100 Greatest Film Scores

Book excerpt: The background music on a film can make or break the audience experience. Imagine the shower scene in Psycho without the shrieking violins or Jaws without the ominous notes thatportend the shark’s attack! Musical accompaniment helps create atmosphere for the viewer, from subtle undertones to compositions that heighten the drama. In 100 Greatest Film Scores, authors Matt Lawson and Laurence E. MacDonald consider the finest music produced for cinema since the development of motion picture sound. Each entry includes background details about the film, biographical information about the composer, a concise analysis of the score, and a summary of the score’s impact both within the film and on cinematic history. Among the many films cited here are iconic scores for The Adventures of Robin Hood, A Beautiful Mind,The Big Country, Chariots of Fire, Citizen Kane, Edward Scissorhands, Fargo, Gonewith the Wind, The Great Escape, Jurassic Park, King Kong, Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter, North by Northwest, On the Waterfront, Out of Africa, The Pink Panther, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Vertigo, and Up. Arranged alphabetically and featuring a photo of each movies, the entries in this volume give the reader insight into how music functions across a wide spectrum of film genres. Representing some of the greatest composers in the history of cinema including Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, John Williams, and Hans Zimmer, 100 Greatest Film Scores will be of interest to fans of movie music everywhere.