Let's Hear It for Sound Tracks

Someone at Time Magazine has published one of those ubiquitous and iniquitous lists of the (some number) best of something, in this case the 25 best movie sound tracks of all time.   This compiler can seem to speak with authority by being able to launch his view all over the world through an organ with such prestige as Time.  Nevertheless, by defining movie sound tracks as collections of songs, he is all wet, and as a longtime fan of movie sound tracks, I hereby firmly register my complete disagreement.

The best movie sound tracks consist instead of orchestral music written by one individual composer per film, with the human voice being only one of the many music instruments employed and usually not even the most important one.. 

My attitude can't be surprising, considering that through all the decades of its much esteemed existence, I have resolutely avoided ever seeing or hearing "The Sound of Music."   Instead at or near to the top of my list I would put the music for "Citizen Kane," as composed by Bernard Hermann, followed closely or tied by John Corigliano's score for "The Red Violin."   But there have been many other close contenders and distinguished composers.   

In fact, film scores make up a large part of the best classical music, and, for instance, it is not generally known that, though he ended up writing 15 symphonies, most of them on the major side, the great Russian composer, Dimitri Shostakovich, probably wrote even more music for films than he did for the more usual classical forms.   As he spent a lot of time being in trouble with the Soviet authorities, he probably did it mostly to pick up a crust of bread here and there, though he also knew quite well what was the good stuff.