I still remember the cloudy, fall day my dad took me for a drive in his ancient red Honda Accord. He pushed a mixed disk into his CD player and turned up the tunes. They were scores.

The game was that I had to listen to each one and guess what movie each song came from. There were a bunch of those “ooh! I know this…oooh! What is it?” And a few ”I’ve never heard this before” mumbles. Yet none of them had me bored, or ready for the next track, because you see, catching scores is just another one of my “kicks.”

After poking me in the spine a few times for not guessing that Hans Zimmer wrote the score for Black Hawk Down, he told me that I could be anything I wanted to be.

I decided to be a score composer.

I was fifteen.

I was going to be the greatest score composer known to man for at least four years of my life, and while I planned for Berklee in Boston and listened to and collected as many soundtracks as my french frying paycheck would allow me, Chris came along at sixteen and inspired me to bang on my piano just a little more each day.

Even though I finally grew out of the idea that I would one day fly on out to Hollywood and eat Ramen until I made it big, I never truly grew out of scores. They’ve changed my life. Today they provide me with the background music for writing, and I dream of the moment I learn that Thomas Newman is going to write the score for a big picture they based off of my book.

Throughout all of this, five composers have seriously “stuck around.” I call these guys the geniuses in score composition.

Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman is one of those composers you can always fall back on if you have no idea what you want to listen to. The previous singer for Oingo Boingo (“Weird Science”) has a rich sound that I have never really been able to find anywhere else. His signatures include choirs and spiraling string riffs. His work is so unique, in fact, that you could place him while listening to any mix. When my dad and I sat down to watch Spiderman in theaters, we turned and looked at each other in the middle of the beginning credits and grinned:

“Danny Elfman!”

On top of being one awesome composer–and the singing Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas–Danny Elfman is also the composer of my favorite soundtrack, the one that has always inspired me to write and write and write: Black Beauty.

Someof his other scores include:

Edward Scissorhands

Alice in Wonderland

Batman (Tim Burton version)

Beetlejuice

The Simpsons theme

One of the biggest letdowns? The fact that they never released the soundtrack for Spiderman 3, a partnered score with Christopher Young.

Howard Shore

Where do I begin with Howard Shore? Ah yes, The Lord of the freakin Rings! Not only was this guy a god to me when I was sixteen, but he still has the power to make me bawl with his genius genius key signatures and child vocalists (Ben Del Maestro!). If I had to describe Howard Shore in one word:

Epic.

A signature of Mr. Shore’s? Giving every single character his/her own theme.

Other scores by this genius of composition include:

Big

Crash

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Hugo

Coming Soon: The Hobbit!

Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer is a known guy and I’m sure his building orchestral patterns have hit your ears at least once. I first heard him when I went to see The Lion King when I was seven or so, and later while watching the movie Gladiator on my tiny tube, but that’s just the whip on this overachieving musician’s sundae. This composer of many gigs has proved that he is capable of writing music for any type of movie whatsoever. His signature is an “electric” kind of sound (made with low strings), and he often uses prolonged crescendos that make you squirm for the song’s climax.

Other Zimmer masterpieces include:

Pirates of the Caribbean

Inception

The Dark Knight

Tears of the Sun

Twister

A fun fact: Hans Zimmer used to be in the band The Buggles (“Video Killed the Radio Star”).

James Horner

I feel honored just being able to talk about this guy in my blog. James Horner–partnered with James Cameron–has written the scores for a lot of those movies that have hit the peak in ticket ratings, including the two highest moneymakers of all time: Titanic and Avatar.

When I was a little girl, one of my favorites by this guy was Casper, and later he changed my entire life with Avatar. He’s another one of those theme-heavy composers who can provide a tune for the mood of the scene. Horner’s sound is somewhat playful (even at its angriest moments), and the term I would use to describe his scores is:

Curious

He, like Elfman, likes to use a choir in his work.

Other scores by this genius include:

Jumanji

A Beautiful Mind

The Abyss

Braveheart

Aliens

Thomas Newman

If Thomas Newman were reading this right now (and I hope he is), I would want him to know that he has helped me write all four of my unpublished novels. I would also want him to know that if I were to meet him today, I would bow down and kiss his flockin toes. This guy has been my idol since the beginning of my tide of score composer wannabe-ism, since I could understand what music even was.

One of my favorite things about Thomas Newman is the fact that he creates music by bending instruments in directions they aren’t meant to go. Listen to any Pixar movie theme and you’ll know what I mean. I often have to dig around to determine just what instrument is trilling that high sixteenth while the other no-namer horn kicks it into full gear.

However, there is also a main instrument in every single one of his scores: that grand piano. Thomas Newman is a big fan of the black and white keys (and perhaps that’s why I’m a big fan of him). One of his signatures is his overall tone. No matter what the movie is, I always know it’s him when I get chills.

Let me give you a ripe example as to why I love this guy…

Have you seen the reef in Australia?

No?

Go listen to Finding Nemo‘s original score and then you’ll know what the coral looks like as the sun dazzles down through the waves.

If you can “see” the music, it’s Thomas Newman.

Other fantastic and genius works by my favorite composer of all time:

American Beauty

White Oleander

Road to Perdition

WALL-E

Revolutionary Road

Meet Joe Black

To finish out this blog on great artists, I suppose I should give an honorable mention to John Williams, who no doubt set the stage for all of these other genius composers.

Now it’s time for you to tell me about your musical inspirations!

(Sources: Danny Elfman photo: artperceptions.com, Howard Shore photo: wikipedia.org, Hans Zimmer photo: wikipedia.org, James Horner photo: dohafilminstitute.com, Thomas Newman photo: wikipedia.org, all other photos: ME!)