Can You Hear What I Hear?
I love soundtracks. I’ve been a movie fanatic from a very early age – although these days for various reasons, I hardly ever get to go, sadly. But the music was always something I took a lot of notice of. Who can forget the great composers of the Golden Age of Hollywood? Max Steiner with his magnificent music for Gone with the Wind. Miklos Rosza who did so many epics, although my favorite soundtrack of his is the one for Young Bess. Erich Wolfgang Korngold with his swashbucklers for Errol Flynn – The Sea Hawk soundtrack is symphonic in scope and complexity. Alfred Newman who wrote the swirling romantic music for Anastasia. Wonderful, all of them.
I write to music – it really gets my creative juices going. And because soundtracks summon up such cinematic images in my head, they’re among my favorite choices when I’m working. So here, in no particular order, are my choices for favorite soundtracks:
- The Last of the Mohicans by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman
- Spartacus by Alex North
- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by Bernard Herrmann
- The Mission by Ennio Morricone
- Braveheart by James Horner
- The Big Country by Jerome Moross
- The Magnificent Seven by Elmer Bernstein
- The Piano by Michael Nyman
- The Robe by Alfred Newman
- Gladiator by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard
- Lawrence of Arabia by Maurice Jarre
And sorry, but I couldn’t stop at 11. So these are the backups, depending on how I’m feeling on the day.
- Romeo and Juliet by Nino Rota
- Henry V by Patrick Doyle
- El Cid by Mikos Rosza
- Out of Africa by John Barry