High quality film composers like Goldsmith studied and were influenced by the major 'classical' composers of the time, Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. Both lived the rest of their lives in Hollywood after emigrating - Stravinsky from 1945 to 1971 and Schoenberg from 1934 to 1951. They were both approached to do film scores, and may have tried their hand at it - but in the end were 'high art' composers who weren't suited to film music. For instance, Schoenberg had composed a mojor religious opera in German ('Moses and Aron') and Stravinsky was composing ballets and cantatas in Latin and Hebrew texts ..

But they both mixed a lot with other composers and society generally - Schoenberg used to play tennis with George Gershwin, and Stravinsky was virtually godfather to that whole generation of film composers. The point I'm making is that many people do still find Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Stockhausen et al difficult to listen to (good audio equipment is essential for that, btw), because of their unusual and forbidding harmonies, and also because of their Germanic sophistication. But musical masters like Goldsmith adapted their idioms and techniques to cinema soundtracks, where that type of music - now describing the onscreen action - then became more intelligible and accessible to the public.