Period Films Inspire Scores with Unusual Instruments, Surprising Sounds
variety.comJon Burlingame Movies set in the past often rely on music to tell us just where we are. Most, but not all, of the composers of this year’s period pieces felt the obligation to reflect time and place.
For Ridley Scott’s long-awaited sequel “Gladiator II” composer Harry Gregson-Williams not only employed a 90-piece orchestra and 100-voice choir, he spent months seeking out unusual instruments that might suggest the ancient Roman empire: ancient woodwinds, primitive horns, long-forgotten drum sounds.
He even visited the studio of a Spanish craftsman who built, and plays, the giant bronze trumpet known as a carynx. “It looked quite threatening like you could probably use it as an instrument of war,” Gregson-Williams says.
To these he added both male and female vocal soloists—including one from Australia and another from Ethiopia—for various colors; Lisa Gerrard, who sang on Hans Zimmer’s original “Gladiator” score, can be heard late in the film.
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