John Williams Didn’t Kill Classical Music—He Saved It

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Movie music has always been snobbishly looked down on by some self-identified Western classical music purists. We’re going to look at a brief history of original movie music and composers here, who have been around as long as the movies themselves. Two notes: First, this is not a comprehensive list. Not even close. You can find entire books on this topic. Second? Where would classical music be today without movies?

NOTE: The movie links in this article are all audio examples of the composers’ work. Also: Check out Minnesota Public Radio @yourclassical.org at 11 a.m. (EST) live every week for Saturday Cinema with Lynne Warfel. Or just click the Shows tab to find past episodes.

Let’s start with the Big Three.

Erich Korngold (1897-1957)

Erich Korngold was a classical music composer in the purest sense. He scored his movies just like he was writing an opera with particular themes (leitmotifs) for major characters, like John Williams often does (e.g., Darth Vader’s or Leia’s themes). Korngold didn’t invent this style, but he did bring it to the movies. He has obviously been incredibly influential to this very day and is famous for Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Max Steiner (1888-1971)

Max Steiner brought movie music into the modern era with classic scores to Casablanca, Now Voyager, and a hundred other movies. His big innovation was his music for King Kong. You can probably hear it in your head right now. If you think about it, that score changed everything for fantasy action movies, which often have that Steiner feel. Steiner also did leitmotifs, like Tara’s theme in Gone with the Wind.

Alfred Newman (1900-1970)

Alfred Newman was a musical prodigy and eventually won nine Academy Awards on 45 nominations. There are just far too many movies to list in this short piece but a good example is How the West Was Won. It’s fun to note that he also composed the 20th Century Fox logo music. His final movie was Airport. Alfred’s sons, David and Thomas, both scored movies and were nominated for awards, as were his brothers Lionel and Emil. And, yes, Randy Newman was Alfred’s nephew and composed songs and scores for ¡Three Amigos! (with Elmer Bernstein), Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., etc. Randy competed for Oscars against his uncle Thomas on two occasions.

Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)

Charlie Chaplin is mostly famous for being the star and director of silent movies, but people didn’t sit quietly in the theater watching films back in the day, did they? Movies have always had a soundtrack, but it was originally performed live. He was a self-taught musician, so he didn’t have all of the technical skills he needed and often worked closely with Alfred Newman on his scores. His most famous composition is “Smile” from Modern Times.

Their Influence Today

We hope you can hear Newman, Korngold, and Steiner in your head now when you think of John Williams, Hans Zimmer, James Horner, and Howard Shore in modern fantasy action movies.

John Williams (1932-)

We could make the argument that John Williams is the greatest film composer of all time. He’s won five Academy Awards on 54 nominations, three Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes, 26 Grammy Awards, etc. He’s been criticized as “only” a composer by the classical music elites and has even been accused of borrowing earlier music. While we can hear phrases here and there that remind us of other music, we don’t think the criticism sticks. If we had to recommend just one recording, we’d say try John Williams conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker (2021).

Hans Zimmer (1957-)

German composer Hans Zimmer may be the broadest composer on this list, scoring for Disney, Ridley Scott, Driving Miss Daisy, Rain Man, Batman, James Bond, Dune, some war movies, and so on. He often uses electronic instruments like electric guitars and keyboards. He’s won two Academy Awards (so far) and is a composer we often don’t recognize because his style is all over the place.

James Horner (1953-2015)

James Horner was another composer with broad ambition and style who worked on a dozen children’s movies (e.g., Jumanji) right up to Aliens, Star Trek, and, most famously, Titanic and later Avatar. He wasn’t afraid of unconventional arrangements, which made him a versatile composer. Horner borrowed music cues quite directly at times, including in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky) and for Willow (Schumann’s Symphony 3 “Rhenish”). These are obviously not just similar and are direct quotes, but we think they work. He also wrote non-movie orchestral works up until his death in 2015, when the plane he was flying crashed.

Howard Shore (1946-)

Canadian composer Howard Shore is most famous for his The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit scores, but he’s been very prolific beyond that. The Fly, Dead Ringers, Big, and Mrs. Doubtfire are all Shore scores. He’s won two Academy Awards, but we think the most fun piece of Shore trivia is that he wrote the theme song for Saturday Night Live as the first music director on that long-running show. He even appeared in some skits.

Miscellaneous Highlights

Nino Rota (1911-1979)

Nino Rota is another historic composer and child prodigy. He is best known for his Fellini scores for 8½ and the first two Godfather movies. Danny Elfman (of Oingo Boingo and a composer for many films) cites Rota as one of his primary influences.

Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)

Morricone is a weird one that everyone knows through the Clint Eastwood Dollars Trilogy that ended with The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but he composed so much more. For example, he scored the award-winning films The Mission, Cinema Paradiso, the original La Cage aux Folles, Days of Heaven, and dozens more up to Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. His style was so broad you might not recognize it, but you’ve heard it.

Joe Hisaishi (1950-)

Mamoru Fujisawa (as Hisaishi was born) is a classical composer more people should know about. A frequent collaborator with Hayao Miyazaki, Hisaishi is the guy who came up with the Totoro theme as well as working on Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, and a hundred or so other movies. His style is very distinct and instantly recognizable and worth seeking out for a listen if you have no idea what we’re talking about: You will love it!

Some classical music purists still look down on movie music. But when you look at our brief survey here… who is keeping Western classical music alive? Bach is dead. Mozart is dead. Beethoven is dead. If it wasn’t for Alan Silvestri (et al.), would we have any popular new classical music at all?