Because I write about film music for a living, you’d think I’d be able to rattle off anecdotes about most any composer and be able to discuss their music in intimate detail. There are some composers I can do that with and many, many more than I cannot. And after recent meetings with new film score friends, it’s obvious just how woefully inadequate my film music knowledge can be at times.
For whatever reason(s), there are numerous film composers I’m unfamiliar with. I own their scores (or at least one) but have either never listened to them or did it so long ago that I’ve completely forgotten them. Here’s a very small, embarrassing sampling of composers I don’t know:
- David Amram
- David Arnold
- Georges Auric
- Klaus Badelt
- Richard Band
- Tyler Bates
- Jeff Beal
- Christophe Beck
- Charles Bernstein
- Howard Blake
- George S. Clinton
- Don Davis
- Ramin Djawadi
- Randy Edelman
- Cliff Eidelman
- Gerald Fried
- John Frizzell
- Rupert Gregson-Williams
- Lee Holdridge
- Steve Jablonsky
- Trevor Jones
- Michael Kamen
- Fred Karlin
- Clint Mansell
- Gil Melle
- Michael Nyman
- John Ottman
- Stu Phillips
- Trevor Rabin
- John Scott
- Theodore Shapiro
- Toru Takemitsu
- Mikis Theodorakis
- Brian Tyler
- Shirley Walker
The above list is by no means complete, which makes it even more embarrassing. Recommendations in the comments section would be greatly appreciated. Let the heckling begin…
