| When an audience watches a movie at the theater | | | | and won awards for are impressive. Titles like |
| much of the attention is on the characters playing | | | | "Doctor Zhivago", "Lawrence of Arabia" (Jarre), "The |
| the parts, on the story line, and on the movie setting. | | | | Man With the Golden Arm", "The Magnificent Seven" |
| Many times the music that accompanies the actions | | | | (Bernstein), "Ben Hur", "El Cid" (Rozsa), "The Good, |
| on the screen is heard but does not command the | | | | the Bad and the Ugly", "The Untouchables" |
| attention as the movie's visual elements do. Yet | | | | (Marricone), "High Noon", and "The Guns of |
| cinematic music composers make valuable | | | | Navarone" (Tiomkin). |
| contributions to the overall cathartic feeling movies | | | | If the names of modern cinematic music composers |
| generate. A movie's music is one of the things a | | | | are fairly well known, their music is even more so. |
| viewer will remember long after the movie is over. If | | | | One of the best known of these composers is John |
| you do not believe that, try humming the theme to | | | | Williams. His amazing career in music includes five |
| "The Pink Panther" or "Star Wars". | | | | Oscars, twenty Grammys, and four Golden Globes |
| An early film music composer from the Golden Age | | | | among other awards. You may have heard some of |
| of Hollywood was Victor Young. The great movie | | | | his music. His film scores include "Fiddler on the Roof", |
| director Cecil B. DeMille utilized Young's scores in many | | | | "Jaws", the "Star Wars" movies, "Close Encounters of |
| of his movies including "The Greatest Show on Earth". | | | | the Third Kind", the "Indiana Jones" series, "Jurassic |
| It was Young's score for the 1956 movie "Around | | | | Park", "Superman", "Home Alone", "Schindler's List", |
| the World in Eighty Days" that won a posthumous | | | | "Saving Private Ryan", the "Harry Potter" series, |
| Oscar for him. | | | | "Memoirs of a Geisha", and "Munich", among many |
| In the late 50's and early 60's, movie theme music | | | | others. |
| gained popularity and the names of cinematic music | | | | James Newton Howard may not be a household |
| composers became widely known. Ernest Gold wrote | | | | name like John Williams but his film music credits are |
| the music for the 1961 movie "Exodus", and the | | | | notable. He penned the scores for "The Prince of |
| theme ascended the music charts that year. Henry | | | | Tides", "The Fugitive", "King Kong", "The Village", |
| Mancini wrote the theme for "The Pink Panther", a | | | | "Batman Begins", and "The Dark Knight". The two |
| score nominated for an Academy Award in 1964. He | | | | Batman scores were co-written with Hans Zimmer, |
| also wrote the Academy award-winning score for | | | | another cinematic music composer with many credits |
| 1961's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" from which the song | | | | including the "Pirates of the Caribbean" scores, "The |
| "Moon River" came. | | | | Prince of Egypt", and "The Lion King". |
| Other notable composers of movie music from that | | | | The next time you watch a movie and find yourself |
| time include Maurice Jarre, Elmer Bernstein, Miklos | | | | remembering the music long afterward, take note of |
| Rozsa, Ennio Marricone, and Dimitri Tiomkin. The | | | | the composer. |
| movies to which they contributed, were nominated, | | | | |