Hans Zimmer started on INTERSTELLAR

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Yep, the solo piano stuff as usual, particularly Message From Home. The 4 orchestral piano parts were session players.

[KK 3,307]

Well aside from the stuff in "Coward" (which I assume were performed by session players), the piano material is pretty rudimentary.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Yeah, and it's nothing new that he's done it himself, unless you prefer to believe that he's a talentless hack who can't string two notes together on a keyboard. Message From Home is particularly candid though.

Speaking of Coward, isn't that fucking exhilarating?

[KK 3,307]

Fucking ace actually. Followed by a great climax in "Detach". And along with "I'm Going Home", you have the score's major highlights summed up pretty well.

My one disappointment so far is the over-reliance on the main theme.

[MedigoScan 324]

Still missing the "Imperfect Lock" sequence

but only until tuesday!

[Koray Savas 2,251]

The credits were so quick that the only name I caught was Gavin Greenaway as conductor.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

"Coward" is bloody amazing. You can hear a metal mallet striking the lowest strings of pianos at 0:40 (sent through DDL), as Goldsmith used back in MACARTHUR. Penderecki introduced the technique with Fluorescences. Just a bit of music history...

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

The credits were so quick that the only name I caught was Gavin Greenaway as conductor.

Richard Harvey too. One of them did the AIR sessions and the other the ones at Temple Church.

Don't worry, the complete music credits will be included in my now imminent "Guide To Hans Zimmer's Interstellar". Stay tuned. It promises to be exhaustive, and exhausting!

"Coward" is bloody amazing. You can hear a metal mallet striking the lowest strings of pianos at 0:40 (sent through DDL), as Goldsmith used back in MACARTHUR. Penderecki introduced the technique with Fluoresces. Just a bit of music history...

I wondered if you or Ludwig were gonna mention that.

[KK 3,307]

Yeah. I loved the rumbling textures created with the piano.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Anyone else getting a John Carpenter vibe from the score?

 

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Never heard that, but I can hear the similarities. Funkstellar.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Well, Zimmer's said ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 is his favourite score of all time.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Didn't know that. Also heard Nolan say in a recent interview that The Thin Red Line is his favorite score, just as a little anecdote.

The choir is present in a lot of places I didn't notice. Really subtle stuff.

[karelm 2,914]

Whatever dude!

Anyone posting on a forum like this is by default a nerd or a geek.

Except for me. I'm that one cool guy that proves you wrong but otherwise yes.

Stefan, do you know what I would do to you if we ever met in person?

Hug you!

And I would expect you and I would get along in real life much more than online.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

I certainly wouldn't judge anyone's real character by the kinds of miscommunications, vagaries, and spats made possible by internet interaction!

[KK 3,307]

Aww, friendship is magic guys!

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Shhhh, you'll summon that weirdo! He's definitely weird in real life.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Indeed!

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Shhhh, you'll summon that weirdo! He's definitely weird in real life.

 

Say his name five times into a mirror and he'll appear.

 

[KK 3,307]

Anyone know what's creating that constant woosh sound all throughout the score?

And why are there wind effects in the first cue, when the scene it scores didn't really have that (from what I remember).

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

No actually it did - the sounds are all part of the actual cues, not added in for the album. But the wind was a bit less prominent in the theater. As for why... well, the stuff near Saturn is sort of diegetic, tying into what Nolan said about the sounds of Earth being what he would miss the most about space travel. The wind at the beginning... maybe a dust storm thing? Don't know what the intent is, but I like it.

I think some of it is obviously real recordings of wind and rain and stuff, but part of it also sounds like a classic Zebra noise patch... sort of this score's version of the bat-flaps.

[KK 3,307]

Yeah. I'm hearing the noise patch, because in parts it's definitely being used with a rhythmic quality. Kind of reminds of an enhanced version of the pedal noise you might hear on a piano VST or something.

And I didn't remember the wind playing during the shots of Saturn, but thought it funny when Nolan was trying to preserve the silence of space.

Not sure how I feel about it actually. It kind of drowns the quiet beginnings of the "adventure/cooper theme" in cues like "Stay", which did admittedly annoy me for a bit.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

I mean when Cooper gives his earbuds to Romilly, and the rain sounds he's listening to take over the soundtrack.

[KK 3,307]

Ahh, that makes sense.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

That and the opening wind are the only places I remember really noticing the sound design stuff. I like it at the outset of the score. Allow me to get bullshitty... if we think of that opening theme as a theme for humanity, it's sort of appropriate to first hear it in that distant way, almost drowned out by wind/dust storms, but still immediately optimistic.

[KK 3,307]

Haha, unfortunately I'm not sold on that camp. I think the quiet beginnings suffice enough for that kind of buildup, kind of Thin Red Line style (TRL still wins in the end).

You can hear that wind patch in various places though, even "Coward".

[crocodile 8,017]

Ambient music design: Mario Reinsch. That's it, no additional composers.

Where do you see that credit? IMDb still isn't complete yet and I haven't been able to remember all of the music credits while actually in the theater. So far the only other credited hands that were on the music aside from the orchestrators were Steve Mazzaro's and Andrew Kawczynski's, who are credited with "additional arrangements" - probably no more than stitching cues together. I noticed a few instances of that in the film.

Umm... booklet?

One of my mates received a review promo CD from Sony Classical (they release it in Europe).

Karol

[KK 3,307]

Zimmer doesn't do his own ambient stuff? Interesting, considering that is a big part of this score.

[crocodile 8,017]

Don't know many composers who do, to be honest.

Karol

[KK 3,307]

Well I kind of assumed it was like how Thomas Newman did his own stuff?

Maybe I'm just confused by how much of the material this "ambience" accounts for? There's a lot of interesting ambient design going in the score, and considering Zimmer's expertise, that he'd be behind it.

[MedigoScan 324]

I only really found the wind ambience obtrusive in the first, 5th and last tracks

but if they were in the movie as well, i didnt hear them much, certainly not in 'Stay'

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Anyone else getting a real "old school" late 70's/early 80's prog rock vibe with some of the cues?

[crocodile 8,017]

Yes. I like that Zimmer went for a really small ensemble. It's mostly piano, strings, woodwinds and organ. Very grand score but small and intimate.

Karol

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

The organ work reminds me a lot of Morricone's Maddalena.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

The "ambient music design" credit that usually goes to Mel Wesson isn't quite what it sounds like, I think. I recall him saying that these folks are involved with synth patch/texture programming, not really with putting together the actual pieces. Wesson was behind the bat-flaps sound, for instance. Maybe Mario Reinsch was involved with the nature soundscape stuff.

[crocodile 8,017]

I think this might be exactly the case - sound effects and synth programming. Which is what most composers use when writing using those tools. Making of book doesn't mention any other people involved in writing music, just that Zimmer sampled organ church and piano and these are his performances essentially. After which, they recorded some orchestra bits in Temple Church and AIR Lyndhurst.

So there you have it: a proper solo score from Hans Zimmer. For those who care about this fact, anyway.

Karol

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Interesting about the organ being sampled. For the initial mocked-up score, I understand that Hans performed every last note, organ included. In the final score there are a few instances where I could see that being the case, but for the most part it definitely sounds like a real performance. And Roger Sayer is credited as the soloist.

[crocodile 8,017]

Oh yes, at first Zimmer recorded sampled Salisbury Cathedral organ. And piano. And everyone thought that was enough to carry for the film. But Zimmer insisted on London sessions so that he could hear how the real thing would sound. But there were concerns over street noise and stuff like that. But yeah. they did record real organ, too. It's possible that the final soundtrack is a combination of both, though (not that I know).

Karol

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Very eager to read this booklet, and see any other making-of stuff they have in store.

[crocodile 8,017]

There is some stuff about the score in the making of book. I've not seen the soundtrack booklet myself.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

With this score Zimmer to quite a large extent scales back from the EPIC sound that he employed the last few years which resulted in very dense, very loud scores with strong emphasis on drums and other types of percussion.

This is, for the most part a far leaner, streamlined and smaller scaled affair.

And this is a good thing! Zimmer never was a composer adapt at musical complexity and with Interstellar it sounds that in some ways he returns to what he basically is. A "pop" composer, who's strengths lie in rhythm, texture and ambiance rather then pure compositional excellene as the more traditional composers he is often negatively compared with.

The score has an old school prog rock feel at times, relying on organs, synth, a very simple structure and chords repeating over and over again with varying intensity. In fact many of the suspewnse cues depend on the time honored trick of starting a musical idea slowly and softly, and gradually adding both instrumentation and volume (Mountains, Coward, Detach etc)

The organ (real, sampled and or synth) plays a major role in the score. Zimmer does al excellent job using the score of a large organ without making it sound too liturgical or catholic. Though I have to say the long, drawn out crescendo on several cues (Dreaming Of The Crash etc) remind me a bit too much of the organ crescendo that finished Also Sprach Zaratustra in the 3 renditions Kubrick uses in 2001: ASO. (it's first use, underscoring a scene of Cooper waking up in his bedroom felt a bit distracting to me)

At over 70 minutes in length, and featuring a lot or rather quiet, atmospheric cues you would expect it to feel a bit overlong. But it doesnt.

The album is (almost) chronological, which adds to the feeling of a musical journey.

This is in essence a very simple, at times even simplistic score. Yet it holds the attention a lot better then many of Zimmer's recent Nolan scores (includes the only slightly Nolan MoS).

It's Zimmer playing to his strengths rather then trying to exceed his grasp. It feels more like a score in it's own right then one that has to constantly battle with sound effects.

And while heavily processed like all of his scores it doesnt have that cheap sampled feel to it.

Zimmer's best score in years. Mainly by keeping it straight forward.

[filmmusic 1,838]

The impression I got from the score is this: (and you can take it both ways - negatively or positively, whatever suits you)

The score serves the instrumentation and not the other way around.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

What does that mean?

[filmmusic 1,838]

What does that mean?

It means that instrumentation comes first in priority and the actual score (melody, harmonies etc.) second.

i have a hunch that he was trying various sounds, instruments and textures and then composed a score to use those sounds..

[KK 3,307]

Instrumentation is part of the "actual score" you know. Several works are based on instrumention of melodic content.

Melody hasn't exactly been Zimmer's forte in more recent years anyways. This score plays to his strengths. And it definitely has some interesting harmonic work.

The organ (real, sampled and or synth) plays a major role in the score. Zimmer does al excellent job using the score of a large organ without making it sound too liturgical or catholic. Though I have to say the long, drawn out crescendo on several cues (Dreaming Of The Crash etc) remind me a bit too much of the organ crescendo that finished Also Sprach Zaratustra in the 3 renditions Kubrick uses in 2001: ASO. (it's first use, underscoring a scene of Cooper waking up in his bedroom felt a bit distracting to me)

Yeah, I think it was definitely modelled after that. And I agree, some scenes, the score felt a bit overbearing.

And the classical oriented music (ex. "I'm Going Home), was probably fashioned after the Strauss stuff. I'm sure Zimmer was influenced by the music used in 2001.

[filmmusic 1,838]

Instrumention is part of the "actual score" you know.

well not quite.

I mean, usually instrumentation is there to serve the musical thoughts of a composer.

I really can't explain exactly what I mean...

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Instrumention is part of the "actual score" you know. Several works are based on instrumention of melodic content.

Lol, I meant to type instruments.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Instrumention is part of the "actual score" you know.

well not quite.

I mean, usually instrumentation is there to serve the musical thoughts of a composer.

I really can't explain exactly what I mean...

I wish you could, because it sounds like you have misconceptions about some things.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I wish you could, because it sounds like you have misconceptions about some things.

I'm sure you will want to take away those misconceptions.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Now you're catching on!