight (8 ) Soundtrack Composers to challenge for the honour of being the Band's and DM's Favourite Soundtrack Composer. And that title falls to composer that wins this "It's A Knockout" contest. It is basically down to you to pick who gets that important position.

 

"It's A Knockout" remains with the longer format this month - and this means there are 16 Soundtrack Composers instead of 8!

 

Also, at the same time, do get involved in the corresponding "It's A Knockout" thread that focuses on pieces of Soundtrack music.

 

 

"It's a Knockout" - Format

For those of you who have not been involved with a "It's A Knockout" thread before, the rules are quite simple. The Band of the Red Hand is DM's travel, music and eating out Social Group, and "It's a Knockout" is a knock out competition to find out the winner of the chosen category (past categories include Micheal Jackson songs, Classical Music, One Hit Wonders). Each day, 2 or 4 Soundtrack Composers will be posted in either 1 or 2 ties, along with links so you can listen to their soundtrack mastery if you do not know it, and all you have to do is post who you think is the Composer of the two in the tie. After a day, the votes will be counted, and the winning composer will progress to the next round, until we only have 1 composer left as the winner at the end of the competition - who will named the Band's and DM's Favourite Soundtrack Composer. It's very simple, so I look forward to seeing you getting involved!

 

So without further a-do, let the competition begin!

[Corki]

RESULTS

 

Round 1

 

1. Thomas Newman lost to John Williams (1-7)

2. Hans Zimmer beat Dario Marianelli (5-3)

3. James Horner lost to Craig Armstrong (3-4)

4. Elmer Bernstein lost to Ennio Morricone (3-4)

5. Zbigniew Preisner lost to David Arnold (2-4)

6. John Carpenter lost to Howard Shore

7. Basil Poledouris beat Max Steiner (3-2)

8. Alan Silvestri beat John Ottman (3-2)

 

2nd Round

 

1. David Arnold lost to Craig Armstrong (3-4)

2. Ennio Morricone lost to Howard Shore (1-5)

3. Basil Poledouris lost to John Williams (1-5)

4. Hans Zimmer beat Alan Silvestri (5-1)

 

Semi-Final

 

1. Howard Shore beat Hans Zimmer (5-4)

2. John Williams beat Craig Armstrong (4-2)

 

3rd/4th Play-off

 

1. Hans Zimmer beat Craig Armstrong (4-1)

 

Final

 

1. Howard Shore beat John Williams

[Corki]

THE CHOSEN COMPOSERS

 

1. Thomas Newman

Newman is an American film score composer. He is one of the most respected and recognised composers for film and has scored over fifty feature films in a career which spans nearly three decades. Despite 10 Academy Award nominations, he is yet to win. Compositions include American Beauty, Little Women, The Shawshank Redemption, Road to Perdition and Finding Nemo.

 

 

2. John Williams

Because Krakalakachkn had already taken Howard Shore, lol. Plus John Williams has some of the best known soundtracks arouns, namely Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter. Those tunes we can never get out of our heads. But not forgetting ET, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Jurassic Park and Munich.

 

 

3. Hans Zimmer

I really dont think this needs any explaination...Gladiator says it all!! in my opinion, possibly the most successful soundtrack of all time!! And Hans Zimmer has quite an impressive list of films that he has composed, including some of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Lion King, The Da Vinci Code, Sherlock Holmes, The Last Samurai and The Dark Knight. The turning point in Zimmer's career was the 1988 film, Rain Man.

 

 

4. Dario Marianelli

Marianelli hails from Italy. He has composed the soundtracks for The Brothers Grimm and Pride & Prejudice. Another film he has composed is Atonement, which won him an Academy Award. Other scores include The Soloist, V for Vendetta and the forthcoming Agora.

 

 

5. James Horner

He has composed most of my favourite soundtrack music, and even though he uses many of the same themes throughout different scores, he is awesome!! Horner is a two-time Academy Award-winner, and has received a total of 10 Oscar nominations. Scores include Avatar, Apollo 13, Titanic, The Mask of Zorro, The Land Before Time and A Beautiful Mind.

 

 

6. Craig Armstrong

Craig Armstrong is a Scottish composer, who also works on orchestral pieces and electronica in addition to film scores. He won a Golden Globe Award for the score to Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!. Other notable films include Romeo+Juliet, Love Actually, Ray and The Incredible Hulk.

 

 

7. Elmer Bernstein

Elmer Bernstein was an American film score composer, who died in 2004. He wrote the theme songs or other music for more than 200 films and TV shows. He received 14 Academy Award nominations, being nominated at least once a decade from the 1950s until the 2000s. His only win came with Thoroughly Modern Millie. Other works included Ghostbusters, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape.

 

 

8. Ennio Morricone

Perhaps the greatest soundtrack composer of all times, definitly the most influental. He has composed and arranged scores for over 500 movies. He is still most famous for his work with Sergio Leone, in movies like A Fistful Of Dollars, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Once Upon A Time In The West, etc. While classicaly trained, and preferring a full orchestra, budget restrictions on his first work with Leone forced him to find other solutions, something that more or less revolutionalised how soundtracks were written. His impact reaches far outside movies, bands/artists like Muse, Erasure, The Orb, Prodigy, Mr. Bungle, Jay Z etc have all used Morricone's work, either through samples or by making covers. Morrissey had him writing the strings for his song Dear God Plesae Help Me.

 

 

9. Zbigniew Preisner

Mostly known for his work with Krzysztof Kieslowski, which resulted in some of the finest and most emotional pieces of music you can find in the film industry. Worth noting is that Preisner is completely autodidact, he learned to write music by sitting at home studying his favourite composers, Paganini and Sibelius being two you can hear clear influences from in his works. His style is quite unique, and far from the hollywood-mainstream.

 

 

10. David Arnold

David Arnold is an English film composer, who also does some TV work, like Little Britain. He won a Grammy Award for Independence Day. Other notable works include 5 James Bond films (Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace) and Stargate.

 

 

11. John Carpenter

John Carpenter is an American film music composer, and is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction. He also directs, screenwrites, produces, edits films. An early project won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Films include Halloween, Dark Star, Vampires and Ghosts of Mars.

 

 

12. Howard Shore

He has composed most of my favourite soundtrack music, and even though he uses many of the same themes throughout different scores, he is awesome!! Shore is a three-time winner of the Academy Award, and has also won two Golden Globe Awards and four Grammy Awards. Of his 40 film scores, Lord of the Rings is the most well known. Other films include The Silence of the Lambs, Mrs. Doubtfire and The Aviator.

 

 

13. Basil Poledouris

He did the soundtracks for plenty of movies, the most famous include: Robocop, The Hunt For The Red October, Conan The Destroyer, Conan The Barbarian, Return To The Blue Lagoon, Flight Of The Intruder and Red Dawn. Poledouris became renowned for his powerfully epic style of orchestral composition (often with choir) and his intricate thematic designs.

 

 

14. Max Steiner

Steiner was a Vienna-born American composer, whose work spanned 5 decades. Famous scores include Gone with the Wind, A Summer Place, the original King Kong, Since You Went Away, The Informer and Casablanca. He had numerous Academy Award nominations, and won 3 times.

 

 

15. Alan Silvestri

Alan Silvestri is an American film score composer and conductor, and is best known for  collaborating with director Robert Zemeckis. He was 21 years old when he started his film/television composing career, and his early style is marked by a strong use of the octatonic scale, as well as an eclectic use of different notes and instruments. Scores include Van Helsing, The Polar Express, Forrest Gump, The Mummy Returns and  Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He has had two Academy Award nominations.

 

 

16. John Ottman

He did the track for Superman Returns, and I absolutely love it. The music he creates portrays emotions accurately and helps put the watcher in to the characters, whether or not they are watching the film. He also did work for Fantastic Four, X-Men 2, and many others. Even more impressive, he also directs and edits screenplays along with writing scores for these films. And as far as I can remember, you can't tall it's the same composer between the different movies!

[Corki]

Round 1, Tie 1

 

 

Thomas Newman

Newman is an American film score composer. He is one of the most respected and recognised composers for film and has scored over fifty feature films in a career which spans nearly three decades. Despite 10 Academy Award nominations, he is yet to win. Compositions include American Beauty, Little Women, The Shawshank Redemption, Road to Perdition and Finding Nemo.

Links:

and

 

vs.

 

 

John Williams

Because Krakalakachkn had already taken Howard Shore, lol. Plus John Williams has some of the best known soundtracks arouns, namely Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter. Those tunes we can never get out of our heads. But not forgetting ET, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, Jurassic Park and Munich

Links:

and

 

 

Voting ends Sunday 18th April 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[Corki]

Round 1, Tie 2

 

 

Hans Zimmer

I really dont think this needs any explaination...Gladiator says it all!! in my opinion, possibly the most successful soundtrack of all time!! And Hans Zimmer has quite an impressive list of films that he has composed, including some of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Lion King, The Da Vinci Code, Sherlock Holmes, The Last Samurai and The Dark Knight. The turning point in Zimmer's career was the 1988 film, Rain Man.

Links:

and

 

vs.

 

 

Dario Marianelli

Marianelli hails from Italy. He has composed the soundtracks for The Brothers Grimm and Pride & Prejudice. Another film he has composed is Atonement, which won him an Academy Award. Other scores include The Soloist, V for Vendetta and the forthcoming Agora.

Links: Dawn from Pride & Prejudice and Evey Reborn from V for Vendetta

 

 

Voting ends Sunday 18th April 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[Corki]

Banders, Please Note:

 

Voting in "It's A Knockout" threads counts towards posting in an activity thread for points gained through the roll call. However, in order for that to qualify, you need to post and vote at least 4 times.

 

Corki

Marshal-General

Social Group Leader

[Corki]

This is now open for voting!

[Jeannaisais]

John Williams and Hans Zimmer

[Amavia]

John Williams and Hans Zimmer!

[Krakalakachkn]

John Williams and Dario Marianelli

 

As much as I love some of Zimmer's work, he recycles too many of his themes and borrows from the best of others (case in point, Pirates of the Caribbean - created by Badelt, made worse by Zimmer.)  I never really listened to any of Marianelli's work before this thread, but he does beautiful work and I really enjoyed it.

[Talya]

John Williams and Hans Zimmer

[Arrandion]

John Williams and Hans Zimmer!

[Majsju]

Williams, Marianelli

[North Star]

newman and zimmer

[Krakalakachkn]

YES! Finally Me and Maj agree

[Corki]

I believe you have agreed at some other point in time as well! ;)

 

I like the couple of pieces by Thomas Newman, but my vote has to go to John Williams.

 

And like Krak, I feel that once you have heard Hans Zimmer once, you have heard him all. And it is for that reason I am voting Dario Marianelli.

[Corki]

After those 8 votes, John Williams eases through by 7 votes to 1. Hans Zimmer had a slightly trickier ride, winning by 5 votes to 3.

 

The third and fourth ties are on the way.

[Corki]

Round 1, Tie 3

 

 

James Horner

He has composed most of my favourite soundtrack music, and even though he uses many of the same themes throughout different scores, he is awesome!! Horner is a two-time Academy Award-winner, and has received a total of 10 Oscar nominations. Scores include Avatar, Apollo 13, Titanic, The Mask of Zorro, The Land Before Time and A Beautiful Mind.

Links: Destruction of Home Tree from Avatar and

 

vs.

 

 

Craig Armstrong

Craig Armstrong is a Scottish composer, who also works on orchestral pieces and electronica in addition to film scores. He won a Golden Globe Award for the score to Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!. Other notable films include Romeo+Juliet, Love Actually, Ray and The Incredible Hulk.

Links:

and World Trade Center Piano Theme from World Trade Center

 

 

Voting ends Tuesday 20th April 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[Corki]

Round 1, Tie 4

 

 

Elmer Bernstein

Elmer Bernstein was an American film score composer, who died in 2004. He wrote the theme songs or other music for more than 200 films and TV shows. He received 14 Academy Award nominations, being nominated at least once a decade from the 1950s until the 2000s. His only win came with Thoroughly Modern Millie. Other works included Ghostbusters, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape.

Links:

and The Great Escape from The Great Escape

 

vs.

 

 

Ennio Morricone

Perhaps the greatest soundtrack composer of all times, definitly the most influental. He has composed and arranged scores for over 500 movies. He is still most famous for his work with Sergio Leone, in movies like A Fistful Of Dollars, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Once Upon A Time In The West, etc. While classicaly trained, and preferring a full orchestra, budget restrictions on his first work with Leone forced him to find other solutions, something that more or less revolutionalised how soundtracks were written. His impact reaches far outside movies, bands/artists like Muse, Erasure, The Orb, Prodigy, Mr. Bungle, Jay Z etc have all used Morricone's work, either through samples or by making covers. Morrissey had him writing the strings for his song Dear God Plesae Help Me.

Links: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Theme from The Good, The Band & The Ugly and

 

 

Voting ends Tuesday 20th April 2010 at 11pm (BST)

[Jeannaisais]

Horner and Berntein

[Majsju]

Armstrong, Morricone.

 

YES! Finally Me and Maj agree

Perhaps you are actually learning something ;D

[Krakalakachkn]

Armstrong, Morricone

 

Or maybe your tastes are evolving past European Rock, or whatever it is you enjoy.

[Corki]

The first tie is easy - Craig Armstrong. That probably means I am going to get castrated by Northie for that vote, but I expect that again in the future!  :P

 

Now, the second tie is much, much tougher. I like both, but I am going to come down on the side of Elmer Bernstein.

[North Star]

James Horner and Ennio Morricone

 

i have one thing to say to you corki: PEASENT! with no taste in music whatsoever.

 

[Corki]

i have one thing to say to you corki: PEASENT! with no taste in music whatsoever.

 

What about those 2 CDs of mine you recently borrowed? :P