Intrada Soundtrack Forum

The other day, Mr Fake wrote something about Munich and how he thinks to nobody writes for strings like John Williams these days.

That got me thinking (after three months...): out of today's working composers (and I mean composers, not key-and-button pressers), who writes for strings in an individual(ly identifiable) and memorable way? I can't really express myself better than that, sorry, but my three choices are:

-John Williams (as heard in Munich or Schindler's List)
-Elliot Goldenthal (as heard in Alien³ or Final Fantasy)
-Thomas Newman (as heard in Oscar and Lucinda or The Shawshank Redemption)

Patrick Doyle also does great work when he's writing elegies (Carlito's Way or The Goblet of Fire).

The Golden String Section, however, goes to John Corigliano for his phenomenal string writing in -three guesses- The Red Violin.

I'm looking forward to your comments and suggestions.

Agreed on all counts, pal.

Also, the string writing for the instrumental version of Gollum's Song before the singer enters is pretty amazing IMO.

Um...and part-time Horner basher tho' I be, I must say Horner has always had a way with string orchestrations.

And Goldsmith's not with us any more, but in Bajo Fuego there is this FANTASTIC moment when the strings enter some way through the track.

Yavar

I've always been particularly fond of Christopher Young's string work. Whether he's writing something as beautiful as Murder in the First or ar twisted as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, he always manages to do something impressive.

I think that Michael Giacchino has a pretty recognizable string sound as well, especially in his more somber pieces like Pegasus Bridge from Call of Duty, Epilogue from Sin (somebody put out a cd of this already!) and of course his more recent work on Lost.

Joe Hisaishi definitely knows what he's doing when it comes to strings. Just listen to The Dragon Boy from Spirited Away, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky from Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Bird Person (Ending) from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, or I Can Fly! from A Chinese Tall Story. He also wrote some excellent string stuff in his recent rescoring of Buster Keaton's The General, which does the best job of capturing the essence of a moving train I've heard since Poledouris scored Switchback.

Another Japanese composer that's quite adept at string writing is Taro Iwashiro. His score for Blood and Bones, written almost exclusively for strings, is a very potent and somber score.