Pick the odd one out:
Beethoven, Sting, Morricone, Waters, Vangelis, Reyes (of Gypsy Kings), Sondheim, Cross, Puccini, Andersson, Partch, Seal, Lachenmann, Zadeh, Zimmer.
You guessed it! What is it that singles out the great soundtrack-guru [:P] [+o(]? We'll deal with this later...
Everyone else on the list is a great composer in the musical genre they inhabit. That doesn't mean that they are all equally great composers, as each of the genres has its own demands, scope, and breadth. Each has its delights, but it is a far greater artistic achievement to write the Pastoral, than Cinema Paradiso, The Dark Side of the Moon, Sailing, Crazy, Blade Runner, Sweeney Todd, and even La Boheme... It doesn't matter that Beethoven could write none of those works; even close; even if he was given the technology. The Pastoral stands far-far-far-far above them.
It doesn't matter that every piece I mentioned above is different (or uniquely different in some cases) to everything else; it doesn't matter that different musical sensibilities are involved; and it doesn't matter that the genres to which the respective pieces belong are considered different and many of them unrelated. You have to take on account that each genre is nowhere near as creative and ambitious as another one. If you don't accept that, then you automatically have to accept the following statement as absolutely true: "Madonna is as great a composer as Mozart" (as they are both great in their respective fields, there is nothing else to separate them in their artistic achievements).
I cannot say or argue this in any more detail, I am just sorry if it is not self evident to some people here. Perhaps you can start by familiarizing yourselves a lot more with 'serious' music and what it involves, perhaps read Stravinsky's Poetics, Einstein's Greatness in Music, Copland's What to Listen for in Music (highly recommended for beginners and most under 35 here), David Cope's New Directions in Music, Alexander Goehr's Finding the Key, and look at Bernstein's Unanswered Question Harvard lectures (available on YouTube), before I recommend some heavier reading...
Now, as to the quiz... His Lofty Eminence the Prince of Emptiness is distinguished from all other luminaries on that list, in that he is NOT a great composer in ANY genre. Let's just immediately sh*t on that House of Toilet-Cards that is supposed to be His "strength"... Timbre.......... People always talk about timbre, and associate timbre with what pathetic "distortions" and "enhancements" Hans and other DJs thatch together. Well, people should never mention the term timbre, not ever; rip it out of their vocabulary, until they also know what the "words" Xenakis, Ligeti, Lachenmann, Grisey, Murail, Harvey, and Saariaho, mean... O.K. guys? His Highness should not be allowed to dream He could ever, in a thousand years, explore, or even create(!) a timbre, that droves of other - real - composers haven't explored or thought of before Him....
To the second possibility: "Ahh, but Hans changes instrumental timbres through electronic means"... Again, look at the above composers (and more), and now it is time to remove another word from our ignorant vocabulary - electronic. First we'll familiarize ourselves with what IRCAM and Princeton stand for, what has transpired in those places (and elsewhere) electronic-musically for the last thousand years, and then we shall discuss whether His Grace and the beat-mongers have added a single quantum modicum of NEW sound to this universe of ours... Eric Persing is a far greater composer than Hans in that regard; all he'd have to do is add those super(long)strings spewccati on top of his wonderful arrays of sound...
There is NOTHING new happening (to which we are reactionaries); NO new music, NO new concepts (especially sprouting from the Two Steps from Murder twat above). They just SEEM new due to sheer ignorance. I don't mean that as an insult. I am ignorant in matters geophysical, entomological, medical, even matters of studio hardware - I just try to offer as few opinions as possible in these matters (hint-hint).
To finish: I agree with William retracting the verb 'obliterate' from his post. I also found it too complimentary and too worshipful (of Hans!). I'd say Goldsmith's music obliterates Hans'; Jarre's massacres Hans'; Reinhold Gliere's de-quantumizes Hans'; and Claude Debussy's purifies whatever sub-sub-elements remain...
I haven't the first clue what J.S.' music does to it...