I've just started binge-watching the BBC series Sherlock. The first episode aired 7 months after the release of the movie Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey, Jr. The theme songs for the movie and the series were composed by different people - Hans Zimmer for the movie, and Michael Price and David Arnold for the series. Yet both theme songs include a rarely-used instrument, the hammer dulcimer. The hammer dulcimer melodies are reminiscent of each other as well.
Were Michael Price and David Arnold influenced by Hans Zimmer's score? Did Zimmer, Price, and Arnold collaborate or compare notes? Did an executive at the BBC insist that the theme songs should have similar elements? Is there any explanation for the similar, unusual instrumentation of the two themes?
Sherlock Holmes theme song, by Hans Zimmer:
BBC's Sherlock theme song, by Michael Price and David Arnold: