People should listen to his music more tbh
Harry Gregson William is a prominent English music composer who was responsible for a number of well-known titles in both the world of cinema and videogames. One would perhaps know the man from all of the Shrek movies, or more commonly, the he has composed for the Metal Gear Solid franchise.
The reason his music was brought up in the first place stemmed from the one conversation I had with a friend of mine in regards to how the music from the Metal Gear Solid franchise can make just about any act sound incredibly heroic, and then that’s when it really hit me. His music has the capability to always be beautiful, impactful and meaningful. To put the significance and bravado of his work into perspective; As previously mentioned, he is the man who created the music behind the Metal Gear Solid Franchise, which as anyone on the internet would probably know, is an incredibly iconic piece of identity for the Metal Gear Solid Franchise.
He makes brilliant use of your contemporary orchestral instruments, while also mixing in synthetic sounds and percussions that enhances the entire listening experience, and with just a right amount of ambience in the background, Harry Gregson William had created truly inspiring tracks that really amplified the enjoyment on can get from playing the games from the franchise, and giving the players something to remember by aside from just the gameplay and plot.
From the Brilliant use of impactful brass sounds that are never too heavy, and a trumpet ensemble to really sell the heroic atmosphere and idea to the player, all of this is further complemented with a string ensemble, ever playing in the background. Harry Gregson William is capable of mixing all of these instruments together, creating remarkable pieces of music, while also being effective at conveying emotion and thought through the sudden change of pace and instrumentation in his music, evident by how most of his tracks would often have certain sections be full of anticipation and reeling, leading up to a grand climax, and eventually lead back to a simple assortment of instruments playing a somber melody. Fact is, despite the sudden change of pace throughout the music he creates, it is exactly how when he shifted the gears for the music, and it didn’t even sound any one bit odd, is the major factor that really shows the brilliance in his craft.
A musician to be respected, that is for sure. I urge the reader to really give his music a try, especially those who find particular interest in grand orchestral music.
Looking at the films he has composed for, one that is well known to most people, shrek 1 2 and 3, but we will be mainly focusing on shrek 1, since that is the part I find most brilliant. The music in shrek 1 is memorable to say the least, but most remember only about the licensed songs they used at the time, All star, I’m on my way and others, good songs nonetheless, but i be damned if the original scores isn’t there, uninvited visitors, by William and Powells is one of those, when the fairy tales creatures arrived at shrek house (uninvited of course), notice how the song sounds like an introduction music other fairy tale related film or series will use, but since it is composed to make it sounds chaotic, it already tells the viewer that this isn’t going to be your grandma’s fairy tale. If that is not enough, take a listen to fairytale, sounds exactly like a disney princess theme, but it is played in scenes that perfectly juxtaposes that notion, i.e. the bird blowing up, caused by (thorn from r6)Fiona’s singing.
Moving on to the video games score that he composed now. Harry has composed for Call of duty on multiple occasions, Call of Duty 4 modern warfare being one of them, notable ones from that would be Miles High Club, and the main menu theme of that game. Then moving on to advanced warfare, but in that he didn’t get full reign over the music as he was composing alongside the audiomachine.
Now that that is out of the window, his magnum opus, the Metal gear solid Franchise, or more specifically the main theme since mgs2. Even though the main theme of mgs2 sounds like the original mgs theme, with the same motifs and stuff, Harry basically did an overhaul for the track, making it more bombastic than it was in the first game, not only emphasizing more on Snake’s growth from the first game, by making it sound louder and more confident with the main motifs clearer, it also better shows the game’s military espionage, stealth action oriented setting. Then every game from metal gear solid 2 onwards, has their main theme composed by Harry, each iteration sounding similar due to the motif, yet with enough unique elements to shine on their own, metal gear solid 3’s theme being more chaotic, with its military drums and sudden low moments to emphasize on its odd jungle warfare setting (there’s asian crocodile in the russian forest), then 4’s theme being played on a guitar, slow and methodical, fully showing how old and long the series has been running, and this should be an end point. (Yet msg5 came out)
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