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DANNY ELFMAN
Musical 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.
OINGO BOINGO
• 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.
BIOGRAPHY CONT.
DANNY’S FIRST FILM SCORE
• 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.
BIOGRAPHY CONT.
DANNY BECOMES A FILM COMPOSER
•
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.
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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Basile, 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/Da
nny-Elfman/biography
Yak, G. (n.d.). Who is Danny Elfman? Retrieved from
http://www.bluntinstrument.org.uk/:
http://www.bluntinstrument.org.uk/elfman/bio/