The movie music of Hans Zimmer

It does not take much to entice me to watch a Kung Fu Panda film. Pandas are lovable animals and the large bumbling Po must be the cutest bear ever created for a movie. Besides, the writing for this series is also always funny and clever. That scene showing Po incredulous because he found out he was adopted by a goose, is one for the books. The kung fu scenes are exciting and the effects are always very well done. So count me in for Kung Fu Panda 3, which promises more high-flying heroics by Po and his allies.

But there is something more that makes this third installment of the franchise very interesting. This involves the music, which like before was done by Hans Zimmer. Zimmer, who comes from Germany and who first worked in the UK, has now made the US of A his home. He created the music for the first two Kung Fu Panda films, which as everybody knows were set in China and therefore required scores heavily influenced by traditional Chinese music.

This seems like a strange mix, but if you add the fact that Zimmer is known in the movie business for his ability to blend the electronic with traditional musical instruments, then he is the guy for the job. Zimmer is inventive and very versatile and he brought more of these qualities into Kung Fu Panda 3. How did he do it? He brought in world-renowned Chinese musicians to play in the score. These are the pianist Lang Lang and cellist Jian Wang. You might say what is new about a cello and a piano even if it is Lang Lang playing?

But there is more. Also playing their unique kind of music are Wu Man with the pipa and Guo Gan who plays the erhu. And what are the pipa and the erhu? These are traditional Chinese instruments that are thousands of years old and I want to hear how Zimmer will use them in the music of Kung Fu Panda 3.

The pipa is a stringed instrument, something like a lute or the mandolin or the Russian balalaika. It plays notes but is also sometimes used to create sounds that can be either sweet or disruptive. The erhu is a bowed instrument, something like a fiddle or a violin but with only two strings. It has a deep, mournful sound. Both are distinctly oriental but can now sometimes be heard in contemporary pop or rock arrangements. Chinese bands often incorporate both in their music, while the likes of Philip Glass and Incubus have also made use of them in their works.

Now, let us all watch Kung Fu Panda 3 and while laughing and loving Po, cock out your ears to find out what Zimmer has done with the pipa and the erhu. I am sure the results will be fascinating.

For more sounds by Zimmer, check out the dreamy album The Film Music of Hans Zimmer performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and the Crouch End Festival Chorus. I tell you this album is made for daydreaming. You can either relive the scenes where the music came from or use them as your very own soundtrack for those personal movies you create in your head.

Included are portions of the scores Zimmer created for many memorable films. The pieces vary. Simple, very modern and bittersweet as in the Rain Man Theme, playful as in Restless Elephants from the romantic comedy Green Card or heroic as in the song Now We Are Free from Gladiator. They may be vastly different but you have to agree that Zimmer music never fails to touch the listener. Close your eyes. Listen to this album and feel yourself reacting to the score.

Included are music from Gladiator with Now We Are Free and also from The Thin Red Line, Thelma And Louise, The Da Vinci Code, Rain Man, Days of Thunder, Pearl Harbor, The Last Samurai, Crimson Tide, Green Card, Regarding Henry, Batman Begins, Hannibal, True Romance, Driving Miss Daisy, The Rock and Pirates of The Caribbean.

This line-up is not complete. Zimmer has also done The Dark Knight, Inception, Sherlock Holmes and others. And definitely not to forget, the score for The Lion King for which Zimmer won the Academy Award. So a Volume 2 of his music should be coming out soon. With something from Kung Fu Panda, of course.