Presentation of renowned composer Hans Zimmer Contents Biography

Presentation of renowned composer Hans 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 12 th , 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-p 140996 � 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