Who is the greatest film composer of all time?
Our vote for the very best film composer of all time depends on who’s asking. If you care deeply about the history of cinema, we’d credit Max Steiner for his role in inventing film music as we know it. If you’re a lover of memorable themes, John Williams is perhaps the greatest film composer at writing iconic melodies. If you’re interested in bold new sounds, Vangelis or Mica Levi (Micachu) might be the best film composer for you.
Each of these movie composers has made a unique and essential contribution to the art of film scoring. Explore them all and see which you connect with.
Who is the most prolific film score composer?
The most prolific film score composer might be Ennio Morricone, who wrote over 400 scores in his lifetime. Aside from defining the sound of Westerns, Morricone composed for a dizzying range of genres, and his influence is still felt in film music today. But he faces stiff competition from composers like Max Steiner – who wrote over 300 scores – and Hans Zimmer, who has some 250 score credits to his name (and counting).
10 of the best film composers of all time
1. Max Steiner
Max Steiner helped invent film music as we know it. Or as critic Paul Cote wrote: “Steiner’s music had extraordinary influence on the techniques, approaches, and conventions that remain the foundation of film music in the Western world.”
Why was he so influential? Timing was a factor. Born in 1888, Steiner began working in Hollywood in the silent movie era and was well-placed to shape the transition to “talkies.” His colorful backstory also played a part. Steiner was born in Austria before fleeing to the US as an adult, and he used his European classical education to develop the language of movie music.
Steiner took inspiration from Richard Wagner’s “Leitmotif” technique to bring drama to films. He would write melodic themes for every character in a film, capturing and heightening their personality through his choice of tune. Steiner also pioneered the technique of closely matching film music to the action on screen. These ideas might seem obvious now, but that’s because Steiner (and his contemporaries like Erich Korngold) made them the foundations of film music.
Steiner wrote over 300 film scores, many of them classics that place him among the greatest film composers. His music for Gone With The Wind (1939) drew on traditional American melodies to conjure the atmosphere of the Civil War American South. In Casablanca (1942), he transformed the melody from a popular song, “As Time Goes By,” into a gorgeous theme that became one of the film’s most memorable features – and an all-time movie music highlight.