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With the release of two lackluster-looking films this week (okay, they look lackluster to me, being fair), I think it’s time the A-List once again make a few enemies and start up some controversies. Okay, sure, this list probably isn’t going to get a lot of hate mail, but any time you throw down the gauntlet, it’s always possible to get some anger your way. This week, we’re going to look at five of the best film composers to ever write a single note. When you talk about composers in film, there are a few names that come up, no question. One of those names, I imagine, will show up quite prominently here. In some ways, this list isn’t going to contain that many surprises, but you may not have realized who created some of the most memorable themes in history.

Granted, there are plenty of names, contemporary and otherwise, that won’t show up here. Some of that is simply because I couldn’t fit the people on this list or justify their placement (I love Jonny Greenwood’s score for There Will Be Blood, but he’s only done the one major film composition). Some people deserve an honorable mention, including Hans Zimmer (his score for The Dark Knight is one of my absolute favorites, of course) and James Newton Howard (I love his themes for The Fugitive, and he also happened to work with Zimmer on The Dark Knight). One name I can easily ignore is James Horner. Though his work on films such as Apollo 13 is inspiring and moving, he lately just reuses themes from films he’s worked on in the past. Sorry, folks. Let’s get to the list.


Bernard Herrmann

Some of the composers on this list work primarily with one or two directors or film companies. Bernard Herrmann, however, can say that he jumped from iconic director to iconic director with ease. Though he’s best-known for his frequent collaborations with the great Alfred Hitchcock (with films such as North by Northwest, Psycho, Vertigo, and The Birds), Herrmann began his career as the composer for Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles; ended his career as the composer for Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese; and worked with directors such as Brian de Palma, Michael Curtiz, Robert Wise, Nicholas Ray, Henry Hathaway, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz in between. This is a diverse career, folks. And yet, as diverse a career as it is, Herrmann only won one Oscar for his composing. It’s not the movie you think, either.

You’re guessing Psycho, of course. The slashing violin chords that accompany the shower scene that remains one of the most famous sequences in all of cinema, the fast-paced opening credits theme; it’s got to be that, right? No, it’s The Devil and Daniel Webster, Herrmann’s second film, also from 1941. I haven’t seen that film, but it’s still something amazing to consider that Herrmann was never nominated for a single film he did with Alfred Hitchcock. Imagine the same for the iconic composers who currently live. It’d cause riots among film geeks, and frankly, the fact that the man only got one Oscar is a shame. Without this man, do we even have the shower scene in Psycho? His music made that scene and that movie as memorable as it is, more so than the mere presence of Janet Leigh getting stabbed. A shame that he only ever won the sole award.

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