So I’ve mentioned on here like forty times (INCLUDING YESTERDAY) that James Horner is my favorite composer. However, Hans Zimmer is a close second.

Today I’m going to talk about why these two are my favorites using a song of each of theirs to demonstrate, and I’m going to contrast one feature across both songs: buildup.

Let’s start with Horner, and we’re of course going to talk about The Launch from Apollo 13.

(Shocking, huh?)

I think this song is an excellent demonstration of how Horner handles buildup/anticipation. Let’s start at 3:25 minutes into the song. This is where he starts building up to the climax. The buildup is very…obvious. It’s clear. You can hear that anticipatory snare drum throughout and things keep getting added on top of it to gear up the emotion. Once you get to the horns’ entry around 5:08, it really starts to ramp up, but still in a very methodical way. There’s layering and chord progression, all still with that very audible snare in the background.

I think Horner does buildup in a very structured way, and this structure really works to build the tension. You can tell it’s structured, so you know what to anticipate and what to expect as it builds, but the rigidity of the structure holds back the payoff, making it even more worthwhile once it happens. He builds with drums and horns and bells.

And, of course, the payoff is what makes this song. I love Horner’s use of pauses after we hit the big moment at 6:05. He’s not afraid of adding these little microseconds of silence between the swells in the music, and that makes it all the more impactful.

So in short: Horner (at least in my opinion) does structured, reserved buildup, and the structure is what amplifies the anticipation.

Now onto Zimmer!

Let’s use No Time for Caution from Interstellar.

This demonstrates what I think is Zimmer’s hallmark approach to buildup: chaos. Starting at 0:45 in, there’s already a lot of stuff going on. He’s got that persistent, prominent beat in the background, but I think that’s pretty exclusive to the Interstellar soundtrack to indicate the passage of time. Other than that, though, there’s just a lot of sounds. Lots of low strings and low brass. It’s driving forward towards something, but I think it sounds a lot more chaotic in that drive than Horner. More and more motifs get added and things sound more and more muddled (in a good way). You get this feeling that something’s going to have to give because there’s just so much sound.

Then we get to 2:35, where the climax begins. But it’s not alone – we still hear that chaos behind it in the form of the piano and organ. Zimmer also uses pitch change a lot more obviously than Horner does, I think. Everything gets higher and higher and higher until right before the peak of the song (when you start hearing that low, building organ chord) when he starts bringing you down with lower pitches.

I know I said I was just going to compare one Horner to one Zimmer, but you can also really hear this pitch progress in Red Sea with those FREAKING FRENCH HORNS, OH MY GOD (2:10-2:29). I love how he uses them to audibly represent the parted walls of the Red Sea rising. You can see it because of those horns.

So in short: Zimmer (also just in my opinion) does chaotic, loud, “messy” buildup, and that chaos is what amplifies the anticipation.

Anyway.