There are few names as big as that of Hans Zimmer in the entertainment world, and indeed in all of music history. A multiple Grammy and Academy Award winner, Zimmer’s name is almost synonymous with memorable movie scores (think: Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Thin Red Line, Gladiator and The Dark Knight trilogy). Zimmer has now composed music for the natural history series Blue Planet II, which also sees Sir David Attenborough return to what he does best — to explore the natural world. In every way, it’s a coming together of two behemoth legends, with Zimmer (age 60) and Attenborough (92) working together on a project.
Zimmer’s most recent projects include the TV show Genius (on Pablo Picasso), episodes of The Simpsons, and the documentary Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound. He also scored the TV intro of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, called Living Football, while among films, he will be working on X-Men: Dark Phoenix and The Lion King (both expected in 2019).
In an exclusive chat with Indulge, the composer spoke about The Shepard Tone — one of Christopher Nolan’s favourite techniques — an audio phenomenon that creates the illusion of rising or swelling sound, to build the effect of tension or suspense. In essence, during those gripping moments on-screen, here’s what you need to remember. Excerpts:
What was the main emotion you wanted to capture in the song that you composed for Blue Planet II?
Actually, it’s never quite about the emotion... it’s trying to create a world. I am trying to create an autonomous world that has its own logic but doesn’t necessarily have to be real. In this case, it had to be real, as we’re dealing with a documentary that gives you an extraordinary experience. So it wasn’t so much about trying to hold on to one emotion, but opening the door for other people to have an emotional response.
What were the conversations like with Sir David Attenborough?
My conversations with David Attenborough were at the end of Planet Earth II. He is one of my truly legitimate heroes. His concerns for humanity, for this planet — I don’t think there is any person who is capable of making us experience our planet in the way he does. We’ve done a lot of press interviews together, and I’m usually completely and utterly exhausted by the end of them. But for a man of his age, he is always on the go. He has more energy than anybody else. I think part of that is because he loves this planet so much. He realises that he is on a mission that is more critical than ever before. I just re-watched one of the episodes this morning, and it resonates very differently in the light of all these hurricanes that have just happened. There couldn’t be anything that is more important, current and relevant than what he tells and explains.
You’ve also worked with Radio Head for Blue Planet II. Tell us about that process, how it started and how was it working with everyone?
We’ve worked from the other ends of the world, and then coming together with all my favourite orchestra players was great. I think the reason it was so easy was because, at the core we all knew what the story is, we wanted to help because we were so familiar, and we all grew up with Blue Planet, Planet Earth. It is so ingrained in our culture of what David Attenborough has done. What I was very nervous about was if I am going to mess up their song because they are not just anybody. Johnny Greenwood is my favourite film composer and I’ll just admit it, I’m a bit star struck! We managed something which
was already inspired by the original Blue Planet and it wasn’t just the three of us, it was everybody else that worked on it. It is a more organic narration than I suppose it has ever been. There’s something really nice that happens as well when you bring a whole orchestra and everybody ’s emotions
are focused laser sharp in the same direction...
There’s a thing you’ve done with the Dunkirk soundtrack, with ‘The Shepard Tone’, and you’ve done it before in The Dark Knight. Tell us a little more about The Shepard Tone.
It is both Christopher Nolan and me. Chris is just as fascinated by this as I am. It’s the idea of eternity, endlessness and playing a trick on time itself. Chris has written a script for Dunkirk very much in a musical shape. To be really honest, I didn’t have a choice here, because he had designed the film with the music very much in mind. I was thinking about it only recently that sometimes I lead and sometimes he does. In this film, he definitely led, as he had already put the structure of The Shepard Tone to the script. Interstellar was slightly the other way around, where the script wasn’t finished and I started writing a tune... I do think, one of the things about Dunkirk is that it’s more of an experience than it a movie, which gets me very easily back to Blue Planet, as it has that thing in common not only because of the sea but Blue Planet is truly an experience and that is what makes it extraordinary.
What was your interest in doing this commentary for Blue Planet II, and what brings this together with your other cinematic projects?
Blue Planet II, as far as I’m concerned, is the most important bit of television that has been made recently. Just like Planet Earth II, I’m very aware that I can get easily drawn. We figured out the orchestra to play in a different way and in a different style which you are very much not used to. We figured out a colour palette, which is really just a distraction that any composer uses — to not have to commit to the tune, which eventually you have to do. What was happening in the meantime was that we were being sent some truly incredible footage. The footage is extraordinary. I was thinking earlier about doing Interstellar with Chris (Nolan), which was all about space, and is as far away from Earth as you possibly can get. At the same time, the experience of diving deep into our oceans shows what the camera crew has managed to do. This is so much further than anything that we can do in science fiction, and it’s right where we live, the world we don’t know. Even though it is our world, we barely get to realise that we’re just a part of something vast,
beautiful and extraordinary.