danny elfman musical analysis paper by derek voeller
TRANSCRIPT
DANNY ELFMANMusical Analysis Paper by Derek Voeller
BIOGRAPHY
• Born May 29th, 1953 in Los Angeles, CA.
• Growing up, he enjoyed listening to movie scores at the movie theater.
• After dropping out of High School, he moved to France and preformed with the Le Grand Magic Circus music group.
• Also lived in Africa for a short amount of time.
• Moved back to California and started taking music classes at California Institute of Art.
• His older brother put together a band, which Danny eventually joined as lead singer and guitar.
BIOGRAPHY CONT.
• The band’s original name was “The Mystic Kights of the Oingo Boingo”.
• Originally fronted by Danny’s older brother Richard, who later pursued a film career.
• Their most recognized hit was “Weird Science” which was written for the movie with the same name.
• Oingo Boing’s music was featured in many other films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Back to School.
• The band split up in 1995.
OINGO BOINGO
BIOGRAPHY CONT.
• Was approached by Tim Burton to score his up coming film Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.
• Elfman was cautious at first due to his lack of experience, but later accepted.
• Here is a piece that Elfman wrote for the film.
• This stemmed a long relationship between Elfman and Burton.
DANNY’S FIRST FILM SCORE
BIOGRAPHY CONT.
• Elfman has been the lead composer for almost every single Tim Burton film.
• The Simpsons theme song was composed by Elfman, this theme has become one of the most recognized theme songs of all time.
• He also has composed for several other films like Scrooged, The Frighteners, Mission: Impossible, Men in Black, Goodwill Hunting, Spider-man, and Epic.
• Elfman has an extremely unique sound that most can identify easily.
• Recently, he started working with Cirque Du Soleil for their show IRIS.
DANNY BECOMES A FILM COMPOSER
BIOGRAPHY CONT.INFLUENCES
• Philip Glass - famous Minimal composer
• Carl Orff - Carmina Burana• Sergei Prokofiev - The Love
for Three Oranges• Maurice Ravel - Miroirs• Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of
Spring• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • Bernard Hermann - The Day
the Earth Stood Still
COMPOSITION HISTORY The Batman Theme from Batman
• Directed by Tim Burton.• One of the most difficult
scores for Danny to write.• Elfman was requested by
Burton after working with him on Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.
• He won his only Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture.
• This theme has become unambiguous with the name Batman.
COMPOSITION HISTORY The Spider-man Theme Spider-man
• Directed by Sam Raimi• Won a BMI Film Music award
and was nominated for a Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media in 2003 Grammys.
• Not recognized as much as the Batman theme but the movie was a commercial success.
• Mostly orchestra and ethnic drums.
COMPOSITION HISTORY Jack’s Lament – Nightmare Before Christmas
• Directed by Tim Burton• After the success of the
Batman films, Elfman was very excited to work with Burton again.
• This piece was not only composed by Elfman, but he also provided the vocals for the recording for the lead character Jack Skellington.
• Score won Best Music at the Saturn Awards.
COMPOSITION HISTORY Simpsons Theme – The Simpsons
• One of Elfman’s early works.• Arguably Danny’s most well
known pieces.• Took 3 days, 2 hours and 48
minutes to create.• Two different theme’s
recorded the main theme and then the closing theme in a lower octave.
• Won National Music Award for best theme in 2002.
BATMAN THEME – LISTENING GUIDE
• Link to song is here.
• Score starts in quadruple meter in simple division.
• The horns start with the song’s motif, that is repeated throughout the song.
• After the intro the song changes to a much faster tempo and into compound division.
• The song’s rhythm now takes a marching feel.
• Now the march almost fades away, while the orchestra takes longer draws.
• Song returns to the march.
• Orchestra slows down and the harp is making it’s presence noticed during this time.
• The rhythm starts to build up to the resolution of the song.
• The song ends with a gong hit.
SPIDER-MAN THEME – LISTENING GUIDE
• Link to song here.
• Starts with violins as the rest of the orchestra builds up behind.
• The rhythm has a gallop feel.
• Electronic instrument playing a simple beat over the intro.
• Horns start the main melody of the score.
• The contrast of the violins playing very fast over the rest of the orchestra, gives a very dissonant feeling.
• The choir now enters the song.
• Everything changes now, the score almost sounds like a completely different song.
• The ethnic percussion is very noticeable now.
• The song is closing and the final melody is played on the horns. The song slowly fades out.
JACK’S LAMENT – LISTENING GUIDE
• Link to song here.
• Song starts in a slow tempo and minor key.
• After every phrase of the vocals the orchestra plays a few notes to accent the phrase.
• The violin is following the melody of the vocals.
• The orchestra hits with every syllable of “and I, Jack the Pumpkin King” to bring the attention to the phrase.
• The chorus has a waltz feel.
• The verse returns and remains relatively the same.
• Ending is drawing near and ends with the final chorus.
SIMPSONS THEME – LISTENING GUIDE
• Link to the song here.
• The famous “The Simpsons” is sung by the chorus to start the song.
• The harp plays an arpeggio to lead into the main part of the piece.
• As the song picks up, the rhythm is made up of ethnic percussion.
• Lots of use of the marimba to keep the tempo up.
• The sax solo starts playing the motif of the song and then embellishes.
• Back to the original main part of the song.
• Song coming to a close and the entire orchestra is playing the main melody of the song.
BIBLIOGRAPHYBasile, N. (n.d.). Danny Elfman. Retrieved from http://animatedtv.about.com/: http://animatedtv.about.com/od/musicandsongs/p/elfmanprofile.htm
Danny Elfman Biography. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/: http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/88821/Danny-Elfman/biography
Yak, G. (n.d.). Who is Danny Elfman? Retrieved from http://www.bluntinstrument.org.uk/: http://www.bluntinstrument.org.uk/elfman/bio/