Favorite musical composers

[TehGr81]

Any musical composers out there that you like to listen to? If so, feel free to post them here.

My favorite musical composer of all-time would have to be John Williams, mainly due to his scores for Jaws, Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Superman: The Movie.

My other favorites are Alexander Courage (R.I.P.), Don Davis, Danny Elfman, Michael Giacchino, Jerry Goldsmith (R.I.P.), James Newton Howard, Trevor Rabin, Alan Silvestri, Ken Thorne and Hans Zimmer.

UPDATE: Every kind of composers are allowed here, except bands (of course).

 

[deoxysdude94]

Davey Havok and Jade Pudget, and John Williams.

 

[Fenix]

Howard Shore and Micheal Land are my favorites.

 

[Ichi]

Michael Giacchino is amazing.

 

[Hammerheart]

I think a distinction needs to be set between composer and song writer here. The guys from AFI aren't really composers are they?

Ralph Vaughan Williiams
Antonín Dvořák
Gustav Holst
Georg Frideric Handel
Jean-Michel Jaare

 

[natie]

Franz Liszt.

'Nuff said.

 

[TehGr81]

Michael Giacchino is amazing.

I thought I was missing someone in my list.

 

[ForeverFlame]

Hans Zimmer.

And in Anime, I am a big fan of Yuki Kajiura.

 

[Lord Scalgon]

Do game music composers count? If so, ZUN (for his Touhou masterpiece) and Nobuo Uematsu (the king of Final Fantasy music).

If not, John Williams. Adding to what you said, Star Wars Episodes 4, 5, and 6 makes plenty of people nostalgic, especially the music itself.

 

[Love in a Mist]

I listen to a lot of instrumental music by Japanese composers... Nobuo Uematsu, Motoi Sakuraba, Yasunori Mitsuda, Joe Hisaishi, Yoko Kanno, etc. ^^
If we're talking classical classical though, I love Stravinski & Mussorgsky. Blame Fantasia xD

 

[HK]

Carlo Gesualdo
Igor Stravinsky
Bela Bartok

Best of what I've heard.

Also really fond of Schoenberg and Debussy. Liszt is cool. Don't feel like namedropping anymore now.

 

[Larris]

Howard Shore and Hans Zimmer! :'D

 

[hitoshura0]

Well seeing as game composers are allowed, I'd have to go with Shoji Meguro, who does all the music for the SMT franchise. Try finding the Battle for Everybody's Souls or some of the Nocturne Music for his better works.

 

[Evil Quagsire]

I'm really fond of minimalist composers, especially Phillip Glass and John Adams.
As for film composers, the best are Bernard Herrmann, Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone, Henry Mancini, and John Williams.
As of late, I've come to really appreciate the work of Michael Giacchino (LOST tv series, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Star Trek), Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica tv series), Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings films), Carter Burwell (Fargo, almost every other Joel & Ethan Coen film), Jon Brion (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Punch-Drunk Love), Alexandre Desplat (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fantastic Mr. Fox), Nick Cave (The Proposition, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), and Joe Hisaishi (every movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki).

 

[Hammerheart]

I think a lot of Minimalist stuff is more something to be appreciated rather than listened to for pleasure. Like a piece of art that uses music or sound as its medium. Like Steve Reich's It's Gonna Rain, I wouldn't think 'you know what, I fancy listen to it'. But as a piece of art its quite interesting to listen to and appreciate what he's doing. But I do find some of Reich's music nice to listen to, such as Music for 18 musicians.

 

[Evil Quagsire]

Actually, I listen to parts of Glass's Koyaanisqatsi score on Youtube all the time. It's so...transcendent.

 

[Mye]

Rush has always been a good band. Their music seems to be the exact opposite of rap, telling a good story with music that backs it up. Feels like a book on tape rather than a song...

 

[treespyro]

In Movies it has to be a toss between John Williams and John Barry.

 

[Hammerheart]

^ Don't suppose you did an A Level in music technology did you?