john williams – Life in Pixels

I’ve written before about how much I admire the music of films. Not just the soundtracks, but the actual orchestral scores of certain good movies. A film like Star Wars has iconic music that has made the franchise instantly recognisable directly through its sonic vision. On the other hand, Quentin Tarentino’s Pulp Fiction has perhaps one of the best soundtracks to a film ever done – Dick Dale & His Del-Tones’ famous surf-rock guitars straining over the title sequence to the tune of Misirlou contributed significantly to crafting one of the most memorable openings for a film ever.

So I decided to compile here a list of some of my favourite soundtracks and scores to my favourite films. Please share your favourites in the comments, too 🙂

Pulp Fiction

(Dick Dale & His Del-Tones).

Star Wars

John Williams.

Inception

Hans Zimmer.

Slumdog Millionaire

AR Rahman.

The Social Network

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Inglourious Basterds

Ennio Morricone.

Drive

Cliff Martinez.

The Dark Knight Rises

Hans Zimmer.

What’s your favourite? Share it in the comments below!

I’m a big fan of the music behind some of my favourite films. My iPod is always primed to play the original orchestral score of master composer Hans Zimmer, or the emotive, big-stage dramatic strings of John Williams. There’s just something about the music that powers film that is at once emotive, gripping, and immersive.

When studying, I enjoy listening to the calming, mind-engaging (quite literally) sounds from Inception. It just somehow forces me into a contemplative mood. Off this soundtrack, Time, Old Souls, Paradox, Waiting for a Train and Radical Notion stand out. However, every single track is brilliant. Hans Zimmer truly is a genius at eliciting the soul in his compositions.

Then there is the new sounds of composers like Daft Punk, for Tron:Legacy which are really cool to listen to, and on a deeper level, engage you with instruments unconventional for film (in this case, electronic music with computers and synthesizers).

A piece that really showcases how transcending music from film can be, and how iconic it can be of a film, is definitely the Imperial March by John Williams, first heard in Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back. It’s haunting, foreboding and just plain intrepid. Definitely a track with some serious street cred.

There’s so much I could say about the music of film, and perhaps I will write more about it soon, but for now: I’m going to retreat once again into my sonic world of film scores.

Tag: john williams

8 Great Film Soundtracks and Scores