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MAKING OF... (page 7) |
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MUSICAL NOTES Two Academy Awardr winners collaborated to create the music of "The Prince of Egypt." Hans Zimmer, who won an Oscarr for "The Lion King," composed the score and arranged all the songs, and Stephen Schwartz, a double Oscarr winner for "Pocahontas," wrote the six original songs heard in the film. Katzenberg states, "Music is used as a tool of narration throughout the movie. It's very emotional and very compelling, and is a critical element of the story. Our film benefited enormously from the talents of both Hans and Stephen. They gave the movie its soul." In terms of research, Zimmer recognized early on that, as composers, he and Schwartz were at a disadvantage compared to other members of the creative team. "The ancient Egyptians and Hebrews obviously didn't record anything that we could use as a reference," Zimmer notes. "I worked rather to create a musical path through the emotions of the story, while remaining true to the two cultures as far as we know." "To some extent, I tried to differentiate between the Egyptian music and the Hebraic music," says Schwartz. "But they are so close in style that it's not easy to do." One unique way in which he accomplished this was to incorporate the Hebrew language in his lyrics. In "The Prince of Egypt," the filmmakers and the composers together took a different approach to the songs as a vehicle in the movie. "We looked for places where the song could advance the story, rather than stopping everything for the song and then starting up again. We wanted to avoid that at all costs," says Wells. The first song heard in the film is "Deliver Us," a cry for freedom from the Hebrew slaves, which underscores the film's seven-minute prologue. "That's actually what launched us into production," says Rabins. "We'd had a lot of meetings about how the prologue would work, but when Stephen gave us the song, we knew how to storyboard it." "First of all, the song had to immediately establish the sound of the movie," Schwartz says. "I used the Egyptian and Hebraic chord patterns and melodic structures, with some contemporary underpinnings. As a lyricist, it was important to me that the audience be invested in the sufferings of the Hebrews and feel that this was happening to real people and not to biblical `symbols.'" The centerpiece of the prologue is the sequence in which Yocheved eludes the Egyptian soldiers and puts her baby in a basket on the Nile. "I spent a lot of time writing a lullaby for Moses' mother who we never see again," Schwartz says. "In just those few moments, I wanted the audience to connect with the pain this mother went through having to surrender her son to the river as her only possible way of protecting him." Years later, when Moses learns the truth of his birth, he sings of losing the only life he had ever known in "All I Ever Wanted." Schwartz found his inspiration for this song during the filmmakers' research trip to Egypt. On a clear moonlit night, they obtained permission to visit a temple that was not officially open to the public. He recalls, "There was something about walking through those beautiful white columns reflected in the moonlight and seeing the hieroglyphs that triggered the tune which became `All I Ever Wanted.'" Moses eventually runs away into the desert, where he sheds all vestiges of his life as a prince of Egypt. Coming to Midian, he is welcomed into the tent of the High Priest Jethro and his daughter Tzipporah. Jethro shares his philosophy of life with Moses in the song "Through Heaven's Eyes." It is perhaps the best example of a song advancing the story in the film, as it plays over a montage showing the passage of many years in which Moses settles into a new life, falls in love and marries Tzipporah. The song also proved to be one of the greatest challenges for Schwartz, who explains, "We wanted Jethro to be a man of great faith and spirituality, but not specific to any one creed, so putting his message into words was very tricky. Ultimately, it came out of the question of how you measure the worth of a man. Is it what you accumulate in this world, or is it based on how you live your life? It was very important to me that the song say something that all of us- including myself-could stand to be reminded of." In turn, one of the greatest challenges for Hans Zimmer came in scoring the scene that followed this song-the pivotal moment when Moses comes upon the Burning Bush and is charged with the mission to return to Egypt and free his people from bondage. Zimmer acknowledges, "Of course, I instantly embraced the challenge, but a year later I was still thinking, `I have no idea how to do this.' I wanted to be very careful because the scene deals with so many people's beliefs, but at the same time, when you become too careful, you can't create. In the end, the only way I could compose it was to make it a completely personal experience. My studio became a monastery; I locked myself away and was totally focused on finding the belief in myself. In writing it, I knew I had to open up some very private emotions." Moses returns to Egypt and must confront Rameses, now Pharaoh. In the song "Playing With the Big Boys," the Pharaoh's court magicians, Hotep and Huy, try to dare the power of God with their own magic. Schwartz was able to write the song with Steve Martin and Martin Short in mind, knowing they had been cast in the roles. When Rameses refuses to free the Hebrews, it leads to "The Plagues," which might seem an unlikely place for a song. However, the song served a dual purpose: it presented the plagues in a limited time frame; and the altered reprise of "All I Ever Wanted" that is woven into the song conveys the final tearing of the relationship between Moses and Rameses. "I thought there was no way we could get all the plagues into such a short period of time until Stephen wrote the song," Zimmer remarks. "I realized that a song allows you to say things quickly, succinctly and dramatically in ways you never could with huge stretches of dialogue, because it goes straight for the raw emotion of it. I think he did a brilliant job with it; he surpassed anything I could have imagined." Schwartz counters that it was Zimmer's imagination which led to the use of the song as an emotional turning point for the brothers. "I'd never really arrived at a `brother song,'" he offers. "Hans suggested to me that we put a twist on `All I Ever Wanted,' which had never occurred to me, but as soon as he suggested it, I knew it was perfect." After the final plague, the death of the first-born, Rameses relents and tells Moses to take his people and leave Egypt, leading to the song "When You Believe." Finkelman Cox reveals that this song also had its roots in the research trip to the Middle East, noting, "Steve Hickner, Stephen Schwartz and I were riding through the Egyptian desert when we came up with the idea for a song that would represent optimism in the wake of the devastation of the plagues." "The song began to form in my head looking up at Mount Sinai and hearing the echoes of history," Schwartz remembers. "Then in my research, I came across the words to a song that the Hebrews were supposed to have sung after coming through the Red Sea, `Ashira l'Adonai,' loosely meaning `I sing a song of praise to the Lord.' I thought it would be nice if the children who were free for the first time in their lives sang this song of praise and joy in Hebrew in the middle of `When You Believe.'" "The first time I heard the song, I knew Stephen had accomplished everything we had talked about that day in Egypt," Finkelman Cox affirms. "`When You Believe' embodies all the hope of the human spirit, and the ability to recover from enormous adversity and walk forward to a better life if you hold on to your faith and your dreams." The Hebrews walk forward to the Red Sea where they witness the climactic miracle of the parting of the waters. "When you get to score something like the Red Sea sequence," Zimmer says, "you can't over think it, you just dive in.no pun intended. You embrace it in your language, which, as a composer, is music. Stephen can use lyrics to help tell the story; I try to illuminate what is going on emotionally through music." The music of "The Prince of Egypt" extends beyond what will be heard in movie theatres. A soundtrack album and two unique "inspired-by" albums will be released prior to the film's opening, marking the first time three distinctly different albums have been produced in support of a film release. "The Prince of Egypt - Soundtrack" contains music and songs from the feature film. In addition, it presents the first-ever duet by top female recording artists Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, who sing "When You Believe (from The Prince of Egypt)" on a track produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. There are also cover versions of songs performed by popular recording stars Amy Grant and K-Ci & JoJo, and an original song entitled "I Will Get There," written by Diane Warren and performed a cappella by Boyz II Men. "The Prince of Egypt - Nashville" is a compilation of songs performed by such chart- topping country artists as Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Randy Travis & Linda Davis, Clint Black, Wynonna, Alabama, Faith Hill, Pam Tillis, Charlie Daniels, Steven Curtis Chapman, Toby Keith, Alison Krauss, Mindy McCready, Jessica Andrews, Mac McAnally, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Gary Chapman. James Stroud, head of DreamWorks Records Nashville, served as executive producer on the album. "The Prince of Egypt - Inspirational" brings together a number of top-selling artists from the arenas of pop, urban and gospel music, including Boyz II Men, Kirk Franklin, Jars Of Clay, dc Talk, BeBe Winans, CeCe Winans, Carman, Take 6, Fred Hammond & Radical For Christ, Shirley Caesar, Brian McKnight, Donnie McClurkin, Trin-i- tee 5:7, Tyrone Tribbett & Greater Anointing (featuring Dave Hollister and Mary Mary), and Christian. The album is executive produced by award-winning producers Buster & Shavoni. Rabins says, "We were thrilled by the response of so many gifted musical artists to the film. The participants in all three albums are performers whose music we have enjoyed and admired. It was very exciting for us to take part in a project that bridges popular music and film in such a unique way."
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