Looking for 'epic' orchestral scores

[Tom_green_day]

Haven't read many of the previous comments but:
Lord of the Rings (obviously)
Pirates of the Caribbean. 1 and 3 are the best in my opinion.
Mass Effect 3 OST (And the OSTs of DLC)
Skyrim OST
Requiem for a Dream (Clint Mansell, don't know what it's a part of)
Gladiator OST
The Planets Suite by Holst
Actually, the other TES soundtracks.
Music by John Murphy- Sunshine and In the House in a Heartbeat are his best.
Any basically anything by John Williams.

 

[GameChanger]

TWO STEPS FROM HELL: Thomas Bergersen and Nick Phoenix.

There, the holy trinity in music. EVERYTHING they do is good. Even their dubstep.

Now there are some others, Audiomachine for example. They have a lot of tracks uploaded to their official youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/audiomachine1
Even their last Milennium album, which totally rocks.

Now James Newton Howard is particularly specialized in epic soundtracks such as Dinosaur, Treasure Planet, King Kong, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Hunger Games, The Last Airbender and more. (obligatory movie sucks comment)

You might also want to check out some of the stuff by Jo Blankenburg, his most recent album has some really really nice tracks. Jasper Blunk has only a few released tracks but so far I think he is really good. Ilan Eshkeri composed Stardust, a heartwarming score to a heartwarming movie.

You might know Steve Jablonsky for his work on Transformers, but if you don't: just putting it out there. He also did the scores for The Island (the soundtrack that got me into orchestral music as a whole) Battleship, some horror movies and Dragon Wars.

X-Ray Dog will be mentioned here but I think they've massively dropped the ball after their K-9 Empire albums so don't really bother with them unless you want to dig deep for good tracks.

There was this little group called 8Dawn, their only good albums are Torn and The Dawn but they're worth checking out.

Occasionally I enjoy music by Immediate Music but most of their albums are a painful experience. Themes For Orchestra and Choir were what made them famous and for good reason. They were the first to try what others hadn't yet done in trailer music: heavy orchestras and choirs. Everyone else followed their lead. All three Themes albums are masterpieces in cinematic music, but that's about it with them. Most if not all other albums focus on the cheaper kind of trailer music. There is this album called Epic Choral Action, but it's kind of like a micheal bay produced album.

Harry Gregson Williams is often overlooked but you should check him out. He did the Narnia Scores and some other good stuff.

A Hans Zimmer mention is obligatory. I personally feel he's a one trick pony at times, but he does a good trick either way. Pirates Of The Carribean, Beyond Rangoon, Blackhawk Down, The Da Vinci Code and Inception are my favorites of his work.

Groove Addicts and Ninja tracks collaborated on the Full Tilt Series. They're great, go check 'em out.

Mark Petrie as a composer is all over the place. Most of his music is kinda.. 'weird' but enjoyable nonetheless.

Epic Score is what it says. Most of it is off-the-line production music but their later albums are a little bit above average.



MAN. I could go on and on and on. Maybe I should just copy/paste my itunes library on here but I worry about crashing the servers.

Brand X Music, Benjamin Bartlett, Bear McCreary, Basil Pouledaris, Clint Mansell, Clinton Shorter, Alan Silvestri, Andrew Lockington, Thomas Newman, John Williams, Craig Armstrong, Nightwish, Future World Music, Ludovico Einaudi, John Murphy, Trevor Rabin, Jack Wall, Sam Hulick, Alexandre Desplat, etc. etc. etc.


I just get passionate about these things.

 

[Syrograph]

A few of Jeremy Soule's scores have come up here already (Elder Scrolls stuff mostly), but one of my all-time favourite orchestral scores is the Total Annihilation OST. It's amazing, and is the absolute definition of epic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA-iag83kQc

 

[Fjartholf]

I don't know about films with epic scores... but I'll just post some classics:

Wagner Flying Dutchman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqezCR_XzaI
Mozart's Requiem Dies Irae/Lacrimosa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-kJVmEWWV8
Mussorgsky Baba Yaga and Great Gate of Kiev: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZkoW1Ta3ew

you might also want to check out some Dvorak, Brahms, Stravinsky (l'oiseau de feu - danse infernale especially) and Tchaikovsky.

 

[Private Custard]

No-one linked this yet??


Escapist, I am disappoint!

 

[Jacco]

Check the Halo OSTs out, as they are damn good.

Or look up Ride of the Valkyries. That is the definition of epic.

This. The Halo 4 OST is freaking epic as hell.

 

[generals3]

Personally i'm a huge fan of John Dreamer's work. He only has a few songs but damn are they good

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Thread necro. This thread is over two years old now.

But to contribute. Mahler. Motherfucking Gustav Mahler, the master of romanticism.

(skip to around the seven minute mark)

Similar people are Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, Shostakovitch, and Prokofiev. There's more, but I can't recall ones that stood out the same.

Okay, if you don't have the time to listen Mahler's 7th, listen to this quick piece by Prokofiev (by the way, I listened to Prokofiev's 5th live, it's a pretty nice symphony).



Okay, maybe you didn't like the slow part in the middle of that. Well, Shostakovitch's Festive Overture is about the same length and is upbeat and engaging throughout.


Overtures are all nice. Intro pieces, really. Fast tempo, upbeat, not that lengthy, usually with their own unique styles. Of course, by tradition the first movement to most symphonies are the same style. But here's another overture, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture - not as good Shostakovitch, but it's a recognizable classic in same familiarity as Vivaldi's Four Seasons or Lisct's Hungarian Rhapsody (trust me, you've heard their tunes, even if you don't remember the names).


Okay, fuck this, TheYellowCellPhone, these pieces still aren't as fast and exciting as I want them to be, they take too long to listen and there are only moments of pants jizzing sandwiched between pretentiously thick slices of bleh.

THEN LET ME. TELL YOU. About John Phillips Sousa and Henry Fillmore. You've heard most of Sousa's works like The Stars and the Stripes (again, you've heard the tune but probably not the names), but Fillmore is in my opinion superior to Sousa. Most of their pieces take maybe three minutes per, and goddamn don't you wish they were longer.



And if you want to get a little more modern, Maslanka. His saxophone concerto is the best concerto I've listened to, and by an incredibly unorthodox orchestral instrument like a saxophone too! Lots of his pieces, like Give us the Day are easily lovable and memorable.

Also, Maslanka's symphonies (his fourth being his most popular) are freaking awesome.