Topic: Hans Zimmer

[Saul]

What do you guys think about Hans Zimmer?

I think that he wrote some very good film Music, I like his style.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/FgCevpO18t4&amp;feature=related" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/FgCevpO18t4&amp;feature=related</a>

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[monafam]

I tend to like the scores he writes, but listened apart from the movie itself, I think they sound almost too similar.   

They probably deserve another listen or two from me to make a more educated answer.

[david johnson]

fun listening for me!

dj

[petrarch]

Gladiator is not so bad, especially since Lisa Gerrard was a key collaborator and I just love Dead Can Dance. But Hans Zimmer is mostly regurgitated classical/19th C stuff as evidenced by his comment that (paraphrasing) "I wanted to compose something Wagnerian in flavor". The most memorable moment for me from his soundtracks is the fragment from the ficticious Dante opera in Hannibal and that also shows up in Kingdom of Heaven, but it turns out it wasn't really composed by Zimmer.

[Saul]

He has some interesting works. Fun to listen to.

[Josquin des Prez]

Personally, i think Nino Rota is one of the most under-rated film composers in Cinema. He is well known as a writer of flamboyant, very Italianate festal scores, but there is a deeper side to his works which is extremely subtle. Take the main theme from 8 1/2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWqC6kRCLjI

So many shades and moods, its just amazing. The whole piece runs for less then five minutes yet it constituted the entire score of the film, each segment of the theme being capable of conveying the appropriate emotional contour for a great variety of scenes. Another great example is the score he wrote for Le Notti di Cabiria. There a brief moment during the film which is just brilliant, starting at 5:08:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz-JS57tqb0&feature=related

So understated, and yet so powerful. One of my favored scenes from one of my top 5 films. No one understood the human soul like Fellini did, and no one understood Fellini the way Rota did. The latter was never the same without the first.

[Bogey]

My favorite is Crimson Tide.  I also enjoyed Gladiator, which sounded like Crimson Tide.  I also liked the recent effort on Sherlock Holmes, which sounded like Crimson Tide, etc.  In short, his heavy footprint is VERy identifiable.  Some movie composers are like that.  Rachel Portman and James Horner also come to mind, and in a lesser sense, John Williams ( he at least branched out with a few).  However, what this does is it makes me enjoy their earlier compositions and tend to stay away from more recent efforts as I "have heard this many times before". 

[petrarch]

Personally, i think Nino Rota is one of the most under-rated film composers in Cinema.

If we're talking film composers in general, my favourite has to be Zbigniew Preisner, who composed most if not all music for the movies directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski. It is another very special case of a strongly attuned composer/director combination. His soundtracks for La double vie de Véronique and for the Trois Couleurs trilogy are exquisite.

[vandermolen]

I like the Gladiator music - very evocative. I have the double album which I enjoy.

[knight66]

I enjoy the Gladiator music a lot and have it on my iPod, apart from Salif Kater the only non mainstream classical I have transferred onto it.

Two years ago I spent five days wandering round Petra in Jordan. One day I was on my own and took the iPod. I listened to some bits of Mahler and Bruckner, but it was Gladiator's music that fitted the feel of the place and heightened the experience.

Mike

[Saul]

I enjoy the Gladiator music a lot and have it on my iPod, apart from Salif Kater the only non mainstream classical I have transferred onto it.

Two years ago I spent five days wandering round Petra in Jordan. One day I was on my own and took the iPod. I listened to some bits of Mahler and Bruckner, but it was Gladiator's music that fitted the feel of the place and heightened the experience.

Mike

Indeed In 106 CE, when Cornelius Palma was governor of Syria, that part of Arabia under the rule of Petra was absorbed into the Roman Empire as part of Arabia Petraea, becoming capital. The music is picturesque and has an ancient mood of Rome, partly because its a music for battle, and Rome was always busy with battles.

[knight66]

I think the music covers many moods and it certainly fitted the mysterious atmosphere in Petra. Sometimes I would turn my head, the music happened to swell and I was looking at an astonishing distant vista of ruins. Not an experience for everyone, but as a one of, it was a lovely day full of spine tingling moments of wonder.

Mike

[Sergeant Rock]

My favorite is Crimson Tide.

Yeah, Crimson Tide, my favorite too, even though I should be sick of it. Mrs. Rock played it non-stop for several months    My favorite bit is when the Navy hymn ("Eternal Father, Strong to Save") makes its appearance as the sub begins to submerge. One of those tingle moments.

I own Gladiator, too, and The Last Samurai and Black Hawk Down (another CD Mrs. Rock almost played to death). We watched Sherlock Holmes last night. Quite enjoyed that score too although I probably won't buy it.

Sarge

[Bogey]

Yeah, Crimson Tide, my favorite too, even though I should be sick of it. Mrs. Rock played it non-stop for several months   

Mrs. Rock, well, err, rocks!

[Saul]

I like his work in this film very much too...

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[XB-70 Valkyrie]

I just discovered this composer in this extraordinary video of the Isle of Skye--Music from Inception

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb6WlQiaJeM

[71 dB]

I just discovered this composer in this extraordinary video of the Isle of Skye--Music from Inception

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb6WlQiaJeM

Discovered? Hans Zimmer Has been a big house name for movie scores for 20 years. One of my friend/axquaintance worship Zimmer, but I never got interested of his music, perhaps because the movies he scores I find uninteresting. He's made 200 scores  (Kung Fu Panda  ), but none of them are my favorite movies althou I haven't seen Blade Runner 2049 yet...

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Ja, Discovered.  

Actually, movies (aside from 2001 A Space Odyssey) are in the basement of my priorities in life. I always think I'm going to get caught up on them over winter break  and summer vacation, but I never do; listening to music, reading, doing photography, yoga, meditation, hiking, lifting weights,  travel, writing, publishing research, drinking/tasting wine, walking along the beach, stargazing, and even wasting time online always seem more compelling ways of spending time.

Nevertheless, this "movie" I posted on Skye (did you watch it?) is my kind of movie! No people (except, as Werner Herzog would say "ants in the landscape"), no dialogue, no plot! My wife kids me for not being able to follow movie plots, but they are almost entirely boring to me compared to the visual and musical aspects. This is why the movies I like have minimal plots (2001 A Space Odyssey, My Dinner with Andre), or plots that are so ridiculous as to be irrelevent (The Big Lebowski), or at very least have stunning visuals and intriguing ideas that (for me) outweigh the plot (La Dolce Vita, Blade Runner).