Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Where words fail, Hans Zimmer speaks
Arguably contributing more to a film than the casting director or screenwriters, the film score composer communicates with an audience on a level more personal and complex than can be done within the constraints of the spoken word. With the critically-acclaimed scores of Rain Man, Interstellar, The Lion King, and a variety of other celebrated films under his belt, Hans Zimmer is one of few composers, past and present, who proves that point. A quick scroll through his IMDb page exemplifies just how much creativity has oozed, radiated, and exploded from Zimmer’s head into our ears. So what inspires Zimmer to create and share his creative musical expression? According to the composer, he requires “a period of agony and torture” before he is able to produce a score that will ultimately satisfy him, emulating the tortured artist style of Picasso and other creatives. Zimmer can effectively be analyzed as an example of Gardner’s “the relationship between the child and the adult creator” theme. After the death of his father when he was only six years old, Zimmer found an escape from his grief in the creation of music. This was, I believe, an enormous influence on his ability to communicate such powerful emotion through music as an adult. He learned to create music at an age when a person has far greater success learning a new language. For Zimmer, however, this language was more universal than Spanish or French. He perfected the language of music. As a child, Zimmer was not interested in replicating music composed by people before him, but rather in the true and original creation of producing sounds to incite and express emotion. For the academy award-winning film Interstellar, acclaimed filmmaker and recurring creative partner of Zimmer's, Christopher Nolan provided the composer with only one page describing the relationship between a parent and a child as the single resource to produce the base of the score for the film. His relationship with Nolan is an example of Gardner's "relationship between the creator and other individuals" because they are able to feed off of each other's massive creativity without having to sit down for hours and brainstorm together, resulting in some of the most highly-regarded films and film scores in history. It's impossible to objectively describe the impact Hans Zimmer's music can have on a person, people, society, and art. His intricate understanding of and ability to influence human emotions is unparalleled and utterly creative.
As a film production major, I found this post to be really interesting! I know that good audio and sound effects are crucial in making a quality film. However, I've never really done much in-depth reading or research into the life of a soundtrack composer.
ReplyDeleteI find it fascinating how Zimmer's childhood experiences allowed him to become the person he is today and to create the work he is doing now. I think his childhood experiences gave him emotional intelligence and insight, and this connection with human emotions is what allows him to create such compelling work.
That capacity for emotional insight into other human beings is a common theme among many of the creatives we have been studying. Before you can create great work, you have to understand the "field" or audience. In Zimmer's case, the field is any human that has ever experienced emotion.
I've played clarinet for almost eight years now, so I've played a lot of Hans Zimmer pieces. I've always loved them, though. His pieces always sound so unique, and it's really interesting to me to see how he writes them. I had no idea that his childhood had influenced him like that! I think it's really cool that you can see that influence, though, and it's definitely something that a lot of the creatives we've studied have had in common. I really liked this!
ReplyDeleteI've only known Hans Zimmer because of Pirates of the Caribbean and Inception. I'm surprised (but also not surprised) that he composed the score for Interstellar. Great movie with great music!
ReplyDeleteI never knew that Zimmer's childhood influenced him the way that it did. It's also quite interesting that you drew a comparison between between Zimmer and Picasso. Picasso lost a loved one too. He lost his sister when he was younger, but vowed to give up art in order to bring her back. How interesting that they channeled their grief differently but still ended up as greats in their respective domain!
Hans Zimmer is, in my opinion, one of the best sound-track composers living today, perhaps second to only John Williams. Most recently Zimmer composed the soundtrack for Dunkirk, in which he slows the theme from 20th century composer Edward Elgar's Nimrod from the Enigma variations. Zimmer is a great example of a composer who both draws on music of the past and brings his own flair and ear for excellent, emotive, music. And truly, what would Lord of the Rings be without the music! Such an essential role.
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing such an insightful and personal post about such a prolific creative. It is clear from your writing that you are passionate about the music Hans Zimmer creates and I have to say that this passion is earned. The connections between Zimmer's childhood and his later work were fascinating to explore. Thanks again!
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