Transcript Presentation of renowned composer Hanz Zimmer

Contents
 Biography
 Composition
 Listening Guide: includes two songs from the motion
picture Inception
“Old Souls”
“Mombasa”
Biography: Hans Zimmer
The Early Days of Zimmer
 Was born on september
12th , 1957
 Moved 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 Career
 He 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 career
 Zimmer’s first solo score was for the movie Terminal
Exposure in 1987
 He then was score producer for The Last Emperor 1988
 His 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
Zimmer
 He 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
Challenges
 Unleashing the audiences imagination in
the best way possible
 Incorporating a guitar sound reminiscent of
Ennio Morricone
 Getting 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 growth
 Old 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 gradual
 It 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 level
 The tempo is quick and very fast paced
 A 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 climax
 It 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-meetsSynthesizer

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