Favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy Movie Score Composers

[JD]

I've been listening a lot of movies and TV scores lately and have to a pretty solid list of who are my favorite score composers.
John Williams - Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Harry Potter
Michael Giacchino - Lost, Star Trek Kelvin movies, The Incredibles, Up, Thor Love and Thunder
Danny Elfman - Tim Burton's Batman movies, Men in Black series, Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas
Jerry Goldsmith - Planet of the Apes, multiple Star Trek movies, Alien
Junkie XI/Tom Holkenborg - Max Mad Fury Road & Furiosa, live action Sonic The Hedgehog movies, Deadpool
Hans Zimmer - Gladiator, Deni Villeneuve's Dune movies, Inception, Blade Runner 2049, Pirates of Carribean series
Howard Shore - The Middle Earth movies, The Aviator, The Fly

 

[Steve Roby]

Some of my faves:

Howard Shore: Crash isn't SF, but it's a Cronenberg movie based on a JG Ballard novel, which is close enough. One of my favourite all-time film scores, and I got to see him do the Crash Suite live at the National Arts Centre here in Ottawa in 1998. I wish it had been recorded, as it wasn't just the soundtrack album played live.
Jerry Goldsmith: I'd add Logan's Run to the list.
Johann Johannsson: Arrival, Mandy etc
Cliff Martinez: Solaris
Vangelis: Blade Runner. I've never been able to get into any of his other work, but I love his Blade Runner music.
Angelo Badalamenti: Twin Peaks
Louis and Bebe Barron: Forbidden Planet
Barry Gray: UFO, Space: 1999
Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow: Devs, Ex Machina, Annihilation, and Drokk: Music Inspired by Mega-City One, their Judge Dredd album

 

[Kai "the spy"]

My absolute favorite composer is Ennio Morricone, who has not done a lot of scifi/fantasy, but he did the phenomenal The Thing score for John Carpenter.

Aside from those already mentioned, I'd also add:

Akira Ifukube: Godzilla, The Mysterians, The Three Treasures, Battle in Outer Space, Atragon
Alan Silvestri: Back to the Future, Predator, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Judge Dredd, The Avengers
Basil Poledouris: Conan the Barbarian, RoboCop, Cherry 2000, Starship Troopers
Bear McCreary: Battlestar Galactica (reboot), Agents of SHIELD, Constantine (TV), MotU: Revelations/Revolutions
Brad Fiedel: The Terminator, Fright Night, Johnny Mnemonic
Christopher Young: Hellraiser, Species, Virtuosity, Drag Me to Hell
David Arnold: Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla '98, Paul
James Horner: Battle Beyond the Stars, Star Trek II-III, Cocoon, Aliens, Willow, Jumanji, Avatar
Lolita Ritmanis: Justice League/Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes
Mark Snow: The X-Files, Millennium, Smallville, Birds of Prey (TV), Ghost Whisperer
Murray Gold: Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Second Coming
Shirley Walker: The Flash (19909, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Batman TAS, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Space: Above & Beyond, Superman TAS, Spawn TAS, Mystery Men, Final Destination,

 

[tharpdevenport]

Shirley Walker: The Flash (19909, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Batman TAS, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Space: Above & Beyond, Superman TAS, Spawn TAS, Mystery Men, Final Destination,

If you haven't seen it, she scored a failed TV series called "The Others", and the show is good and you may enjoy the scoring as well.

 

[Greg Cox]

Gotta give a shout-out to Bernard Herrmann: The Day the Earth Stood Still (original), The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Mysterious Island (1961), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), The Birds (1963), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), etc.

Not to mention any number of classic Hitchcock movies and original Twilight Zone episodes.

Herrmann soundtrack albums are on frequent rotation in my office. And the Sinbad soundtrack, which is one of the most rousing musical scores ever, is one of my go-tos when I never I feel my energy flagging.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Lots I agree with posted here, but I want to name one (off the top of my head) who is missing:

Velton Ray Bunch: "Quantum Leap" and "Enterprise". He won Emmys for work on both shows.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

I'll add two very notable one-timers here: Danny Zeitlin and John Corligliano for the 1978 BODY SNATCHERS and ALTERED STATES, respectively.

My absolute favorite composer is Ennio Morricone, who has not done a lot of scifi/fantasy, but he did the phenomenal The Thing score for John Carpenter.

The theatrical score was fine, and I won't call it one-note...but one could justifiably call it two-note. Which was the way Carpenter evidently wanted it.

The complete soundtrack is much more detailed, and pulled a neat trick when substantial fragments of it were reused in Morricone's HATEFUL EIGHT decades later and won Best Musical Score in the process. (The first GODFATHER score had t be disqualified from an Oscar nomination for similar reasons. Perhaps Rosenmann and Horner taught them recycling was now the norm.)

 

[JD]

Vangelis: Blade Runner. I've never been able to get into any of his other work, but I love his Blade Runner music.

While I love his Blade Runner soundtrack, I recently watched the theatrical version of Legend for the first time and I couldn't stand it. I found it kind of strange, and contanstant use of whales sounds felt really random.
I forgot Bear McCreary in my original list, I love his music for Battlestar Galactica, See, Foundation and Rings of Power.

 

[Steve Roby]

Legend was Tangerine Dream. The original score was by Jerry Goldsmith but it was replaced. I like some early Tangerine Dream but found they got more bland and sugary with various lineup changes. Christopher Franke, the main composer for Babylon 5, was in Tangerine Dream when they did Legend.

 

[JD]

Oh my mistake, I don't know why I was thinking it was Vangelis.