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Hans ZimmerGenius of our time

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Speaking about music and famous composers we often mean Beethoven, Mozart, Glinka, Tchaikovsky, etc. and their masterpieces. Undoubtedly, their music is timeless and will be always beloved and popular, but we shouldn’t forget that nowadays we have people, who are also very talented and whose works arouse deep and complex emotions. So, today I want to tell you about Hans Zimmer, German composer and modern genius.Hans Florian Zimmer (born September 12, 1957) is a German film composer and music producer.

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For nearly three decades Zimmer has composed

music for over 100 films including some critically

acclaimed film scores, such as The Lion

King, Gladiator, and The Dark Knight. His works

are notable for integrating electronic

music sounds with traditional orchestral arra

ngements. He has received four Grammy

Awards, two Golden Globes, a Classical BRIT Award, and an Academy

Award. He is named also on the list of the "Top 100 living

geniuses", published by The Daily Telegraph.

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Zimmer was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. As a young child, he lived in Königstein-Falkenstein, where he played the piano at home, but had piano lessons only briefly as he disliked the discipline of formal lessons. He moved to London as a teenager. In an interview in 2006, he commented: "My father died when I was just a child, and I escaped somehow into the music and music has been my best friend." Zimmer began his career playing keyboards and synthesizers.

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Zimmer's first solo score was Terminal Exposure for director Nico Mastorakis in

1987. A turning point in Zimmer's

career occurred with the 1988 film Rain

Man. Hollywood director Barry Levinson was looking for

someone to score Rain Man, and his wife proposed Zimmer. Levinson was

impressed by Zimmer's work, and hired him. In the

score, Zimmer uses synthesizers mixed

with steel drums. Zimmer explained that "It was a road

movie, and road movies usually have jangly guitars

or a bunch of strings."

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For the 1992 film The Power of One, Zimmer traveled to Africa in order to use African choirs and drums in the

recording of the score.

On the strength of this work, Disney Animation Studios approached

Zimmer to compose the score for The Lion King. This was his first

score for an animated film. Zimmer won numerous awards for his work

on The Lion King, including an Academy Award (also know as

The Oscar) for Best Music, a Golden Globe, and two Grammys.

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In the 2000s, Zimmer has composed scores for Hollywood blockbuster films including Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, The Last Samurai, The Da Vinci Code, The Simpsons Movie, and Angels and Demons.

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While writing the score for The Last Samurai, Zimmer

felt that his knowledge

of Japanese music was

extremely limited. He began doing

extensive research, but the more he

studied, the less he felt he knew.

Finally, Zimmer took what he had

written to Japan for feedback and was shocked when he

was asked how he knew so much

about Japanese music.

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For the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes, "The Daily Variety" reported that Zimmer purchased an out-of-tune piano for 200 dollars and

used it throughout the scoring process because of its "quirkiness“.

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Zimmer is also noted for his work on the scores of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008), on which he collaborated with James Newton Howard. Zimmer is also composing the score for The Dark Knight Rises, the final installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.

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Hans Zimmer also composed music for video games

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

2(with Lorne Balfe), Crysis 2

(with Borislav Slavov and Tilman

Sillescu). Nowadays Zimmer is the head of the

film music division at DreamWorks studios, and works

with other composers

through the company which he

founded, Remote Control

Productions.

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In December 2010, Zimmer received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.Zimmer lives in Los Angeles with his wife Suzanne, and has four children.

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What I really like about Hans’ music is that it is really complex and original. He mixes classical and folk instruments with synthesized sounds and then the theme began to appear. And every theme for every film is unique and you remember it even if you’ve seen movie only ones. Hans

makes really complicated and imaginative tracks and each of them has a character, which is extremely suitable for the plot. His music makes an

atmosphere and when we watch film we really feel it, we feel the mood of the moment.

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Actually, it was extremely difficult for me to choose track, which I like most. So, I decided to name my favourite albums and present one fragment from

each of them.

«Sherlock Holmes» - Panic Sheer Bloody Panic

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«Inception» - Dream is Collapsing

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«Pirates of the Caribbean» - Up is Down

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«The Dark Knight» - Aggressive Expansion

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«Angels&Demons» - I60 BPM

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To sum up, I want to say that music by Hans Zimmer is really inspiring for me and I’m happy that I had a chance ones, in 2008, to get acquainted with his works. I just can’t imagine my life without his music. And I’m greatly thankful to him for what he composes and for what he gives to millions of his fans, including me.

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1. Who is Hans Zimmer?•A composer•A singer•A conductor

2. Where is he from?•From the UK

•From America• From Germany

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3. How many film works does he have?

•More than 50•More than 70

•More than 100

4. Have Hans Zimmer ever won an Academy Award?•No, never•Yes, he has one Academy Award•Yes, he has two Academy Awards

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5. What score, composed by Hans, won an Academy Award?•Sherlock Holmes•The Lion King•The Dark Knight

•In 2009

•In 2010

•In 2011

6. When did Zimmer receive a star on

the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

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What do you think about music you’ve heard during mypresentation?