A Profile of Narnia Composer Harry Gregson-Williams
05/06/07
The Hollywood Reporter has a nice little biographical profile of Harry Gregson-Williams, composer of the first Narnia film, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the upcoming Prince Caspian. Here's a choice excerpt:
Adamson, too, praises Gregson-Williams for his creative flexibility. The pair first joined forces for 2001's "Shrek," which the New Zealand-born filmmaker co-directed with Vicky Jenson, and subsequently partnered for 2004's "Shrek 2" and the "Narnia" films.
While both franchises appeal to family audiences, they couldn't be more different in tone. But Adamson says he didn't hesitate to bring Gregson-Williams onboard for the live-action fantasy films, noting that Gregson-Williams is just plain fun to work with.
"On 'Shrek,' Harry developed a really beautiful fairy tale theme. He called me and said, 'Let me play you the "Shrek" theme -- I'm very happy with it.' He played it for me and then got back on the phone very excited. And I said, 'Harry, you know, it's a very beautiful piece of music, but it's very traditional, and I think Shrek's theme should sound very different because he's not your typical fairy tale character.' He got very depressed and literally 15 minutes later called me back and said, 'Let me play you Fiona's theme,' and he played me the same piece of music! It was perfect because everything about Fiona in the movie was about the cliches of that genre, so that became Fiona's theme.
"To him, the music comes first, and then he almost finds the application," Adamson continues. "On the 'Narnia' series, when we started with that -- before he'd even seen anything -- he said, 'I've got this big heroic theme that I'm imagining at a coronation or something,' and he sat down and played it for me on piano. It was beautiful, and it became one of the strongest themes in the film. He seems to have a very intuitive approach to film music."
The composer will debut a concert suite of his "Narnia" music with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra on May 19, and he already has begun thinking about the second film in the series, "Prince Caspian." "I've read the script, and there are a couple areas that I'm researching, but really it's a very different story," Gregson-Williams says. "Hopefully, we'll be able to hang on to one or two of the cues and develop them, but it's quite dark, actually. I'm really looking forward to it."
