Just a note to say I found my copy of Hans Zimmer’s Gladiator soundtrack a few weeks ago — I haven’t finished unpacking since moving into my wife’s apartment! — and I have been playing it quite a bit, especially when I’m working on an article and I need to tune out the outside world. I am not all that big a fan of the movie, but wow, what a swell set of tunes Zimmer (and Lisa Gerrard, etc.) wrote for this film. It’s mournful in places and rousing in others, and I especially love the civilized barbarity of the two key battle themes — they’re loud and violent, but done in 3/4 time, like a waltz, to represent how the Romans saw themselves as a force of civilization despite all their bloodlust. This is one of those scores I can listen to over and over again.
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