Originally Posted: November 19, 2014

Film Score Review: Interstellar | Hans Zimmer

Right.  So I went and saw Interstellar last night, and one of the most striking aspects of the film was the music.

Now, some people have complained that director Christopher Nolan made a mistake while mixing the sound, but I disagree.  There have been some complaints that dialogue is overpowered by music in some spots, and while that may be true (I didn’t notice it, but probably because I was listening to the music anyway), I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.  

Nolan intentionally mixed the sound for the movie with an emphasis on the music.  In some movies, such as Interstellar, there are moments that call for an atmosphere that only music can create.  Dialogue becomes second to what the visual and music can create together.  I really liked what Zimmer had to say about it, because he is spot on.

“Of course, now, suddenly there is a story that some people couldn’t understand the words [of ‘Interstellar’],” added Zimmer. “When I go and see a great opera I usually can’t understand the words anyway but I’m still on this amazing emotional journey. What I’m interested in ultimately is quite simply this: I want to go and write music that announces to you that you can feel something. I don’t want to tell you what to feel, but I just want you to have the possibility of feeling something. What you feel is what you bring to it. I want you be a co-conspirator in the music, and in a funny way, a co-creator in it.” (Source)

Ok, now that I’ve covered that, let’s talk about the music.

I. Love. This. Score.

Interstellar is full of larger than life organ chords and heavy bass pedals that are interspersed between minimalistic passages to create the closest sonic representation of space I have ever heard.  

This film score was heavily inspired by minimalist composer Phillip Glass’s soundtrack for Koyanaanisqatsi, a 1982 cult film with no dialogue and no true plot, giving the music a very central role to the imagery.

Here are a couple moments when the two scores could be nearly interchangeable:

Starting with the addition of a bass drone in 5:42 of Koyaanisqatsi (a piece titled “Organic”) we hear something similar to 1:49 of “Day One”, along with several others, as this is common theme material in the soundtrack.

Throughout Zimmer’s score, organ is one of the most heavily utilized instruments, and we can hear organ motifs reminiscent of the organ arpeggios that start at 15:45 in Koyannisqatsi, though in Zimmer’s score they are often layered beneath sweeping emotive chords.

Another selection from Zimmer’s score that utilizes both of these ideas from Koyannisqatsi is “First Step”. I think the organ stands out better in this one, but that could just be me.

Now, before you totally hate on Zimmer for being such a blatant ripoff, please note that this is a thing that people do in classical music (whether it’s a good thing or not is a debate for another time), and highly respected composers have been doing this for CENTURIES.  Even Mozart did this.

(Further reading on the subject of composers borrowing/stealing from each other can be found here and here).

If you have time, I suggest you listen to both the Koyaanisqatsi score and the Interstellar score in full back to back.  I know that’s what I’ll be doing today while feverishly catching up on my NaNoWriMo word count.

-Melani