Which composers wrote music for the most movies on this blog?

Now that I’ve posted my favorite movie(s) of each year from 1920 to 2020, let’s look at which composers wrote the musical score for the most of them.

Two composers each wrote music for 6 movies on my list:

Bernard Herrmann: Citizen Kane (1941), 🎻 Hangover Square (1945), The Wrong Man (1956), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), Taxi Driver (1976) 🎻

Music from Vertigo. Stéphane Denève conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2022.

Click the year to go to my post about each movie. The violin 🎻 emoji after a movie title means the composer was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Score, and movies that won the award get a trophy 🏆 emoji.

Franz Waxman: The Invisible Man (1933), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Rebecca (1940), 🎻 Sunset Boulevard (1950), 🏆 Stalag 17 (1953), Rear Window (1954)

A scene from Rebecca with the music isolated. Click here for my in-depth analysis of the Rebecca score (with spoilers).

These composers each wrote orchestral scores for 5 movies on my list:

Alfred Newman: Dodsworth (1936), Wuthering Heights (1939), 🎻 Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Thieves’ Highway (1949), All About Eve (1950) 🎻

The opening credits of Leave Her to Heaven.

Erik Nordgren: Summer with Monika (1953), Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), Wild Strawberries (1957), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), The Emigrants (1971)

Nino Rota: La Strada (1954), White Nights (1957), Romeo and Juliet (1968), The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974) 🎻

Music from La Strada.

Miklós Rózsa: Double Indemnity (1944), 🎻 The Lost Weekend (1945), 🎻 The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), Brute Force (1947), The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

Music from Double Indemnity. Conducted by Irvin Talbot.

Dimitri Tiomkin: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), 🎻 Shadow of a Doubt (1943), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Strangers on a Train (1951), Dial M for Murder (1954)

These composers each wrote music for 4 movies on my list:

John Leipold: Monkey Business (1931), Horse Feathers (1932), The Story of Temple Drake (1933), It’s a Gift (1934)

Frank Skinner: Destry Rides Again (1939), Harvey (1950), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Imitation of Life (1959)

Roy Webb: Bringing Up Baby (1938), Cat People (1942), Notorious (1946), Out of the Past (1947)

Music from Notorious.

3 composers each wrote music for 3 movies on my list:

Thomas Newman: The Player (1992), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), 🎻 The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

Alan Silvestri: Back to the Future trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990)

Alan Silvestri conducting his own music from the Back to the Future trilogy, beginning with Part III.

Max Steiner: Gone with the Wind (1939), 🎻 Casablanca (1942), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

These composers each scored 2 movies on my list:

George Antheil: Repeat Performance (1947), In a Lonely Place (1950)

Gerald Fried: The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957)

Hugo Friedhofer: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), 🏆 Ace in the Hole (1951)

Music is essential to one of the most memorable scenes in The Best Years of Our Lives, where Dana Andrews, as a World War II veteran with PTSD, steps into a ruined airplane in a junkyard.

Fumio Hayasaka: Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952)

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross: The Social Network (2010), 🏆 Gone Girl (2014)

Music from Gone Girl.

Herbert Stothart: A Night at the Opera (1935), The Wizard of Oz (1939) 🏆

Victor Young: The Big Clock (1948), Gun Crazy (1949)

Honorable mention goes to these renowned composers, who each wrote music for one movie on my list:

Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story (1961)

Aaron Copland: The Heiress (1949) 🏆

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Sea Wolf (1941)

Henry Mancini: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

“Symphonic Dances” from West Side Story. Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducting the Frankfurt Radio Symphony.