Revolutionary composers of the 21st century

Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer is a German movie composer and record producer. His work is known for integrating electronic music sounds with orchestral arrangements; he has composed music for over 150 films. In his early years, he started his career in the UK before moving to the US, where he still works now. His famous musical arrangements integrated movies such as The Lion King, The Pirates of the Caribbean and the Gladiator.

Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack:

After listening to this soundtrack, I came to the conclusion that the soundtrack is major. This is so because the movie includes a lot of action and adventure scenes. The instrumental arrangements keep the viewer motivated, helping the movie director to convey the desired emotion to the spectator. In terms of structure the soundtrack starts slowly, creating some suspense, then as the movie develops the soundtrack gets more and more rhythmic enhancing the action scenes, creating the desired intensity by the movie director. In terms of instruments, we have a whole different kind of drums (timpani drums, side drum and snare drum) there is also some flute, harp and trumpets. There are no lyrics in this soundtrack, Hans Zimmer uses instrumental music with a particular structure to reach our emotions.

Gladiator Soundtrack:

Theme: Now we are free

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

In my opinion, one of the best songs Hans Zimmer has ever made, a really touching and beautiful track, it is minor. Here Hanns Zimmer combines instrumental music with lyrics. The song provokes a very special feeling which invites us to introspection. The track starts out with strings, the female singer’s name singing in the background is Lisa Gerard. Her clear voice increases in intensity as the main character of the film develops his journey. The particular language she is using is an idiosyncratic language, that she had developed since a very young age. The instruments in this track are, the violin, viola, bass and finally the French horn.

John Williams

John Williams was born on February 8, 1932, in New York. He attended college in Los Angeles where he started studying composition. After college, he went to the US and got the opportunity to conduct and arrange music for the Air Force band (the US militarily band). He then went to New York and taught in the Juilliard School of Music. He was then able to return to LA and had much knowledge of composition. He began to work as a film studio orchestrator. This opened him many doors and allowed him to compose the theme to the television series “Lost in Space.” During this time, he wrote some of the best music for movies, and his work is respected.

Soundtrack Star Wars:

Just by listening this track I can directly tell it is major. At the beginning the song is exciting it makes us want to discover more and listen to the entire song (which is fundamental for a good track). The mood of this track is heroic, adventure. The primary instrument are the brass, string.

Jurassic Park Soundtrack:

William created one of his best main themes for this movie. This soundtrack is played in major. The instruments that are played on this track are the following, violin, two harps, trumpets, flute, a choir. There are no lyrics to this track. Because this movie is an Action/fiction movie the topic of the soundtrack and its rhythm was really well putten.

Alan Silvestri

He was born on March 26, 1950, in America. He is an American composer and conductor known for his film and television scores. He started his career by composing the score for “The Doberman Gang.” Afterward, he continued to compose and making soundtracks for movies. During his lifetime he met Robert Zemeckis (an American film producer and screenwriter), where they compose for famous movies such as “Romancing the Stone”.

By Raphael Jaeger Year 12