John Williams: The Imperial March Context John Williams was born in 1932 and his career has since spanned over six decades. He was raised in New York by musical parents, who were active jazz musicians. By 1948 the Williams family had moved to LA where Williams later attended the University of Read more…
Patrick Doyle: Hogwarts’ Hymn Context With the first three Harry Potter films accompanied by music from American composer John Williams, the fourth instalment, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, saw music by Scottish film composer Patrick Doyle. Doyle only composed for this one film in the Harry Potter franchise, Read more…
Hans Zimmer: Homeland Context Homeland, composed by Hans Zimmer, is the title music for the 2002 DreamWorks film, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. The soundtrack was made in collaboration with Bryan Adams, who sang on many of the tracks in the album. The orchestral underscore, however, was down to Zimmer. Read more…
Alan Silvestri: I’m Forrest…Forrest Gump Context Composed for the 1994 film Forrest Gump, Alan Silvestri’s score for the film was nominated for ‘Best Original Score’ at the 67th Academy Awards. Alongside the motion picture soundtrack by Silvestri, there is also a soundtrack album released for the film which has popular Read more…
John Williams: Aunt Marge’s Waltz Context Featuring in the 2004 film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Aunt Marge’s Waltz is a comical orchestral underscore that accompanies one of the first scenes of the film. When Harry’s horrible aunt Marge visits the Dursely’s home, she goads Harry until he Read more…
John Williams: Flying to Neverland Context John Williams was brought on board for Stephen Spielberg’s 1991 film, Hook, as it was originally intended to be a musical. After this idea was scrapped, Williams began working on the orchestral soundtrack. During the recording of the soundtrack, Williams conducted the orchestra. The Read more…
Ron Goodwin: 633 Squadron Context English composer Ron Goodwin was asked to write the music for the 1964 war film 633 Squadron a year before the release of the film. The main title theme was an instant hit and has since been arranged for a number of different ensembles, as Read more…
John Williams: Star Wars Main Title Context Between 1977 and 2019 John Williams has composed the scores for nearly all of the Star Wars films. Much of the music is linked between the films, with perhaps the most famous being the Main Title. Originally recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra Read more…
Michael Giacchino: Ratatouille Main Theme Context Michael Giacchino returned to Pixar for the second time to compose the score for the 2007 film, Ratatouille. Giacchino had previously written the music for The Incredibles (2004) and went on to write the music for Up (2009). The score for Ratatouille was nominated Read more…
Harry Gregson-Williams: A Narnia Lullaby Context Harry Gregson-Williams composed the score for the 2005 fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Gregson-Williams’ soundtrack employs a huge number of orchestral musicians, a large mixed voice choir, soloists and vocalists. Gregson-Williams Read more…