Josh Larson

Hans Zimmer Is a Mozart Fan

I’m kind of obsessed with film composers. Here’s a reason why Hans Zimmer and Mozart are awesome.

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I was reading a Buzzfeed article about Hans Zimmer (one of my favorite composers) recently.

The article mentioned that a Mozart piece adorned his elaborate recording studio:

There are loads of art books and a small library of classical composers. There’s a framed copy of Mozart’s ā€œAve Verum Corpus,ā€ which Zimmer calls ā€œthe perfect piece of music.ā€ The room is basically engineered for creativity.

My first instinct, of course was to listen to this piece of music Zimmer considers to be perfect. Hopping over to Spotify, I pulled up the track:

YouTube link

But something seemed really familiar. And this it hit me: Hans Zimmer referenced Mozart in his score for The Lion King.

“No way!” I’m sure you’re thinking. But seriously. Go to 1:42 in “Ave verum corpus in D Major” above. Let it sink in.

Now, listen to the haunting air from The Lion King when Simba realizes his father has died and is exiled from his hometown/kingdom/pride (around 2:12):

YouTube link

Nuts, right? That’s totally what I thought.

The above photograph by Jessica Chou for BuzzFeed