Hans ZimmerBy: Annette Nielsen

Music 1010Semester Project

Early Years• Born on September 12, 1957

• Hans Florian Zimmer

•Born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany (otherwise known as just Frankfurt)

Love and Hate of Music• Up until his father’s death as a child, Hans Zimmer

did not have an interest in music, he didn’t like the discipline of formal lessons. But with his father’s death, he escaped through music.

• “My father died when I was just a child, and I escaped somehow into the music and music has been my best friend.”

• Completely self-taught, he learned everything he knows through collaboration and experimenting.

Career• Hans Zimmer’s career first started with the

Pop group The Buggle’s and their hit single Video Killed the Radio Star, in 1979.

Career• While in London, Hans Zimmer was under the

tutelage of Stanley Meyers, and together they composed numerous film scores.• With films and shows such as Moonlighting,

Insignificance, and My Beautiful Launderette.

Music Style• Together with Stanley Meyers, Hans Zimmer

helped co-found the London-Based Lillie Yard Recording Studios.

• This focused on mixing traditional orchestral sound with electronic instruments.

Career• With the start of their recording studio, Zimmer

went on to start his solo career.

• One of his first movies was A World Apart, in which Zimmer combined the old and new musical technologies that he experimented with Meyers. Because of this, he is known as being “the father of integrating the electronic musical world with traditional orchestral arrangements.

Down to Business• When he moved to Santa Monica, Zimmer wanted

to offer opportunities to other composers. He founded the Remote Control Productions or “Think Tank”. This helped launch the careers of:

• Mark Mancina-August Rush• John Powell-The Bourne Series• Harry Gregson-Williams-Kingdom of Heaven• Nick Glennie-Smith-X-Men: First Class• Klaus Badelt-Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of

the Black Pearl

• 1988• This movie won Hans Zimmer his first Academy Award

nomination for Best Original Score• Zimmer uses synthesizers mixed with steel drums. He

said: "It was a road movie, and road movies usually have jangly guitars or a bunch of strings. I kept thinking don't be bigger than the characters. Try to keep it contained. The Raymond character doesn't actually know where he is. The world is so different to him. He might as well be on Mars. So, why don't we just invent our own world music for a world that doesn't really exist.”

• The film won four Academy Awards including Best Picture

• 1994

• The Lion King was Hans Zimmer’s first big notice.

• There were 15 million copies sold

• It earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, an American Music Award, a Tony, and 2 Grammy Awards.

• 2000• Became one of the best selling film score albums

of all time• Received an Oscar nomination in addition to a

Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics Awards• Sold more than THREE MILLION copies worldwide• The album was so popular that it spawned a

second album…Gladiator: More Music from the Motion Picture

Partial Discography– Driving Miss Daisy (1989)– Days of Thunder (1990)– Thelma & Louise (1991)– Backdraft (1991)– True Romance (1993) – Crimson Tide (1995)– Smilia’s Sense of Snow

(1997)– As Good as It Gets (1997)– The Thin Red Line (1998)

– Mission: Impossible II (2000)

– An Everlasting Piece (2000)

Partial Discography– Hannibal (2001)– Riding in Cars with

Boys (2001)– The Ring (2002)– Spirit: Stallion of the

Cimarron (2002)– Matchstick Men

(2003)– Tears of the Sun

(2003)– Something’s Gotta

Give (2003)– Shark Tale (2004)– Spanglish (2004)– The Weather Man

(2005)– Batman Begins (2005)

My Favorite Scores• My favorite film scores that he has done include:– Pirates of the Caribbean:

Dead Man’s Chest (2006)At World’s End (2007)On Stranger Tides (2011)

‒Pearl Harbor (2001)‒Madagascar (2005)‒A League of Their Own

(1992)

‒ Inception (2010)‒The Road to El Dorado

(2000)‒Sherlock Holmes (2009)

• This CD consists of 12 tracks:‒Jack Sparrow, The Kraken, Davy Jones, I’ve

Got My Eye On You, Dinner is Served, Tia Dalma, Two Hornpipes (Tortuga), A Family Affair, Wheel of Fortune, You Look Good Jack, Hello Beastie, He’s A Pirate (Tiesto Remix)

• My favorite on this track is Davy Jones.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

MY ALL TIME FAVORITE SCORE• This CD consists of 13 tracks:

– Hoist the Colours, Singapore, At Wit’s End, Multiple Jacks, Up Is Down, I See Dead People in Boats, The Brethren Court, Parlay, Calypso, What Shall We Die For, I Don’t Think Now is the Best Time, One Day, and Drink Up Me Hearties

• My Favorite track on this CD is At Wit’s End

MY ALL TIME FAVORITE SCOREComposition History

• At Wit’s End…Track 3…(8:10) • 0:00 (Introduction)-Percussion Drums in the background, and it sounds like strings come in and with

tremolo, shortly after it sounds like either woodwinds or brass instruments come in with chimes • 0:38-there is a shift in the music to make it more dramatic • 1:09-You hear the chimes again as the main instrument on top of the background music, then at 1:12

you hear pizzicato with string instruments • 1:22-It seems like the cello comes in as the main instrument for about 4 seconds then you hear the

violins come in • 1:34-The repeating theme comes back in and it sounds like a horn of some kind, with a background of

string instruments and chimes • 1:59-It sounds like a choir joins in, but after reading about Zimmer’s love of synthesizers, it sounds like

it could be a synthesizer as well. Strings are in the background until 2:11, and then it’s the synthesizer with a deep percussion instrument

• 2:40-Horns come in • 3:12-The strings come back with a crescendo, with the violins playing the main repeating theme • 3:45-You hear a crash of the cymbals and then you hear percussion and brass instruments coming back

in playing yet another crescendo • 3:57-You hear a decrescendo and what almost sounds like chimes, yet I know it’s not, it could be

triangles

MY ALL TIME FAVORITE SCOREComposition History

• At Wit’s End…Track 3…(8:10) • 5:20-You hear a crescendo with percussion and brass instruments coming back in

playing a foreboding theme • 6:12-You hear the cello as the main background instrument with other background

instruments consisting of brass, percussion, and other strings. The violins leads up to a faster rhythm

• 6:53-You hear what sounds like a choir saying something quick, then you have violins playing a tremolo and get up into 5th position playing “shrilly”. At 7:02 you hear what sounds like the choir again, but again, I’m not sure if it’s a choir, or simply a synthesizer

• 7:07-You hear a group of cello’s again with violin’s playing a variation of the main theme, then at 7:20 you hear the brass instruments, synthesizer, and percussion come in

• 7:31-You hear the string instruments doing a trilling and then you hear the main theme repeated with a couple of variations

• 8:00 (Finale)-You hear the percussion come in and the percussion and the synthesizer ends the song

• This CD consists of 18 tracks. The first 11 are the regular tracks, and tracks 12-18 are the remixes of tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9:–Guilty of Being Innocent of Being Jack Sparrow,

Angelica, Mutiny, The Pirate That Should Not Be, Mermaids, South of Heaven's Chanting Mermaids, Palm Tree Escape, Blackbeard, Angry and Dead Again, On Stranger Tides, End Credits

• My favorite track on this CD is Mermaids

• This CD consists of 9 tracks:– There You’ll Be (the only song with lyrics), Tennessee,

Brothers, And Then I Kissed Him, I Will Come Back, Attack, December 7th, War, and Heart of a Volunteer.

• My favorite track is the one sung by Faith Hill: There You’ll Be. But my favorite instrumental track is a tie between Tennessee, Brothers, And Then I Kissed Him.

• Tennessee…Track 2…(3:39) (Which other than Faith Hill’s song, There You’ll Be, is my favorite from this soundtrack)

• 0:00 (Introduction)-You have what sounds to be a piano and string instruments starting off the main theme that plays throughout the movie

• 0:34-There’s a crescendo starting and ends at 0:40 • 1:00-This starts a new melody which has high piano notes, which earlier, it

was just the lower piano notes used, harmonizing with the strings • 1:30-You hear a crash of the cymbals and the music becomes louder, and

played with more feeling, and again at 1:44 • 1:51-You hear a deep drum • 2:02-Begins a new theme which is the piano as the primary instrument with

strings in the background going back and forth from trilling to a simple vibrato

• 2:22-Begins the first theme again • 2:58-Beginning of a crescendo • 3:07-Vocals begin harmonizing in the background until a quiet fade out

Composition History

• This CD consists of 12 tracks:– Half Remembered Dream, We Built Our Own World,

Dream is Collapsing, Radical Notion, Old Souls, 528491, Mombasa, One Simple Idea, Dream Within a Dream, Waiting for a Train, Paradox, and Time.

• My favorite track is the last one, Time

• This CD consists of 14 tracks:– El Dorado, Someday Out of the Blue (Theme From El

Dorado), Without Question, Friends Never Say Goodbye, The Trail We Blaze, 16th Century Man, The Panic in Me, It’s Tough To Be a God, Trust, Me, My Heart Dances, Queen of Cities, Cheldorado, The Brig, and Wonders of the New World

• My favorite track is The Trail We Blaze. It Reminds me of childhood and my own adventures.

• Hans Zimmer co-composed this with John Powell• Many of the Songs are song by Elton John

• This CD consists of 12 tracks:– Discombobulate, Is It Poison, Nanny?, I Never Woke Up

In Handcuffs Before, My Mind Rebels at Stagnation, Data, Data, Data, He’s Killed the Dog Again, Marital Sabotage, Not in Blood, But in Bond, Ah, Putrefaction, Panic, Shear Bloody Panic, Psychological Recovery, and Catatonic.

• My favorite track is Catatonic

Bibliography• ZDF Infokanal interview, June 2006 (in German with

English subtitles)". Retrieved 2009-09-13. (Quote on slide three).

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Zimmer#cite_note-zdf-4

• http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001877/bio