Berlin. Mancini. Williams. Morricone. Zimmer. Conti. Newton Howard. Horner. Elfman. Newman. Newman. Kamen. Goldsmith.

Without Irvin, Fred wouldn’t have danced in search of his Top Hat, White Tie and Tales. The Pink Panther and Peter Gunn wouldn’t have had a jazzy intro if not for Henry. Two notes and John Williams introduced the boehemeth in the water. Morricone deserves a page of his own considering what he added to Westerns. Hans provided the music for Rainman and Gladiator. Bill wrote Rocky’s anthem. James brings a haunting sound to the Dark Knight and any erie vision M. Knight Shyamalan can create. James takes us to the stars.  Danny’s a perfect match for Tim Burton. Randy and Thomas are in a league all their own.

Michael and Jerry died too soon.

It would be a peculiar challenge, but can you imagine watching any film that these gentlemen wrote the music for and see what remains when the soundtrack is muted?

Irving helped folks sing of good times or the hopes of things getting better as the country emerged from a Great Depression. Henry may be best known for the Pink Panther (a theme that survived during the Saturday morning cartoons), but what about The Great Impostor and Hatari?

John Williams has created iconic themes for sharks, dinosaurs, visiting aliens, a boy wizard and a rebel alliance’s battle in a galaxy far, far away. To indulge in listening to all of his movie recordings in addition to his skills as guitarist and one can be lost for days, maybe weeks.

While there are few westerns successfully made now, imagine if we had someone of Morricone’s talent to prop the present-day written tale of a landowner in the final frontier.

No matter the genre, music helps with the story – helping the viewer feel what the protagonist or antagonist feels. Five notes can bring about a close encounter or the arrival of a new menace. The perfect chords can create peace or tension in a scene or paint a landscape with more detail than the cinemetographer can capture on film.

Of the recent films seen, are there any soundtracks worth revisiting? Of the songs and melodies that come to mind, does it bring back a favorite item or two from the film? Or can a film score be enjoyable whether or not one has seen the film?