Interstellar - How Hans Zimmer Creates the Sound of Space

wind-air dust and out of this white noise a sustained hi-c played by the organ appears followed eventually by a simple reaching melody that moves between major and minor modes [Music] the musical language of interstellar is within seconds cemented characterized by widely spaced quartz an incredibly slow harmonic rhythm and searching often stepwise melodies it feels timeless taken out of time adding a degree of separation from the place where the story begins in the dust on earth the music is in many ways a foreshadowing of what's to come but how does handsomer continue what he set up how does he capture the immensity of the journey that Cooper will undertake whilst at the same time realizing the emotional core of the film in music or in other words how does he capture the sound of space because what is space if not the emptiness the distance in between things and people Hans Zimmer's score for interstellar is a unique in his output paired back sensitive and introspective but also monumental and concrete when it needs to be his musical language is surprisingly restrained and often unchanging only three ideas are used for the construction of the majority of the score with one of these which I'll call Cooper and Murph's theme providing the material for most of the music for the film but there is subtle and deliberate development of ideas throughout and in particular for the other two main musical themes the reaching melody we heard at the beginning as well as the music based around the C major Lydian scale when the gravitational anomaly first appears in Cooper's house centered around Murph's bedroom we hear for the first time this C Lydian idea [Music] pulsating string harmonic and woodwind chords built around a C major chord with an added f-sharp AB in out of the texture with occasional G and D sharps thrown into the mix as Cooper enters Murph's broom a drawn-out melody in strings softly enters this is the beginning of an idea there won't see its resolution until the end of the film a melodic line that feels stretched out not thin but suspended [Music] the line moves chromatically around an f-sharp G and a flat and suggests something hidden hidden in the gaps between the notes this idea will then reappear every time something new is revealed its associated with the unknown but also with that feeling that comes with discovery a feeling that is simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying this is the thing that drives Murph to find out more about her ghost the drives Cooper to investigate the anomalies it's the thing that unites them but it's also the thing that will rip them apart Cooper's leaving is inevitable he liked the music at the beginning of the film seems out of place and time and whether it's out of self-preservation or genuine altruism he feels he has to leave and as he does Zumot brings back the first melodic idea we heard in the film the organ resumes a C dominant pedal on top of which we hear the stay theme the melody moves between F major and F minor adding uncertainty and tension to the music and underneath this we begin to hear a slowly ascending scale in the organ starting on a C [Music] the strings take over the melody and the ascending line moves into the brass [Music] the music becomes busier with low timpani strikes and increasingly faster subdivisions in the organ [Music] and finally the full brass is added strings sing out the theme on top of the now at the Kalama treehorn counter subject as well as a more aggressive writing scale and brass and strings [Music] the music has become simultaneously a statement of the shearing pain of separation and abandonment as well as the excitement and thrill of the journey that lies ahead [Music] this moment marks the beginning of a new chapter in the story and with it comes a new approach to sound design out of the wall of noise that accompanied Cooper's leaving we hear for the first time in the film complete silence the unnerving cold and empty silence of space there will be a prominent feature of the sound world for the remainder of the film alongside this we get new musical material colleg no strings ticking clocks hushed tremolo chords and a texture that mimics the harsh edges of this new unforgiving world but we also get a return to the music of discovery and have expectation once on board the endurance the C Lydian chords returned accompanied again by the long melodic string line but this time the harsh chromaticism and the music has diminished and in its place we find more notes that fit within the diatonic scale placed on top of broken chords in the organ which mark out simple tonal harmony it's turned into a dance slowed-down weightless dance there is a clear reference to the use of the Blue Danube Waltz in 2001 a Space Odyssey the Harmony underneath sits on a G dominant 7th chord with the melody continuing to meander chromatically around the scale until it lands eventually back in C major with the Manatee resulting in a very classical way foreign unprepared dissonance from the sharpened fourth to the fifth this music has basically become a very long drawn-out series of perfect Cadence's utilizing the immense energy that exists between dominant and tonic chords although it might seem as though the C major music has resolved here what it's really doing is setting up the parameters for the music that will follow surges of C major based chords in the organ and orchestra overwhelm the sound world of the score at regular intervals and as they get further away from home the feelings of isolation and loneliness are made even more apparent by music that often implies a C major based tonality but never fully realizes it [Music] when they come up on Saturn we hear a stark Shuba desk piano piece it begins with a B natural which leads not into an inversion of G major but instead into a diminished chord which resolves unto an unexpected C minor chord then again on to another diminished chord fire a flat major this music is cold and dissonant and unlike the weightless C major music we've just heard the distance that separates the melody from the underlying harmony feels empty here not full of possibility but of the space that separates Cooper from his family it does eventually introduce the e natural of c-major as if we're about to reach a resolution but B flats quickly disturbed the C major tonality taking us back instead to the music that accompany to Cooper's leaving and underneath a scaling idea one of the counter subjects in the stay theme Rises through the middle of the chords starting on a sea but disappearing before it can complete its journey this feeling of incompleteness and sparseness is characteristic of the most effective music in the film when Cooper and brand returned from Miller's planet due to time dilation caused by relativistic effects 23 earth years have passed [Music] Cooper watches 23 years of messages from his family and we hear the most honest version of Cooper and Murph's theme this music is found in many different guises throughout the film but somehow this version played by solo organ is the most transparent and tender inspired by the holy minimalist music of composers like arvo pet the clean harmony and structure is revealing in its simplicity where the solo piano music that accompanied their approach to Saturn spoke of the emptiness and coldness of space this music speaks of an emotional void instead of a physical one [Music] hey Dad [Music] a scoop and brand continue on their journey the school starts to rely more heavily on this idea but the music is often intercut with other material creating a complex network of relationships between the music and the narrative as events rapidly develop on dr. Mann's planet the music moves between several ideas in quick succession first the C Lydian music as man and Cooper set out then the more abstract incidental music because we begin to learn of man's deception and finally the main theme as Cooper is left to die tension continues to rise as man fails to dock with the endurance and to accompany Cooper and brands final effort to survive : no strings batter out an unwavering pulse accompanied by thundering organ courts whose harmonic language is taken from Cooper and murse theme and as they dock successfully we hear once again the surging dissonant chord based around a C major triad [Music] out of the noise and marking the beginning of the resolution of all musical ideas in the film the C Lydian music reappears underneath the descending sequence of thirds something is about to happen [Music] as they then ignite the thrusters trying to escape the pull of the black hole the music abruptly shifts into a melody that we haven't heard since Cooper left his daughter behind all those years ago [Music] the stay theme blazes out in the organ strings and woodwind alongside as before the whole counter melody we are being taken back to the point of separation except this time cooper is returning after a moment of stillness he sacrifices himself descending into the black hole and out of the sea major music that is accompanied so much of their journey comes a mullerian resolution ooh vast major chords underneath a soaring melody like the death of a star final and glorious [Music] it lands as you'd expect on c-major but fails to stay in its home key instead moving between different modes and eventually finishing on an expectant a minor chord what happens next is the inevitable completion of the story and the music this a minor music which at the beginning felt out of place and out of time now feels appropriate even though throughout the course of the film it has changed so little but that's the point it's the music of the end of the middle and the beginning all at once a timeless music it's the way we experience the spherical nature of the story and an embodiment of the immense force that brings people together the love which binds Cooper to his daughter across space and time Cooper has now realized the purpose and reason for everything that's happened and as he does and as the space between him and his daughter reduces to nothing the music fades into a luminescent C major cluster chord through which the organ plays an ascending line finally completing the scale that were set up right at the beginning of the film and as it rises to a solitary top C it brings together all of the music that has come before it into a single point all of space and time reduced into a singularity taking us back to the place where it all began thank you so much for watching in Stella is one of my favorite films of all time so I'm so pleased to be able to make this video I hope you enjoyed it and if you did do take a look at the other film score analyses on my channel this is my 13th film analyzed service lots to catch up on and of course do consider subscribing if you haven't done so already see you next time [Music]

Channel: Listening In

Views: 240,522

Keywords: Interstellar - How Hans Zimmer Creates the Sound of Space, Interstellar score, Interstellar Hans Zimmer, Interstellar Zimmer, Hans Zimmer, Hans Zimmer Sound of Space, Sound of Space, Interstellar music, interstellar organ, Hans Zimmer organ, interstellar soundtrack, interstellar soundtrack piano, interstellar soundtrack stay, interstellar stay, interstellar ost, interstellar music analysis, interstellar no time for caution, interstellar theme, hans zimmer time

Id: n6HtAu0fNQ4

Length: 17min 40sec (1060 seconds)

Published: Fri May 15 2020