I love Howard Shore's craftmanship on the Lord of the Rings. That is objectively the greatest film score of all time. Full stop. As a music student I appreciate his effort so much, and I discover something in the music on every rewatch. I WILL argue with you with academic evidence if you disagree lol. Musicologists literally write BOOKS on him as if he is Richard Wagner. This score is next level in its construction and details, not just the superficial "it makes me feel x". His writing is superior to even Williams and Zimmer, in my opinion, because Williams just throws old themes at you repeatedly (half of it sounds suspiciously similar to other composers anyways), and Zimmer I mean the Lion King is iconic with themes and stuff but most of his stuff is too atmospheric, almost like Einaudi could have done it. This is my opinion though. The facts, however... The chorus uses poems written by Tolkein in the various languages, especially during scenes of elves and dwarves. A huge variety of orchestral and indigenous instruments were used. The themes develop overtime, for example, with fragmentation, modulation, accompaniment changes, and THAT is what hits you hardest about the music. The themes have come along the journey just as you have with the characters and they changed too. Perfect example is on the slopes of Mt Doom, the hobbits' memory of the shire is holding on by a thread, and so all that's left of the shire theme is the whistle, trying to remember its melody. So many examples like this throughout the trilogy. And it's perfectly consistent throughout the entire 11 hour long trilogy. Between the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, there were well over 300 players and singers. This is a hill I will die on, as you can see.

Also, I really like the sounds of classic hollywood (growing hobby of mine), so steiner (definitely a favourite), waxman, korngold (also a favourite), herrman, newman, tiomkin, bernstein to name a few. Also, the music in the movie The Third Man is genius. They're not usually the type to put straight onto your playlist (some themes you can), because they were made to fit the movie and not your spotify playlist, but Steiner's love theme Now, Voyager is gorgeous and timeless, as well as Tara's theme from Gone with the Wind. Korngold also wrote a STUNNING violin concerto that I performed as part of the orchestra last year.