Episode 269

The Music of Hamnet, with Composer Max Richter

DECEMBER 02, 2025

Composer Max Richter joins guest host Jon Burlingame to discuss his luminous, emotionally rich score for Hamnet, the new film from director Chloé Zhao. In their conversation, Richter shares how early musical sketches shaped the production, how he blended period instruments with processed textures, and how the film’s psychological and natural landscapes guided his approach. And as Richter explains, Elizabethan-era music became a key creative touchstone for capturing the film’s folkloric sensibility.

 

“Elizabethan music is one of my great passions, really. It’s an amazing moment in English music history where you have this community of composers writing just extraordinary things, both instrumental and chorally. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to go back and connect to that material… Which evoked what [director] Chloé [Zhao] called the witchy sensibility of the sort of folkloristic… maybe dark fairytale quality of the relationship with nature and the connection between human beings and nature.”

—Max Richter, Composer, Hamnet

 

Be sure to check out Hamnet, now playing in theaters in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®, where available.

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