Cool News
ScoreKeeper Interrogates Hans Zimmer on SHERLOCK HOLMES!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Greetings! ScoreKeeper here sleuthing my way into 2010 with a wallop of an interview so elementary it defies the laws of rational logic.
Hans Zimmer is one of the most prolific and sought after composers in Hollywood. The films he has scored over the span of his career has generated billions of dollars at the box office and his seemingly insurmountable popularity swells with each new score he creates.
The day before I was set to depart for my Christmas vacation, I had the opportunity to interrogate Mr. Zimmer on his latest cinematic endeavor, SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009).
So what was I able to deduce from my inquiry with the mega-popular German-born composer?
You'll have to read for yourself. Remember…when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth!
ScoreKeeper: Hello Hans!
Hans Zimmer: Hey! How’s Christmas shaping up?
SK: It’s shaping up very well. How about for you?
HZ: I’m just about to dash out and do some Christmas shopping.
SK: Actually, after this interview I will be as well…
[Both Laugh]
HZ: Exactly! We are all in the same boat.
SK: Yes, indeed. I want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule during an especially busy holiday season to speak with me. I'm glad we were able to do this before Christmas.
HZ: You are very welcome.
SK: Okay…so let’s get things started so we can go do some Christmas shopping, shall we?
HZ: Ask me anything!
SK: Hans, you're one of the most sought after composers in Hollywood. I'm curious how and why you choose your projects. I'm sure you could almost pick any film out there that you wanted. Why team up with Guy Ritchie and score SHERLOCK HOLMES? What made this project so attractive to you?
HZ: The thing is, once you meet Guy, you know you are going to have a fun time! I partly pick my projects by the people I get to work with. Guy phoned me up and he said, "I'm doing a Sherlock Holmes movie. Every time I go into the cutting room, there's THE DARK KNIGHT all over it. I like DARK KNIGHT but that's not what I want."
The good news was that he didn't want me to do the same-old-same-old. I said, "Okay, I'll come over to London and have a look at it." Then I got very busy and months and months went by. Then he asked me, "Are you ever going to come see this thing?" I went over there and I had great trepidations about it. I was worried that he would have made a mess of the character or something like that.
I was the first person he showed it to and he had me within twenty seconds!
He solved all of the problems that I had or could foresee. It was fun! We started talking and we both liked the same sort of music so that’s a good start.
SK: What kind of collaborator is he? Was he very active in the scoring process or more passive?
HZ: Very active! I would have a tune and he would literally pace up and down in front of me then come back to me and say, "Quiet here…" It was great! I never mind playing with the director in the room, coming up with ideas or chucking things out and coming up with new stuff. It was very much in a spirit of true collaboration. He and I were very much on the same page…what the movie should be, how quirky it should be and to keep the fun parts and to make it funny.
I'm a hideous player. I truly play with no technique whatsoever. To quote Jim Brooks, "The only thing I've got going for me is I'm prepared to humiliate myself."
SK: Can you pinpoint for me one unique characteristic about Guy Ritchie that set him apart from your experiences working with other directors?
HZ: The conducting part! Also he'd be seriously getting in amongst it in a very proactive way and be completely fearless. Remember, it's still a big Hollywood blockbuster-type movie. When I said to him, "What about banjos?" and him not flinching, you know? Whatever I would say to him, he wouldn't scare.
SK: Let’s talk about that a little bit. You employ a very colorful array of ethnic and non-traditional instruments for this score. Can you guide us on a tour of some of the more interesting instrument choices that you used?
HZ: Sure! [Laughs] Guy actually has a pub in London. There's a traditional Irish band that plays in his pub called "The Punch Bowl Band." They play Irish jigs and folk music and there's a great sound to it. I thought, "How can I not have that be an isolated incident in the movie?" I thought of taking musicians from all over the world that I knew or I had heard of and wanted to see what would happen if I put a very eclectic band together.
There are basically three fiddles: Alexei Gusteman who is Russian and lives in Vienna, Ann Marie Calhoun who is in Dave Stewart's band, and another chap who actually lives over here in Los Angeles. They all have very different styles. That was basically my string section.
Then I found a bass player in Italy. I found a cellist who was on tour and Davey Johnstone who is actually a guitarist in Elton John's band but never gets to play the banjo. I know he's a really great banjo player.
I got this wonderful group of musicians together and wrote for them. The idea was to make it actually a virtuoso playing the score where everybody could really go and give their best. Guy and I didn't want that homogenous sound that you get from an orchestra. We felt that it wasn't the way to go in this movie. Everything had a point of view. Everything was a bit bolder. Everything was a bit more lively and dangerous.
SK: One of the signature instruments that I am hearing in the score sounds like a dulcimer. What is that?
HZ: It’s a Hungarian cimbalom and it’s like the big brother of the dulcimer. We also brought in an old piano and turned it on its side. We were playing the strings with hammers or drum sticks and stuff like that.
There was a lot of misappropriation and torturing of instruments going on! For instance, Diego (Stocco), the bassist, literally took a hacksaw to his bass to have the strings resonate sympathetically.
I really wanted the music to be – it's a very overused word – but very organic. It's very un-electronic. It's surprisingly un-electronic for me, you know?
SK: You have a very distinct fiddle style in this score. How much of the music was written out specifically for each of your three fiddle players and how much of it was just turning them loose to do what they do? Were there any improvisatory elements in the score?
HZ: Believe it or not, it’s all written. Everything is written. It was all about the performance really but it’s all written.
SK: Why lean so much on the violin?
HZ: Sherlock Holmes is a violinist. I kept thinking, "What would happen if he actually played the violin? Would his violin playing sound more like (Albert) Einstein?" Einstein loved being a violinist but he made a scratchy sound. It was much more about the synapses in his brain firing.
It was much more a way of looking into the mind of Sherlock Holmes which might not be as tidy as you think. I think if Sherlock Holmes doesn't have a case to solve he's actually depressed. I think he's basically manic depressive. So I thought, "Oh, the violin should do manic depressive music."
SK: Research is always a common component to the scoring process for composers, especially when they are dealing with exotic environments and sonic landscapes like you have utilized in this film. How much research prior to scoring did you do? What did that entail?
HZ: Very little. The main thing I did was try not to listen to any of the other Sherlock Holmes movies. I didn’t want to be influenced by them. The rest of my research was just finding my players. I was really clear about who the musicians were that I wanted to use on this.
I grew up in Germany and with the opera. I wanted to it to have – I know it's slightly the wrong area and geographically wrong as well – but I wanted it to have this republic sound. A little rough around the edges.
When I start writing, I try not to listen to anything or anybody else because it's just noise in my head. You're supposed to invent! You are not supposed to be an anthropologist. It was more about, "What should I leave out?" and "What was the purpose of everything?"
I kept saying to the brass section, "Can you sound more like the Salvation Army?"
[Both Laugh]
I wanted things to be on the street corner or come from the pub around the corner. If you say to me that Guy and I spent a bit of time in a pub, that was probably part of the research.
SK: Could you break down the various themes that you wrote and what they represent in the film?
HZ: Okay, well it was very important that the first thing you hear on the album is the "Holmes Theme." I start the movie off with it because the movie very quickly goes into pretty dark territory and I just felt the first thing you need to do for an audience is you need to say to them, "You can have a bit of a giggle here. You can have a bit of a smile before we go into all of this dark territory.”
Watson doesn’t really have a theme. The whole idea is that it’s these two friends. In other words, if it’s Watson by himself the theme is more the lack of a theme and the void it creates.
The love interest I wrote many themes for. She finally ended up with a rather sexy theme. Again, it is a violin but it's very self-centered with a little bit of attitude. The other main theme is the Big Ben theme, just the bells of London, and that's really for Lord Blackwood, our bad guy. If you turn the notes upside-down and re-harmonize it in a way it will take you a while to figure out it's Big Ben. I hope you do by the end of it.
Part of it was to play the same games that the movie plays where you get a clue to something but you won't know what it is until the end. That sort of game was really fun.
I was forever trying to keep my focus on the main character and forever write about Sherlock Holmes. I got (Robert Downey Jr.) in one day very early on and said “Look, you know more about this character than I ever will, just talk to me about how you approached him. A lot of it was very much written with Robert’s voice in my head.
SK: Maybe that’s the answer to this question but let me ask it anyway…Every film has a door in which the composer searches for the right key to enter it. What was the key to SHERLOCK HOLMES which allowed you to enter the film and how did you arrive at finding it?
HZ: Oh, very much the Irish band. Very much the “Punch Bowl Band” and talking to Robert. For instance, him telling me how he would enter and exit a scene by holding the violin. Just finding those arches. There were certain things that were just obvious to me at the beginning: that it shouldn't be a homogenous orchestral score and that it shouldn't be a big pompous thing.
The movie actually looks very gritty even though the set design is probably the most absolutely gorgeous set design I have seen since, THE LAST EMPEROR. There’s an opulence in the picture and I just wanted to keep it small and distinct and agile. Holmes is really agile and that’s something great about having really virtuoso playing which is a little bit like the virtuosity that goes on in his head. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s novel or it’s straight, but there’s a fun to be had putting the adventure into somebody’s mind. Does that make sense?
SK: Yeah, definitely…I would assume that most of the films you work on are temp-tracked by the time you get to scoring them. You even mentioned earlier that SHERLOCK HOLMES was temped with your music from THE DARK KNIGHT. How do temp-track scores affect your creative process in general? How did it affect you on this film?
HZ: Actually, SHERLOCK HOLMES was the first one where I had a temp-track in a really long time. My process usually is to start writing before they start shooting and then I will have written large chunks of something or the other or at least created the themes by the time they start cutting the picture together. For instance, THE DA VINCI CODE (2006) never had a temp-track.
Because THE DARK KNIGHT was sort of the wrong direction we wanted for SHERLOCK HOLMES, it was really easy to ignore it. In fact, I don't think I ever really noticed THE DARK KNIGHT going all the way through it.
We work differently these days. It’s not like the old days when the studio had an army of copyists, arrangers, and orchestrators and the first time the director would really hear the movie was on the scoring stage with an orchestra sitting there. This was much more organic, writing things and recording things on a daily basis. I mock everything up with my synthesizers and I do a version of the whole score.
We actually went and previewed it with the mock-up score because the score is a little bit out there. I do think Warner Brothers wanted to know if…you know, if I should be replaced. We went off and did the preview and it was scary as hell! Luckily everybody really liked the music.
SK: At that screening what bumps did you encounter and how did you fix them?
HZ: The bumps I encountered? It’s funny because the preview audience couldn’t articulate the bumps. They were just asked, “Did you like the music?” All of the hands came up. I promise you, the time it took between the question being asked and the hands coming up – which was probably a second or two – to me felt like ten years in purgatory. What if no hands came up? I would have been in serious trouble.
I really think it’s interesting sitting there with an audience just experiencing the movie with people around you that have never seen it before. They don't know where it goes.
I just felt like the tune wasn't landing properly and there was a fair amount of retouching that happened afterwards because you get to see it in a different light. You have the chance to make it better for yourself and some things I tried to improve actually got worse. It doesn’t always work out that way, but on the whole, because it was so eclectic, I really had to go and pull it together so thematically it had an arch.
My problem is I keep coming up with ideas. GLADIATOR (2000) is a complete mess as there are nineteen main themes in that. I would get to another theme and be completely undisciplined and just, "Hey! I got an idea. Let's do it!"
SK: You are a proponent of composing extremely long pieces of music in your films. I think just about every film you score has at least one epic cue. There is even a piece of music in SHERLOCK HOLMES that approaches twenty minutes…
HZ: We cut that one down, believe it or not. We cut about three minutes out.
SK: So in the film, it’s even longer?
HZ: Yeah.
SK: Are you concerned at all about the inherent risks contained in longer pieces of music? The endurance of the ear, fatigue, complacency, things like that?
HZ: I was worried about that. Especially on this one. The strange thing about working with an orchestra as compared to working with soloists is you can tuck in behind the dialogue and the effects and it's okay. With these guys it was really hard to pull them back. I had to take it out completely or play boldly. We worked really hard on the shape of that last piece. I think it works pretty well in the movie.
Everybody was worried that we were going to exhaust the audience with it. Rather than cutting that last piece down I was careful about the reel before it and took out some music in there which lowered things beforehand. By the time you got back to music it was actually a welcomed distraction as opposed to just something that you wanted to go and shoot yourself over.
SK: You had a very impressive seven months to work on SHERLOCK HOLMES. There’s an old saying, "You never really finish a score, you just run out of time." It seems like seven months is a luxurious amount of time to compose a film score. Were there any aspects of it that you wish you still had more time to work on for whatever reason? Was there anything that you wanted to do in this score that you couldn’t or didn’t?
HZ: It started off that I was supposed to be finished by the first of August. I actually had eight weeks originally and then I looked at the release date and I went, “That’s crazy! You are not coming out until Christmas!” They finally went, “Okay, you pick your date.” We finished it about two and a half weeks ago.
You are absolutely right, listening to it at the premiere I’m cautiously optimistic that it sort of worked. I am my worst critic.
Are there things I would loved to have changed? Yes, there are. As you work on something, you actually get better at it and so some of the earlier stuff I would have liked to have redone. At the same time if they didn’t say, “Okay, it’s finished now,” I would never finish it. It’s a real dilemma. I do drive everybody crazy with it by delivering everything at the last moment. If you don't say, "Finished!" that little devil in your brain is saying to you that the chance exists that you could do something extraordinary and something much better than you ever expected yourself to do. As soon as you say, "Finished!" you just go, "Okay, it's just me. It's the same old me."
I do try to push it. Even though I had seven months, there were so many days I wouldn't get home until 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning. It was seven months without taking a day off.
SK: Wow!
HZ: It’s not a job. This is what I love doing. One of the truly special things about Guy is his amount of enthusiasm and his energy and the way he just rolls up his sleeves. He’s just part of it. You get more daring when you have a director like this. I love directors who I can say, “I have no idea what to do next!” and they don’t freak out on you because they know it takes a bit of time before you come up with the solution.
He defended the score constantly. As we were making it, that was very much the attitude. Things had to be bold and things had to be daring. Some things were experiments which just weren’t going to work. I don’t know how many themes I had written for the Irene Adler character. I think I have a good fifteen themes left over. There’s a whole other Holmes tune. There’s a whole Watson tune that has never seen the light of day.
SK: You brunt criticism for employing other composers who receive “additional music by” credits in the films that you score. Fair or not, this has led to speculations that you don't write portions of your music. Using SHERLOCK HOLMES as an example, can you take us through your scoring process and how your team of composers and orchestrators fit into the overall big picture?
HZ: I’ll happily do that. Look, years ago the studio system had orchestrators, arrangers, and copyists. There was a team of people employed and they were on the payroll. That all went by the wayside.
When I got into film, I worked as an assistant for another film composer. A man named Stanley Myers. That’s how I learned to do film music. He always gave me a credit. Sometimes I had done hardly anything. I was just around and might have contributed an idea or something but he always gave me credit. I thought it was great that he never treated me like a ghostwriter.
I don’t think people should be anonymous. I think people should be acknowledged. How else are their careers going to happen? How else are we going to have new voices unless we promote the Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powells? Those two guys are the perfect examples of people who I insisted upon giving music credit.
To get to the specificity on, "Do I write this thing or not?" I mean, yes I write it. I write it probably more and more singularly than anybody who writes on paper – the old fashioned way you would write your notes on paper the note is the symbol that tells you the pitch and the duration of the note.
I write in a computer. Every note that is being played has at one point or another been played by me. I surround myself with really good programmers as well. Once I set the tune and the outline of it, people are filling it. Plus, I value people coming up with other ideas. It's a conversation. It's like being in a band. People contribute and that to me is additional music.
Maybe it's some perverse thing in me whereby I am always going a little bit against the grain, but you look at all films…Look at THE DARK KNIGHT. It’s very much a Chris Nolan movie. There can be no doubt about it. But was there a collaborative process? Sure! Are there other people involved? Sure! Do they have a voice and contribute to that voice? Sure!
The SHERLOCK HOLMES score is my score. Do I have people coming in and doing arrangements? Look, I’m not a great percussionist. I’ll hire great percussionists and I’ll give them an outline and I’ll give them a beat. So I suppose I had written it but by the time he has finished it, he will have contributed an enormous amount of depth to it.
I work a lot with Scotsman – which is appropriate on SHERLOCK HOLMES – a guy named Lorne Balfe. He is a brilliant programmer, a brilliant arranger, and a brilliant musician. We talked about every note. So, yes, I am going to have him credited as “Additional Music.” At the end of the day it doesn’t take away from me. My ego isn’t that fragile. I don’t have to have the big credit.
You and I know – and we don’t have to mention the name of the movie – there was a big hit movie out there a few years ago that I don’t have a name on in the titles and I wrote the score. They started putting my name onto the sequels.
I feel music is about playing. I feel that music is about getting a bunch of people around you and actually making music together. In one way or the other, I always like to have them acknowledged. I remember when I started out it was really exciting when I got a credit. That sounds ridiculous. My mother used to phone me up and say “Hey, I just saw your movie and I saw your credit!” which was somewhere at the very end of the roll. It meant something to her and that meant something to me, you know?
By the way, I have to fight for those credits with the studios. Studios don’t really want to give credits to anybody else. They just want my name up there.
SK: Your music has influenced so much of what modern film scores sound like. Is that a blessing or a curse to hear so much of your influence throughout cinema?
HZ: Let’s go from THE DARK KNIGHT conversation with Guy to what we actually did in SHERLOCK HOLMES…THE DARK KNIGHT is a very minimalistic score with drones throughout. By drone I mean everything just sticks to one note and hangs around that one note and does very little. It doesn’t have a lot of chords, you know? It doesn’t have a lot of harmonic movement in it and it doesn’t have a lot of tunes in it.
So after THE DARK KNIGHT there were so many other scores out there that sort of employ the idea of an ostinato – which is just a bunch of repeating notes around one pitch. When SHERLOCK came along, I tried to figure out how to have lots of chords and lots of harmonic movement again and how to put tunes in it and still make it a modern score. There are just certain things which we can’t get away with in those movies anymore. You can’t do a GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) in a Sherlock Holmes movie. You don’t even make a GONE WITH THE WIND anymore. In a peculiar way they are anachronistic.
I am trying – for better or worse or to the best of my abilities – to make film music interesting and make it shift and change and make it take on new style. The first real action movie I ever did was BLACK RAIN (1989) and people actually thought that was quite a revolutionary score. I thought, “Great, now I’ve figured out my style. Now I know how to do an action movie.” Two years or whatever later, by the time I got to my next one, so many other movies had ripped off that style, I had to go and change. The same goes for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (2003). The same goes with CRIMSON TIDE (1995)…If I hear one more choir doing it’s big thing in a score, I’m going to shoot myself…which some people might actually like.
[Both Laugh]
The whole idea is you are supposed to grow and progress. You are supposed to come up with new ideas. THE THIN RED LINE (1998) is still all over the scores these days. It became a way of scoring…Yes, it became the temp-track for a lot of things…
Ultimately, as a composer, what you are being asked to do is invent. You have to come up with something new. Look, even if you don’t get the stuff I’ve done with Ridley Scott, there’s a big difference between GLADIATOR and THELMA AND LOUISE (1991). There’s a big difference between that and BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001). Do I write it myself? Yeah, I do write it myself. I sit here and I agonize over it and I don’t get a lot of sleep. I don’t get to see my family and I hear something in my head and I’m trying to figure out how to get it out into the world. I’m going to go on continuing to give people credits. If it confuses everybody, so be it. The big difference – and I don’t actually care if the audience gets confused about the credit – I do actually care about the individual musician having a credit and being acknowledged for doing good work.
It does sometimes confuse the Academy and that’s the fun thing because suddenly the question that needs to be asked of the Academy is, “Are they still relevant?”
The way we do things has changed dramatically and they get confused when James Newton Howard and I were doing the score for THE DARK KNIGHT. At the same time we put down the name of the sound designer, the name of the music editor, and the name of the arranger, and that completely baffled them and eventually got us thrown out and then reinstated. They are not really looking at the music per se like, “Did the music serve the movie? Did it make the movie better?” and “Is it something new?”
SK: In your recent interview with Film Score Monthly, you were asked about the article that John Burlingame wrote a couple of weeks ago for VARIETY. Since that article was published it has been a favorite question of mine as well. It’s been interesting to hear the various reactions among different composers. You referred to it as "rubbish" and that you "couldn’t relate to that article," which I thought was…
HZ: Oh, I never saw that! I remember saying “rubbish.” I can’t even remember quite what I said but it was something about…I’m now getting two articles confused…There was an article recently about the poor downtrodden film composer who’s budgets are getting slashed and they are not even being invited to the party anymore…Is that what you are referring too?
SK: The article was titled "Film composers lose luster" and was published on December 7th.
HZ: Oh yeah, right. With somebody saying in the old days they were a true collaborator and now they are not even treated as well as the editor or something like that.
SK: I think the article touched on the notion that there is a decline amongst the filmmakers – not so much the composers – in appreciating the power of functional film music and able to harness that power effectively.
HZ: It’s exactly the opposite. Look, take SHERLOCK HOLMES, take THE DARK KNIGHT, take THE THIN RED LINE, take ANGELS AND DEMONS (2009). It’s a much more collaborative process.
Okay, I tell you what. Let me go and pick and obscure one as an example, FROST/NIXON (2008). Before Ron went out to shoot FROST/NIXON, we spent probably three weeks together in my room, just talking about the movie and talking about the script and talking about songs and all sorts of things like shots.
Then dailies started coming in and it was fantastic because there are certain shots that ask for it…We were talking about the “music could do something good, if you had a shot like this or the other,” and dailies started to appear. I think that’s a collaborative process. I think that’s very much being heard.
The same with Guy…
The opening to GLADIATOR would never have existed without the music and there’s no way Ridley Scott would deny that. I think it depends on how you work. I work in this very open and collaborative way.
I usually start months before they start shooting the movie. THE DARK KNIGHT being a perfect example. The amount of conversation Chris and I had had about the Joker…You have to realize, there had to have been an enormous amount of trust from him, because when I said to him, “Hey, I want to do the Joker with one note,” and he’s the main character in the movie…It takes a lot of courage not to turn around and go, “One note? You are not working very hard, you are fired!” The concept we worked out together. The concept influenced very much the way the movie is made and very much the way the movie is cut. Especially on THE DARK KNIGHT. The editor, the director, the composers, we were always in the room together figuring out the total of the movie as opposed to just our little corner of music.
SK: Let me ask you this…Can you at least sympathize with Burlingame's assertions? I’ve heard this sentiment echoed before. Why do you think the state of film music is perceived this way?
HZ: (pause)…I think partly what it's referring to is a particular type of film music which is big orchestral scores. Look, Jerry Goldsmith isn't around anymore. Elmer Bernstein isn't around anymore. Ennio Morricone doesn't do that much in America. So we have John Williams who doesn't do that much anymore and James Horner. James and John are the great composers of the era and they truly are great composers. There's not denying that they're incredible talents. But it's not necessary that we make those types of movies.
By the way, this discussion was going on in the 80's as well when everybody put pop songs into their movie, "Nobody recognizes the poor composer anymore.” Who can really remember the composer of THE GRADUATE? It was Dave Grusin but everybody remembers Paul Simon's song.
Every once in a while everybody has to have a good moan and shake it off a bit and yes, these are tougher times. The economy is in the toilet and it’s tougher to get your movie green-lit and it’s tougher to go and do daring things when it’s exactly a perfect period in time where we should be doing daring things. We should be entertaining. We should be outrageous and come up with new things and try to make our voices heard in a way.
SK: I have a pair of quick questions here to wrap things up. Would you like to be available to score a sequel to SHERLOCK HOLMES if that were to happen?
HZ: You know, a little bit of time has to go by.
[Both Laugh]
I can still feel that scar. The surgery is a little too recent.
If it means hanging out with Guy and Robert Downey Jr. again, yes. We did have a rather good time.
SK: What score of yours would you like to see released on CD that hasn’t already been?
HZ: I’m weird about this stuff. There are certain things that I just never thought should be released because I didn’t think there was enough good music there.
I do wish one would be re-released because it’s actually something I’m really proud of, THE POWER OF ONE (1992). Two and a half people went to see the movie but it’s actually a very good score.
SK: My last question for you today Hans is what are your New Year’s resolutions for 2010?
HZ: Not to have any…because I would break them all!
SK: Well, that’s cheating.
HZ: I know. Really? I’ll tell you what my New Year’s resolution is, which started before New Years, the day we finished SHERLOCK HOLMES which was the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I was saying to myself, “I really need to take some time off because this is ridiculous!” I need to take some time off. It’s killing me and the next thought that came into my head was an idea for Chris Nolan’s new movie. Literally a couple of weeks have gone by and I’m in London for the SHERLOCK HOLMES premiere and two days later I’m sitting in a studio with Chris Nolan trying some stuff out.
So I am saying I am terrible about my New Year’s resolutions other than making the one which I always had, “Try to write decent music. Try to write something that I’m not going to be embarrassed about.”
SK: Very cool Hans. I feel like I’ve overstayed my welcome already as it is. You have been very generous with your time. Go do your Christmas shopping. I want to thank you for taking the time to talk with me. It was a real pleasure.
HZ: You too! That’s the real problem…Forget the interviews and the movies, if you don’t do your Christmas shopping, you are going to be in a bowl of shit.
SK: That’s right. We’ve still got a few more days, so that’s plenty of time.
[Both Laugh]
HZ: I know! That’s what I’m thinking too. It was great talking to you.
SK: Likewise and hopefully we’ll talk again in the future.
HZ: All right, take care bud. Bye.
SK: Bye.
HZ: Happy Christmas!
SK: You too!
On behalf of Ain't It Cool News I'd like to thank Hans for taking the time out of his incredibly busy schedule to talk with me. I'd also like to thank Ronni Chasen for helping set up the interview and also to Mike McCutchen for his help putting it together.
Hans Zimmer's score for SHERLOCK HOLMES will be released on CD by Watertower Music on January 12, 2010.
Here's to a great 2010 for all of us!!!
ScoreKeeper!!!
ScoreKeeper!!!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=ede908ed-cd74-4126-b68d-2bf4b0228d87)
-
+ Expand All
-
Sherlock Holmes film, do yourself a favour and look for a Korean film called "private eye". Its clearly a love letter to Sherlock Holmes with the two main characters based on Holmes and Watson. But imho its far superior to this Sherlock Holmes film (which I enjoyed but found just mediocre). Wish they would get this Korean guy to make the next Sherlock Holmes movie instead of guy ritchie.....
-
myself humming it for some time afterwards. Zimmer seems to be one of the best at the moment imho.....
-
It was a great score - there haven't been many of late that made me perk up and take notice outside the beats of the film it's playing to.Nice interview SK.
-
I agree with blackwood that (in a good way) you notice the music beyond just letting it wash over you in a background manner. The choice of instruments was refreshing and it really gave a clever, romanticized view of the time period. I have to say, most of the recent big-movie scores have been unremarkable or downright irritating (Iron Man, Avatar, G.I. Joe to name a few). Sherlock Holmes was a breath of fresh air.
-
Jan 03, 2010 8:13:40 PM CST
Zimmer is credited as "executive music producer" on IRON MAN
by jackislost
while some other guy I've never heard of is credited with actually writing the score. I wonder how much input Hans had since I love most of his work but that movie's score was boring and generic wallpaper.
-
One of the best I've read with Zimmer. Fascinating stuff!
-
I am eager to get the score for Holmes the day it comes out. I was amazed by his simple yet extraordinary technique when it came to this film. Subtle yet captivating. It makes you believe the time period and puts you right there in the middle of every scene. Once again, Hans you are a master at your craft.
-
I always thought his Gladiator score should have been the one for The Lord of The Rings trilogy...no disrespect to Howard Shore!
-
Haven't been
a fan
of zimmer lately but this score rocked. Very vibrant and full
of life. Daresay it made the film. -
Whassup we keep missing each other. Congrats on avatar. That film really shut them up didn't it?
-
Was its score. One of the more memorable in some time.
-
Without doubt, Zimmer is responsible for more of the best film music of the last ten years than anyone else: Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Hannibal, Pearl Harbor, Tears Of The Sun, Matchstick Men, Pirates Of The Caribbean, King Arthur, The Weather Man, The Da Vinci Code, Kung Fu Panda, The Dark Knight, Sherlock Holmes. (not to mention brilliant music from his proteges like Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell, Mark Mancina, Klaus Badelt, Geoff Zanelli, Nick Glennie-Smith and Steve Jablonski). A close runner up would be my personal favorite composer Thomas Newman: Road To Perdition, Erin Brockovich, In the Bedroom, The Salton Sea, Finding Nemo, Angels in America, Lemony Snicket, Cinderella Man, Little Children, The Good German, Revolutionary Road, WALL·E. John Williams chalked up some more masterpieces with Harry Potter and Spielberg films. James Newton Howard, Howard Shore and Marco Beltrami fared quite quite well also. Meanwhile Danny Elfman and James Horner underwhelmed. Ennio Morricone was MIA here in America. Jerry Goldsmith, Michael Kamen, Basil Poledouris and Elmer Bernstein all went off and died on us. Michael Giacchino, John Debney, Brian Tyler, Clint Mansell, Alexandre Desplat and John Murphy emerged as bright shining lights of the coming decade and film music's best hope for the future. Oh, and Gustavo Santaolalla and A.R. Rahman can suck it!
-
Jan 03, 2010 9:00:25 PM CST
Oh and Nick Cave and Warren Elis emerged as major players also.
by the_genteel_gentile
Alan Silvestri was pretty solid for the most part. the enigmatic Jonny Greenwood through his hat into the ring as an intriguing new voice in film music as well.
-
That's one of the single best interviews I've ever read at AICN. Great questions and EXTREMELY generous and open answers from Mr. Zimmer. Gladiator is on of all-time personal favorites. Imagine that movie with no score. The emotional resonance would be so incredibly different.
-
Zimmer has become a factory..those Pirates score are fucking diabolical ear cabbage...
-
Zimmer represents the overblown 'all voices howling like lunatics' puffed up hollywood score...Newman is inventive, emotional and melodic.
-
are the real work of Lisa Gerard.
-
...and she thought to hire herself to do the work. Cmph. (chuckles) I'm just going to have to cut out of this thread because I will NOT get in a hate throwing contest over film composers. Pure silliness. I like all of them listed above. They've all worked on films I loved, or films where I loved the music. I do miss Basil Poledouris, though. He worked too little before his death, as well.
-
to always miss each other. Hope you had a good Christmas and New Years my friend. Yeah,its been quite fun, and a vindication after months of loud mouth, ignorant, arrogant wankers telling everyone that would listen what a massive failure Avatar would be. They can really all go and politely fuck themselves.....
-
is that now we are gauranteed the Avatar trilogy that we were promised. And given Camerons track record with sequals, we should be in for something damn cool at the least imho....
-
Jan 03, 2010 10:05:23 PM CST
Zimmer's Media Ventures "sound" has RUINED film music
by nasty in the pasty
Not to say that Zimmer and his "pets" haven't written some fine scores (Holmes is one of the best I've heard this year, in fact), but the pervasive "sound" of the MV stable (throbbing, synth-heavy power march, a solo electric cello or trumpet layered on top, and of course our old friend Moaning Woman) has pretty much destroyed film music. Remember back in the 80's, when you had huge orchestral scores for every big genre movie, and yet each major composer had their own distict, unmistakable style? It was impossible to mistake a Williams score for a Horner one, or Goldsmith for Broughton, or Silvestri for Jarre. Nowadays, EVERY FUCKING SCORE SOUNDS THE SAME, and it's Zimmer's chock-full-o'-scores conveyor belt approach to "supervising" half the scores written today is the culprit. Aside from Giacchino and Desplat, there's an appalling lack of personal style in evidence today. All of the "silver age" giants are either dead (Goldsmith, Bernstein, Jarre), retired (Barry, Morricone) or else working so infrequently they may as well be retired (Williams has written exactly ONE film score since ***2005***). The 00's will go down as one of the all-time worst decades for film music.
-
He did the music for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as well. Good stuff.
-
That music from "The Rock" is probably the best of any action movie. Scorekeeper needs to ask better questions rather than try and get a Xmas gift from Zimmer.
-
Jan 03, 2010 10:39:08 PM CST
southafricanguy - What's your opinion on Horner's score for Avat
by the_genteel_gentile
I thought it was a fairly beautiful and effective score but far too similar to many of his previous efforts. Also I was hoping for something imbued with more of the majestic wonder of Williams' Jurassic Park or the epic romantism of John Barry's Dances With Wolves. I really thought Horner was going to take all the time allotted him on Avatar and do something wholly original. Oh well, it was still good but I do kinda wish Avatar had Zimmer's fearless audaciousness instead. Because, say what you will of the Media Ventures sound, Zimmer is crazy versatile and original. I mean, sure Zimmer got accused of ripping of Holst and I do get a Morricone vibe off of him sometimes, and I suppose you could say Vangelis and Harold Faltermeyer are sort of predecessors of him but EVERYBODY rips off Zimmer. Even John Williams! Just look at the scene in Revenge Of The Sith when Padme is longingly looking out the window across the coruscant skyline because THAT'S Thin Red Line all the way, through and through. ...but what was I saying...Oh yeah, how'd you like the score for Avatar southafricanguy?
-
and definitely one of the bright spots of Sherlock Holmes
-
Is wasn't quite a harpsichord, but it was a piano type instrument....
-
yours dude. It was fine as a score, has some nice stuff (particularly the space travel scene), but as you say way too derivitive of his past stuff. I actually wish Horner was doing anything like Zimmer. Actually I wish Zimmer would score Avatar 2! I really think Cameron and Zimmer would be an awsome match....somebody make it happen....
-
banjo, believe it or not....
-
Horner is a spent force as a composer imho....
-
Jan 03, 2010 10:55:43 PM CST
I think that was a hammer dulcimer used in Holmes
by nasty in the pasty
-
I found myself drawn to the music while watching the film in the best way. It's a wonderful compliment to the film and elevates it with an eloquence that adds measures to the movie without detracting from it.
-
On every point I believe you to be correct sir. Zimmer really should get tapped for future Cameron projects, that's my exact sentiments on the matter as well. It pains me to see Horner not live up to the legend he built up in the 80's & 90's with scores like Glory, Apollo 13, Sneakers, Wrsth Of Kahn, Commando, Braveheart, Courage Under Fire, The Devil's Own, Legends Of The Fall and Titanic. I would say Horner's only really fantastic score of the past decade was A Beautiful Mind. Everything else sounded like lesser versions of his previous masterworks. Although New World and Apocalypto where decent, I can't tell you how pleased I am that John Debney ended up doing Passion Of The Christ, otherwise we may have just gotten another tired imitation of past glories (no pun intended). PS - Debney's Passion Of The Christ was one of my most favorite scores of the past 10 years easily, in fact for me it's probably third overall behind Zimmer's Gladiator and Shore's LOTR trilogy.
-
...but "our old friend the moaning woman", while her presence may be ubiquitous, is there because, when used well, she works... not unlike the faraway, low, horn trill James Horner, as evidenced in (most recently) Avatar. I HATE TO SAY IT, but it's not wrong. In even the most predictable of TRAILERS, the horn trill a la Horner and the moaning woman a la Zimmer get me riled up. But, I'm a sucker for shit like that. Sorry, Nasty... but search your heart, you know it to be true...
-
...that, sadly, like Sir John Williams, these guys will show us nothingmore new. The Harry Potter scores actually piss me off, they're so predictable.
-
teefury.com 24 hrs and never again
-
are sort of predictable, but they're still well-written. The Prisoner of Azkaban, though, is a GREAT score with a medieval flair, which was quite unpredictable for that film. Williams could have simply continued the old celesta-and-strings thing.
-
Jan 04, 2010 12:22:05 AM CST
"Discombobulate" is the most memorable theme this year
by mattmanreturns
It's incredibly original, and it is a perfect melody for what's going on inside Holmes' head. I think Hans really nails the tone of the characters he scores. I mean, look at Jack Sparrow's theme, which sounds appropriately adventurous and offbeat.
-
I painfully good. I mean it literally makes me ache. Love that one.
-
"SK: Let me ask you this…Can you at least sympathize with Burlingame's assertions? I’ve heard this sentiment echoed before. Why do you think the state of film music is perceived this way?"
Bravo and fuck Hans Zimmer in the ass.
-
...everything about the Harry Potter films when they're at their best; you're immersed in another world and pretty much forget all else that's going on around you (especially if you've read the books, ya know, 8 or 12 times). Unfortunately, for me anyway, the Yates films have succeeded the LEAST in having this affect. Azkaban did it best for me. I love that movie so much I paid to see it three times in the theater.
-
'Why So Serious' Sounds like the Terminator to me. same industrial pounding.
-
...a thousand truckloads of minimalist modern classical and ambient electronic music that's been produced in abundance over the last twenty years. But only 74 people listen to it, so you can steal it all you like.
-
Dark fucking Knight. Doesn't sound anything like Terminator. Just because they both have percussive beats you think they sound the same? Don't talk anymore.
-
Sherlock had one of the best scores of the year. Thanks Hans.
-
Jan 04, 2010 3:24:31 AM CST
I loved it when Hans started stammering and changed the subject
by darthpigman
...when Scorekeeper pressed him about the Burlingame article. A GOLDEN moment.
-
it is ALBERT, you dumbass.
-
It's not very often a score surprises you like that but it was a real breath of fresh air. Different but totally in keeping with the world that Richie created for Holmes to run around in. The end credit music in particular, married in the way it was to the images was a favourite. I've told a few people now that I think Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law are going to be the new Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, the chemistry on screen between them was that good. I believe the music played a big part in that. Hope Zimmer comes back for the inevitable sequel.
-
...just because Zimmer, Horner, and Williams probably won't be revolutionizing the soundtrack-as-art-form anytime soon DOES NOT MEAN that what they do isn't top-notch. I have been buying soundtracks since that fateful day when I realized "OH MY GOD, YOU CAN BUY THEM ON CD??????" when I was 12... and before then, I was holding my boom box to the TV speakers to record soundtracks I liked. These giants may not be on the cutting edge anymore, but that doesn't mean their magic stopped working on me. I had major issues with the Potter films... Smell-O-Vision wouldn't have pulled me in. But THAT is a whole different discussion, and most certainly not an interesting one.
-
from "Once Upon a Time in the West."
-
Really makes it a better film.
-
Will henceforth be known as exotic wailing bitch. For best results watch Munich.and scary waitress I found nothing wrong with the avatar score....yet.
-
This is a fantastic interview!thank you so much. I loved the score to Sherlock and have already ordered if off of Amazon. I cannot imagine this movie now without this amazing music. Hats off to Hans! I would imagine he will be involved in the sequel? And I am sure they would keep the basic theme? I can hardly wait! Thanks again. So nice to wake up to a very intelligent and thoughtful piece here.
-
Williams for his many many many past achievements gets a lifetime pass from me IF he chose to phone in a scorewriting assignment. Which he hasn't.zimmer and horner are a little
more tricky. Some scores work and some don't. I'd give horner a little more leeway solely on the fact that he doesn't have an army of proteges in his generic media ventures factory.that said I used to like zimmers efforts. Now I can't tell them apart from the many clones. -
Thanks for posting! I really enjoyed the score for Sherlock Holmes. It was quite refreshing and engaging.
-
You didn't like the score to avatar? I thought it was pretty good. Granted horner lifts from hisself but I don't find it as bad as zimmer.
-
you can't blame the master for the actions of his slavish imitators... the Gladiator soundtrack was- and is- one of my favorite efforts, back when Moaning Woman was a new phenomenon. Like I said, I'm not really dissing Williams, and he remains probably the greatest giant in the industry. His list is stunning. How many iconic melodies can one brain come up with? It's nuts... and even in the Potter films, the music was as effective as ever. I just wasn't feeling those movies, I guess.
-
he could do worse than to rip from Legends of the Fall. THAT is great stuff.
-
...but Gladiator is a close second, POTC2 a close third, and the new Sherlock Holmes score moving up the charts fast.
-
...it's LEGENDS OF THE FALL + BRAVEHEART...blended until smooth and served with blueberries and exotic fruit.I'll take either of those other scores first, but what's not to like?
-
Jan 04, 2010 9:15:07 AM CST
...it would be like saying Oreos are a ripoff of cookies...
by flickapoo
...and icing.Sort of. But I don't thing the AVATAR score is as good as Oreos.
-
But gladiator is the biggest hachet job. Zimmers basically outed himself and said that he's ripped holst.have you checked the site filmtracks.com
-
I didn't think this was officially a zimmer score.
-
I would argue that gladiator was the start of a downward spiral for zimmer.
-
is actually a rip-off of Horner's own "Apokalypto" (a great one). Good interview BTW, ScoreKeeper. I like Hans and his music, though I think he's a little hit-and-miss. Too much recycling going on! The MI:2 score clearly sounded like leftovers from Gladiator, for example. REALLY liked the Matchstick Men, Spanglish and Weather Man scores: Hans is very good with drama, comedy or romance material, a fact that many people overlook who just reduce him to his action scores.
-
...I don't listen to them. They define a movie so completely I can't listen to them unless I want the movie to play out in my head in real-time.I mostly use movie music to get in the right mood for whatever project I'm working on...I love film scores and they're a great tool.Completely impossible to work to say...STAR WARS, or RAIDERS, or JAWS...unless the project involves a galaxy far, far away, bullwhip, or giant sharks.
-
But I'll never see the film.
-
There's this trumpet part, directly ripped from WILLOW in it too. Horner uses his Willow themes a lot.
-
I was expecting something powerful and grandiose as befitting a big Christmas day release, but instead was pleasantly surprised with this subtle score.
-
I was honestly expecting a sweeping score, something overdone and overdramatic, and was surprised by what I heard... somewhat light-hearted, and definitely mixed it up a bit. Fit the characters and world PERFECTLY. It's the first score I've wanted to own in a very, very long time.
-
Whatever you might think of Passion, that percussive-based score was gorgeously evocative. BTW - for those who think Zimmer is only capable of action themes, check out some of the cuts on Madagascar 2. Bouncy, joyous stuff.
-
He's the less-famous younger brother of Albert who played violin with the Berlin Philharmonic....OK, that's not entirely true. Sorry, that was a last minute editorial addition just before I posted the interview. My brain was mush after working on this all day.
-
I just checked that out on IMDB. It sounds so different than his usual stuff.
-
Jan 04, 2010 12:56:15 PM CST
Kontarsky: "I liked the score, but I'll never see the film."
by mattmanreturns
It's not every day you hear the stupidest thing you've ever heard.
-
if a bit sadistic
-
Still rock
-
...that lifting pieces, parts and themes from others music has been done since the beginning of composed music (and probably before)(there's only twelve notes, people). Also, if you've done something great, and you emulate it, how is that bad? You're saying a composer should go with something that would equal a lesser result instead? I don't understand some of the arguments here.
-
And there are 3 credits: Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil. Still, I think it turned out well.
-
Outside of the Superman soundtrack and the E.T. Soundtrack, the two Terminator soundtracks were the only (non-movie musical) soundtracks I ever bought.
-
Perfume had me almost immediately, with the birth of the protagonist and that little baby inhalation . . . finding his way through the world by smell. Dustin Hoffman kills it. Alan Rickman is awesome. That was one of those films I had no particular desire to see, and, once I did, I was in love.
-
I love the movie, but I really love the soundtrack. John Williams was really bringing it in the late 70s, early 80s. Exuberant is the word for the 1941 soundtrack. And in the movie, when John Belushi, having tumbled off his plane at the gas station, comes up and gives us the Belushi look and those trumpets start playing . . . beautiful. Back in the day, John Williams had such a beautiful instinct for matching the music cues to the image on the screen.
-
...that it might have been the beginning of a bit of a valley for Zimmer, but I consider it top be a high point... that soundtrack KILLED me. Still does. Moreover, I think as far as an integral part of the movie, it was brilliant... but then, I liked Gladiator, thorny historical inaccuracies and all. It is a fact that historically composers ripped off past music, both themselves and each other. The more ethical ones (by our standards today) would acknowledge that in their titles, but a lot of it was outright thievery... I think, in today's age, working and reworking themes that are integral to your own aesthetic is COMPLETELY valid. Steaing from other composers, not so much... unless, of course, you do it so well that you overcome the initial "crime." Which CAN be done... but you had better OWN it, is all. Horner ripping himself off? No biggie. Zimmer ripping off Holst? Less ethical, I grant you... but then, it's not like he ripped off Beethoven. The few people who would pick up on that get a gold star. (I, for the record, am not one of those people.) Which no, doesn't make it A-OK, but a composer listens to all kinds of music and files things in the back of his head... I doubt he SET OUT to rip off anyone. It's not like Gladiator is "Variations on Holst." Unless it's literally STOLEN, line for line, I have no problem with past works influencing present or future. We allow it with stories, after all... for a reason.
-
Jan 04, 2010 2:42:57 PM CST
... kevinwillis...yes, it took me completely by surprise...
by flickapoo
...I was expecting a more typical historical drama of some sort...not a period piece by David Fincher.Hoffman's accent was a little all over the place...and towards the end they covered a lot of ground quickly. Didn't really bother me though...if anything it made me want to read the book.
-
but I'm hearing all kinds of good things about the score, and I'm a HUGE Downey Jr. fan. It's on my queue.
-
i literally got the score after seeing holmes...enjoy.you actually will be surprised to find out its zimmer. (i was)
-
The Peacemaker by Hans Zimmer is one of my all time favs. Rambo by Brian Tyler is extremely good as well. Old school James Horner is the best, Commando with the sweet steel drums and 48 Hours score. Steve Jablonsky is gonna be new Hans Zimmer pretty soon, Dragon Wars score is only good thing about that sheit movie.
-
I just watched The Soloist for the first time Saturday night. Actually enjoyed it quite a bit more than I thought I would. But then, it's really pretty hard for me to NOT like RDJ or Katherine Keener. However, while Jamie Foxx's performance was good, I didn't find it to be GREAT. And as a cello player, it was PAINFULLY obvious that he wasn't actually playing the right notes, or even playing at all in some scenes. Still, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit.
-
not as good as composers he mentions.
-
Jan 04, 2010 10:38:50 PM CST
No, Avatar is a rip-off of the theme from Glory...
by nasty in the pasty
...which was already ripped-off from Prokokofiev. Seriously, it's the EXACT SAME THEME used in Glory, with like one note changed at the end. INCREDIBLY distracting in the movie.
-
Horner started out with a few awesome themes... and then he kept playing them over and over. Zimmer actually bothers to challenge himself and try new things.
-
in every Horner score. It's cheesy and distracting. He seems to think it's some brilliant theme or something that deserves repeating in every movie. It's not.
-
Who doesn't? He's certainly one of the most... "inspiring"... role models for Hollywood composers, and he hardly gets any acknowledgement for it. If I got a dime each time I recognized "Mars" or "Jupiter" in contemporary Tinseltown scores...
-
this is from filmtracks.comSo, in the end, how good is the Gladiator score? Zimmer's career and sales numbers have proven through the years that his most popular scores aren't necessarily his best, and Gladiator is no exception. There really exist four sides to the Gladiator score: the ethereal atmospherics, the battle waltzes, the suspenseful conversational cues, and the Moroccan (and other ethnic) textures. The last two are adequate, merely average in Zimmer's career, with "To Zucchabar" offering some decent usage of the duduk and "Patricide" elevating the drama. Ultimately, though, these cues are significantly overshadowed by the other two sides to the score. There is no doubt that Zimmer's greatest success with Gladiator comes with the individual statements and eventual merging of the "Elysium" and "Earth" themes. His employment of Gerrard's voice to represent the afterlife is nothing less than fantastic, pouring a depth of soul into the film that Ridley Scott's original vision didn't contain. From the mournful "Sorrow" to the beautifully redemptive "Elysium" and "Honor Him," these thematic explorations make Gladiator a worthy score by themselves. The final eight minutes of the score, encompassing a cue in "Now We Are Free" that successfully balances the gravity of the event with the spirit of heaven, are among the best ever to come from Zimmer's career. When you take all of these Gerrard performances and merge them with the unused "Rome is the Light" cue from the second album, you have about fifteen minutes of must-have music. Unfortunately, Gladiator's final side is so obnoxious that it washes out the ethereal elements in the overall memorability and functionality of the score. Zimmer's waltz structures and blatant plagiarism in the battle sequences and "The Might of Rome" are extremely dissatisfying. Their use in the film is marginal at best, distracting from scenes that could have very well benefited from more thoughtful music for the era.
And thus, the conversation about Zimmer once again turns to his work ethics. Why exactly were the large-scale cues in Gladiator so irritating? You'll get several different answers, including a few that will simply state that Zimmer really didn't do anything wrong. The apologists for the composer, however (and Zimmer certainly suffers from a most ardent group of what film music collectors identify as "fanboys"), need to recognize that Zimmer brings most criticism along the following lines upon himself due to his insistence in forcing a film to adapt to his sensibilities rather than adapt himself to reach greater heights. This argument has been raised several times more recently than Gladiator, but several circumstances point to this score as a good starting point to discuss these issues. The first reason the major action pieces in Gladiator don't work is because of Zimmer's style of electronic manipulation. The great irony in many of Zimmer's works is that his orchestral material sounds frighteningly similar to his synthetic counterparts, and the reason for this is because when Zimmer does indeed go to London and record with a decent ensemble (as was the case with Gladiator), he usually then takes that recording and merges it with his synthetics or, even worse, manipulates the orchestra's sound to give it the more masculine edge that his synthesizers produce by default. You reach a certain point when you can't tell if a burst from the French horns is actually being rendered by the horns or by the samples meant to imitate them, and such is the pitfall of Zimmer's persistent acoustic mangling of the orchestra in the post-production of many of his scores. In efforts like Crimson Tide and The Peacemaker, the resulting brazen sound, sharp around all the edges, suits the contemporary matter well. But in Gladiator (as well as in the Pirates of the Caribbean scores), the audacious, jabbing style lacks the elegance to smoothly convey the era. Even in the structures of the "Earth" theme, there are lazy similarities to Zimmer's early score for Backdraft.
Zimmer argues, of course, that nobody really knows what Roman music sounds like, and he is correct. But he uses that argument as an excuse for his lack of effort in scholarly research, and this is the second failing of Gladiator's action pieces. Several times in his career, Zimmer has decided not to examine previous film composers' works to evaluate how and why they worked so well in a given context. As he said in a Dreamworks interview from 2000, "I did not want to compete with other great composers. Plus, I am a big procrastinator and never do my research." Whether it's Danny Elfman's brilliant identity for Batman, the classic Erich Wolfgang Korngold flair for the swashbuckling precursors to Pirates of the Caribbean, or the massive Golden Age works of Miklós Rózsa or Alex North for Roman epics, Zimmer insists on re-inventing the wheel. There's nothing wrong with trying to re-inventing the wheel... unless, of course, you can't do it. Or do it well enough, as is the case with Gladiator. Zimmer's Viennese waltz for the battle sequences, in conjunction with his awkward instrumental masculinity in the synthetic realm, simply does not function to any degree in Gladiator the way Rózsa's music did in Quo Vadis, Ben-Hur, or El Cid. He, along with Bernard Herrmann, would probably be horrified by Zimmer's Roman music (not to mention its popularity). Rózsa did extensive research for those scores, and that's the reason he is commonly considered the best of the Golden Age composers. Zimmer instead will often write based on what his gut tells him is right, and unfortunately his gut doesn't always make the right choice. You can't definitively say that a Rózsa score would have functioned as a good temp track in Gladiator. It likely would not have worked at all with Scott's modern style of direction. But there must exist a happy medium between the success of the past and contemporary expectations in which a classic score can reside. Zimmer had a chance to do that with Gladiator, and on the ethereal aspects, he flourished. The battle sequences, however, especially with his four or five motifs successively pounding without any much thought for refinement, are extremely untempered.
And then there's the third and most disturbing reason for the failure of Zimmer's large-scale cues in Gladiator: plagiarism. At the time of its release, educated cross-over collectors of soundtracks and classical music easily identified several sources of "inspiration" for Zimmer in these cues. Zimmer has admitted that the adaptation of Wagner's music (and specifically Siegfried's Funeral March) played an integral role in a few places, though he initially claimed that his use of Holst's "Mars" in the battle scenes was accidental. Either way, the music speaks for itself, and Zimmer would eventually admit in interviews and notation that these influences are, among others, all present. In a May, 2000 interview with Ian Lace of Film Music on the Web, Zimmer referred to "The Might of Rome" by stating, "Yes, the Wagner was a very conscious choice. I managed to assume the style of Wagner so easily that I was able to write that piece in an hour." Half a year later, Zimmer would acknowledge the influence of Holst in his own liner notes for the second Gladiator album. He writes that he used "the same language, the same vocabulary, if not the same syntax" as Holst. He has made similar statements in other interviews as well, likely due to his pride in knowledge of classical music while never himself being classically trained. From his point of view, there probably is no harm in admitting such inspirations. After all, John Williams employed pieces of ideas from Wagner, Holst and Stravinsky in his first Star Wars score, and few people blinked. Another argument could extend from here, involving the merits of Williams' ability to adapt classical pieces with skill far exceeding that of Zimmer (and you could probably throw James Horner into the discussion as well), but there are very few knowledgeable film score fans who will claim Zimmer's talents superior to Williams' at any time in the past few decades. Part of Zimmer's problem stems from his inability to adapt these pieces intelligently, as opposed to leaning too heavily on their actual, more obvious constructs.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Zimmer seemingly forgot --in the process of rambling off his inspirations-- that the London-based Gustav Holst Foundation still owns the copyrights to the 1915 Holst work in question. With many classical works, copyright infringement is absent because the music now falls in the realm of the public domain. But in April of 2006, Hans Zimmer was personally sued by G&I Holst Ltd. and music publishers J. Curwen & Sons and G. Schirmer Ltd. in a complaint regarding infringement of the opening to "Mars" in Gladiator. Also sued were the various Universal entities that either own the music or are involved in its distribution on album. A spokesperson for the publishers indicated that they attempted to resolve the issue directly and privately, possibly explaining the reason for the six-year delay in the filing of the suit. In their statement from June of 2006, they claim, "After a considerable period of discussion between the two parties it has become necessary to ask for the assistance of the courts." A defense lawyer for Zimmer responded by asserting that "Mr. Zimmer's work on Gladiator is world-renowned and is not in any sense a copy of Mars. Just listening to the two works is enough to tell any listener this claim has no merit." Supporters of Zimmer have also claimed that one of the few reasons the suit was filed so long after the score's release is due to the album's platinum status. Because sales of Gladiator remain strong so many years after its initial offering, the Holst Foundation stands to make millions of dollars off the suit. While as of late 2007 the suit still is not resolved, it's difficult to see how Zimmer could be considered favored in the battle. Despite what his attorney states, there are distinct similarities to Holst's "Mars," and those similarities come at the pivotal moments in the film. It appears as though Zimmer's own flapping mouth could be his demise, but even in the worst case scenario, don't expect him to have to file for bankruptcy even if he loses.
-
You can't knock movie composers for plagiarizing classical composers. John Williams did it quite a bit and quite brilliantly. But it was riffs of existing classical music. The aliens appearing in CE3K is a direct rip of music by Penderecki that is used in The Shining. I forget what the Krypton theme is, but it is a ripoff too...oh and the first appearance of the star destroyer is definitely Mars Bringer of War. Man, movies were much more fresh and groundbreaking back then! there's NOTHING new in the well crafted Avatar. The CG expressive milestone was in Benjamin Button.
-
williams has on countless times made memorable themes and motifs, inspired by classical composers, perhaps. but hes made them his own..hes taken knowledge from them and made them his...like and education..zimmer own DIRECTLY lifted note for note on occasion (none to the wise of john q public) but still as scary waitress said, a little unethical...
-
was the only good thing about this - so called - game. Shame on you Infinity Ward! Now, I go back killing zombies on World at War and enjoy 4 players co-op
-
..and a human being who relishes the fact that we have free will and deductive reasoning as part of our species, I simply DON'T NEED anybody else to tell me why I should or shouldn't like something. There is a difference between skillfully writing a review and ripping something apart because that's what you want other people to believe about whatever topic you are covering (be it person, place or thing). Whatever agenda someone may have against Zimmer does not change the fact that he's done nothing different than any other score composer, or most composers, ever! Imitation is the highest form of flattery, ya know? And taking a fragment of a quote to twist into whatever "fact" you want it to represent is the lowest form of "journalism". - end of rant -
-
That movie was awesome and had a great score...
-
Did anyone else realize old Hans ripped himself off by copying music from Gladiator for Pirates???? Didn't really like the music for Holmes just found it annoying. ( That along with the Benny Hillness of it all??)
-
and Walter/Wendy Carlos whilst I'm at it.
-
dude..calm the fuck down...its not like anyone has a personal vendetta against zimmer...its just a review and an analysis and i really dont mind zimmer himself..its just a majority of his recent action work is cookie cutter generic shit...holmes on the other hand is a breath of fresh air..
-
are we going to get your top scores/soundtracks of 2009 list? I look forward to reading your favs!
-
The score is incredible. Easily one of the best parts of the film.
-
I used to absolutely _hate_ Zimmer, but, he has somewhat tempered my distaste with TDK and Sherlock, as both are great scores. Everyone complaining about Horner and plagiarism in film music should listen to this podcast from Film Score Monthly: http://fsmpodcast.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=138953 They cover many composers besides Horner, and include excerpts of the music copied as well. It's really fascinating stuff and greatly impressed some of the other regular TB'ers here last time I posted it probably six months ago. And as far as Horner's standard ominous trumpet call goes, that's not originally from Willow (someone above calls it the Nockmaar theme). It's actually from Rachmaninoff's First Symphony. Also, this article tipped me off to Zimmer doing the score for Inception. Goddammit. When the fuck is Nolan going to hire David Julyan again? His scores for Insomnia and The Prestige are awesome! In fact, they're the best scores for Nolan's films excepting TDK.
-
I'm writing it now as a matter of fact. I'm always the last to post my list. It's always a tough article for me to write. But it's shaping up nicely. Hopefully by this weekend at the latest.
-
Batman Begins score sounds like pretty much most of Black Rain score at parts. Just amped up the orchestra for BB. Song i've really loved lately is The Kraken off of Dead Mans Chest.
-
Plot was a pile of shit but at least the OST worked.
-
The stand-out piece of music in 'Sherlock Holmes' as performed by Luke Kelly and The Dubliners. Absolutely no mention of how they came up with this inspired choice........? The rest of the soundtrack is pretty insignificant compared to that song.
-
and defnitely one of the best things about the film. the arrangement, the instrumentation, the melodies and the harmonies were all a breath of fresh air especially after listening to an endless amount of bombastic percussion driven drivel these last 10 years. Well done Hans
-
SxEjBOfb tkTrVFbw
-
EyrtSScu lRkbvyeX
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 171 total posts 169 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 157 total posts 111 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 138 total posts 75 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 67 total posts 67 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 479 total posts 62 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 59 total posts 59 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 62 total posts 59 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 48 total posts 45 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 116 total posts 32 posts
- SPACE 2099!! -- 181 total posts 30 posts