Marky B

For you Kelp

http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/ge...ng-titles.html

Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

TimR

William Walton - Went the Day Well

Allan Gray - A Canterbury Tale

Richard Rodney Bennett - Nicholas and Alexandra - a CD that is difficult to find, if it exists

Peter Greenhill

Favourite British composer is John Barry by a mile. Tremendous film scoring over a 40 year period.

Five to try if you're not familiar with his work:

Dances With Wolves -rich diversity of themes, nobody could have done it better!

The Knack- Light, jazzy wonderful

The Ipcress File-Monothematic but what a theme.Lovely jazz arrangements

Goldfinger-The score that was the blueprint for music for the whole series.

The Last Valley-Dramatic beautiful choral work for much underrated Michael Caine movie set in the Dark Ages.

Enjoy

thatllbetheday

Absolutely. The Zulu theme always stirs my blood

If I could find a place that makes me feel like Tiffany's

Steve Crook

It's that "Men of Harlech" (Rhyfelgyrch Gwŷr Harlech) that does it

Did you know that they added the verse about "Can't you see their spear points gleaming" for the film? There were actually quite a few versions with different lyrics, but the same sentiment, even before the film

Steve

darrenburnfan

I have the original Stereo soundtrack LP from 1971 on the Bell label. A wonderful score.

Peter Greenhill

A bootleg CD of this score was released a few years a go. It was an LP transfer.

Clearly deserves an official release.

mesaman

I wish to introduce myself and reply to this thread at the same time. I am a retired (as of 1/2009) clinical psychologist/college professor and a very marginally talented musician but very talented listener. I have tons of opera, Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian, Puccini, and Mahler. But to the thread.
Good grief! British only? I would have to agree with John Barry, Ralph Vaughn Williams, and one whose name has slipped by me (a senior moment). He wrote scores for historically important films and also wrote many classical pieces, and one of my oldest and long time favorites Richard Addinsell "Warsaw Concerto". I must break ranks, however and mention Ennio Morricone, who is my all world pick, and probably John Williams; he was so versatile, compare "Hook", "Star Wars", "Far and Away", just for starters. And Elmer Bernstein, especially "To Kill a Mockingbird" and his scores for John Wayne movies, in particular the absolute genius of "The Shootist", which seemed to be coded to Wayne's last picture. Then there is Myers "Cavatina" from the Deer hunter, Dave Grusin, and Lalo Schifrin for "Bad Medicine". Maybe I should stop here and hope for feedback.

wagner1966

Malcolm Arnold (suprised at the lack of calls for Malc so far)
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Michael Nyman
Little bit biased on this one as the top two are also my favourite composers anyway.

Ben

Freddy

As with others Michael Nyman, Vaughn Williams and John Barry, however one which has escaped attention is Howard Blake who not only composed The Snowman, but was responsible for

Riddle of The Sands



and also the wonderfully haunting The Duellists



Short pieces of his music such as the above and others can be heard on his website

Howard Blake Film & TV Scores - English Composer of The Snowman, Lifecycle, Benedictus and many other musical works

Regards

Freddy

Marky B

Welcome to the forum,Mesaman,and a good broad canvas for your opening post.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

Film Man

Does no one consider Ron Goodwin a top composer? Ron wrote some of the best British Film scores...Murder Most Foul...Mag Men/Flying Machines...The Trap...Frenzy...Where Eagles Dare...633 Squadron...most of The Battle Of Britain...etc. He was a gentleman of the first order, sadly not with us anymore. Poor Ron seems to have been dismissed as has Malcolm Arnold another genius!!!!
Film Man.

john mansell

john barry, john addison, pat doyle, george fenton. plus james bernard, harry robinson and paul ferris his witchfinder general is a stunning masterpiece

Dr. Schreck

This all has to do a lot with personal tastes, of course.

I do not include Bernard Herrmann, nor Miklos Rosza - both wrote mervellous scores for British movies, but weren't British, of course (Hermann's my all-time fave).

James Bernard simply was the composer for anything creepy to me, although he was fairly good at anything. His Dracula theme might be one of only three genre themes immediately recognised by everyone - the other two being Herrmann's Psycho and Williams' Jaws.

George Fenton 's scores for Shadowlands, High Spirits, 84 Charing Cross Road, The Company of Wolves are no less than marvellous.

John Scott - nobody mentioned him yet, to my amazement. Originally a jazz saxophonist he often was a session musician to both John Barry and Henry Mancini on the scoring of movies like Goldfinger or The Pink Panther before he turned composer with A Study in Terror. Shergar, to me, is one of the most beautiful scores ever. His music even could lift crap like the Ben Cross 20000 Leagues under the Sea or The People that Time Forgot. Greystoke (for which he won an Oscar), The Shooting Party, Witchcraft, Anthony and Cleopatra ...

Clifton Parker for Night of the Demon, William Walton for Richard III, Vaughan Williams for Scott of the Antarctic, Humphrey Searle for the creepy The Haunting and The Abominable Snowman, Michael Lewis for Theatre of Blood and The Hound of the Baskervilles, Philip Sainton for his only piece of film music, Moby Dick, Elizabeth Lutyens for some of the weirdest scores ever ... I guess I could rave on, but these just came to my mind.

"I swore then that they would never be rid of me!"

darrenburnfan

I agree, Ron Goodwin wrote some superb scores, as did Malcolm Arnold. I think "genius" is an appropriate word to apply to both of them.