Hans Zimmer – Genius or Thief?

[rob]

I think I’ve expressed my love of Inception. The movie’s bad-ass, and the soundtrack has been in and out of my head ever since it came out last year. I do get somewhat obsessive over music sometimes, and this one got to me.

So I was watching Quantum of Solace last night, and something happened – I recognized a piece of music. The song “Night at the Opera” is the one I’m talking about. If you go to iTunes, it actually plays the perfect part. Listen to the brass melody…

Then listen to “Old Souls” from the Inception soundtrack. About 20 seconds into the preview, listen to the guitar. Hmmm…

It’s not only the same basic “phrase”, it’s the exact same notes! Even the accompanying music surrounding the melodies are very similar – different notes, but same chords.

Now, I’m guilty of this myself. I’ve taken “phrases” from songs and built my own songs from them, but I try to at least disguise it by changing the key. Actually, there’s a song of mine played on the show way back called “Followed” that is “inspired” by a song on The Fifth Element soundtrack.

Speaking of the Fifth Element, it’s written by Eric Serra, who also did Leon (or The Professional) and Goldeneye. There are similarities between the three movies that share themes – the final song at the end of the Goldeneye shares themes from Leon, and there are themes from The Fifth Element from Goldeneye. This seems to happen a lot. Because James Horner was being hurried while writing the Aliens soundtrack, he had to take finished themes from Star Trek II to get finished in time.

To me, Hans Zimmer taking this theme is a little strange – if you’re not musically inclined, it’s sort of like taking C-3PO out of Star Wars and creating a new story with him as the center. It’s a little strange.

It’s one thing to “borrow” from yourself, but to borrow from others? What do you guys think? Or do you even care? I was trying to explain this to April, and she was like, “Yeah, I don’t really care.”

[Version3]

I’m willing to bet this happens VERY often, even with music greats. The fact is, sometimes something just sounds right, and you may not even know why. Your subconscious affects your judgement, and while this could be anything from a ‘nod’ to something he previously thought highly of, to some industry joke where people poke at each other, to a completely unconscious similarity, I think it’s unlikely that Zimmer just “borrowed it” because he couldn’t think of something for this part. I could be wrong, maybe he was just stuck one day and wanted to get home to start training to beat this guy at beating off, but I really think the intention was different, or it was a complete accident based on the familiar. You don’t see a lot of orchestral music including “samples” or “loops” of other’s music for a reason.

[Bucho]

Without knowing anything about Zimmer’s character I can’t guess how he came to include that phrase but I know I’ve written melodies before which I found out later were almost identical to existing ones. Some were from songs I’d never heard before so the only way they could be similar is that we came up with them independently.

What I’m saying is I’m a musical genius too.

- Women sense my power and they seek the life essence.

[rob]

Yeah, but coincidentally having the same notes in the same key don’t seem to be…uh, coincidence.

And what’s with that holy shit that’s a long time to have your dick in your hand guy?

[Larkitect]

i don’t doubt this sort of thing happens all the time, but maybe it was similar to what happened on the dark knight? i was under the impression that most of the creative force behind the guitar in that movie was from the guitarist himself. so maybe it’s not so much that Hans Zimmer is the culprit but an accomplice?

either way, good catch there Mr. Rob.

My essence still senses Bucho's women.

[Author]

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