h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As an A level music student we study 'epic' film scores and their composers, and Jerry Goldsmith is considered by most of our class to be one of the most successful. He is perhaps unique in that he is not constrained by a certain style as many other film composers are (such as James Horner and John Williams [the latter with the possible exception of 'Catch Me If You Can']). The diversity of his writing is embodied by the massive risk he took in composing a score as unconventional and frightening as that of 'Planet Of The Apes.' A more recent composer who seems to have taken a similar risk by composing against type is the unfortunate Gabriel Yared, a gamble which ultimately did not pay off.
His recent death, along with that of Elmer Bernstein, one of the few composers who could match Goldsmith's flair for so many different compositional styles, will be greatly mourned by musicians and film nuts alike.