Hans Zimmer

I just did an essay on Zimmer, and he's probably the most gifted composer since Chopin. Hans has been an inspiration to me for years and what he can do is actually pure genius.

And I love hearing the guy talk, his accent is tamed and he can talk to so fast but I understand every word he says. We won't see another like him for a long time, if our generation gets to at all.

Very interesting short video about the percussion sessions for Man of Steel, do they all record like this?

Hans does all kinds of things man, stuff that you hear in soundtracks that you can't understand what it might be.... it could be the tapping of pencil, dragging something across a piano string, I mean anything, and he always uses instruments that are not typical of the modern Orchestra in his scores. The guy used to attach chainsaws and other mechanical things to his mothers piano to see what kind of sound it would make, he's just a genius. I wouldn't say he's like Mozart, because Mozart wrote his first symphony when he was 6, but Hans is up there with the best for sure. He's the best in the business without question. I love John Williams, but Hans' creativity is just in another world, you add that in with the beautiful melodic content and no one can touch him.

I think it's awesome people want to talk about this type of genre, I love it, it has so much influence in how I work. My most favorite of Hans' work is the Batman scores, he was given a blank check and cart blanche, so you really get to understand in those series of movies just how amazing he can really be. He's basically given that in everything now, but that's when it really first started happening when a director would just go "Hans, go live in a cave for 8 months and bring me what you create." It's amazing.

I record a good amount of ambient orchestral stuff using Omnisphere and NI plugins, but it's purely as a hobbyist. I just push the system resources and see what I can do.

Interesting, all that technology and all those professional plugins and he uses a Cello..

Batman is great to hear some, but his work is amazing in everything you listen to. Just look at his discog and start from about 04'. Plus the "Crimson Tide" soundtrack is really good too.

Thanks guys. Going to go buy the CD's!!

Zimmer and friends performing the Dark Knight live! This is better than Tangerine Dream

I agree he's a master of the film scoring trade. And has always been a pioneer in creating new exciting sounds and textures. I remember an article in Keyboard magazine from more than 20 yrs ago. Already then he sampled his own string libraries etc, incredible.

My Zimmer favorite is the main theme from Gladiator.

Worth to note is his huge team of composers (ghost writers), arrangers and programmers. He puts his signature on stuff that he hasn't written himself, with some exceptions, for instance that big hit (in 12/8) from Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't mind at all, and Zimmer is of course in charge and controls everything. This is the way some people work and contract people, but it could be noted.

My only hesitation is to what degree he's a genious as a composer per se. As mentioned I think he's a true master and genious when it comes to make music work in a picture, create those themes that we'll always connect to certain films and just enhance the whole experience. I think that's art just as much as any other artform. It's just that for periods I listen to classical music and sometimes use certain recordings as reference for a modern orchestral sound. For me there's quite a difference when you listen to the classical masters, like Richard Strauss, Mahler, Maurice Ravel just to name a few true geniouses, and compare to the current giants of film scoring. Almost always I feel there's more depth and more dimensions in the old masterpieces.

Classical connoisseurs (a few friends of mine are..) always hear instantly where they've 'borrowed' the orchestral textures and even themes. This is perhaps the most famous example (Erich Wolfgang Korngold, from the film King's Row 1941):


Ok, excuse me... Back to Mr Zimmer! :-)

Pretty sure he is not a Mozart.
Mozart was pretty much outstanding already at the age of 5, and with fourteen a true genius.
 
Friend of mine worked for him.
Mr Zimmer is a hard worker and also pays a lot of helping hands.
For me he brought the way film-music is produced to a new level; and with this he became one of the richest composers in the world.

You have to love what you do if you hang for 16 hours a day in your studio working.
He is one of those persons…. he loves it.