For more information about film music, visit our Film Music Guide.
If you wish to be generally familiar with film music, below is a short list of composers you should know:
|
Name |
Birth |
Death |
Nationality |
Representative Pieces |
|
| 1922 | 2004 | American | The Magnificent Seven, The Ten Commandments, Airplane!, Cape Fear (1991), Ghostbusters, Three Amigos, Thoroughly Modern Millie | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1953 | American | Beetlejuice, Batman, The Simpsons, Men in Black, Sleepy Hollow, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Big Fish, Spider-Man | CDs DVDs |
||
| 1929 | 2004 | American | The Omen (1976), Star Trek, Gremlins, Planet of the Apes, Chinatown, Alien, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mulan, The Mummy, Total Recall | CDs | |
| 1911 | 1975 | American | Citizen Kane, Psycho, Vertigo, The Birds, The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Taxi Driver, Cape Fear | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1953 | American | Aliens, Braveheart, Titanic, Glory, A Beautiful Mind, Avatar, Troy, Flightplan, Patriot Games, Field of Dreams, The Missing | CDs DVDs |
||
| 1951 | American | Unbreakable, The Fugitive, The Sixth Sense, King Kong (2005), ER, The Dark Knight & Batman Begins (with Hans Zimmer) | DVDs |
||
|
1914 |
2006 |
Japanese |
Godzilla (1954) and many sequels, Destroy All Monsters, The Burmese Harp | ||
| 1924 | 2009 | French | Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, A Passage to India, Witness, Ghost, Dead Poets Society, Fatal Attraction | DVDs |
|
| 1924 | 1994 | American | The Pink Panther, Moon River, Peter Gunn, Hatari!, The Glass Menagerie, The Party | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1928 | Italian | Once Upon a Time in the West, A Fistful of Dollars, The Untouchables, The Mission, The Good The Bad and The Ugly | CDs DVDs |
||
| 1955 | American | WALL-E, The Shawshank Redemption, Finding Nemo, Real Genius, American Beauty, The Lost Boys, Little Women | DVDs |
||
| 1945 | 2006 | American | Conan the Barbarian, The Hunt for Red October, RoboCop, Free Willy, Starship Troopers, Lonesome Dove, Red Dawn | ||
| 1911 | 1979 | Italian | The Godfather, Romeo & Juliet, La dolce vita, other Fellini films | DVDs |
|
| 1907 | 1995 | Hungarian-American | Ben-Hur, Spellbound, A Double Life, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1932 | Argentine | Mission Impossible, The Amityville Horror, Rush Hour, Dirty Harry | CDs DVDs |
||
| 1946 | Canadian | The Lord of the Rings, Silence of the Lambs, Mrs. Doubtfire, Big, The Fly, The Aviator, The Last Mimzy | CDs DVDs |
||
|
1950 |
|
American |
Beowulf, Forrest Gump, Back to the Future, The Polar Express, Van Helsing, Cast Away, The Avengers, Predator | ||
| 1888 | 1971 | Austrian-American | King Kong (1933), Casablanca, The Caine Mutiny, The Informer, Gone with the Wind | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1894 | 1979 | Russian | High Noon, It's a Wonderful Life, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Unforgiven, Town Without Pity, The Guns of Navarone | DVDs |
|
| 1943 | Greek | Blade Runner, Chariots of Fire, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Alexander, Antarctica | |||
| 1906 | 1967 | German-American | Taras Bulba, Rear Window, Suspicion, Rebecca, Bride of Frankenstein, Sunset Boulevard, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1932 | American | Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Schindler's List, Superman, E.T., Catch Me if You Can, Memoirs of a Geisha | CDs DVDs |
||
| 1957 | German | Inception, Batman Begins, Pirates of the Caribbean, Black Hawk Down, The Lone Ranger (2013), Madagascar, Sherlock Holmes (2009) | DVDs |
If you are a student of Music History, Composition, or Film Music, below is a more detailed list of film music composers you should know:
|
Name |
Birth |
Death |
Nationality |
Representative Pieces |
|
| 1933 | 2011 | English | The Lion in Winter, Born Free, Dances with Wolves, James Bond movies, Out of Africa, The Game of Death | ||
| 1922 | 2004 | American | The Magnificent Seven, The Ten Commandments, Airplane!, Cape Fear (1991), Ghostbusters, Three Amigos, Thoroughly Modern Millie | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1945 | American | Tombstone, Lost in Space, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Miracle on 34th Street (1994) | |||
| 1955 | Americna |
Fargo, True Grit (2010), Being John Malkovich, Twilight, The Rookie, No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski |
|||
| 1942 | American | Rocky, The Right Stuff, For Your Eyes Only, The Karate Kid, Private Benjamin | |||
| 1961 | French | The King's Speech, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fantasic Mr. Fox, Argo, The Queen, Zero Dark Thirty | |||
| 1953 | American | Henry V, Shipwrecked, Sense & Sensibility, Hamlet, Thor, Brave, Frankenstein (1994), Dead Again, Bridget Jones's Diary | |||
| 1953 | American | Beetlejuice, Batman, The Simpsons, Men in Black, Sleepy Hollow, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Big Fish, Spider-Man | CDs DVDs |
||
| 1901 | 1981 | American | Casablanca, The Sun Also Rises (1957), An Affair to Remember, The Best Years of our Lives | ||
| 1967 | American | Lost, Up, Star Trek (2009), Ratatouille, The Incredibles | |||
| 1929 | 2004 | American | The Omen (1976), Star Trek, Gremlins, Planet of the Apes, Chinatown, Alien, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mulan, The Mummy, Total Recall | CDs | |
| 1925 | 2003 | British | Frenzy, Where Eagles Dare, Battle of Britain, Force 10 from Navarone, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines | ||
| 1961 | British | Shrek, Kingdom of the Sun, The Chronicles of Narnia, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Chicken Run | DVDs |
||
| 1944 | American | The Way We Were, Ice Castles, The Sting, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Spy Who Loved Me, The Mirror Has Two Faces | CDs | ||
| 1911 | 1975 | American | Citizen Kane, Psycho, Vertigo, The Birds, The Devil and Daniel Webster, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Taxi Driver, Cape Fear | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1950 | Japanese | Spirited Away, Ponyo, Departures, Princess Mononoke | DVDs |
||
| 1953 | American | Aliens, Braveheart, Titanic, Glory, A Beautiful Mind, Avatar, Troy, Flightplan, Patriot Games, Field of Dreams, The Missing | CDs DVDs |
||
| 1951 | American | Unbreakable, The Fugitive, The Sixth Sense, King Kong (2005), ER, The Dark Knight & Batman Begins (with Hans Zimmer) | DVDs |
||
|
1914 |
2006 |
Japanese |
Godzilla (1954) and many sequels, Destroy All Monsters, The Burmese Harp | ||
| 1924 | 2009 | French | Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, A Passage to India, Witness, Ghost, Dead Poets Society, Fatal Attraction | DVDs |
|
| 1953 | Polish | Finding Neverland, The Visitor, The Karamazov Brothers | |||
| 1948 | 2003 | American | Mr. Holland's Opus, Band of Brothers, Lethal Weapon, X-Men, Die Hard, The Iron Giant, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1897 | 1957 | Czech-American | The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Captain Blood | CDs | |
| 1924 | 1994 | American | The Pink Panther, Moon River, Peter Gunn, Hatari!, The Glass Menagerie, The Party | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1928 | Italian | Once Upon a Time in the West, A Fistful of Dollars, The Untouchables, The Mission, The Good The Bad and The Ugly | CDs DVDs |
||
| 1926 | American | Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, The Elephant Man (1980), Clue, Spaceballs, Johnny Dangerously | |||
| 1901 | 1970 | American | South Pacific, How the West Was Won, Camelot (1967), The Song of Bernadette, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Airport | CDs | |
| 1943 | American | Toy Story, Pleasantville, Monsters Inc., The Natural | CDs | ||
| 1955 | American | WALL-E, The Shawshank Redemption, Finding Nemo, Real Genius, American Beauty, The Lost Boys, Little Women | DVDs |
||
| 1910 | 1991 | American | Spartacus, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Good Morning Vietnam, Death of a Salesman, Cleopatra | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1945 | 2006 | American | Conan the Barbarian, The Hunt for Red October, RoboCop, Free Willy, Starship Troopers, Lonesome Dove, Red Dawn | ||
| 1963 | British | Rio, Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, Happy Feet, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Kung Fu Panda, The Lorax, Rat Race, Robots | |||
| 1965 | American | The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lost Highway | |||
| 1924 | 2008 | American | Rebel Without a Cause, Fantastic Voyage, East of Eden, The Lord of the Rings (1978), sequels of Planet of the Apes, RoboCop, Star Trek | ||
| 1911 | 1979 | Italian | The Godfather, Romeo & Juliet, La dolce vita, other Fellini films | DVDs |
|
| 1907 | 1995 | Hungarian-American | Ben-Hur, Spellbound, A Double Life, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1932 | Argentine | Mission Impossible, The Amityville Horror, Rush Hour, Dirty Harry | CDs DVDs |
||
| 1920 | 2012 | Indian | Gandhi, Music and Lyrics, Natural Born Killers, Alice in Wonderland (1966) | CDs | |
| 1946 | Canadian | The Lord of the Rings, Silence of the Lambs, Mrs. Doubtfire, Big, The Fly, The Aviator, The Last Mimzy | CDs DVDs |
||
|
1950 |
|
American |
Beowulf, Forrest Gump, Back to the Future, The Polar Express, Van Helsing, Cast Away, The Avengers, Predator | ||
| 1888 | 1971 | Austrian-American | King Kong (1933), Casablanca, The Caine Mutiny, The Informer, Gone with the Wind, Now Voyager | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1885 | 1949 | American | The Wizard of Oz, The Three Musketeers (1948), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), A Night at the Opera | ||
| 1894 | 1979 | Russian | High Noon, It's a Wonderful Life, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Unforgiven, Town Without Pity, The Guns of Navarone | DVDs |
|
| 1943 | Greek | Blade Runner, Chariots of Fire, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Alexander, Antarctica | |||
| 1906 | 1967 | German-American | Taras Bulba, Rear Window, Suspicion, Rebecca, Bride of Frankenstein, Sunset Boulevard, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) | CDs DVDs |
|
| 1932 | American | Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Schindler's List, Superman, E.T., Catch Me if You Can, Memoirs of a Geisha | CDs DVDs |
||
| 1899 | 1956 | American | Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), The Quiet Man, September Affair, For Whom the Bell Tolls | ||
| 1957 | German | Inception, Batman Begins, Pirates of the Caribbean, Black Hawk Down, The Lone Ranger (2013), Madagascar, Sherlock Holmes (2009) | DVDs |