Pharrell Williams, doing his thing.
If you’ve never heard of Hans Zimmer, I guarantee you’ve heard some of his music. The German composer has scored some massive movies over time, including Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, The Last Samurai and also worked on Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.
So in movie music circles, the guy is a bit of a legend.
Recently, he knocked off another giant movie score, this time for the latest Superman movie, Man Of Steel. True to form, Zimmer again innovated on the music.
As this clip shows you, he secured the services of some of the world’s best drummers, including Vinnie Colaiuta, Josh Freese, Sheila E, Jason Bonham, to name a few, and John “JR” Robinson, who just played on Daft Punk’s amazing Random Access Memories. Pharrell Williams, another Daft Punk collaborator and clearly handed too much talent at birth, also played drums at the Man Of Steel sessions.
Zimmer got them all to play in one massive studio because, as he notes in the clip, 12 drummers are better than one. “(Having just) one is cheesy,” he said. Like violins or other instruments in an orchestra, one is never enough to truly convey he music that he’s written.
Zimmer has revealed that in writing for Man Of Steel, he was experimenting a lot, and this drumming episode certainly shows that to be true. He refers to his musicians, which also included legendary bassist Leland Sklar, as his actors, and he demands a certain level of performance from them all. Only the best.
His music for Gladiator is breathtaking for me. He truly created an incredible mood throughout that film, with drama, romance and heroism all through its themes.
One of my favourite themes is the epic waltz he wrote for the first colosseum scene. The waltz runs through many of the battle scenes. It’s no coincidence that it’s a dance. He also tipped his hat to Gustav Holst‘s Mars, Bringer Of War, from The Planets, Op. 32, in parts of the score, which is something I loved having listened to that particular piece of music a million times as a kid, awestruck by it.
Zimmer talks to directors before composing his scores, preferring to hear the story from them than read it through a script. Clearly, it works for him, and I’m looking forward to hearing how his latest score for Man Of Steel comes across as a filmgoer.
Light+Shade 