Stanley Myers

Stanley Myers (6 October 19309 November 1993) was an English composer and conductor, who scored over sixty films and television series, working closely with filmmakers Nicolas Roeg, Jerzy Skolimowski and Volker Schlöndorff. He is best known for his guitar piece "Cavatina", composed for the 1970 film The Walking Stick and later used as the theme for The Deer Hunter. He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music for Wish You Were Here, and was an early collaborator with and mentor of Hans Zimmer.

Biography Myers was born in Birmingham, England; as a teenager he went to King Edward's School in Edgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham. He married choreographer Eleanor Fazan.

Myers wrote incidental music for television: for example, "The Reign of Terror", a 1964 serial in the television series Doctor Who; the theme to All Gas and Gaiters; and the theme for the BBC's Question Time.

One night in 1966, Myers and Barry Fantoni had called into the Chi Chi club to discuss the music for the movie Kaleidoscope which was to star Warren Beatty and Susannah York. What they were after was a switched-on song they needed for a switched-on intense movie. The resident group called Romeo Z came on and caused the ceiling to shake. There they knew they had the band they wanted, and they got the band to record the song "Kaleidoscope", which appeared in the film and on the soundtrack album which was released on Warner Bros. W 1663 in October 1966

He is known for composing music for the cult horror films House of Whipcord, Frightmare, House of Mortal Sin and Schizo for filmmaker Pete Walker.

The Pink Floyd website credits the brass parts on their 1968 song "Corporal Clegg" to "The Stanley Myers Orchestra".

Myers is best known for "Cavatina" (1970), an evocative guitar piece, played by John Williams, that served as the signature theme for Michael Cimino's 1978 film The Deer Hunter, and for which Myers won the Ivor Novello Award. He also scored the film Wish You Were Here and several low budget features (Time Traveller, Blind Date, The Wind, Zero Boys) for director Nico Mastorakis, collaborating with Hans Zimmer.

Filmography Film 1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

Television BAFTA TV Award for Best Original Music in a Dramatic Programme