Le musiche di Trevor Morris (e non)

Trevor Morris (born 25 May 1970) is a Canadian orchestral composer, music producer, and creator of electronic music. He is probably best known for the creating the soundtracks for the television shows The Tudors, The Pillars of the Earth and The Borgias. He has recently been nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for his score for The Borgias and an Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or A Special (Original Dramatic Score) for his score for The Pillars of the Earth.

Morris was born in London, Ontario, Canada, a few hours outside Toronto. He was accepted to St. Mary’s school for the arts as a child, where he studied violin and choir daily. At age 13, Morris was commissioned by his school to compose a piece for his graduating class to perform in honor of the Pope John Paul II’s visit to Canada. His fee was $50. Beloved Young People, a book authored by the Pope aimed at the youth of the generation became the source for adapted lyrics, and Trevor’s senior class performed his composition for Piano and 4-part Choir at St. Mary’s cathedral at graduation. It was a defining moment that would shape Trevor’s future.

At college Morris attended, Fanshawe College’s “Music Industry Arts” program. He graduated top of his class and upon graduation immediately moved to Toronto to start work. He spent his 20s in the music production circles of Toronto but eventually turned his attention away from production and over to composing full time music for television commercials. Wanting a longer format for his music ideas, Morris moved towards scoring films and television series and in 1999 he moved to Los Angeles to follow this new career angle. During his early years in Los Angeles, Morris worked with film Score composers such as James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer. As part of Zimmer’s team, Morris amassed over 25 major screen credits on some of Hollywood’s block busters.

As Morris' own career in composition developed, so did the opportunity to directly collaborate with others such as Jerry Bruckheimer, Neil Jordan and Tony and Ridley Scott. In 2007 Morris received the EMMY award for best music composition for a television series main title for The Tudors. 2010 marked Morris' fourth television collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer and his team. Morris also completed the mini-series The Pillars of the Earth with Tony and Ridley Scott producing. Morris has worked as composer on a number of video games including SimCity Societies, Army of Two and Need for Speed: Carbon as well as films such as The Hills Have Eyes 2.

Morris maintains a production company in Toronto with his partners. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles with his family.

Artist: The Sixteen & Harry Christophers
Title: Videte Miraculum
Album: Christmas Music from Medieval and Renaissance Europe
Composer(s): Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)

RB - A lot of your television work has been on period dramas such as The Tudors, The Borgias, as well as the upcoming second seasons of Vikings and Reign. Is a historical setting something that particularly attracts you to a project?

TM - Funny enough, no! I was sort of the go to “action” guy for a while, and then “The Tudors” kind of changed the landscape, or at least my landscape. It’s hard to be anything but entirely grateful for being accomplished at “period drama.” I’m proud of it.

RB - You’ve been honored with two Emmy awards for “Outstanding Main Title Theme Music”, for The Tudors in 2007 and The Borgias in 2011. How long does it generally take you to conceive the main title music for a television show?

TM - Usually the initial idea comes quite quickly… the execution of that idea takes forever!

RB - What’s your average turnaround for a single episode’s music?

TM - I would say on the low end: 3 days. On the luxurious side: 10 days.

RB - How does your approach to scoring television differ to your approach to scoring features, and do you have a preference?

TM - For me personally, they are virtually the same. It starts with a visualization of what the score should “feel” like, almost a textural type of feeling. Then onto composing melodies, and then onto doing the cue by cue nature of the work. For me, that’s my process, TV or feature. I have no preference, only the preference to work on the best story I can.

RB - Between 2006 and 2009 you scored four video games (NFS: Carbon, C&C3: Tiberium Wars, Army of Two, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2), but haven’t scored any since. Do you have any plans to return to video game scoring, and is there any franchise you’d be particularly interested in working on?

TM - I am working on “Dragon Age: Inquisition” for EA / BIOWare as we speak, and having a blast! I’d love to do “Call of Duty” or “Halo.”

RB - Your Bio states that at age 13 you wrote a piece that was performed by your graduating class for the visiting Pope John Paul. How pivotal a moment was that for you, and listening to that piece now, could listeners identify any particular traits that continue to appear in your music today?

TM - I would love to think so. I think any artist would love to have identifiable, recognizable traits. To me, it’s the litmus test of a great artist. It’s something I am always aware of and following…continually finding my own voice. My wife can pick out my music in a crowd, so that’s not so bad.