Howard Shore won an Oscar for his Lord of the Rings work

Listeners to Classic FM selected Howard Shore's compositions above John Williams' Star Wars soundtrack, which came second.

Hans Zimmer's Gladiator soundtrack came third, while Williams' music to Schindler's List came fourth.

Williams notched up eight entries in the top 40, which was voted for by 44,000 listeners.

Among his other popular works were ET, Harry Potter and Indiana Jones.

British composer John Barry also proved memorable for listeners, with Out of Africa and Dances With Wolves in the top 10.

TOP 10 MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS 1. Lord of the Rings - Howard Shore 2. Star Wars - John Williams 3. Gladiator - Hans Zimmer 4. Schindler's List - John Williams 5. Out of Africa - John Barry/Mozart 6. Dances With Wolves - John Barry 7. The Mission - Ennio Morricone 8. Lawrence of Arabia - Maurice Jarre 9. Jurassic Park - John Williams 10. Dr Zhivago - Maurice Jarre Source: Classic FM

Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to The Mission, which starred Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons, came seventh in the poll.

High demand

Lawrence of Arabia, Jurassic Park and Dr Zhivago also featured in the top 10.

Canadian Shore's previous work includes composing for David Cronenberg's Crash and Silence of the Lambs.

Since working on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, he has been in high demand for movies such as Gangs of New York and The Aviator.

He is now working on Jackson's King Kong movie, which is due for release later this year.

Classic FM station manager Darren Henley said: "Howard Shore and John Williams are the Mozart and Beethoven of their generation.