Requiem Aeternam

It feels like time for another top ten list. I like movie soundtracks because of their accessible and emotive qualities, and a lot of the CDs I own are soundtracks. I looked up several lists of best soundtracks, such as Entertainment Weekly’s top 100, and realized that most of their picks I had never heard at all, so my list is relatively unaffected by other lists. This was still a hard list to make because, well, I like a lot of soundtracks.

*disclaimer* I have not actually seen all of the movies the soundtracks I mention come from. Some of them may not be suitable for everyone.

10. Gettysburg (Lala) by Randy Edelman

This is somewhat of a sentimental choice. Filmtracks lists Gettysburg as the third most overrated soundtrack of the 90s, but I like the music anyhow. It was the first movie soundtrack that I owned and one that’s been played many times. “Fife and Gun” is probably the song people hear the most, but my favorite is “Over the Fence.” The slow melancholy version of “Dixie” is a nice twist on the normally upbeat Southern song.

9.Master and Commander (Lala) by Iva Davies/Christopher Gordon/Richard Tognetti

I’m not entirely certain I should put Master and Commander on this list. I love listening to the soundtrack, but by far the best parts come from the classical and traditional music included instead of original film score music. I think the combination of relaxing beautiful classical music with the more tense original music gives the soundtrack a good sense of balance, but, with apologies to Davies, Gordon, and, Tognetti, they just can’t compete with the Bach, Vaughn Williams, Mozart, and music from other classical greats on the CD.

8. Edward Scissorhands (Lala) by Danny Elfman

The soundtrack to this gothic fairytale contains some of the most beautiful music you’ll hear on a soundtrack. The children’s choir music can be especially heartbreaking. I like how the love theme never resolves; “Elfman always ends the theme (and cue) on a longing note, never returning to its grounding key and thus drawing out the score’s tragic intent even further.” In “The Grand Finale,” the theme simply fades away. I don’t think Elfman has the technical skill of John Williams or some others (though I’m not really a music expert), but this soundtrack is certainly worth listening to.

7. A.I. by John Williams

The movie was weird and at times disturbing, but the soundtrack is haunting (in a good way). Williams borrows some minimalistic elements and does so quite well, resulting in passages that sound like something Philip Glass might write when he decides to write agreeable music rather than dizzyingly fast repetitions. The “For Always” song and theme lends a needed lyrical presence to the soundtrack as well. The only thing I really complain about is the techno-ish portions of “The Moon Rising” (I’m not really a big fan of the Josh Groban inclusion at the end either).

6. Schindler’s List (Lala) by John Williams

There’s not really much I can say about this outside of what the filmtracks review says. It’s an old favorite of mine driven by simple but beautiful themes. Appropriately for the movie’s subject matter, the soundtrack lacks any real heroic or triumphant music. This lack of real climatic sections probably makes me less likely to listen to the CD than otherwise, but this is still John Williams at the top of his game.

5. Kingdom of Heaven (Lala) by Harry Gregson-Williams

While Gladiator almost made this list on the strength of “Am I not Merciful” alone, Gregson-Williams’ soundtrack to a violent medieval movie is stronger and more interesting throughout. The soundtrack opens with a great medieval feel as a choir introduces the movie’s main theme. The soundtrack continues by blending medieval and Middle Eastern sounding themes with exciting action cues (that don’t rely on synthesized sound or plagiarism). It’s hard to put this above Gregson-Williams’ soundtracks for the Narnia movies, but I think overall it’s slightly better.

4. Star Wars by John Williams

Perhaps the most iconic film music in existence, from the original trilogy to the prequels, this is my favorite John Williams music. I’m not as familiar with the original trilogy’s music on CD form–I’ve only heard it in the films themselves–but from the imperial march to the lightsaber duel music at the end of Return of the Jedi, Williams produces legendary material. My favorite Star Wars musical moments are the dramatic choral pieces like the “Duel of the Fates” in The Phantom Menace, the aforementioned Return of the Jedi music, and much of the music in The Revenge of the Sith. If you can get past the corresponding film cheesiness, the love theme from Attack of the Clones is great music too. Overall Star Wars has just about perfect mix of fun, serious, and emotional music.

(I’m giving all the Star Wars soundtracks (and one other set) one spot because otherwise they’d take up most of the top ten list by themselves).

3. The Village (Lala) by James Newton Howard

After a rough day at work I love to get some tea or coffee and sit down, put headphones on, and listen to “The Gravel Road,” which may be my favorite single song from a soundtrack. The combination of strings and piano “that literally blow in the wind and swell and sway from bar to bar” in the main theme melts stress away. Tense moments occur occasionally in the soundtrack, but overall the soundtrack shares much more in common with the movie’s visual and emotional beauty than with the sense of suspense and fear. Oh, and did I mention the violinist is Hillary Hahn?

2. Lord of the Rings by Howard Shore

Shore brings Middle Earth alive with his fresh themes and orchestration. I like the Rohirrim theme best, but all of the themes are good. The Two Towers with the most frequent use of the Rohirrim theme, the Helm’s Deep music, and “Samwise the Brave” is my favorite CD, followed by the Fellowship of the Ring with “Of Hobbits” and “The Breaking of the Fellowship.” Overall, The Return of the King sits slightly below the others in my rankings, but it contains some great individual songs like “Twilight and Shadow” and Billy Boyd’s song at the end of “The Steward of Gondor.” At first, I didn’t like “Into the West” because the style seemed out of place; I still think that, but the song itself has grown on me.

1. Lady in the Water (Lala) by James Newton Howard

The fact that I’m putting this first despite its shortness (not even 45 minutes of film music) and the inclusion of four Bob Dylan covers at the end speaks volumes about what I think of the rest of the music. It’s beautiful like The Village, but with a little more variety and some interesting chord progressions that I can’t get enough of. Listen to “Prologue,” “The Healing,” “The Blue World,” “The Great Eatlon,” and “End Titles” for the best parts. As for the Bob Dylan songs, this version of “The Time They Are A-Changin” is pretty good, but the extra music on the Chronicles of Narnia soundtracks are better. I like this movie itself well enough, but I’d watch it over and over just for the music.

So that’s three for John Williams (seven if you count all the Star Wars films separately), a group of three for Howard Shore, two for John Newton Howard, and a big fat zero for Hans Zimmer? Well I do like Hans Zimmer a lot, but after a while all the bombastic synthesized action cues start to sound alike. I think the best Zimmer soundtrack is Hannibal (Lala) mostly because it’s a bit different from typical Zimmer. The incorporation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is nice, and I love the inclusion of spoken parts performed by Anthony Hopkins. Additionally the last song, Vide Cor Meum, is stunningly beautiful (and ironically not composed by Zimmer) and the ending . . . is brilliant. The soundtrack has plenty of flaws though too. Other Zimmer soundtracks I like include Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Wits End, Thin Red Line, parts of Black Hawk Down, and the two Batman soundtracks, but none of them really stood out enough to make my list.