Friday, July 13, 2007

Movie soundtracks

I recently received an email from someone who discovered the Hotlist a few weeks back. Little by little, he has been reading all my back posts (give the guy a medal!), all the way back to the very beginning, and he found out that I use movie soundtrack as a musical backdrop when I read.

Intrigued, he wanted to know which soundtracks provided the very best reading experience. So here are some of my favorites, in no particular order. There are too many wonderful scores for me to list them all, but here a few you can't go wrong with!;-)

When it comes to soundtracks, there are three names to remember: John Williams (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Schindler's List, Harry Potter, and countless others), James Horner (Braveheart, Titanic, etc) and Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, The Last Samurai, etc). There are other talented composers and conductors, but these three simply blow my mind!

If you want to enhance your reading experience, here are a few picks for you:

John Williams' original Star Wars soundtracks:

- A New Hope (Canada, USA, Europe)
- The Empire Strikes Back (Canada, USA, Europe)
- Return of the Jedi (Canada, USA, Europe)

Two of Hans Zimmers' masterpieces:

- Gladiator (Canada, USA, Europe)
- The Last Samurai (Canada, USA, Europe)

A classic by James Horner:

- Braveheart (Canada, USA, Europe)

Howard Shore at his peak:

- The Fellowship of the Ring (Canada, USA, Europe)
- The Two Towers (Canada, USA, Europe)
- The Return of the King (Canada, USA, Europe)

Enjoy!:-)

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Anonymous12:35 PM

    Pat, what about software? Do you use any software to track all the books you've read and maybe some comments about each? Something like iTunes for books that would download cover art too would be cool.

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  3. Anonymous2:02 PM

    I would also recommend these three, which might not be as well known as the ones previously mentioned, but are very comparable.

    The 13th Warrior by Jerry Goldsmith

    The Last of the Mohicans by Randy Edelman

    Spirited Away by Joe Hisaishi

    Kevin

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  4. I won? Wow! Cool, I didn't know, haven't gotten an email about it? But very cool!
    Thanks Pat!

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  5. In addition to the ones you listed (and the ones Kevin listed above) I'd add the follwing as superb writing music:
    -Children of Dune by Brian Tyler (one CD I could have on repeat for an entire writing session)
    -Kingdom of Heaven by Harry gregson-Williams (a bit heavier than some, but nice medieval melodies too)

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