This is my all time favorite, it still gives me goosebumps.
This is my current favorite.
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All time, probably this
Or this
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I don’t know if I can pick just one but that’s a great choice. It’s so simple but so beautiful.
My submission will be a cheat - a medley - by my probably favorite musical artist I’ve discovered in the last decade. Cued up to a piece in Tom’s choice
But the whole thing is just bloody brilliant and worth a listen with a good set of headphones. It’s an example of perfect arrangements and voice leading, for the human voice. As far as I can tell, no audible pitch correction either, just well trained singers with great voices. There are so many moments in the whole thing that just send chills down the spine. Very moving stuff.
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All time greatest, and especially important due to how little dialogue is in the film:
Likely my favorite single piece from a (the greatest of all time 
) film:
As for current stuff… unfortunately I think the days of great, elaborate orchestral film scores are kind of a thing of the past. There is no one around like a Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann, Basil Poledouris, etc… but I do love Disasterpeace’s score for It Follows, and this:
which was composed by Mica Levi, and is absolutely the stuff of nightmares in context with the imagery.
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For pure film, all of my choices would be Tarantino or affiliated with Tarantino (like NBK) but most recently, the score in May December is absolutely brilliant. It takes a focused watch of the entire film and some afterthought before it clicks. It’s probably a bad score outside of the film but the way it’s used is amazing.
As for the score of a full piece, I’ve been obsessed with Hadestown for a few years. It’s a sung-through musical and it’s stellar from start to finish. It gets better and better the more you listen. I got into it because of Ani DiFranco (one of my GOATs) and apparently she’s playing the role of Persephone soon. Might have to take a trip back to NYC to see it again! It’s one of the most emotionally effecting pieces of art I’ve ever experienced.
Hamilton is another one. I worked in small theater for years and years and a lot of terrible shit came through my space. To see an exquisitely crafted and executed piece is always thrilling to me. You can’t get better crafted than Hamilton.
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For a favorite song, I’d have to go with Brothers In Arms from the Fury Road soundtrack:
For an overall favorite score, I’d have to go with Ennio Morricone’s Danger! Diabolik score, one of the more underlooked Morricone gems:
And as an honorable mention, Henry Jackman’s Winter Solider score has a lot of distinctive, memorable pieces in it:
Of all time? Hard to pick.
Cinema has been a decayed corpse occasionally dug up and dressed a la weekend at bernies for the past 15 ish years.
As horrendous as the Disney harrowing of Star Wars is this is probably the single best thing to come from it.
Overall best of recent times, and no I haven’t seen the film, and likely never will. Trent and Atticus knocked it out of the park.
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There is a guy on YouTube that I follow that occasionally will show Philip Glass Composing Techniques.
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I almost mentioned Koyaanisqatsi, and have even seen it performed with live orchestra (and very briefly met Reggio and Glass on another occasion). Glass is one of my all time favorite composers, for sure.
Maybe as far as Hollywood goes, but it’s thriving elsewhere (A24, loads of foreign filmmakers, etc).
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He’s definitely in my tops of the 20th century with Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Ravel, Debussy, Satie, Pärt, Bartók, Webern, Ligeti, Xenakis and Tavener
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No love for Sergei Rachmaninoff?
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Oh lots of love for him
I just like Shostakovich
And Prokofiev more
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Are you a Kubrick fan? He’s how I first heard Ligeti, and possibly Bartok (who is a major favorite of mine).
Kubrick was pretty great at (sometimes appropriating) music for his films.
And I’ve mentioned it before in some other post on here, but James Horner totally rips this off for the main title theme of Aliens.
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Here’s one that’s relatively new to me, having watched it for the first time only a couple of months ago. The music was a real pleasant surprise.
Are you a Kubrick fan? He’s how I first heard Ligeti, and possibly Bartok (who is a major favorite of mine).
A while back I took a class on music of the 20th century. Ligeti was discussed a bit. Kubrick is awesome
Kubrick’s scoring choices are up there with Carpenter for me. The masked ball scene in Eyes Wide Shut where its a hymn from a Romanian Orthodox Divine Liturgy backwards is amazing.
Ligeti makes an appearance as well.
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Eyes Wide Shut is an interesting swan song… took me a couple of viewings to really appreciate it. Being from Long Island, it’s also super weird seeing stuff in it I see all the time. haha
Wild how little is going on here, yet how effective it is:
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The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is my all time favourite.
I haven’t watched a film in around a decade though so I can’t say.
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Fun fact - my wife walked down the aisle to a piano version of this theme. In hindsight I probably should have been more worried than I was that she chose the soundtrack from a movie where female dinosaurs tried to eat all of the men on an island. 
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Clever girl
(20 chars needed…)
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