So you’re sitting in a movie theater watching one of those lovely, action-packed trailers for a movie coming soon when you think to yourself, “Wow, that is some really cool music. I wonder what it is?” It could be part of a musical score from another movie (especially if it is part of a series like Pirates of the Caribbean) or it could be something written specifically for trailers – trailer music.
The first time I remember REALLY wanting to know what music was playing in a trailer was when I saw the preview for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Absolutely stunning music that also sounded a bit familiar. It turns out that it was a special remix of part of the score written by Clint Mansell for the movie Requiem for a Dream called “Lux Aeterna.” This special remix was titled “Requiem for a Tower” and was sold in three parts from the company Cornerstone Cues. For no apparent reason, I suddenly got a bee in my bonnet last December to hunt this particular piece of music down and found “Requiem for a Tower” (the original version and a slightly different remix) at Amazon.com – and fell into the wonderful world of trailer music.
Trailer music (also called “Epic” music by its fans), is music written to evoke a particular mood – excitement, romance, terror, etc. – that is then sold to film and video game companies for use in the previews of their upcoming releases. These are generally short pieces of music, maybe one and a half to two minutes long, that are used to pump the audience up and make them think, “I really want to see that movie (get that video game)!”
My most recent experience with this phenomenon was the trailer for Snow White and the Huntsman (June 2012), which turns out to feature music written by composer Danny Cocke and entitled “World Collapsing” (see the trailer here). I headed back to Amazon and found the mp3. I also stumbled upon mp3 albums from a trailer music company called Two Steps from Hell. Each album is highly rated and is full of music used in various trailers from the last few years (their music is used in all the Twilight Saga movie trailers). Utilizing orchestras and choruses, each song will touch your emotions. In fact, some fans use this type of music to build up their energy to exercise or clean house or perform other tasks that may go a little easier when “epic” music is playing.
Anyway, if you love classical music or film scores I urge you to try this music as well. And if you’ve already discovered it, do you have any album recommendations?
