Development
In July 2024, it was announced that Zimmer would score music for Blitz, collaborating with McQueen for the third time after 12 Years a Slave (2013) and Widows (2018). [1] Though Zimmer had scored Pearl Harbor (2001) and Dunkirk (2017), [2] [3] both films set during World War II similar to Blitz, he opined that the story of Blitz personally connected with him, recalling that his mother sheltered as a German Jewish refugee in England during the war. [2] [4] McQueen gave Zimmer one direction about composing the score – that Zimmer would understand his mother better after watching this film. Zimmer said, "That's all he said. And I knew all the stories, and as I was working on the film. I started to feel her stories. So, he was absolutely correct." [5]
McQueen's story moved Zimmer to compose a score that reflected the unrelenting chaos and brutality of the London blitz during WWII. [5] He created a dissonant score that reflected the terror and confusion of how an adult and child would feel. [2] Zimmer said he was "so committed to this atonality that it was very difficult to put pieces together." [5] To achieve this, Zimmer thought of writing music that would be brutal and violent and feel uneasy towards the audience. [4] [5] He primarily used a treble recorder, which according to Zimmer was "one of the most tortuous instruments in the world." He recalled the instrument being played in his school on days where "everybody's out of tune and everybody's blowing really hard into them – and it's the sound of hell." [5]
The score starts with an orchestra of children's recorders and gradually move towards a complex orchestration as the story progresses. [6] Zimmer composed the score after returning from an orchestra tour where he had formed a close relationship with the performing band, [2] adding "They've spent their whole life learning how to make their instruments sound beautiful. And it takes a certain amount of courage to go and then turn all that upside down and me saying, here are the notes, but what I want from you is I want them to be, like, you know, razors running down a piano wire." [2] There were also some beautiful and hopeful moments throughout the score. [2]
Nicholas Britell was brought for the film to compose original songs and produce additional music; he previously did the same for 12 Years a Slave. [7] An original song "Winter Coat" was performed by Saoirse Ronan and Britell, which was recorded on 7 November 2024, at the Studio A located at Power Station at BerkleeNYC in New York City. [8] The video of the performance was released through Deadline Hollywood on 27 November. [8] The album was released through Milan Records on 1 November. [9]
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