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Did I read somewhere that Jerry Goldsmith once quipped, perhaps with tongue in cheek.
"If there was one year that I deserved to lose the Oscar for Best Score, it was to John Williams and his music to Jaws"
Goldsmith then went on to praise Williams' effort even further.
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Alfred Newman championed many composers, including Hugo Friedhofer, David Raksin, Alex North, Franz Waxman and Leigh Harline.
Unlike any other music department head in Hollywood, Newman sought out these geniuses and assigned them major projects. He recommended Friedhofer to Sam Goldwyn for "The Best Years of Our Lives". He backed up David Raksin when Raksin disagreed with Otto Preminger about using "Sophisticated Lady" as the theme for "Laura".
And then there was Bernard Herrmann who seemingly alienated everyone in Hollywood to the point he couldn't be hired. Newman loved Herrmann's work and assigned him wonderful films to score...with dramatically brilliant results.
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Just saw this posted and I remembered there was a thread somewhere on this topic...
Not to name drop but I was talking with Basil Poledouris once (I think when we did the Big Wednesday CD) and asked him about scores he really liked when he started his career. He was raving about The Hindenburg and how beautiful it was.
Lukas
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In this clip, Jerry Goldsmith had nice things to say about John Williams "Superman" (at 3:15)
and Elmer Bernstein's "The Magnificent Seven" (at 4:45)
Where was the in-concert footage of him taken?
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Goldsmith was also a fan of John Barry.
Indeed, he has spoken highly of Barry on a number of occasions. In one of Tony Thomas' books he specifically mentions MIDNIGHT COWBOY as an excellently scored film.
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When John Corigliano first met John Williams, he told him "I loved Jaws!"
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Andre Previn openly admires Williams's CEOT3K. (Also Star Wars but he seemed a little less enthused when talking about it).[/endquote
]
Zimmer is also a vocal admirer of CEOT3K. As everyone should be. 
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Goldsmith was also a fan of John Barry.
Indeed, he has spoken highly of Barry on a number of occasions. In one of Tony Thomas' books he specifically mentions MIDNIGHT COWBOY as an excellently scored film.
I wonder if Goldsmith was inconsistent with his opinions. Or whether Goldsmith was initially cold to Barry but then warmed up to him later.
You see, I'd read in another place that Goldsmith did not think MIDNIGHT COWBOY was well scored. I read a letter someone posted that was written by Goldsmith in the 1960s where he seemed to took a thinly veiled 'complimentary swipe' at the song of BORN FREE; and in one of the really old film music magazines he was quoted as saying Barry's scoring of KING KONG was bland.
And yet, he seemed to be actually envious of JB's work and kudos from OUT OF AFRICA.
I have to say, most composers I speak to are not fans of Barry. Many feel his music is plain, simple, easy, repetitive and not challenging or ground breaking on any level.
Peter Thomas once said in an interview, "He's got one theme and you've heard it already."
As a Barry fan, that of course saddens me, but what can you do.
When Classic FM did a Bond thing with Thomas Newman and David Arnold, Thomas was asked if he was inspired as John Barry. I was in the live audience. His words were, "Not as a musician," but his body language (which you couldn't see on the radio) was almost like, "God, no!"
I do think JB was more of the audience's composer than the composer's composer.
Which is probably reflected in his relatively sparse Oscar nominations but high win ratio. (You're nominated by your peers but voting is open to everyone.)
A lot of pop artists admire Barry though. Alice Cooper was a massive fan apparently.
Cheers
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Goldsmith was also a fan of John Barry.
Indeed, he has spoken highly of Barry on a number of occasions. In one of Tony Thomas' books he specifically mentions MIDNIGHT COWBOY as an excellently scored film.
I wonder if Goldsmith was inconsistent with his opinions. Or whether Goldsmith was initially cold to Barry but then warmed up to him later.
You see, I'd read in another place that Goldsmith did not think MIDNIGHT COWBOY was well scored. I read a letter someone posted that was written by Goldsmith in the 1960s where he seemed to took a thinly veiled 'complimentary swipe' at the song of BORN FREE; and in one of the really old film music magazines he was quoted as saying Barry's scoring of KING KONG was bland.
And yet, he seemed to be actually envious of JB's work and kudos from OUT OF AFRICA.
I have to say, most composers I speak to are not fans of Barry. Many feel his music is plain, simple, easy, repetitive and not challenging or ground breaking on any level.
I like John Barry's music, but it is for the most part plain, simple, easy, repetitive, and, let's face it, not challenging. This is pretty much true. But those can be good qualities I don't like Barry's music because it is challenging or complex, I like Barry's music precisely because it is direct and basic, yet it has an unmistakable sound... it's warm, comforting music... it's the musical equivalent of hot cocoa. Not particularly demanding, but it sure is yummy.
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I wonder if Goldsmith was inconsistent with his opinions. Or whether Goldsmith was initially cold to Barry but then warmed up to him later.
Could be. Opinions may change over time. I remember Goldsmith said about himself in the 1960s that at heart, he viewed himself as a serial composer... but very few of his compositions after the 70s give any indication of that whatsoever.
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The fact that John Williams uses other film composers' scores in his live concerts to me is praise .
indeed.
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Zimmer also praised Morricone's score to "The Mission" (in an interview, as I recall).
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I was just listening to an interview with Bruce Broughton. It seemed odd how casually and warmly he talked about other composers just because I don't hear that a lot.
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Zimmer has been quite warm praising Williams, Herrmann, Morricone.
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Zimmer has been quite warm praising Williams, Herrmann, Morricone.
This isn't really a Zimmer bash (really, it isn't) but he's been very candid about his set of skills (which are formidable) not really being the same as those guys. Obviously that came out a lot when he was following in Williams' turtleneck on Superman.
I suppose if you're a Zimmer fan (I like Zimmer) you might chalk it up to modesty. But the old school composers just had a different level of education.
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