Ennio Morricone vs John Williams

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Easily Morricone, I've never really felt compelled to sit down and listen to a John Williams score after watching a movie he produced the soundtrack for. Not to detract from his music, they do their job really well but Morricone is something else. I'm still bummed an extract from one of the concerts he did was taken down from YouTube, it was my first proper introduction to his music and it featured a few of his most iconic Western themes. Goddamn I listened to that at least a hundred times and the first time I heard the theme to Once Upon a Time in the West, I cried.
 
I will reserve my judgement. Considering instrumental orchestra is my favorite type of music I'm surprised I've never heard of him. So thanks again to GAF for culturing me.

He may be better than John Williams. He has some catchy movie tunes, but he really is a derivative of Tchaikovsky (Moonlight on lake vs Hedwig Theme, Home Alone Vs Nutcracker Russian Dance), and I find the original works of Tchaikovsky to be much better. As far as newer composers, I like Nobuo Uematsu's work a lot more. Though they're all good and I'm probably biased by nostalgia.
 
Unlike Zimmer from a couple of weeks ago, this is challenging but as a score writer I gotta give it to morricone because he works with the directors to change the pacing of the edit to let the music breathe and become a foreground character rather than background music.
 
Every genre fan is aware of Basil Poledouris' "Conan" scores, and they are rightfully lauded.

Morricone's score for "Red Sonja" is criminally underrated by those same fans (admittedly, the movie is nowhere near as good as either Conan movie).
 
I have immense respect for Ennio, but for me, Williams' music is what makes films like Star Wars and E.T. what they are today.

His music elevates those films to unfathomable levels, and they simply wouldn't be the cultural phenomenons that they are without his music.
 
While they are both legendary film composers, they have very different styles and their music fits different movies. Williams is usually a theme-driven composer who does music for blockbuster movies but every now and then surprises with a totally unique score. Morricone on the other has many different styles and has composed many epic soundtracks, but his music wouldn't fit many movies Williams has dobe.

They both win.
 
It's no contest for me: John Williams. His music stayed with me like no other film composer. Home Alone, Jurassic Park, Duel of the Fates, Star Wars, Jaws, etc etc etc. It is absolutely the best soundtrack discography in film music history, and quite frankly won't ever be matched in our lifetimes.
 
Unlike Zimmer from a couple of weeks ago, this is challenging but as a score writer I gotta give it to morricone because he works with the directors to change the pacing of the edit to let the music breathe and become a foreground character rather than background music.

That was moreso the general school of thought when it came to the Italian film scene.
 
Morricone's music makes me cry. It's magical. I can't pick a favorite track from him. I love John Williams, but none of his music stabs me in the heart like Morricone's.
 
I'm not sure who I'd choose, but I do think relegating Williams' work to 'catchy theme music' is incredibly insulting and ignorant.

His thematic and non-thematic work on Schindler's List, A.I, Empire of the Sun etc is incredibly varied and multi-layered.

On the other end of the spectrum, no piece of film music on its own can move me quite like Morriconne's Deborah's Theme
 

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I'm not sure who I'd choose, but I do think relegating Williams' work to 'catchy theme music' is incredibly insulting and ignorant.

His thematic and non-thematic work on Schindler's List, A.I, Empire of the Sun etc is incredibly varied and multi-layered.

On the other end of the spectrum, no piece of film music on its own can move me quite like Morriconne's Deborah's Theme

I did say mostly... :P AI is one Williams score I listen all the way through. It's unfair and probably not right to qualify him the way I did, but Morricone really is on another level for me.
 
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