Composer Hans Zimmer...thief?

Listen to the music in the trailer for The DaVinci Code.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/da_vinci_code/

This sounds just like John Williams' score for Kamino in Attack of the Clones.

 

boy, if you're just now realizing the similarities between Zimmer and Williams, you've got some listening to do... ever hear the Gladiator soundtrack?

go listen to that. then you'll understand Hans Zimmer.

 

I still haven't seen Gladiator after all these years.

 

Zimmer steals from his own work all the time, but I've never heard of him stealing other's work. Also, trailer music isn't necessarily done by the composer responsible for the film. Are you positive that Zimmer did the trailer music?

 

I'm not positive at all.
I just checked to see who was listed at IMDB.

 

Point one: Zimmer does indeed appropriate from other works. Catch the quotes from The Planets in The Barbarian Horde from Gladiator? And he often recycles his own stuff.

But I still love the guy. Crimson Tide, Prince of Egypt, League of Their Own, Gladiator . . . wow.

Point two: trailers rarely feature the music of the film's principal composer.

 

(a good example)

The trailer music for that terrible Alamo movie was all from Gladiator, but I'm willing to bet that Zimmer kept his hands clean from that fiasco...

 

So does Williams...

Listen to the Quiddich score in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - it's the Clone's Coruscant chase!

 

Or a lot of times they will use some of the composer's previous work for a trailer. For example, the new Cameron Diaz movie (In Her Shoes? I think?) is being scored by Mark Isham. In atleast one of the trailers, you hear his beautiful piece "Building a Family" from his score for Life As A House.

 

I find most film score music is derivitive in nature.

 

The Kamino music was my favorite from AOTC, I was just kinda shocked to hear it used for this movie.

I don't usually keep up with composer gossip and such.
You did what with that flute at band camp Espy?

 

*laughs at Eeth performing Hari Ownagi*

 

Actually, it was a saxophone.


Kidding. I've actually never been to a band camp.

 

well, Zimmer is just now starting to rob his own stuff; so it's not too bad..but the ALL TIME KING IS HORNER. If you've ever heard Krull....you've heard everything else he has done since and that was 22 years ago.

 

The music in that trailer is from Brian Tyler's Constantine, John Debney's End of Days, and some original music by frequent Zimmer collaborator James Michael Dooley.

 

Horner occasionally cranks out a great one. Casper, Legends of the Fall, Apollo 13.

And, as you say, Krull, which is undeniably his most creative score.

 

Zimmer is totally a thief. Ever see the movie "True Romance"? Did you say to yourself, "Gee whiz, I sure like the opening title music...That Hans Zimmer sure is talented."? Well, he ripped off that particular piece from the late, great Carl Orff, composer of Carmina Burana. The piece Zimmer stole for his "True Romance" score is actually a lesser-known Orff composition entitled "Gassenhauer."

It's one of my favorite pieces of music ever.

 

Didn't he do Hannibal? That soundtrack was awesome.

 

He just copied a bit in the beginning afterwards it all changed.

 

Horner definetly rips himself off. That villain theme in Willow can be heard multiple times in Enemy At The Gates and even Troy. He just has a habit of copying himself. I mean the main theme from Aliens and the main theme from Patriot Games is almost exactly the same.

Williams has had a few close ones as well.

 

Yeah, his main theme for Empire Strikes Back sounded an awful lot like the main theme for Star Wars.

 

But seriously, there is some Hoth music that sounds alot like the Flying theme from E.T.

 

Much of Williams' music sounds much like much of his other music. He's got a distinct compositional and orchestrational style. Just like most composers. And like most composers, he "borrows," quite blatantly occasionally, from dead composers.

 

Well for me, With Williams huge body of work, he has been relatively good at not copying himself, now of course there are some themes that sound similar and some things do sound similar. I don't even think Horner tries (and his body of work is no where near Williams). He has that one drum sound that is in Apollo,Gates,bobby fischer etc.. and his little Crescendo (if that is the right word) is all over the place in his scores.

I think Zimmer is very talented, hopefully he can find some inspiration to come up with some new material.

 

I see nothing wrong with composers borrowing parts of scores of other composers (past and present) so long as they dont' take the whole score and that they modify it to be different from the original. Will you call John Williams a thief because he borrowed and changed parts from Dvorak's symphonies for Star Wars, Jaws and Indiana Jones?