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/