Vangelis's score makes this truly transcendant. I myself have seen many films and have yet to hear a more beautiful mix of picture and sound as here.
Robbed of an oscar. Better than the year's contenders... better than most scores in film history too. Any other contenders for the title?
I saw the movie only today, and I love it (I like all the historical movies), but the music, the music is totally amazing. But if to be honest, I liked only the main song "1492 conquest of paradise", it's super, I'm still hearing this song in my head :), I downloaded it at ones (from iMesh).
to mr_sboub
well, this is not only soundtrack I liked. Also my favorite music is from Brave Heart, Gladiator and Lord of the Ring (Enya is one of the coolest singer too :P )
Do you have the second CD of the Gladiator score (the "more music from..." one)?
shareListen to the entire 1492(: Conquest...) soundtrack--it contains Vangelis' original ideas. The music in the movie was altered somewhat to fit the editing. It's one of the few CDs out there you can listen to, be moved by it, from beginning to end.
share[deleted]
Wow. What a complete idiot. Have you ever listened to "la folia?" To say that Vangelis borrowed from that song is to say that Paul McCartney borrowed from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony when he wrote "Band on the Run" because they both begin in C. Yes, Vangelis takes folk songs and ritual songs and gets a sense of the culture from them, and yes, "la Folia" is something one gets an echo of when they listen to the main titles of 1492. But is it the same song? Not even close and if you think so, then you have never heard "la folia." In addition, when you add all of Vangelis contributions to the world of music, including soundtracks, and you listen to Voices, To the Unknown Man, Chariots of Fire (the best soundtrack of all), Bladerunner, Alexander, Oceanic, etc., there is no doubt that Vangelis is rightfully recognized as one of the great composers of his time. No doubt, and if you do doubt, just read what music critics, music scholars and fellow musicians have to say. As for you, sir, you are a complete and utter fool.
Well, Conquest of Paradise is my all time favorite movie score not only from Vangelis but from anyone else. However, if you look at <a href="http://www.folias.nl/html5p.html#VAN">here</a>; and also <a href="http://www.folias.nl/html4.html">here</a>; as well, you'd find that Vangelis did base his Conquest of Paradise on La-Folia but so have countless other musicians and composers. Here is the quote from the page:
Unfortunately Vangelis forgot to mention that his theme was based upon the La Folia chord-progression (3/4 time, key of d-minor and chord-progression): all music composed, arranged, produced and performed by Vangelis, to quote the slipcase.
But having heard Hans Zimmer's music for countless no. of times and the fact that he takes too much inspiration from his own music still doesn't dull his career or popularity. As for Vangelis, and said by housejk, might have taken a key or two which doesn't invalidate his credits to this superb piece of music, does it?
[deleted]
best film scores ever IMO
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
3. Braveheart
4. Gone With the Wind
5. La Dolce Vita
6. Mullholand Drive
7. The Lord of the Rings
8. Superman
9. Halloween
10. Jaws
11. Vertigo
12. The Godfather pt. 2
13. Psycho
14. The Wizard Of Oz
15. The Lion King (although the "can't you feel the love tonight" sucks)
16. Blade Runner
17. Taxi Driver
18. Batman (1989)
19. Raiders of the Lost Ark
20. Amelie
21. The Silence of the Lambs
22. The Road Warrior
23. Snow White and the 7 dwarves
24. 1492
25. Rocky
26. Signs
27. Notorious
28. Schindler's List
29. Titanic
30. Citizen Kane
31. Edward Scissorhands
32. Glory
33. E.T.
34. Poltergiest
35. The Exorcist
36. The Graduate
37. John Carpenter's The Thing
38. Eyes Wide Shut
39. North By Northwest
40. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
41. Gladiator
42. Hook
43. Images
44. Memento
45. The Red Violin
46. Catch Me If You Can
47. Road To Perdition
48. The Shining
49. Casablanca
50. 2001
Enjoy.
Looking at your list - have seen almost all of the films listed so I thought it would be an interesting excersie to list only those I could REMEMBER off the top of my head - one marker of a memorable socre, I suppose.
This is not saying I actually like all/any of them (~4 at best)
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
4. Gone With the Wind
7. The Lord of the Rings
10. Jaws
12. The Godfather pt. 2
13. Psycho
14. The Wizard Of Oz
15. The Lion King
19. Raiders of the Lost Ark
23. Snow White and the 7 dwarves
24. 1492
29. Titanic
36. The Graduate
41. Gladiator
49. Casablanca
50. 2001
17/50 - hence I guess I don't agree with your list!, so I tried to come up with some others instead How about:
Lawrence of Arabia
The Mission
The Insider
Saviour
The Magnificent Seven
The Big Country
Brief Encounter (bit of a steal though!)
Alexander Nevsky
Will go off and think of some more!
For me it would go like this...
1) 1492, Conquest of Paradise (Vangelis, 1992)
2) Gladiator (Hans Zimmer [and Lisa Gerrard] 2000)
3) Empire Strikes Back (John Williams 1980)
4) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Howard Shore 2002)
5) The Thin Red Line (Hans Zimmer 1999)
6) Last of the Mohicans (Trevor Jones [and Randy Edelman] 1992)
7) Schindler's List (John Williams 1991)
8) Lawrence of Arabia (Maurice Jarre 1962)
9) Black Hawk Down (Hans Zimmer 2001)
10) Godfather (Nino Rota 1972)
11) Kundun (Philip Glass 1998)
12) Nightmare Before Christmas (Danny Elfman)
13) Last Temptation of Christ (Peter Gabriel)
14) Batman Returns (Danny Elfman)
15) Braveheart (James Horner 1995)
16) The Hours (Philip Glass (2003)
17) Bron on the Fourth of July (John Williams 1991)
18) La Belle et la Bête (Philip Glass opera to the 1946 French classic)
I think all of you are forgetting one of the more beautiful scores: Cinema Paradiso...
And how can you forget the imortal theme from Star Trek?
Amelie is one of the bests... the same as The Miserables.
1: Drowning By Numbers(Michael Nyman)
2: Once Upon A Time In The West (Ennio Morricone)
3: The Good, The Bad, the Ugly (Ennio Morricone)
4: 1492 (Vangelis)
5: Ashes Of Time (Dont Know, Some Chinese Guy)
6: Blade Runner(Esaper Edition)(Vangelis)
7: Once Upon A Time In America (Ennio Morricone)
8: The Last Temptation Of Christ (Peter Gabriel)
9: The Merchant of Venice (Jocelyn Pook)
10: Twin Peaks (Angelo Badalamenti)
11: Road To Perdition (Thomas Newman)
12: The Godfather Part II (Nino Rota)
13: Angels In America (Thomas Newman)
14: Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain (Amelie)(Yann Tiersen)
15: The Thing (Ennio Morricone)
16: Un long dimanche de fiançailles (Angelo Badalamenti)
17: The Mission(Ennio Morricone)
18: Tetsuo: The Iron Man/Body Hammer (Chu Ishikawa)
19: Black Hawk Down (Hans Zimmer)
20: Gladiator (Hans Zimmer)
Honorable Mention:
Crash (Mark Isham)
Amarcord (Nino Rota)
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (Elliot Goldenthal)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)(Maurice Jarre)
The Omen(R.I.P Jerry Goldsmith)
man, a top 50 list of scores and no Requiem For A Dream? Wow. The Kronos Quartet and Mansell set such a haunting mood the entire time.
shareFunny you mentioned 2001. The score comprises of several pieces not originally written for the movie. The one particular piece (which everyone can recognize) is the opening from Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra."
Another movie which uses music from the Classical repertoire, not originally intended for the movie itself (for obvious reasons), is "Amadeus". Glorious Music.
As for 1492, some of the music resembles passages from Stravinski's "Symphony of Psalms", Orff's "Empress of the World: O Fortune" from Carmina Burana (which people often mistake with "The Omen"), and Eric Serra's closing for the movie "The Messenger(...). Powerful Music.
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned "Legend" (the tangerine dream score), it's a pretty amazing piece of music for a fantasy film such as that one.
Also, has anyone noticed that the main theme from the LOTR movies sounds very similar to the 4th movement of Dvorak's "From the New World"?
My list..
Blade Runner
umm...uhh
well that's about it really. Once you have the best why settle for less!
Ok, all i have to say is this. James Horner is the man. He's done most of the soundtracks you guys mention. John Williams is also good. Horner's masterpiece would have to be Glory (1989). I don't think he was even nominated that year, which is a shame. He did go on to win for Titanic though. John Williams Hymn to the Fallen which is in Saving Private Ryan reminds me of all those who have fallen for this country. But the soundtrack to Glory beats out everything else you've listed, except maybe Last of the Mohicans and Road to Perdition.
share[deleted]
I agree. Not even a nomination (although it did get a Golden Globe nomination). Maybe the Academy wasn't looking for an acoustic/electric-mixed score that year, which it was, and probably represents one of the best examples of this type of music ever written.
shareOne of Vangelis' bets scores I'd agree.
I won't go as far as to say it's the best film score ever, but it is in my personal top 20 of all time without a doubt - right up there with Danny Elfman, Elmer Berstein, Alan Silvresti, John Williams and Hans Zimmerman.
-It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we've got half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses...
The soundtrack of Once Upon a Time in America is the best score in film history.
shareI second the motion.
shareCan´t agree more.
shareAnother call for conan the barbarian here..Blade runner..star wars..The omen(just cos it was so chilling sounding)..Grease(haha sorry, i liked it)..basic instinct(sleazy)..lotr..Jaws..Close encounters of the 3rd kind(did john williams ever do a poor soundtrack?)..The goonies(i enjoyed it)..Fistfull of dollars(and the other classic morricone spaghetti westerns).
I like a lot of danny elfman's scores as well.
No this is officially the greatest score ever, and Vangelis' ALEXANDER and BLADE RUNNER are right behind it. I'm not being a biased Vangelis fan or anything, although I am a huge fan of his, I simply find him to be the greatest film composer ever. His music does something that John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith (God bless his heart) have never done... no matter what time period the movie takes place, Vangelis has a way of bringing you in and connecting with the film on a personal bases. It's the reason why he won the ACADEMY AWARD 1981 for CHARIOTS OF FIRE, for it was a film most of us could not connect to due to its subject matter and time period - yet the brilliant score by Vangelis helped modernize it and allowed us to reach deeper in the subject matter.
But without a doubt there is no film score more original, more ambient, more powerful than 1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE.
what about a clockwork orange, or does it have to be original?
share[deleted]
what about the amazing soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in the West? Combination of Italian realism mixed with old western charm this films soundtrack helps the spectator connect with each of the four characters (each having their own theme). And the scenes of the little town matched up in perfect unity with the crasendo and the scene of Monument Valley mached up with a brillient piece that beckons back to the Monument Valley of Ford. Perfecto!
shareWhile Vangelis is an electronic musical genius he is not in the top 5 of composers of all-time. To put it bluntly, he didn't score many films (at least known ones) and of course his most popular ones are from Blade Runner, 1942, Chariots of Fire and recently Alexander. 1492 may very well be his best, especially that magnificent "Conquest of Paradise" theme (track 2 in the OST) which is one of the most recognizable pieces in cinema history.
Top 5 composers of all-time:
1. Ennio Morricone (The "Dollars" Trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Untouchables, Bugsy, Once Upon a Time in America, The Mission, Days of Heaven, Cinema Paradiso and many others)
2. John Williams (The Star Wars Trilogy, The Indiana Jones Trilogy, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Empire of the Sun, The Patriot, AI, Minority Report and others)
3. Max Steiner (Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, The Big Sleep, Key Largo, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Since You Went Away, Now Voyager, Sergeant York, The Letter, Dark Victory, Jezebel, The Informer and many others)
4. Elmer Bernstein (The Man with the Golden Arm, The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Summer and Smoke, To Kill A Mocking Bird, Walk on the Wild Side, Return of the Seven, True Grit, The Age of Innocence, Far from Heaven and others)
5. Jerry Goldsmith (Planet of the Apes, Patton, Chinatown, The Omen, Star Trek Motion Picture series, L.A. Confidential, Papillon, The Wind and the Lion, Aliens Motion Picture series, Poltergeist, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Mulan and others)
Vangelis is most likely a top 10 composer, but then again he isn't really JUST a composer, but rather an artist that basically defined his own electronic sub-genre...
"Top 5 composers of all-time: 1. Ennio Morricone...."(kressl)
LOL! Not heard of Sir Edward Elgar, Sergei Rachmaninov, or Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, et al, then kressl?
I'd say John Williams is, by far, the best living composer and an all-time great, especially for his 'Phantom Menace' score. The trouble with film scores is that most of the tracks are just 'fillers' and too (film) plot relevant.
Two of my favourite pieces are by John Barry, namely, 'I Had a Farm in Africa', and 'The John Dunbar Theme', from 'Out of Africa' and 'Dances With Wolves', respectively. I get snot bubbles just thinking about them . I can't say I feel that way about any of Morricone's work, sadly.
Regarding 1492, can anyone hear 'Light and Shadow' (track 5) in this?: http://mp3.mp3s.ru/perl/url.pl?hy6mC7YGGG5Vc&131953/Gouryella-Tenshi(radio edit).mp3 Some site claimed it was uncredited, but derivative of the Vangelis song. Mmmmmmmm, hardly!
Meatball walks into a restaurant, Manager says, "Sorry, we don't serve fagg*ts."