When Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi film Interstellar came out in 2014 audiences were not only blown away by the stunning visuals, epic storyline, and emotionally-gripping themes, but also by the profoundly captivating musical score composed by Hans Zimmer. The pieces that Zimmer wrote to represent key moments in the story – “First Step,” “Cornfield Chase,” “Day One,” etc – were theme and variations utilizing piano, pipe organ, synthesizers and other various instruments that beautifully mirrored the film’s other-worldly and cosmic context. In essence, it became the music of the universe.
✅ Find the complete piano lesson on how to play “Day One (Interstellar)” here ► https://www.marisamusicstudio.com/interstellar-day-one
Get the Sheet Music for this Interstellar arrangement here: https://www.mymusicsheet.com/marisasmusicstudio/204592
Through the music, director Nolan wanted to find “a way to coalesce the idea of gravity and time” and so Zimmer had an idea. “I wrote a ginormous, very sort of Mahleresque, Straussian love theme, with the notes forever reaching upwards,” he explained. Using a musical trick, as Zimmer called it, he created an effect in which the notes seemed to “carry on going upwards all the time, whereas really what happens is the counterpoint to it was going downwards. You kept having this idea that things are going upwards, to infinity…” Thus, the endless expansion of the universe was represented in this compositional device, adding to its colossal feel.
As for the emotional brilliance and poignancy of the music, it was perhaps evoked by the way Nolan first approached Zimmer about the score. The story goes that Zimmer was presented with a one-page type-written letter about nothing more than a father who has to leave his child to do an important job.
The short story included just two lines of dialogue: “I’ll come back” and “When?” It also quoted something that Zimmer had apparently said to Nolan during one of their hang-outs, in which they weren’t discussing business but personal matters. Zimmer explained, “I [had] said, once your children are born, you can never look at yourself through your eyes any more, you always look at yourself through their eyes.”
Nolan asked Zimmer to write a musical theme in one day based on the limited details of the story. Only after Zimmer shared what he had written did Nolan explain what the movie was about. Zimmer recalled, “[Nolan] started describing this huge, epic tale of space and science and humanity, on this epic scale. I’m going, ‘Chris, hang on, I’ve just written this highly personal thing, you know?’ He goes, ‘Yes, but I now know where the heart of the movie is.’ Everything about this movie was personal.'”
In the end, Nolan expressed one of the highest compliments a director can give to the film composer: “I believe that Hans’ score for ‘Interstellar’ has the tightest bond between music and image that we’ve yet achieved.”
Indeed, Zimmer’s music resonates with us long after seeing the movie. It is the quintessential “earmworm,” or catchy music, that plays over and over in your head…but in a good, meaningful way. Interstellar’s soundtrack has become one of the most streamed, downloaded, and requested scores to be learned on piano by the very many who have been touched by this beautiful music.