All language subtitles for MasterClass Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring - 28Learning by Listening

I never went to music school. I had my

miserable two weeks of piano lessons.

But the more I s of do this, the more

I think it's it it really is about

learning how to listen. I mean, for all

musicians. And I think if you observe

musicians working together,

you take it for granted that they can

play their instrument, but what happens

is that they actually really learned how

to listen. And just because that's not

so visually obvious, it might be more of

a secret.

Um, I can I can orchestrate. I can, you

know, wield I can, you know, I I can

wield pen and paper and actually come up

with a fairly decent orchestration

without ever having gone to music

school. But I learned that as a kid

listening into the music,

um, finding the balances. But I think

you know if you extend this outwards now

and you sit there with your director and

the game I play is hey tell me the

story.

I listen to his words and I listen to

the story but I try to listen beyond it

as well. You know I try to you know no

director ever tells you no good director

ever attempts to tell you what music to

write. So, what you're doing is you're

trying to figure out you're trying to

listen to the subtext. You're you're

forever listening into the heart of the

thing. Um,

I think if if if there's anything I'm I

learned is is I've learned how to listen

better.

And including myself, I mean, you know,

like you you're playing something on the

keyboard and you're playing what

ostensibly is the wrong note, but it's

not. It's gold. It's the opportunity.

It's the unlocking of a door to

something your fingers weren't going to

take you to. And if you don't listen,

you're going to miss it. Because if

you're not listening

to the other players, you're never going

to go and get that impetus and you're

never going to have a conversation.

And

at the end of the day, I do think it's

about communication.

And

even though I have a big mouth and I

find it difficult to keep it shut,

you know, when when we develop these

ideas, when we develop what this thing

is,

I'm trying to listen beyond the words.

You know, I'm trying to not hear the

words. I'm trying to hear the tune.

Gar said it best. There are only two

types of music. Good music and bad

music. But I think

if I have to teach somebody something,

the only thing I can teach them is

whatever that piece is you love, really

go look at it from many different

directions. You know, with me it was odd

things like Mara Second. I I was

fascinated by that. I mean, I I I would

just take that apart for, you know, for

like a year. I would just listen to it

and get obsessed with it and

you know discover and more and more

about the process and I suppose if you

want to Mara was one of my teachers

because I learned a lot from it later on

it was things like Bio Symphony

Fantastic um where he's taking you

through this tragic love story and it

goes wild and it goes crazy and I very

quickly realized as well that there was

there you know that there's a part in it

where he goes to the Diaz array which is

a

piece of church music written in 1256. I

happen to know these to other people

useless facts. Okay. If you take the DZ

array which is da da da really simple

set of notes it appears it creeps

through

you know the the evolution of music. It

keeps reappearing in different

composers's music, you know. Then I

heard it obviously for me it was the

first time I heard it in the barios but

you know list used it then you know when

you get to the film composers Bernard

Herman John Williams it's all over close

encounters you know it's it's you know

and and I suddenly realized this this

phrase meant something. It meant

something that we couldn't express in

words that people hadn't, you know,

maybe Heronimos Bosch had it in a

painting. I don't know. There was

something about it that struck um an era

chord, a fundamental and iconic chord

and and and and even though we couldn't

quite describe it,

we knew it meant something. It was a

call. It was some sort of a call. And of

course so much of music is that it's

it's you know it's um it's a

conversation it's a call it's a

storytelling part. I didn't listen to it

in an academic way. I listened it p to

it purely in what was it telling me and

what you know what buttons was it

pushing in me that would unleash some

imagination. And I see that these

pieces, this piece keeps appearing in

um people's film music and it appears in

other pieces of classical music. And I

suddenly realized that there are phrases

in music that mean something. They

really do mean something and they push a

button in us, an emotional button in us.

When I go and see a movie, I don't

dissect the score. I start dissecting it

when it's not working. Why is it not

working? Um, you know, it's like I see I

see a movie as a whole and um and and if

it transports me, then everything does,

you know, and so I suppose if I think

about it afterwards, it is exactly the

way I go about writing, which is, you

know, hang on, did the colors in the

music match the colors on the screen?

Did the mood

in the music

enhance, transport, you know, add

something or, you know, was it just

doing the same thing as everything else

in the scene, you know, you know, was

there contrast? was that, you know,

there's so many different ways

of playing a scene. You know, you you

you can either

you sometimes you can get the most out

of I mean, we were talking about, you

know, I got into this because I loved

Once Upon a Time in the West

and your Morris Con score and it's, you

know, it's electric guitars and they're

completely anacronistic. you know, we're

talking about the late 19th century. Um,

and it never occurred to me that that

sound hadn't been invented at that

point. It's just because he boldly puts

it in front of me and I, you know, he's

totally committed when he does it. So, I

never question it. When I saw Jaws,

I thought, you know, the twoote thing

every that everybody goes on about.

Yeah, that's great. That's a great idea.

It's a one idea sort of thing. And then

what happens in that score after that is

absolutely pure magic. And it's it's

it's it's like an orchestration

firework. And it's just imaginative

beyond belief. And you know, the tuba

does things tubers aren't supposed to

do. And it's it's it's it's fantastic.

So that's what you know, where the geek

musician suddenly comes in. Um,

but as a whole, I mean, it's it's like

you hone your ear to the to to the less

obvious bits. You suddenly go, "Oh, the

B theme in Raiders is really gorgeous.

That might not be the main tune, you

know, everybody can remember the obvious

one,

you know, but it's it's the next bit

that happens that's got the heart and

that's got the tension in it and that's

got that tells you

so, you know, that that that has a

nostalgic quality that isn't quite as

overt. Um, and so I think part of what

what I do is by looking at the movies

that entertain me is to figure out why

do they entertain me and why does the

music entertain me? And it usually is

because

quietly and subtly and not in the overt

way. There's something going on that is

um beautifully crafted. I mean, I'm

talking about a, you know, I'm talking

about any John Williams score, for

instance, at the moment or any any Moric

Coney score, any Jack Goldmith score.

Um, or any Johnny Greenwood score. I

mean, that that you know, you you

suddenly go,

it's it goes beyond the obvious where

you can pinpoint the idea and or you can

sing the hook. There's something else,

you know, that goes on with great

craftsmanship and great love and great

um

just elegance.

So first film I saw probably the most

shocking experience of my life wasn't a

film at all was I might have been 2 and

a half or 3 years old. My mom took me to

the opera and I saw Mozart,

you know, the magic fruit and it just

blew my socks off and I thought this is

pretty amazing. And I stuck with Mozart

for a while. So Mozart became a big

influence.

um soon to be followed by Beethovven

somewhere along the line Mara's second

symphony and all these amazing pieces of

music and I I never segregated between

you know the this is concert music and

this is film music because somewhere

along the way um Nino Rotor and Enya

Moriconi slipped onto the scene and so

probably the greatest influence when it

comes to film composers um was without a

doubt um anymore and I think I'm just

still to this day a crazed fan of his um

because his tunes are fantastic, his

craftsmanship is fantastic, the

discipline he puts into it is fantastic

and then the

complete disregard of any rules is

fantastic. And at the end of the day,

you know, somewhere in the center of it,

holding it all together is his

incredible passion and love and

understanding for Bach. So in a funny

way, I don't think any of us would be

doing it without Bach, you know. So he's

a cornerstone.

And I can go on like this because then

of course you have Povia and you have

Shustakovich and you have all the

Russian guys. And

I think what happened was as a kid

growing up without a television had its

advantage, which was

I had a piano and I had records. Records

were black things with a hole in the

middle. It's it's a very old-fashioned

thing, but you can listen to music on

it. Um, and every week we would go and

see a concert and every week I was

thrilled and excited and

exposed to something which was

absolutely and utterly magical.

And so I grew up really with classical

music and listening to classical music

intensely. And I suppose I learned my

orchestration or any any chops or

anything just just by listening. And and

what better way to learn than than going

to a concert and watching an orchestra?

What better learned way to learn than

going to an opera and seeing um amazing

performance? What better way to learn

than all day long to be surrounded by

Beethoven and Bach etc. And the rest of

the influences in my life really are

that I was extraordinarily bad at

anything that involved discipline or

school or rules. And it's very very

tough to grow up in Germany if you have

an a disdain and an allergy to

authority. So you can't help yourself.

You got to rebel and you get kicked out

of school. And the only so the only

thing left for me and I think that's

quite sometimes not a bad thing is I had

no options but to become a musician.

I don't listen to a lot of film schools.

Um cuz that's like a busman's holiday.

Do you know it's like that's what I

that's what I'm do all day long. So why

would I want to do that when I go home?

Um, what I want to do when I go home is

I want to go and listen to Beethoven or

Mozart or the Beatles or BB King or, you

know, right now I'm listening to a lot

of classical music because what I'm

working on is the opposite to classical

music. I always have to listen to things

which have sort of nothing to do with

what what I'm working on are not related

to the style I'm working on, you know.

Then I have

binges of, you know, weird punk phases

or binges of electronica or binges of

EDM or what, you know, it's it's like

suddenly I'm hunting down every great

blues guitarist or whatever, you know.

So I go on these lengthy,

you know, being in love with a certain

genre and then go somewhere else, you

know. I I I always thought, you know, if

you really need to get a rounded

education in music and you don't know

where to start, just start with the

bees. Just go through the bees, you

know, just go through barriers, bles,

uh, you know, banjo music. I mean, just

just go on just just just go on. I mean,

the point is you'll find something

you'll find something which touches you

personally and which means something to

you personally and then build on that.

There are few scores which sort of

I thought were revolutionary and truly

moved film music along. Um, you know,

everybody talks about the obvious ones

like Psycho, etc. or Picopia, um,

Alexander Nefki and Yeah, that's

absolutely true. But then I got sort of

scores like Midnight Express, Georgie

Mara. I thought the opening scene was

the inhuman sequence that just going. It

was s such a brilliant I such a

brilliant idea by the director to

realize that the scariest thing is a

machine where you don't you where you

don't realize the humanity in it. I mean

it's it's it's the machine like quality

that doesn't give you pointers what's

going to happen next which makes it so

scary. Um, I think again, you know, Enya

Moriconei, Once Upon a Time in America,

not Once Upon a Time in the West, which

was the first thing I saw, but Once Upon

a Time in America is is extraordinary

because the whole score

is basically a downer. There isn't a

fast piece in it. You know, it it it's a

gangster movie and he writes slow,

heartfelt music, and he just manages to

put a nostalgia and a and and and a

grace and a uh soul into this movie.

That is absolutely incredible.

Um,

yes. I mean, I loved Hannah. I thought

Chemical Brothers is it's it's one of my

favorite scores because I think it's

great. It's great music. It's great film

music. It's incredibly cinematic. It's

quirky. And it's epic all at the same

time. And it's got a point of view. And

I think those are qualities which which

are necessary to pull off a decent film