What makes a great score isn't only that it should sound great on Oscar highlight reels, but also we should appreciate the Inception score for its simplicity while being able to evoke the right mood and feel of the film, and to me, Hans Zimmer's Inception does this flawlessly.

Never before have I heard a score evoke a multitude of moods: the grandness of the Dark Knight, the tech minimalism of the Matrix, the intrigue of James Bond, the constructivism of John Coolidge Adams, and the peaceable future-noir moments of Bladerunner... all into one seamless soundtrack of just a few thematic lines.

I put Nick Hooper's underappreciated Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince in this same category. Just a few lines, but the moments fit so perfectly in the scene of the movie. (Slughorn's Confession comes to mind, so understated yet so impactful)

I think we should all just step back a moment and not wonder about which tracks and themes sounds great compositionally in a conventional sense. This is film soundtrack composition, not music for the radio or concerts. I think on the subconscious level, we've got to at least appreciate the mood-evoking aspect of this industry. Just like Dom Cobb's dialogue in the movie about an idea being the most resilient virus, that is to me with Zimmer's work... I somehow keep playing it in my head over and over again and dreaming about it!

(Message edited on Sunday, July 18, 2010, at 12:49 p.m.)

One more to add: the dark foreboding of Ennio Morricone's Once Upon A Time in America!

> Never before have I heard a score evoke a multitude of moods: the
> grandness of the Dark Knight, the tech minimalism of the Matrix, the
> intrigue of James Bond, the constructivism of John Coolidge Adams, and the
> peaceable future-noir moments of Bladerunner... all into one seamless
> soundtrack of just a few thematic lines.

> What makes a great score isn't only that it should sound great on Oscar
> highlight reels, but also we should appreciate the Inception score for its
> simplicity while being able to evoke the right mood and feel of the film,
> and to me, Hans Zimmer's Inception does this flawlessly.

> Never before have I heard a score evoke a multitude of moods: the
> grandness of the Dark Knight, the tech minimalism of the Matrix, the
> intrigue of James Bond, the constructivism of John Coolidge Adams, and the
> peaceable future-noir moments of Bladerunner... all into one seamless
> soundtrack of just a few thematic lines.

> I put Nick Hooper's underappreciated Harry Potter & The Half Blood
> Prince in this same category. Just a few lines, but the moments fit so
> perfectly in the scene of the movie. (Slughorn's Confession comes to mind,
> so understated yet so impactful)

> I think we should all just step back a moment and not wonder about which
> tracks and themes sounds great compositionally in a conventional sense.
> This is film soundtrack composition, not music for the radio or concerts.
> I think on the subconscious level, we've got to at least appreciate the
> mood-evoking aspect of this industry. Just like Dom Cobb's dialogue in the
> movie about an idea being the most resilient virus, that is to me with
> Zimmer's work... I somehow keep playing it in my head over and over again
> and dreaming about it!

Subconsciously, I'm laughing at this.

> Subconsciously, I'm laughing at this.

No need to remain subconscious ....

This "But it works!" discussion about film music being "more shallow" (quote Hans Zimmer) is a billion years old, and it still boils down to the simple, essential fact, that there is nothing genius about Zimmer simplicity - it's simple because he can apparently do nothing else anymore, and other composer can achieve the same, or better, effects by using an infinitely broader musical language.

Hooper falls in the same category, and even he is more colourful in his Harry Potter scores than Zimmer was in the last years.

> What makes a great score isn't only that it should sound great on Oscar
> highlight reels, but also we should appreciate the Inception score for its
> simplicity while being able to evoke the right mood and feel of the film,
> and to me, Hans Zimmer's Inception does this flawlessly.

> Never before have I heard a score evoke a multitude of moods: the
> grandness of the Dark Knight, the tech minimalism of the Matrix, the
> intrigue of James Bond, the constructivism of John Coolidge Adams, and the
> peaceable future-noir moments of Bladerunner... all into one seamless
> soundtrack of just a few thematic lines.

> I put Nick Hooper's underappreciated Harry Potter & The Half Blood
> Prince in this same category. Just a few lines, but the moments fit so
> perfectly in the scene of the movie. (Slughorn's Confession comes to mind,
> so understated yet so impactful)

> I think we should all just step back a moment and not wonder about which
> tracks and themes sounds great compositionally in a conventional sense.
> This is film soundtrack composition, not music for the radio or concerts.
> I think on the subconscious level, we've got to at least appreciate the
> mood-evoking aspect of this industry. Just like Dom Cobb's dialogue in the
> movie about an idea being the most resilient virus, that is to me with
> Zimmer's work... I somehow keep playing it in my head over and over again
> and dreaming about it!
"Technical minimalism" of The Matrix? What exactly does that mean? I take offense to any comparison between Inception and The Matrix. I believe Don Davis' work for The Matrix emobodies one of, if not the, best collective pieces of work for a film franchise or trilogy ever - right up there with LOTR.

Inception worked fairly well in the film, but as others have mentioned, more intriguing scores could have worked just as well or better.

... because he had the good taste to bite from Miss Edith Piaf.

Give a listen:

http://gunsandelmo.tumblr.com/post/865917234/the-origin-of-the-famous-inception-music-cue

> Never before have I heard a score evoke a multitude of moods.

Really? REALLY? There are hundreds of score out there that do such a thing much better than Inception.

IMO the reason why these scores work so well for some people is because a great part of popular music has become very minimal. Just one note or one line where you before would use a multitude of such or elaborate the melody more and so on.
Zimmer really plays into that category - I think he is more of a "popular" music composer (don't get me wrong PLEASE) who uses the orchestra like he would use a rockband. He has some nice ideas once you reduce him to a small ensemble but he treats the huge orchestras he's sometimes using the same - and that doesn't work for me anymore, cause i have heard it so often coming from him.
Zimmer is always big when it comes to talking about how great his ideas are, when he should his music do the talking so to speak. But maybe that's what he is fearing, if he doesn't explain things to everyone it will just pass off as mediocre or something.
NOW - before someone gets me wrong, I didn't mean that Zimmer makes too big statements about how cool or great his music is, I have seen in some reviews that he is not the too arrogant type of guy.

Cheers to you all