Batman Begins (soundtrack)

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'Batman Begins'
Batman Begins cover
Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard
Released June 14, 2005
Length 60:26
Producer Warner Bros.

Batman Begins is a soundtrack album to Christopher Nolan's 2005 Batman Begins. It was released on June 15, 2005. The soundtrack drew from the film score, composed by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, as well as contributions by Ramin Djawadi and Mel Wesson. The songs in the soundtrack were titled with Latin names: the first song, "Vespertilio", is taken from the Latin word for bat, and the rest of the songs are titled after different genera of bats.[1] Director Christopher Nolan originally invited Zimmer to compose the film score, and Zimmer asked the director if he could invite Howard to compose as well, as they had always planned a collaboration.[2] The two composers collaborated on separate themes for the "split personality" of Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, Batman. Zimmer and Howard began composing in Los Angeles and moved to London where they stayed for 12 weeks to complete most of their writing.[3] Zimmer and Howard sought inspiration for shaping the score by making set visits to Batman Begins.[4]

Zimmer wanted to avoid composing a film score that had been done before, so the score became an amalgamation of orchestra and electronic music. The film's ninety-piece orchestra[2] was developed from members of various London orchestras, and Zimmer chose to use more than the normal amount of cellos. Zimmer enlisted a choir boy to help reflect the music in the film's scene where Bruce Wayne's parents are killed. "He's singing a fairly pretty tune and then he gets stuck, it's like froze, arrested development", Zimmer said. Zimmer also attempted to add human dimension to Batman, whose behavior would typically be seen as "psychotic", through the music. Both composers collaborated to create 2 hours and 20 minutes worth of music for the film.[4] Zimmer composed the action sequences, while Howard focused on the film's drama.[2]

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Vespertilio"
  2. "Eptesicus"
  3. "Myotis"
  4. "Barbastella"
  5. "Artibeus"
  6. "Tadarida"
  7. "Macrotus"
  8. "Antrozous"
  9. "Nycteris"
  10. "Molossus"
  11. "Corynorhinus"
  12. "Lasiurus"

[edit] Use in other works

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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

The soundtrack is also often sampled for other superhero related productions. "Molossus", an instrumental by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, was sampled for the Aquaman pilot. "Vespertilio" and "Eptesicus" were used in the screener pilot for Heroes. "Myotis" has been featured in trailers for King Kong, V for Vendetta, Fantastic Four, Far Cry and of course, The Dark Knight.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Batman Begins Soundtrack. SoundtrackNet. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.
  2. ^ a b c Danny Graydon. "A Little Knight Music", Empire, July 2005, pp. 87. 
  3. ^ Spence D. "Batman Vs. Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard Part 1", IGN, 2005-06-10. Retrieved on 2006-12-01. 
  4. ^ a b Spence D. "Batman Vs. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard Part 2", IGN, 2005-06-13. Retrieved on 2006-12-01. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Batman feature film soundtracks