Composer Richard Robbins, 71

Richard Robbins, the composer who created memorable scores for such films as “A Room With a View,” “Howards End” and “The Remains of the Day” during a quartercentury collaboration with director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant, has died. Hewas 71.

Robbins died Nov. 7 at his home in Rhinebeck, N.Y., of Parkinson’s disease, said Michael Schell, his longtime partner.

Robbins created the score for nearly every Merchant Ivory film from “The Europeans” in 1979 to “The White Countess” in 2005. He earned back-to-back Academy Award nominations for his original music for “Howards End” (1992) and “The Remains of the Day” (1993).

“I always felt that if anything happened to him and we didn’t have his music, then it really wouldn’t be a Merchant Ivory film,” James Ivory said in an interview last week. “His music was integral to our films.”

Although his compositions were heavily influenced by the minimalist composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich, Robbins also occasionally wrote romantic, lushly orchestrated music, including for “Maurice,” the 1987 film based on the E.M. Forster novel. The score won a top award at the Venice Film Festival, and Robbins often described it as his favorite.

Robbins was responsible for choosing and supervising all the music for the Merchant Ivory films he worked on, fromthe pop songs for “Slaves of New York” in 1989 and the Puccini aria “O mio babbino caro” for “A Room With a View.”

Robbins’ work was honored in 1996 at a gala concert at Carnegie Hall to benefit AIDS research.

In addition to Schell, an artist whowas his partner for more than 20 years, Robbins’ survivors include his brothers Donald, William, John and Peter.