Harry Gregson-Williams

[Vaderbait1 1]

Why the hell does he hyphenate his last name? Anyone know?

Is he from outside the Western world or something? I've never heard of a man hyphenating his last name.

[ChuckM 1]

You've never heard of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle?

[Vaderbait1 1]

You've never heard of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle?

Touche....yet why?

[Desplat13 1]

Probably because his mother didn't want to give up her maiden name. It happens sometimes, and believe me, the trend will not lead anywhere good.

[indy4 160]

the trend will not lead anywhere good.

Please elaborate.

[Desplat13 1]

(hoping this will not turn political) After about five generations of this, and five names tagged on, things will get, shall we say, complicated. Poor person...

[Koray Savas 2,260]

Like Colin said, his mother probably kept her maiden name. Don't forget about Rupert Gregson-Williams!

[Vaderbait1 1]

Like Colin said, his mother probably kept her maiden name. Don't forget about Rupert Gregson-Williams!

That being said, why would it pass on to the son? In every instance I've ever seen (except maybe the Conan-Doyle reference), the son simply has the father's last name.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

Like Colin said, his mother probably kept her maiden name. Don't forget about Rupert Gregson-Williams!

That being said, why would it pass on to the son? In every instance I've ever seen (except maybe the Conan-Doyle reference), the son simply has the father's last name.

Well Rupert is his brother. Harry has 3 kids, but I don't know what their last names officially are. According to IMDb, he's had 2 spouses, with 1 child from the first marriage.

[indy4 160]

(hoping this will not turn political) After about five generations of this, and five names tagged on, things will get, shall we say, complicated. Poor person...

Ah, I see.

Not quite sure how this'll lead to political discussion, but let's not discuss that so it doesn't.

[Desplat13 1]

Like Colin said, his mother probably kept her maiden name. Don't forget about Rupert Gregson-Williams!

That being said, why would it pass on to the son? In every instance I've ever seen (except maybe the Conan-Doyle reference), the son simply has the father's last name.

That would be a good solution to the problem. But I think I have actually heard of someone with three names hyphenated into one, which is what makes me think it is not a good idea.

[Nick Parker 3,049]

Actually, some countries, such as Mexico, have a "surname system", for lack of a better term, that does this. I cannot remember the specifics, but that I know.

[Corellian2019 495]

Actually, some countries, such as Mexico, have a "surname system", for lack of a better term, that does this. I cannot remember the specifics, but that I know.

Yes, like director Alejandro Gonzalez-Iñarritu.

[Koray Savas 2,260]

A great director, that one.

[Corellian2019 495]

I agree

[ChuckM 1]

Actually, some countries, such as Mexico, have a "surname system", for lack of a better term, that does this. I cannot remember the specifics, but that I know.

Yes. My roommate is from Mexico. He has no middle name as we would normally think of one. Instead he has his father's last name followed by his mother's last name. No hyphen though.

[Luke Skywalker 2,385]

Actually, some countries, such as Mexico, have a "surname system", for lack of a better term, that does this. I cannot remember the specifics, but that I know.

Yes. My roommate is from Mexico. He has no middle name as we would normally think of one. Instead he has his father's last name followed by his mother's last name. No hyphen though.

D'uh

We Spanish have two surnames, 1st the father's and second the mother's. The father's is most of the times the one that you pass on your descendancy.

We cannot be called JUNIOR!

The hyphenated names, I think that for Spanish and i suppose it could be the same for english is because the surname of the family is composed. That meaning that the father's surname contains those two surnames. I think this could predate the middle ages and nobility titles. (but also families trying to give themselves that kind of importance or glamour)

As an example, Alatriste's book writer name is Arturo Pérez-Reverte. His full name is Arturo Pérez-Reverte Gutiérrez.

[Vaderbait1 1]

Actually, some countries, such as Mexico, have a "surname system", for lack of a better term, that does this. I cannot remember the specifics, but that I know.

Yes. My roommate is from Mexico. He has no middle name as we would normally think of one. Instead he has his father's last name followed by his mother's last name. No hyphen though.

Right, I'm familiar with that system and that makes sense to me. But the hyphenation, that's a feminist thing, so I would think a male having it is sort of...emasculating. But that's just my sexist opinion.

[Luke Skywalker 2,385]

Actually, some countries, such as Mexico, have a "surname system", for lack of a better term, that does this. I cannot remember the specifics, but that I know.

Yes. My roommate is from Mexico. He has no middle name as we would normally think of one. Instead he has his father's last name followed by his mother's last name. No hyphen though.

Right, I'm familiar with that system and that makes sense to me. But the hyphenation, that's a feminist thing, so I would think a male having it is sort of...emasculating. But that's just my sexist opinion.

As i said it could be a compound family name, or one man liked his mothers name very much (becasue for example its an unusual surname) and put the hyphen there to preserve it as a whole.

[Marian Schedenig 11,695]

Like Colin said, his mother probably kept her maiden name. Don't forget about Rupert Gregson-Williams!

That being said, why would it pass on to the son?

Why not? If the mother wanted to keep her maiden name, so obviously did the father. Why should the child get just the father's name instead of both or just the mother's? What if the mother raised the child alone, would you still expect him/her to have just the father's name?

[Vaderbait1 1]

Like Colin said, his mother probably kept her maiden name. Don't forget about Rupert Gregson-Williams!

That being said, why would it pass on to the son?

Why not? If the mother wanted to keep her maiden name, so obviously did the father. Why should the child get just the father's name instead of both or just the mother's? What if the mother raised the child alone, would you still expect him/her to have just the father's name?

No, then, based on my experience, he would have the mothers name and not the father's name. Just a curious event.

[Jacob 1]

Probably because his mother didn't want to give up her maiden name. It happens sometimes, and believe me, the trend will not lead anywhere good.

When NOT To Hyphenate Your Name

[Wojo 2,458]

A local example is of a very good high school running back about to head off to college to play football. At the same time, his mother remarried and took the name of her new husband. The running back didn't drop his original last name entirely, because then nobody would know who he was. So he added his new stepfather's last name as a hyphenated suffix. Very long to fit on a jersey, but problem solved.

[Williamsfan301 12]

He hyphenates his name so people will remember him. Lord knows it won't be for his music.

[indy4 160]

[Koray Savas 2,260]

[LSH 1,098]

A great lengthy interview just posted on YouTube:

 

 

[thestat 497]

No time to watch an interview with HGW - the dude needs to get back to making interesting scores.....How does one rationalise the empty crap he delivered for Mulan and Gladiator II - that actually has to take some effort to be that pointless.

 

He is turning up at the London Film Music Festival and charging £30 for masterclasses (not him obviously but the organisers). Tough shit, who wants to hear - I had to turn down creativity cos I'm tired/challenged/not interested/told so by director. 

 

Shore is in the next room with Cronenberg rationalising his low-key scores.....and then explaining how he composed LOTR, probably the largest scores ever.

 

Can't wait. It's going to be messy.

 

 

 

 

 

[LSH 1,098]

Suit yourself then!

[Tom 6,861]

On 08/12/2008 at 8:16 PM, Vaderbait1 said:

Why the hell does he hyphenate his last name? Anyone know?

Is he from outside the Western world or something? I've never heard of a man hyphenating his last name.

Perhaps he gets compliments on the hyphen.*

 

*Yes, I am aware that this post dates back to the Bush administration.  

[Anthony 895]

Just had a chat with Harry Gregson-Williams at the London Soundtrack Awards. He said he's not doing Shrek 5 and he said he believes it's going to be Powell.

 

And 18 years apart...

 

[Davis 3,957]

Did he say when he will write another score like Sinbad?

[Mr. Who 1,118]

20 hours ago, Anthony said:

Just had a chat with Harry Gregson-Williams at the London Soundtrack Awards. He said he's not doing Shrek 5 and he said he believes it's going to be Powell.

 

And 18 years apart...

 

This is a real shame IMO! Shrek is HGW’s series. I love Powell but Shrek 5 should be scored by HGW!

[Pieter Boelen 1,032]

1 hour ago, Mr. Who said:

This is a real shame IMO! Shrek is HGW’s series. I love Powell but Shrek 5 should be scored by HGW!

My interest ended after the second movie...

 

1 hour ago, Davis said:

Did he say when he will write another score like Sinbad?

Word!

[Edmilson 12,377]

On 09/12/2008 at 12:16 AM, Vaderbait1 said:

Why the hell does he hyphenate his last name? Anyone know?

Is he from outside the Western world or something? I've never heard of a man hyphenating his last name.

That's indeed a great question.

[Thor 9,362]

6 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

That's indeed a great question.

 

[Stark 1,023]

Powell scoring Shrek?!

 

I do think HGW has slowly strayed away from the animated style, but that's still a big surprise.

[Once 1,084]

Powell potentially returning to the Shrek franchise after 25 years is quite unexpected. We'll see!

[Anthony 895]

Even I said to Harry, "but didn't JP piss off Jeffrey Katzenberg?", but he said he and whichever studio it is now felt it was time for someone else to do Shrek.

 

I'm still not sold, but Harry seemed pretty confident on this.

[jjstarA113 61]

22 hours ago, Anthony said:

Just had a chat with Harry Gregson-Williams at the London Soundtrack Awards. He said he's not doing Shrek 5 and he said he believes it's going to be Powell.

On top of having co-scored the first Shrek and having a strong working relationship with DreamWorks Animation and Universal - not to mention his two Oscar noms are for Dragon 1 and Wicked - Powell also has a strong working relationship with Chris Meledandri (Blue Sky and Illumination), who’s now producing the Shrek franchise starting with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. It’s very much possible!

[thestat 497]

Met the dude as well - he is such a decent guy. A proper old handshake. Told him I love Spy Game, he said he might have overdone the boy soprano. The Gladiator suite he played I have seen before but it is so impressive live. A renewed HGW fan here

 

I told him loved the Gladiator 2 suite he performed, and he said, well, 'I'll tell Hans someone loved it'.

[Drawgoon 130]

On 23/03/2025 at 10:22 PM, Anthony said:

Just had a chat with Harry Gregson-Williams at the London Soundtrack Awards. He said he's not doing Shrek 5 and he said he believes it's going to be Powell.

 

Not Heitor Pereira?

 

On 24/03/2025 at 6:29 AM, Anthony said:

Even I said to Harry, "but didn't JP piss off Jeffrey Katzenberg?", but he said he and whichever studio it is now felt it was time for someone else to do Shrek.

 

I'm still not sold, but Harry seemed pretty confident on this.

 

I think he doesn't want to score it himself and he is making sure this is heard without him having to explicitly say so - fore career and reputation reasons obviously.

 

I get the impression from his works these past years that he might be very bored and disinterested in the way the industry works right now. 

 

Hope he gets a gig some time soon that reinvigorates him once again.

[Knight of Ren 1,554]

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Kingdom of Heaven, one of my favorite scores by Harry Gregson-Williams, so for the occasion I decided to revisit the score and talk in detail about all its themes and motifs and the way Gregson-Williams cleverly uses them through the film. Hope you like my review!

 

 

 

And I think it's about time that some specialty label pick this up and release it in a properly expanded form, as I think it's a score that would clearly benefit from an expansion in chronological order that allowed for a better understanding of the composer's intentions!

[Stark 1,023]

I recall reading that Harry is apathetic about expansions, possibly in a message from @Stéphane Humez on hans-zimmer.com. If there's a single HGW score that should have an expansion, it's this one, though. (And Armageddon.)

[Edmilson 12,377]

Yep. It's the only of his scores that really could shine with an expansion. So many great cues left out of the OST.

 

Besides, it's London-recorded and the movie was released before the AFM cutoff date anyway, so theoretically there wouldn't be an issue for an expansion. Since it's a Fox (RIP) movie, maybe Intrada could handle it?

[Richard P 5,303]

There might've been something about KoH specifically not being expandable (may be misremembering) but HGW is definitely not a composer who's embraced the expansion era. He's on record (one of Schweiger's interviews) saying he doesn't think Narnia needs expanding, and that he read complaints that Mulan's OST was too long.

[Stark 1,023]

To be fair, Narnia probably doesn't need an expansion.

[thestat 497]

This is HGW's magnum opus - it's intimate, grand, epic, very specific in all its tones. The choral work especially is totally brilliant. I wish I had asked him about this at the London Soundtrack Festival. All I asked was Spy Game and he implied he did too much boy soprano on that. Even I, an HGW fan, forgot to ask him about this score.

[Stéphane Humez 1,178]

52 minutes ago, Stark said:

I recall reading that Harry is apathetic about expansions, possibly in a message from @Stéphane Humez on hans-zimmer.com. If there's a single HGW score that should have an expansion, it's this one, though. (And Armageddon.)

 

Yeah Harry doesn't care much about expansions. But ironically he's been very helpful when I asked him about the things he did for Hans. He wasn't bothered by The Rock getting released (given he considers it being Nick & Hans' show anyway). About Armageddon he said that it really is Trevor's score & decision, and that he would follow whatever Trevor decides. And since Trevor said no...  

But, we keep inceptioning Harry, I'm sure one day he'll go "sure"... People change their mind. Hans wasn't interested for a while. Many many years ago he actually blocked a label from doing Thelma & Louise. And look now. I think his touring help. Forcing him to go through his career & compile tour suites made him realize "err, maybe it's not that bad...."

 

And I'll try to inception Trevor Rabin as well... 

[Stark 1,023]

 

3 minutes ago, Stéphane Humez said:

And I'll try to inception Trevor Rabin as well... 

We need more of Rabin's orchestral works! I believe in you.