Interview with Harry Gregson Williams

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Philharmagic

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A new article today on my site, Media Magic!
The extensive interview I did of Harry Gregson Williams, composer of the score of Narnia.
Since the score for the new extended version is just a new editing of the original music, there is no allusion to it in the article. But all the secrets of this wonderful music are treated there!
May Aslan protect you!

www.media-magic.blogspot.com
 
*****NOTE***** The interview is in French, and I speak some French, so I will try to write a translation on here for you. (It may take a while. I'm going to post a few more posts because this translation will definately take quite a few posts)

I'm a huge fan of the music from Narnia :) He's going to write the music for Prince Caspian too!!! :D (Even though in here it says he isn't sure. This interview is a bit old)

THE WORLD OF NARNIA - ROYAL EDITION: Interview with the composer Harry Gregson-Williams

«Wrong will be right when Aslan comes in sight,
In the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more
When he bears his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.

When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone
Sit at Cair Paravel in throne,
The evil time will be over and done. »

Such is, nobleman companion, the very ancient prophecy that they tell of generation after generation of Narnians, and revealed in 1950 A.D. (On 2555 in Narnian years) by the British writer Clive Staples Lewis in "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe", second volume of The Chronicles of Narnia.

And, by the mane of Aslan, all of a sudden a big prodigy took place last year: the magicians of the world of Disney indeed discovered Narnia and could accompany Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie in the accomplishment of prophecy.

Let us give credit to Andrew Adamson, son of Adam who had already fulfilled feat to film magical living beings, such a green ogre, and who knew how to immortalize with respect and passion the world of Narnia, the incredible beauty of its nature, the teeming and fantastic life of the animals who populate it and the epic adventures which shook it …

Let us also give credit to this marvellous man, Harry Gregson-Williams who, just like Aslan, procreated by the only potency of its singing the world of Narnia, unfolding all the talent, all its art, to create the only sound of Narnia, in no way similar to another … «Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.»
 
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How get your job with "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe"?
I had the big chance to be able to work by the past with Andrew Adamson on "Shrek" and "Shrek 2". We had already worked together. And when they asked him to make this film, it was natural for him to call me once again. I was positively enthralled, then he disappeared during several months in New Zealand for filming. For me, the composition of music really began in May, 2005 and it is ended on November 2nd of the same year.

In these three films (Shrek 1, 2 and Narnia), how has your relationship with Andrew Adamson evolved?
Narnia really differs a lot of both Shreks. First of all, in Shrek, there was a certain number of songs which it was necessary to take into account. The result is that 1 includes only about 45 minutes of music and 2 only has 60 minutes. Narnia includes more than a hundred minutes of music. This is a film with a sense of real life we can relate to, with computer imagery and a very developed epic sense. In the course of these films, my relation with Andrew evolved of a marvellous manner. He is a musician, he is guitarist, and he is in charge of his temporary music himself. He understands the impact of music perfectly in a film and is very opened, in sense where he authorizes me to approach stages in an unexpected way, not out of obvious necessity, but what gives emotion rather well in music and in a scene.

What were his requests for Narnia?
I spent six months in England last year to compose the music of Kingdom of Heaven for Ridley Scott, and in this time, he called me from New Zealand to tell me "Do not spend all your epic topics on this film; keep some for Narnia here!" Apart this, he did not ask me for specific things. It let me look at the first assemblages freely so that I could especially gain knowledge of the figures, and test different musical approaches. It is only at the end of these tests that we found the sound of Narnia together.

When we think of heroic fantasy today, it is "The Lord of the Rings" immediately comes to mind. What is the opinion of the Narnia?
I love the work of Tolkien and adaptation made by Peter Jackson. Only, this world is extremely dark, what is not the case of our film. There, they certainly find some shades. So, the darkest figure is the White Witch, and we liked to represent her in a original manner. During filming, Andrew noted that it was indeed one of the very first figures of this type, taken back scores of times later in Hollywood as with Cruella Devil, for instance. It is the reason for which we searched another approach which takes into account these paces and this charisma which free from this figure in the screen. And they understand that the youngest brother Pevensie falls under his charm and goes to the point of betraying his own family for her. I had a lot of fun working on this topic because, precisely, it is not of a single emotion. It holds concurrently an obvious dark side, but all at once contains very interesting elements of seduction.
But this blackness is not the bulk of our purpose. It is first of all about a film family. Four children disappear in this fantastic world and find themselves separated. It is only at the end of the film that they are united. Each of them must make a kind of initiatory trip, but they also have to make it together. It suffers distinctly in my way to approach the film musically. It was necessary that my music is very personal, very private, centered on a figure particularly at certain instants, and epic and grand in others.

Artistic and financial stakes are very important on this film, it would be only in comparison with the possibility of other compusers. How were your relations with Disney in comparison with it?
Andrew is not only the film director of the film, but also his executive producer, what gave us a big self-government. All musical aspect was worked out by him and me, and no executive of Disney mingled. I am really very thankful to them there. We had their complete support. It is a big company with reputation to have a big control of their production. It was not my case: we really had white card.
 
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Narnia has the biggest numberof creatures in the history of film. Leaving from there, what was your strategy in themes?
It was very interesting. My strategy was not to restrict myself to topics of figures, but to compose melodies also for the very place. I so began working on a topic which would express the beauty of Narnia. It is necessary to say that Andrew managed to give a dazzling beauty in this world, and my inspiration came from itself from there. This topic represents beauty and hopes of Narnia. Some days having written it, I discussed it with Andrew, and I realized that this topic did not have all that I wanted to put in it. I therefore went back at the beginning of the film, at the time of Lucy's arrival in Narnia. The first figure whom it meets is Mr. Tumnus, a faun. For this instant particularly, my topic seemed to me not all that appropriate for the setting. That's how I wrote a second topic for Narnia, that we called "The History Of Narnia". It is a kind of melody folk music, but I did not want it to ring specifically Irish or Scottish. I wanted to give the feeling to the public, at the time of this arrival, at this passage across the magical cupboard, that Narnia was thousands of years before us there and to make feel the fact that Narnia has the own history. It was a revelation for me. Indeed, Narnia had two dimensions: the first one, review and other one linked to its beauty for the Pevensies.
As regards to the characters, it seemed to me obvious to begin with Lucy Pevensie, the youngest. She is adorable, beyond words. She is also the catalyst of all which arrive in the film. She immediately trusts in the living beings which she meets, that, in return, also trust in her. Then I was interested in the eldest, Peter, who becomes very heroic in his manner. His topic grows throughout the film to culminate in the last act. There is a topic also of Mr. Tumnus, that I wrote about a and a half year ago. Andrew was in New Zealand and he called me to tell me that he had to turn a stage in which this figure played this mythical flute, a bit as a flute of section, and that I had to write the music of this instrument right away as much as he wanted that the actor who played Mr. Tumnus really plays on my music. I was therefore interested first in this instrument in the form of a V, neither wholly a flute, nor wholly a clarinet and I ended up choosing the duduk, this ancient instrument with a double reed. I then composed a kind of lullaby which I sent by Internet to Andrew. We worked on it during the week. Then I did not intend to speak about it during one year. It is only in its return of New Zealand only I could note that my topic was present from the first turned stage. Aslan comes then. In fact, during a big part of the film, they speak more that they see it – meeting with the children takes place only much more late. I wanted to use this opportunity to create a kind of anticipation in music, and this topic appears each time it is to recall, and notably when badgers speak about the prophecy of Cair Paravel and about the visit of the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve to free Narnia from the White Witch. That's how the topic of Aslan, before he really appears to the screen, became the topic of prophecy all at once. But I deliver it in fact in the full dimension only when meeting occurs finally, what allows to exaggerate it in a very interesting manner.

There are a lot of biblical references in Chronicles of Narnia. Did you insert them into your partition?
This aspect of Chronicles interests me a lot. However, Andrew was fond that we approach this film without particular reference to this aspect of history. They find certain sacred echoes certainly in my music, notably across the use of the chorus, but it is a dimension which is underlined in no way. For instance, for the stage of the sacrifice of Aslan, I had written a room for very sad chorus, and Andrew said to me that this instant had a religious dimension by itself and that you did not have to top it up. He therefore asked me to write a certainly sad music, but by all medium possibles except for the chorus.

The film opens with war before entering the world of Narnia. How did you treat these different worlds?
The real world represents roughly only the first quarter of the film, before we discover Narnia beside Lucy. The beginning of the world of Narnia is rather violent and dark: these are the bombings of London at night. It is a very intense and disturbing instant for the children who are very fast sent to the campaign to be protected from war. Once they arrive at Narnia, orchestration is as transformed. We are not any more in the real world. It notably suffers by the use of ethnic flutes of every sort and kind. These are exotic tones, but I was fond that they cannot link them to a definite geographical place: it is not either Asiatic, or Celtic. It is Narnian, simply.

The film is packed in intense moments. What scene most inspired you?I would say the one in which the children are crowned kings and queens of Narnia. It is an instant of a big emotional intensity. When I began putting this sequence in music, I had already compromised almost 90 minutes of music and I had all my topics. It was a kind of marvellous apotheosis and a huge pleasure! I think that if I had had to write it at the beginning of production, I would have been terrified! But there, I was rather impatient!
 
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This partition signs a new and splendid collaboration with the vocaliste Lisbeth Scott.
Lisbeth is a remarkable singer, with a splendid voice. But it is not that it: she is also a remarkable musician. I called it to say to him that I needed her for a very particular interpretation: neither wholly words, nor wholly melody. It then came to my studio and we began testing things. It right away understood what we tried to make in this film. It appears in four or five rooms, when I did not want chorus, but much rather a solo voice which can blend in with orchestration.

What is its role in your music?
It appears in stages including the baby Lucy. Lisbeth has a voice which clears this kind of innocence of childhood that Pevensie represents so magnificently the smallest of.

Other one of your other collaborators is Hugh Marsh, on the electric violin.
Certain persons are scared by the idea of a "electric" violin. I do not know how others can use Hugh's talents, but for my part, I use it for the wonderfully warm-hearted sonority. In my postition, it is very difficult to say that it is an electrical instrument. I called him for topic History Of Narnia about whom we soon spoke. As for the ethnic flutes, I wanted this sonority not to be identifiable, both from the point of view of its "electrical" nature and from fact - even that it is about a violin. I like this ambiguity very much. And with Hugh in check, it becomes very effective.

Where "The Lord of the Rings" demanded Celtic influence magnificently, your approach holds more mystery and magic …
It was the tournament of the Narnia. The Lord of the Rings hard marked minds and it was necessary to give in this other film of heroic fantasy his own sonority, to create the specific musical feeling.

You had an American orchestra of 75 musicians and a chorus from London of 140 singers. Why did you choose such numbers?
I do not think that the question of the size of orchestra is appropriate. An orchestra of 75 musicians is a big orchestra; an orchestra of 120 musicians is ridiculous, in vain dear and haughty. And then it is necessary to take into account the size of the room. We recorded the Studio Symphony Hollywood to Todd AO, what was perfect for this whole size. For me, what is much more appropriate, it is the size of the chorus. I met Bach Choir at the time of Kingdom of Heaven. I so much appreciated their job that I told myself that if I needed a big chorus for Narnia, it is them that I would call once again. And it is what I made. Fact is that they knew how to give an interpretation of a prodigious potency for the stage of battle. This mass of singers is so important that result is moving.

Are you involved in the song of the film, I Can' t Take It In?
Absolutely. I had the chance to work with Imogen Heap, of the group Swishing sound, on this present song in the generic of the end.

Will you be part of the next movie of Narnia?
I have no idea of it, and I think that same Andrew knows nothing about it for the time being. Everything will depend on the success of the film
 
I translated this too, but I had a bit more trouble with it, so it may not be perfect. How did you manage to contact Harry Gregson-Williams?

Also today, I got the music of Narnia for the piano!!! I'm really happy about that because I have been searching for it for almost a year now.

And in the Extended Edition (is "I can't take it in" performed)?
Not all of it

You will be composing for Prince Caspian. Have you started writing the music yet?
Not yet. At the moment, I've read the script and am starting to think of all the musical directions I could take. I will have to start writing at the end of next summer.

What makes you want to go back to Narnia?
I am very impatient! I think that I have a big opportunity to be part of this movie!
 
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