UTSA Sword and Sandals Wikia
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Biography[]

Hans zimmer

Hans Florian Zimmer was born in Frankfurt, West Germany in September 1957. Zimmer is a very popular composer that has been involved in over one hundred soundtracks for motion Soundtrack 

In 2000, Zimmer collaborated with Lisa Gerrard for the score for Gladiator. The score received an Oscar nomination, in addition to Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics Awards for the epic score. The soundtrack sold more than three million copies worldwide. The score included seventeen tracks. The most popular song from the score was Now We Are Free, with vocals by Lisa Gerrard. With the worldwide success of the soundtrack, a second album Gladiator: More Music From The Motion Picture, was released (3). 

Composition Stylel conversational cues, and the Moroccan (and other ethnic) textures. In "Honor Him," a choral and light orchestral presence is added to Zimmer's "Earth" theme before moving directly into the famed ascension cue, "Now We Are Free," that closes the film. The electronically and percussion filled track features vocals by Lisa Gerrard. The song features a variety of vocal range by Gerrard, along with lyrics that are questionable. One of the greatest misconceptions about "Now We Are Free" is that the lyrics are formed from Hebrew or Latin or some other ancient language when, in fact, they are simply fictional words (2).[]

Comparison to Sword and Sandal Composers[]

When it came to composing the score for Gladiator, critics believed Zimmer fell short in providing a realistic Roman score. Zimmer argues that nobody really knows what Roman music sounds like. To his advantage, he uses that argument as an excuse for his lack of effort in scholarly research. Several times in his career, Zimmer has decided not to examine previous film composers' works to evaluate how and why they worked so well for the individual film. Editorial Review praises Rózsa for his extensive research for Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis. The article insists that's the reason Rózsa is commonly considered the best of the Golden Age composers (2).

Zimmer is a completely self-taught composer. He learned everything he knows through collaboration and experimenting. He pushes collaboration between composers because that is how he learned. Frequently he would work with other composers by having them conduct, write additional music, and co-compose with him (4). Composer Harry Gregson-Williams frequently collaborated with Zimmer which lead to the launch of his successful career in Hollywood. His friendship with Zimmer resulted in Gregson-Williams providing music for such films as The Rock, Armageddon and The Prince of Egypt. Gregson-Williams went on to produce scores for Kingdom of Heaven and The Prince of Persia, to name a few

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