The music that plays in the background of a movie is an important factor in how we experience it. In some cases, it can be as memorable as the movie itself. Think screaming violins in “Psycho” or haunting tubas in “Jaws.” The latter was written by John Williams, a leading Hollywood composer for generations.
But as directors and studios began looking for edgier scores, they increasingly turned to a German-born composer named Hans Zimmer. If you’ve watched movies in the last 40 years, you’ve heard Hans Zimmer’s score.
Action, drama, comedy, romance, blockbusters – he’s done it all.
Including the 1994 film The Lion King for which he won an Oscar. In the opening Zulu chant sung by Lebo M., a South African musician who was working at a car wash in Los Angeles when Hans enlisted him.
Hans Zimmer: This is how the opening song was literally born. A room mic, not a booth or something.
Hans said he wanted to tell Disney executives right away that this was not a typical Disney movie. A father and son story unfolding in Africa.
Hans Zimmer: And they said.
He showed me how to use this keyboard and computer to create sheet music in his studio in Los Angeles. For example, the music from the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie.
Hans Zimmer: So if you have a “pirate” that’s basically this kind of thing, there’s a lightness.
Leslie Stahl: Yes.
Hans Zimmer: And that– the music is really big. And he’s in a little rowing boat with little sails and you hear this huge orchestra. Because it’s the music he hears in his head. Because he is the greatest pirate that has ever lived in imagination.listening to joker [from “The Dark Knight”], he is quite the opposite. He is like a bow and arrow with a bow on it. And you stretch it.
Leslie Stahl: Oh. oh my god.
Hans Zimmer: And that – it’s not pretty.
Lesley Stahl: Very emotional. I can’t even express why. I don’t know – I can put it into words. But-
Hans Zimmer: That’s the idea. I use my own language, so even when I try my best, words will let you down.
Since the 1980s, like last year’s blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, the language in Hans Zimmer’s score has not only defined characters, but also told the stories of heart-pounding action movies and sci-fi epics. has also been helpful. Like the 2022 Oscar-winning “Dune,” it used vibrating drums and electronic synthesizers.
Lesley Stahl: So you were called a lone wolf? You’ve been called a visionary. How would you describe yourself?
Hans Zimmer: I would describe myself as a deep music lover, a deep film lover, and a playful person. Like any musician, like any language, I love to play. It says you are playing music.
His choice was unpredictable. Every “Man of Steel” has “Kung Fu Panda” and “Sherlock Holmes”, and with a broken piano and banjo he’s turned from a 19th-century detective into a quirky action hero.
Lesley Stahl: How important are instruments to getting what you want?
Hans Zimmer: Very important. Or rather, instruments come with baggage. For example, the definition of a gentleman is someone who knows how to play the banjo but refrains from playing it.
Leslie Stahl: Whoa. (smile)
Hans Zimmer: Why did that banjo work? Because it was funny.
He has used electronic devices such as banjos, bagpipes, and booms. And this is the good old orchestra.
Consider the composer of “The Dark Knight” writing this delicate tune.
Hans Zimmer: Really good. Can I have just one more to protect the innocent?
Last summer he invited us to see him record the score for his new film at his studio in London. Based on Judy Bloom’s novel “God, Are You There? It’s Me, Margaret”, which is scheduled to be released in theaters this spring, this work depicts a girl coming of age.
Hans Zimmer: Do you like the sound?
Jim Brooks: Hmm, hmm.
Academy Award-winning director Jim Brooks will produce the film. This is the eighth film they have worked on together.
Brooks and other directors say what makes Hans unique is his involvement in more than just writing music. His process usually begins with a conversation with the director, long before his one frame of the film is shot.
Jim Brooks: You talk about what the movie is about. The story. What is the scene about. You don’t have to rely on a composer for that.
Leslie Stahl: So he’s going to partner with most–
Jim Brooks: Absolutely–
Leslie Stahl: — Writer and Director —
Jim Brooks: Yeah, yeah, yeah–
Lesley Stahl: –all phases?
Jim Brooks: Yeah, yeah.
In “Gladiator,” he teamed up with director Ridley Scott. He said he thought the film should be more than just a man in a skirt going to battle.
Hans Zimmer: From the beginning, I felt that I needed to set up the possibility of including poetry in this film.
Leslie Stahl: Can I ask you a question?
Hans Zimmer: So-
Leslie Stahl: –about the music you wrote–
Hans Zimmer: Starting with this note.
Leslie Stahl: You can see the hands.
Hans Zimmer: You can see the hands. And you are already in another world.
Leslie Stahl: And there – no one is talking about –
Hans Zimmer: You left the 20th century. You don’t expect kindness.
Lesley Stahl: So you set the mood.
Hans Zimmer: Crying. It’s crying.
His love of music, his obsession, stemmed from his childhood spent in West Germany. Other children liked to play games, but he liked to play the piano.
Lesley Stahl: So did you take piano lessons?
Hans Zimmer: Of course. It was two weeks of absolute torture.
Leslie Stahl: Two weeks?
Hans Zimmer: Yes, because he went to my mother and said, “It’s either him or me.” Luckily my mother made the right choice. She protected me, right? (Laughter) No, no–
Leslie Stahl: No, no. Tell me about your piano lessons…
Hans Zimmer: I drove… I drove him crazy. i am 6 years old So my idea was that a piano teacher is someone who teaches you how to convey what’s going on in your head to your fingers. that’s not what they do. They let you scale. They let you play other people’s music. And I didn’t want to do other people’s music.
Lesley Stahl: From the beginning.
Hans Zimmer: From the beginning. But I promise you, I know my Beethoven and my Brahms thoroughly.
He learned about them from his mother, a classically trained pianist.
Hans Zimmer: And then there’s the other side. It was my father, a very terrible jazz clarinetist, but he had great enthusiasm. In between his work he took out his clarinet. I was hanging out–and–and we were jamming, right? So I just got my joy.
Instead of college, he became a rock’n’roller and performed with The Baggles.
He was a young man in a synthesizer black jacket. They made pop history in 1981 with his first music video, “Video Killed the Radio Star,” which aired on MTV.
He began writing scores for low-budget films. One of them caught the attention of Hollywood director Barry Levinson, who in 1988 suddenly showed up at Hans’ London studio at the time.
Hans Zimmer: So he said, “Could you come to Los Angeles and shoot a movie of him?” So I went to Los Angeles. And was nominated for an Oscar.
Lesley Stahl: It’s really my first film.
Hans Zimmer: First film. I didn’t win, but it didn’t matter because everyone wanted to see me.
It was none other than Rain Man, which led to more than 140 films that began pushing the sound of film scores in new directions, including Driving Miss Daisy, Thelma and Louise, and Black Rain. .
Hans Zimmer: I love the idea that electronics can shape sound in ways that go beyond the way an orchestra does.
He became a pioneer in fusing electronics and orchestral music with his secret weapon, a digital library he built himself using original computer code. Using world-class musicians and top-of-the-line instruments, he painstakingly recorded each instrument note by note in a real orchestra and loaded it all into his computer.
Leslie Stahl: Take the violin. Play middle C on the violin and play middle C loud, soft, and all different on that instrument.
Hans Zimmer: Oh yeah. Look look. You can play pizzicato. It can be played short, you know.
Lesley Stahl: So you’re not making it a pickert. they played like that.
Hans Zimmer: That’s how they played.
Leslie Stahl: And are you bringing it up? It must have taken months. Year?
Hans Zimmer: No, it actually took years.
and millions of dollars. He does not put his work out on paper, the computer does it instead, helping to create the “unconventional sounds” found in the score.
Leslie Stahl: Scraping metal.
Hans Zimmer: Yes.
Lesley Stahl: And electronic sud. music?
Hans Zimmer: Maybe. Anything can be turned into an instrument in some way.
He collaborates frequently with world-class flutist Pedro Eustache. Pedro Eustache built a contraption to produce the unusual sounds that Hans thought up for his film.
Pedro Eustache: This is an ostrich egg, right?
Leslie Stahl: It’s an ostrich egg!
Pedro Eustache: Yeah, I put it all in there. And it’s an instrument.
Leslie Stahl: So you made-
Pedro Eustache: Yes.
Leslie Stahl: — Ostrich Ocarina —
Hans Zimmer: Let me explain.
Leslie Stahl: Yes, please.
Hans Zimmer: When he’s not stealing eggs from the zoo (laughter), he’s a very good Home Depot customer. It was made of
Pedro actually used PVC pipe to come up with the 21 foot long horn Hans wanted for “Dune”.
He is currently working on ‘Dune: Part Two’.
And now he’s on tour with a 38-piece orchestra and band, playing film scores.
Leslie Stahl: How has it changed? You’ve been working on this for 40 years.
Hans Zimmer: What do you say? So when you start, you have everything you’ve never done before. Every movie had every idea, every device, every code change, everything. I think it’s more important to think about what to do now. But I’ve used up a lot of ammo so far, so it’s getting harder and harder.
He said that after more than 150 movies, he lives in constant fear of the day when his phone will stop ringing.
Lesley Stahl: Even after 150? Do you think that fear drives you…
Hans Zimmer: But only 150 people. (laughs) What if 151 was a disaster? (smile)
Leslie Stahl: Oh, wow–
Hans Zimmer: As you know, I’m still alive. You know, I’m 65 now, and people say, ‘Are you going to retire?
Leslie Stahl: Do you really think so?
Hans Zimmer: I really do.
Produced by Richard Bonin. Mirella Brussani, Associate Producer. Broadcast Associate Len Woodson. Edited by Richard Budenhagen.
Leslie Stahl
