Music is as important a part of the movie experience as the popcorn. The right music will complement and comment on the visual story and dialogue, taking the film to higher levels of emotion and excitement. Sometimes movie music is familiar — well-known pop, jazz, or classical melodies. More often the music is composed specifically for the film. While modern audiences take a musical background for granted, it was once a novelty. Watch classic early sound movies like the original Dracula (1931) or Frankenstein (1933), and you'll be struck by the lack of music behind the on-screen action.

King Kong (1933) changed that. Max Steiner's music was an integral part of the film, supporting the action and lending suspense. The success of the film and his score ensured that the sound of movies would never be the same. Since that time many fine composers have contributed some great music to the movies. Film composers don't have an easy job — they must meld their ideas to fit the action and flow of the movie, often rearranging and cutting material as the film is edited. Usually the composer is working under a strict deadline, and there is little time for rewrites or revisions. While the best movie composers are in great demand, they're not "ivory-tower" artists — they're hard-working musical craftsmen who know how to make the music complement the film without overshadowing it.

Let's look at 10 composers whose work represents some of the best in movie music. For each composer I've picked a soundtrack album or a compilation album to introduce their work. If you've never explored the music of the movies, I hope this list gives you a good starting point. Give them a listen!

John Barry
Thunderball
Original motion picture soundtrack (remastered)
(Capitol 72435-80589-2-5)
John Barry's long and prolific career as a film composer now spans five decades, highlighted by three Academy Awards. He's best known to most moviegoers as the man who defined the musical style for the many James Bond films. Thunderball (1965) is one of his best scores, combining the bold, brassy, and percussive action themes you expect in a Bond film with haunting motifs that complement the movie's many underwater scenes. The 2003 remastering of the original soundtrack album includes almost 45 minutes of excellent music left off of the original release. The recording sounds great — crisp stereo separation, with a nice warm tones in the low, undulating flute and string melodies, contrasted by brilliant brass that is powerful, precise, but never "tinny." The score's many sudden changes in volume provide an excellent test of your system's amplifier.

To experience the excitement of Barry's action scoring, check out the 11th track, "007," a taut reworking of a percussive theme Barry originally composed for 1963's From Russia with Love. Then listen to "Bond Below Disco Volante," for an interesting development of several of the themes employed in the movie. While Thunderball isn't my favorite Bond movie (I'll stick with Goldfinger), this installment has some of the most memorable music.

Barry trivia: John Barry has been nominated for an Academy Award nomination in four different decades — the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Bernard Herrmann
The Film Scores
Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen
(Sony Classical SK 62700)
Bernard Hermann's film scoring runs the gamut, beginning with Orson Welles' 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane to his final film score, for Martin Scorsese's dark and disturbing Taxi Driver (1976). Perhaps Herrmann's best work came in his collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock. Herrmann composed the music for some of Hitch's greatest works, notably Psycho (1960), Vertigo (1958), and North by Northwest (1959). It's fitting that this 1996 recording includes music from six of his collaborations with Hitchcock, as well as selections from Francois Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1966) and Taxi Driver.

Hermann departed from the lush melodic style of most of his contemporaries, emphasizing short rhythmic motifs to propel the action forward. The resulting musical tension is palpable in "The Rainstorm," from Psycho, where the tense music emphasizes the nervousness of Janet Leigh's character. In the energetic "North by Northwest: Overture" note how Herrmann utilizes repeated rhythms to create a bright, sharp-edged tension. This recording is a real treat for Herrmann fans — the L.A. Philharmonic sounds robust and bold, and conductor Salonen isn't afraid to let the orchestra run at full stride. The stereo CD disc is encoded with Dolby Pro Logic for a more enveloping experience if you've got a surround sound system, and is also available as a 2-channel SACD disc. If you want a good test of your system's low-frequency performance, go to "The Man Who Knew Too Much: Prelude" and see how well your speakers handle the explosive opening bars.

Herrmann trivia: Herrmann appeared in front of the cameras, playing a conductor, in Hitchcock's 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Moscow Symphony Orchestra, William Stromberg
(Marco Polo 8.225268)
Among the great film composers of Hollywood's "Golden Era" — Max Steiner, Franz Waxman, and Alfred Newman, to name a few — the composer with perhaps the greatest long-term impact was Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Korngold set new standards for compositional and scoring excellence during his career, thanks to his memorable use of melodic themes and bold orchestrations. Listening to a Korngold score is more akin to listening to a complete symphonic tone poem than a simple collection of musical cues.

Korngold's Oscar-winning film score for 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood is a masterpiece of film composition. Korngold introduces distinct themes for all of the major characters, and then continually intertwines and develops these themes as the story develops. The strong musical narrative flows to match the story we're seeing on screen, one moment lush and romantic, the next suddenly bursting with energy, projecting a muscular vitality that matches the swashbuckling style of the movie. This excellent 2003 recording, on Marco Polo (a small label with a strong dedication to recreating classic film scores), benefits from William Stromberg's energetic conducting and the solid musicianship of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. The recording has a lively palate of orchestral colors, with a lush, full sound that presents the mid to low frequencies particularly well. If your surround sound system has a DVD-Audio player, Marco Polo has released a multi-channel version of this album on DVD-Audio as well. To listen to an excellent example of the verve and energy Korngold invested in the music, go straight to "The Battle — The Duel — The Victory," an exhilarating set piece with a strong, emotionally satisfying climax. My advice though, is to get out the excellent liner notes and listen to the disc straight through. You'll be glad you did!

Korngold trivia: In 1936, while an Austrian citizen, Korngold had his music banned by the Nazis as "decadent."