James Hannigan (born 23 July 1971) is a BAFTA Award winning composer and producer. His credits include entries in the Harry Potter, Command & Conquer, Dead Space, RuneScape, Evil Genius,EA Sports and Theme Park video game series, among numerous others. He has also scored full-cast adaptations of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman (DC Comics/Audible), the Audie Award winning Alien dramas (2016–2019), BBC Radio 4's adaptations of Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens and Neverwhere.
The composer is known for themes such as the parodic Red Alert 3 Theme - Soviet March. In 2022, James Hannigan composed a new orchestral theme for the Discworld universe.[1][2] Hannigan's music is regularly used in television shows and has been heard in productions including BBC America's Primeval,[3] BBC's Top Gear,Amazon's The Grand Tour,Disney'sThe World According to Jeff Goldblum and many other productions.
Hannigan's music scores have been nominated five times by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and Hannigan won a BAFTA Award with Electronic Arts in 2000 for Sim Theme Park (UK title: Theme Park World). In 2010 his score for the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game received a BAFTA nomination[4] and won an International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) award.[5] In 2014, Hannigan was nominated for a Develop Award for his work on RuneScape. His other BAFTA-nominated scores include those of Republic: The Revolution,[6]FA Premier League Manager and Evil Genius.[7] In 2022, The Sandman Act II received a Webby People's Choice Award for Music and Sound Design.
Live recording
Hannigan has worked with the Philharmonia Orchestra, The Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, The Slovak Symphony Orchestra, The Budapest Film Orchestra, and The Chamber Orchestra of London, recording at Abbey Road Studios, AIR Studios and Skywalker Ranch. The composer is known to be an analogue synthesizer enthusiast.[8]
In the early years of his career in the 1990s, Hannigan worked as composer for Electronic Arts Europe before basing his studio at Pinewood Studios in England for ten years between 1997 and 2007, where he sometimes worked as a sound designer on films alongside composing. His sound design credits include New Line Cinema's Lost in Space, which was nominated for a Golden Reel Award.
One of Hannigan's best-known themes is Red Alert 3 Theme: Soviet March.
Some of Hannigan's early game credits include Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Theme Park World, Sim Theme Park, Conquest: Frontier Wars, Freelancer, Privateer 2: The Darkening, Evil Genius,Grand Prix 4, and various EA Sports games in the F1 and FIFA series. His later game credits include Art Academy, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, Runescape, Command and Conquer 4, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Dead Space 3 and Call of Antia.[9]
In 2018, James Hannigan and Jagex released an orchestral album of Runescape music featuring orchestral renditions on earlier Runescape tunes along with new music by Hannigan, entitled Runescape: The Orchestral Collection. The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studio 1 in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Some of his music for Nintendo's Art Academy, such as "Swan Lesson," has subsequently been heard in the Super Smash Bros. game series.
Hannigan has posted videos on the subject of his early interactive music system design for titles such as Republic: The Revolution (designed by Google DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis) on YouTube.
In 2015, he contributed music for Terraria: Otherworld, which was subsequently cancelled. A soundtrack was later released [10] and some of the music has been used in the main Terraria game. After a period away from games, Hannigan returned to the industry to score Steelrising and Evil Genius 2 in 2021.
Screen Music Connect and other conferences
In 2013, James Hannigan founded popular yearly conference Game Music Connect with friend and industry commentator, John Broomhall. Held each year at London’s Southbank Centre, the event partnered with PRS For Music, Playstation and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Running for three years between 2013 and 2015, events featured numerous panels with leading composers, and keynote speeches from industry executives from Electronic Arts, Sony Interactive Entertainment and others.[11]
In 2018, it was announced that James Hannigan had founded a new London-based conference on film, television, game and virtual reality music, to be known as 'Screen Music Connect'.[12]
The composer has talked at numerous conferences and events, including NY Comic Con alongside Neil Gaiman, Kat Dennings and James McAvoy, Musicworks and The BAFTA Interactive Festival. In 2012 James Hannigan was made the subject of BAFTA's Conversations With Composers, held at the Albert Hall. [13]
Written publications
In 2004, Hannigan wrote "Changing Our Tune", a cover article for the UK's Develop magazine, outlining some of the differences between scoring for games and conventional linear media forms such as film and television.[14] It was the magazine's first audio related cover feature.
In 2010, Hannigan was interviewed for Tom Hoover’s book, “Soundtrack Nation: Interviews with Today's Top Professionals in Film, Videogame, and Television Scoring”.[15]
In 2015, he wrote a series of articles on video game music for Classic FM.[16]
In 2016, Hannigan wrote a foreword for Tim Summer's book, Understanding Video Game Music, published by Cambridge University Press.[17]
The composer started a blog in 2024 and has written on the subject of AI Music and its implications in an article entitled "AI's Hollow Harmony: Technology’s Ever-Evolving Dance with Human Creativity".[18] He has also written on his love of retro technology and the arcades of the 1980s, showcasing his studio arcade. [19]
Public performances
In 2007, a collage of Hannigan's music entitled Welcome to Hogwarts[20] was added to Video Games Live debuting in London at the Royal Festival Hall on 22 October 2007, and featuring the Philharmonia orchestra.
James Hannigan's music from The Sandman has been used for several installations and launch events, including the Dream Portal at New York Comic Con, 2022.[21]
Video Games Music Live performing the Red Alert 3 Theme
Hannigan's 'Soviet March' theme from Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 was performed at 'A Night in Fantasia', by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Australia on 26 September 2009.[22] The popular track can be heard on YouTube.[23] Other public performances include Video Games Music Live and the Games & Symphonies concert series.
On 28 October 2010, a concert of Hannigan's music was held at St. Mary's Church, Nottingham, England. As part of the GameCity 2010 Festival, the concert featured The Pinewood Singers and soloists performing the theme of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1', pieces from Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Evil Genius and other titles[24]
On 29 June 2012, Hannigan was interviewed in front of a live audience at the Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room by presenter Tommy Pearson, as part of the BAFTA Sponsored event 'Conversations With Composers'. The event featured an overview of the composer's work and a live performances of Red Alert 3 Theme - Soviet March.
Space Hulk (Electronic Arts/Games Workshop; music for the PlayStation version)
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