Unlike the professions most people create a LinkedIn profile to join, film scoring doesn’t have a direct application process. Making it more challenging, while there are more opportunities to find composing jobs these days thanks to the streaming wars, there are more composers which makes it hard to stand out.

All we’re exposed to, from early childhood onward, is constructing our perspective on reality and will push us forward at unequal speeds. I like to believe most of us will be brought to the fortunes life has to offer—health, money, fulfillment, education, love, happiness—albeit we’ll have to sacrifice at least one of these fortunes for another along the journey.

Before I begin, I must pay respect to the late Ennio Morricone. As a composer myself, I know working with film directors can be daunting. (Many times, both of us are too scared to admit to the other that we don’t know what we’re doing. (Or perhaps that’s just me.))

On April 23rd, 2017, 18-time All-Star and 2008 NBA MVP winner, Kobe Bryant premiered his animated short film, Dear Basketball, at the Tribeca Film Festival. To deliver the film’s score, Bryant trusted no one else other than legendary composer John Williams, who the basketball star had been a fan of since childhood admitting that he, as a boy, ran around to the “Superman theme” with a towel around his neck.

The most commonly asked question an artist will hear is, “Where does the influence come from?” My answer has never been as romanticized as most expect. It doesn’t come from the popular clichés, i.e. unrequited love or sitting in a room alone being struck with idea after idea. More accurately it’s collaboration—the centerpiece for all music careers.

There are many works from the concert hall that film music pays homage to (and vice-versa). We can here the influences of Stravinsky in John Williams, Bartók in Danny Elfman, the list goes on. As the art of film scoring continues to grow we can’t loose sight of its roots to history. Here are some obvious, and not-so-obvious, concert works that can be used for film score study.

There’s at least one album we can name from our teenage years that put us on the path to what we listen to today. For composers the equivalent are works that changed the trajectory of artistic identity. I can list mine effortlessly. Here’s my big 4 that, for me, are indispensable.