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Legendary composer John Williams appears to be ready to hang up his baton — at least when it comes to film music. The composer, 90, whose work also extended into TV, having composed various iterations of NBC News‘ “The Mission” theme as well as well-known tracks for the Olympics, is currently working on the latest Indiana Jones film, he told the Associated Press. “I don’t want to be seen as categorically eliminating any activity,” Williams told the AP in an interview. He noted that a “Star Wars” film, another franchise he’s well known for, can take about six months of...

Terrence Malick hasn't always had the easiest time with composers. James Horner had spoken out loudly on multiple occasions about his difficulties during the making of "The New World," and going all the way back to the director's sophomore feature, "Days Of Heaven," the legendary Ennio Morricone admitted it wasn't always an easy process working on that movie.

The soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings film trilogy has been deemed the best of all time, beating John Williams' 1977 Star Wars score into second place.Composer Howard Shore's accompaniment won the Classic FM listeners' accolade for the fifth consecutive year.Hans Zimmer's music to Gladiator, Schindler's List by John Williams and John Barry's soaring Out of Africa score made the top five.

Put six film composers in a room with a bottle of wine and camaraderie is sure to develop quickly. That’s exactly what happened on Dec. 5 at Acabar in Los Angeles when THR’s composer roundtable got underway. While actors, directors and producers routinely get all the filmmaking glory, composers are, as one prominent agent said before the roundtable, the “red- headed stepchild” of Hollywood. Frequently working in isolation, facing punishing deadlines and often tasked with “fixing” problematic material, film composers certainly have their fair share of angst — but they also love to discuss the minutiae of a craft that...

Published on Sep 28, 2012 A selection of some of the best science fiction film themes from the 50's, with audio enhanced using stereo reverb & imaging. Check with the IMDB (www.imdb.com) for composer info for the films THE THING Dimitri TiomkinDAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Bernard herrmannWAR OF THE WORLDS Leith StevensINVADERS FROM MARS Raoul Kraushaar/Mort GlickmanFLIGHT TO MARS Marlin SkilesFORBIDDEN PLANET Louis and Bebe BarronTHIS ISLAND EARTH Herman SteinINVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS Carmen DragonTHE BLACK SCORPION Paul SawtellKRONOS Paul Sawtell/Bert ShefterIT THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE Paul Sawtell/Bert ShefterINVISIBLE INVADERS Paul DunlapDAY THE WORLD ENDED Ronald SteinWORLD...

It's the adventure that made the James Bond series about the music as well as the movie. If there's any doubt of the impact the sound of "Goldfinger" had, and still has, consider that the 1964 classic ranks eighth on Turner Classic Movies' recently issued list of 15 Most Influential Film Soundtracks -- behind "Psycho" and "A Hard Day's Night" but ahead of "The Graduate" and "Saturday Night Fever."

Sunday, January 3rd at 2 PM Pacific / 3 PM Mountain / 4 PM Central / 5 PM Eastern, Classical KUSC presents a rebroadcast of “On Dangerous Ground: A Tribute to Bernard Herrmann.” This two-hour sound portrait of one of cinema’s greatest composers will be hosted by Jon Burlingame, author, USC professor, and a writer on film music for Variety. The program includes rarely heard interviews with Herrmann himself, and excerpts from his concert music as well as dozens of his great film scores, from Citizen Kane to Taxi Driver. Herrmann’s legendary partnership with Alfred Hitchcock will be showcased with...

Sir Malcolm Arnold, the composer, conductor and trumpeter who died on Saturday aged 84, blew like a fresh keen wind through British music when his compositions were first performed in the early 1950s.At a time when critical opinion was becoming restless about Vaughan Williams, Walton and others and was hankering after serialist composers and Schoenberg followers, Arnold’s melodic music, full of diatonic gusto, unafraid of the occasional emotional cliché and standing aloof from “trends”, came as a disconcerting complication. A tendency to underrate him, to regard him as lightweight, began then and was never wholly corrected.When the first of his...

Some of our greatest music has come from film. Hollywood didn't disappoint this year. It gave the Oscar to a wonderful and wholesome song for the whole family to enjoy. The song comes from Hustle & Flow and is entitled "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp." You will just love the lyrics and the music. They have really added something special to our culture. After the lyrics, we have presented a list of the previous winners. You can decide if the *itches and hoes song will be remembered as a great classic along with Days of Wine and Roses,...