MUSIC 1010
SEMESTER PRESENTATION
“The night is darkest just before the dawn”
-Harvey Dent (The Dark Knight Rises)
HANS FLORIAN ZIMMER
An Artist
Was Born
• Born September 12 th
1957
• Frankfurt am Main,
Hesse Germany
• Alive and well today
• Well into his musical
career
A touch of Creativity
• Mother musically
talented
• Father skilled
engineer
• Hans was the
combination that
would tear apart
the piano and
change it around
to make different
sounds.
THE YOUNG ZIMMER
Musical Interests:
•
Piano
•
Keyboard
•
Synthesizer
•
Piano lessons? Not so much
Moved to London to attend Hurtwood House School
IN-BE ”TWEENS”
Just getting started:
•
Zimmer was going to school
•
Playing with music
•
Writing jingles for commercials
And finally….
Got together with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes and created…
“VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR”
•
Buggles
Video Killed the Radio Star, Worldwide hit
•
First song eve to be on MTV
HALLELUJAH IT’S RAINING MEN (RAIN MAN)
AND WE PAUSE FOR A
DISNEY FUN FACT
• Zimmer did the score for
THE LION KING!!!
AND SO HE “SCORES” BIG!!
Of 100 music scores Zimmer has created, here are a
few:
• Rain Man
• Lion King
• Pearl Harbor
• Gladiator
• The Last Samurai
• The Pirates of the Caribbean movies
and
• Batman: The Dark Knight
OUT OF OFFICE
Zimmer also has a family life:
• Married Vicki Carolin and had one child
• Divorced Vicki
• Married Suzanne
• He and Suzanne are still married and have 3 Children together
WHAT WILL COME NEXT?...
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
Rumors are all we know of Zimmer’s future plans
• Teach (as a pay it forward for all he has learned)
• Traveling the world playing music for others
• But who really knows? Anything could happen.
~MUSIC THAT MOVES YOU~
• Real music is the music that picks you up and moves you to places you
didn’t know you could go.
• Pearl Harbor is a good example of Zimmer’s music where the music affects
your emotions so strongly in accordance with what you are viewing that you
are taken (maybe against your will) to a whole new level of emotions and
feelings, all because of a well written piece of music.
QUOTES WORTH QUOTING
When you write a theme one of the things
you want to do is you want to see how
much life it really has. How many
possibilities there are. Can it speak to
you in joy? Can it speak to you in
sorrow? Can it be love? Can it be hate?
Can you say all these things with just a
few notes? That's the thing when you
figure out if a tune is any good or not.
Does it have more than one shallow little
character? Does it have just one little
thing to tell you. Can it get underneath
there under your skin? Can it get dark?
Can it talk about the death of a father or
something like that.
You have to remain flexible, and you must be
your own critic at all times.
-Hans Zimmer
THE DYNAMIC DUO
•
Christopher Nolan
hand picked Hans
Zimmer to score his
film.
•
Hans focused on each
character very
thoroughly as he
created the music for
the film.
•
10,000 bars of noise
was the start of the
Joker.
•
Together they truly
brought each character
to life.
THE DARK KNIGHT
• Warner Brothers published
the album
• Sold 25,000 copies in one
week
• Won a Grammy for The Best
Score Soundtrack
• Won the Classical Brit
Award for Best Soundtrack
LISTENING GUIDE
• 0:00 Introduction is the dark and ominous sound of the cello rolling
deep and powerfully as it sets the dark mood.
• 0:12 The form begins as violins cut through the deep gloom of the cello
in very quiet and small sounds of hope. The Rhythm stays the same,
slow and even but the sounds contrast.
• 0:33 The background of the violins rhythm picks up the pace and the
texture is that of the gloomy sounding cello and then the sound of the
every quickening positive influence of the violins trying to come in and
take over.
• 1:08 The melody now becomes the violins and the cello harmonizes as
the violins took over. The rhythm continues to pick up the pace. The
form of these two instruments is a battle that the instruments playing
the major melody have won.
• 1:28 The dynamics are played forte here for just a moment in a swell to
emphasize the good taking over.
• 1:57 Dynamics move into a crescendo as the music grows into the main
melody/theme.
LISTENING GUIDE (CONTINUED)
• 2:30 The music then slows down again, the texture that of slowly
bringing in the main melody but also remember the dark and dreary
beginning.
• 3:02 The music then becomes forceful and urgent as the tempo and
rhythm pick up and each instrument is played loudly and with vigor.
• 3:53 The timbre here is shown with the drums hitting extremely
hard, they are emphasized above all other sounds at this moment as
the melody stops once again.
• 4:05 The same thing happens here as well, the other sounds are
background music as the timbre of the drums stands out against it.
• 4:17 The form is also shown here as the timbre of the drums stands
out as the contrast, the same sounds that started in the beginning
come in once again creating repetition in the music.
• 4:32 This time as the rhythm picks up it adds a few more sounds to
the melody as if to show that it has just a little more strength than it
did last time.
LISTENING GUIDE (CONTINUED)
•
5:00 The same slow but steady pace continues as the melody once again
comes in on the violins the rhythm is slow but it has a hint of beginning to
pick up.
•
5:32 A new sound is added and for timbre it stands out even though it is
very small because it is the instrument of a vocalist.
•
6:02 The rhythm once again picks up and the form is that of repetition once
more with the timbre and texture of a few new sounds (like the vocals) the
dynamics are forte once again.
•
6:19 The vocals dynamics are louder still and stand out even more at this
point in time.
•
7:04 The notes dynamics are now played in a staccato sound which is new
to the piece, the melody was slowing down but the staccato indicates that
it is not slowing down for long.
•
7:15 The music goes nearly silent as it plays in pianissimo just before this
point, then it begins to play staccato notes again and then builds very
powerfully back into the melody/theme of the song, with a lot of power.
LISTENING GUIDE (CONTINUED)
• 7:41 Timbre is some hard drum accents once more. Very forceful
sounds set themselves apart from the melody.
• 8:00 The melody begins to take on a new sound and key up to this point
to build to the next big part where just after this it swells very loudly
with a new sounding rhythm and then in a decrescendo falls back down
to nearly no sound.
• 8:30 The form picks up again in repetition sounding almost the very
same as when it started.
• 9:19 Timbre the Drums help emphasize the build once again as the
rhythm slowly picks up and introduces the melody/chorus again even
stronger than time before.
• 9:54 The build is the texture of gloom and darkness and then just after
this point it fades away and the violins and a little of the trumpets come
in again as they did in the beginning to sort of ward off the bad.
• 10:25 Timbre, all of the instruments collide together making a huge
sound of clashing but also harmonious sound to create great contrast
to the repetition of the form that has been playing thus far.
LISTENING GUIDE (CONTINUED)
• 10:44 The violins squeal alone and the timbre is that of the violins
completely standing out as well as the form shows another great
contrast.
• 11:38 Then the violins squeal begins to turn into the sound of the
melody once more and begins to take on the repetitious sound it has
been making the whole song. All of this creating a big build once again
to nearing the end of the song.
• 12:10 The form continues to be that of a build and then a quiet drop as
the dynamics pick up very loudly and then drop suddenly soft.
• 12:46 The drums hit once again to signify the change from this contrast
in the music to the slow repetitive sound it started with.
• 12:56 Sounds like the beginning once again and builds again with
repetitive form.
• 13:34 This time when the melody comes in, it comes in with all of the
instruments, the dynamics louder and stronger than all others
LISTENING GUIDE FINALE
• 13:59 The sounds stop causing contrast in the music and also
building up to the finale.
• 14:02 The tempo picks up significantly just after the music had
nearly ceased.
• 14:15 Timbre and dynamics, the staccato notes are back
sounding hard and forceful and strong as the song begins to end.
• 14:42 The same melody is heard as from the beginning but the
timbre of the drums hitting changes the form to that of
contrasting sounds from the rest and the dynamics of the hard
hits emphasizes that sound even more.
• 14:47 It then goes into the melody very strongly once more,
continuing hard drum hits are heard throughout the melody. It
sounds urgent this time and more positive and less gloomy.
• 15:40 Dynamic fades out to the end.
CITE THE WORKS!
• IMDB.com
• Google images for the many pictures