In an interview in October 2010, composer Hans Zimmer confirmed that he would be returning to score The Dark Knight Rises. James Newton Howard was offered to return and write the score with Zimmer as he did for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but he chose not to because he noted that the chemistry established between Zimmer and Nolan during the making of Inception would make him seem like a "third wheel".[125] Zimmer included several cues from the earlier scores but explained that he wanted to go in a "completely different direction" for Bane's theme.[8]
The film features a prevalent chant of the phrase "Deshi Basara".[126][127] In November 2011, Zimmer crowdsourced online audio recordings of the chant to be used in the film's score.[128][129] When asked about the chant for clarification, Zimmer said, "The chant became a very complicated thing because I wanted hundreds of thousands of voices, and it's not so easy to get hundreds of thousands of voices. So, we tweeted and we posted on the internet, for people who wanted to be part of it. It seemed like an interesting thing. We've created this world, over these last two movies, and somehow I think the audience and the fans have been part of this world. We do keep them in mind."[130]
Just like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, the film's main theme consists in just two notes repeated, representing Batman's pain and guilt.[131] Many times is also reprised in small parts "Molossus", Batman's main action theme in the trilogy.[132]
