Presentation of renowned composer Hans Zimmer

ContentsBiographyCompositionListening Guide: includes two songs from the

motion picture Inception “Old Souls” “Mombasa”

Biography: Hans Zimmer

The Early Days of ZimmerWas born on september

12th , 1957Moved to London when

he was fourteen to attend Hurtwood House School.

His father died when he was a child and that event helped him escape in to music

Music then became his best friend

Beginning of his CareerHe worked with many

bands including, The Buggles’, Krisma, and Helden.

He wrote jingles for Air-Edel Associates.

This led him to partner with Stanley Myers

The Bangles”

….Beginning of his career continued

Zimmer and Myers focused on traditional orchestra sound with electronic instruments and worked on motion pictures together

Stanley Myers

Start of his solo careerZimmer’s first solo score was for the movie

Terminal Exposure in 1987He then was score producer for The Last

Emperor 1988His first mainstream success in Hollywood

would come from composing the music to the movie Rain Man, which would go on to be nominated for four Academy Awards

Success of Rain Man ignites Hans ZimmerHe would go on to

compose the music for Academy Award nominees such as, The Lion King, Driving Miss Daisy, Gladiator and many more

All of which won Best Picture Award of their corresponding years

…Success of Rain Man ignited Zimmer continued

He would also compose the music to some of the biggest Blockbusters of our time incuding, Pearl Harbor, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Dark Knight

Composition History: Mombasa and Old Souls

Both Mombasa and Old Souls come from the Motion Picture Inception.

While director Christopher Nolan was working on the picture he asked Zimmer to compose the music to it

ChallengesUnleashing the audiences

imagination in the best way possibleIncorporating a guitar sound

reminiscent of Ennio MorriconeGetting Christopher Nolan to let

Johnny Marr help with the Score

Inspiration

Zimmer read Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

It combined the idea of playfulness in mathematics and playfulness in music

Listening Guide: Old Souls

The overall concept of the song is organic growthOld Souls is a piece that starts off slowly, but as

the seconds pass the dynamics start to build and incorporate more instruments

The building of the song is very gradualIt builds little by little from the first seconds of

the song until about minute six

….Old Souls continued

At that point the song picks up tempo and the building dynamics start to increase at a rapid rate

The rapid rate continues with the listener anticipating a great climax

Then the song at about minute 7:30 cuts short and fades out

Leaving the listener without the anticipated climax

Listening Guide: Mombasa

As like with Olds Souls, Mombasa’s concept is also organic growth

Mombasa starts out with a loud dynamic levelThe tempo is quick and very fast pacedA continuous rhythmic repetition of four slow

and two fast beats is set up from the beginning

……Mombasa continued

The song keeps up the same dynamics and rhythm pretty much throughout the whole piece

Throughout the whole song there is addition and subtraction of new instruments

It doesn’t build to a climaxIt gets to about minute 4:40 and then fades to

an end

Bibliography/References Abclocal.go.com “Hans Zimmer Gets Star..” December 8, 2010

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/entertainment&id=7832872 Allmovierepicas.com “Inception” March 9, 2011

http://www.allmoviereplicas.com/Inception-Movie.html Allmusic.com “Hans Zimmer” March 9, 2011

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/hans-zimmer-p140996 Artistopia.com “Hans Zimmer” March 9, 2011

http://www.artistopia.com/hans-zimmer Classicfm.co.uk “Composers V to Z” March 9, 2011

http://www.classicfm.co.uk/music/composers/v-z/hans-zimmer/ Hubpages.com “Where symphony meets synthesizer” March 9, 2011

http://hubpages.com/hub/Hans-Zimmer-Where-Symphony-meets-Synthesizer Smashinlists.com “10 Most Recognizable Film Scores” March 9, 2011

http://www.smashinglists.com/10-film-scores-we-all-recognize/ Vintageking.com “Film Composer” March 9, 2011 http://

www.vintageking.com/Hans-Zimmer