Reception Radio: The Battle, by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard

A Classical Reception Classic

You’ve heard this music before.

Even if you haven’t seen the movie this music is from, you’ve heard it. Or, at least, you’ve watched a different movie that was inspired by this music.

Here is the opening sequence of Gladiator, a battle between Germanic tribes and Marcus Aurelius’ Roman legions.

Ever since its release in 2000, Gladiator has been the gold standard for how a Roman movie looks and sounds. It’s also a clear influence on the sound of other big-budget movies; I’m not the first person to point out the similarities between The Battle and the theme music from Pirates of the Caribbean. (They were both composed by Hans Zimmer, for what it’s worth.)

Oddly enough, Gladiator’s soundtrack doesn’t sound Roman. It’s played by a western classical orchestra, which developed around 1500 years after the reign of Marcus Aurelius. It uses structural tricks that were established with the growth of film music in the mid-20th century. However, it does sound epic and grandiose in a way that perfectly conveys the idea of Rome to a 21st century moviegoing audience. It’s Rome filtered through the millennia, altered for modern eyes and ears.

To give Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard some credit, there are a few elements of this music that wouldn’t feel wholly unfamiliar to an ancient Roman audience. Our modern association of brass and percussion instruments with warfare has its roots in Roman times. Listen for the big, bold horn section when the legions charge, and for the heavy use of timpani drums throughout the piece. There’s also a mandolin solo near the beginning of The Battle, as the armies ready their weapons and tension builds. The Romans didn’t have mandolins, but they did have plenty of stringed instruments, like the lyre, the kithara, and the pandura (which is closely related to mandolins and lutes). Since the mandolin isn’t a standard instrument in western orchestras, I wonder if it was added here to pass as a pandura.

As always, here are Spotify and YouTube links (for the audio-only version of The Battle!):