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Official Danny Elfman Thread


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On 12/25/2020 at 12:11 PM, Richard Penna said:

He's as bad as Giacchino with persistence with his track names. Only Elfman would put The Final Confrontation in a family drama :P

 

If memory serves, these tracks were not named by Elfman himself. I don't even know if the original promo had track names. I believe it was Christian Clemmensen or Ryan Keaveney or someone who named the tracks based on Elfman's frequent track names. Hence "Final Confrontation", "Weepy Donuts", "Jack's Lament", "Beautiful Day", "Promise" etc. Or "Anywhere....But Here", which is an in-joke fan reference to Elfman's score for that movie.

 

But great score, overall. I should have played it this Christmas, but never got around to it.

 

As for collection -- which seems to be where the discussion was going -- I have everything by him that is available in some form or another since the dawn of time. One of these days, I want to do another journey through his music - from beginning to end.

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Most composers have a big peak early-ish in their career where seemingly every score is great, and then after the peak there seems to be the random highlights in a sea of mediocrity or same-sounding-ness where the highlights being different for every fan.


I guess Elfman is so different really, I love practically everything he did from '88 to '96 or so and then only a few things after really engage me: Wanted, Alice in Wonderland, Hithchcock, Through The Looking Glass would be my personal post-peak favorites

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I'd say 96 to 05 is really the 'meddling' middle part of his career, with a few exceptions. But then from 2005 and the Serenada Schizophrana, he seems to have found inspiration, especially in the indie/non-mainstream films. The blockbusters/mainstream stuff seems completely bereft of inspiration (for the most part) since then.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Apologies if this was shared elsewhere. I can’t believe it flew under my radar in 2005 at the height of my score collecting in high school.

I thought Elfman’s Scissorhands Ballet was only available in a few “sketches” he’s composed.  But I came across this yesterday. It’s a nice adaptation of Elfman’s work and mannerisms. Anyone see the actual production?

 

 

 

 

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I haven't seen the production, no, but I got the CD when it was released. Haven't played it very often, though, as I'm not that keen on the arrangements or the original music. Seems rather cold and detached and....I don't know, grating at times. If I remember correctly, Elfman was not personally involved in this.

 

Matthew Bourne also used Herrmann's music in his stage adaptation of THE RED SHOES fairly recently.

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Elfman wrote some music for a Scissorhands ballet which did not come to fruition (demos are on the curios disc in the giant Burton/Elfman box).  This other one didn’t involve Elfman.  I have it and it’s fine but I don’t revisit it much.  

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I thought I would post this here, someone might find it of interest.

 

Danny Elfman picked his top 5 composers of all time in a fairly recent poll:

 

Bernard Herrmann, Philip Glass, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich.

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Bit of a stretch to call Stravinsky a film composer, regardless of his influence on the medium and how often his music was used in film

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10 minutes ago, Aenae said:

I didn't say film composers, this is a list of his overall top 5 composers of all time.

 

I apologize, I misread 

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8 hours ago, Aenae said:

I thought I would post this here, someone might find it of interest.

 

Danny Elfman picked his top 5 composers of all time in a fairly recent poll:

 

Bernard Herrmann, Philip Glass, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich.

Two Jews and three Russians.

Where is the diversity!? 😆

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Not a terribly surprising selection from Elfman. He's often gone on record to state his admiration for the Russians. Herrmann has obviously been a huge influence all his life, and Glass too, especially from the Serenada Schizophrana onwards. The only one missing, really, is Nino Rota.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/10/2019 at 12:51 PM, Disco Stu said:

A new Elfman concert work, "Percussion Quartet" is premiering today, October 10th

 

https://www.dannyelfman.com/new-commissions

 

There is now a video of Elfman's Percussion Quartet you can rent for $5 or buy for $20

 

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/tcpliveinbigsur

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That's his percussion quartet.

 

His percussion concerto is now due to premiere in 2022 (along with his cello concerto and another piece for the National Youth Orchestra).

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Right.

 

The percussion quartet is nice. Percussion is Elfman's main instrument, so that's a great start. And then he gets to play around with various, Glass-inspired movements. It's the type of Elfman I prefer these days.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Couldn't find any thread, so it'll go here:

 

Danny Elfman on Why He Was ‘Terribly Unhappy’ with How the ‘Batman’ Score Was Used

 

Quote

“I was terribly unhappy with the dub in ‘Batman’,” said Elfman, for whom the film marked his 10th score. “They did it in the old-school way where you do the score and turn it into the ‘professionals’ who turn the nobs and dub it in. And dubbing had gotten really wonky in those years. We recorded [multi-channel recording on] three channels — right, center, left — and basically, they took the center channel out of the music completely.”

 

Elfman said that the dub was the result of trying to put more emphasis on the sound effects in the movie.

 

“It didn’t have any care put into it. I’ve had many scores play in big action scenes that really propelled the scene. And in the end of the [‘Batman’] dub, I realized I could have had the orchestra play anything. I could have scored the film with some percussion, a harmonica and a banjo because all you hear are some percussion hits in big moments, but you can’t really hear what the orchestra is doing,” he said.

 

But Elfman said that the experience provided him with a key lesson for dealing with music in Hollywood films. “That was my first lesson in how so-called professionals can take a score and the soundtrack to a movie and just do their thing in a very noncommittal way that is easiest for them; plunk it off to the side and just get the dialogue.”

 

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Thought this would be a good spot to share this. Very devoted fan creating a “Burton-verse” video game. Pretty impressive. Fantastic modeling. Music taps into an Elfman-feel. But doesn’t really lean into it:/ I’d say for copy right reasons they didn’t use the theme. But they mimicked everything else. Why not go whole hog?

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  • 4 weeks later...

The cello concerto is set to have its (Austrian? European? I'm never sure what EA is supposed to signify) premiere at the Wiener Konzerthaus next March:

 

https://konzerthaus.at/konzert/eventid/59191

 

The programme also includes Korngold's Sursum Corda (the origin of his Robin Hood theme) and Stravinskys Firebird suite. Looks very much like something Mauceri would devise, but he doesn't seem to be associated with it.

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7 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

The cello concerto is set to have its (Austrian? European? I'm never sure what EA is supposed to signify) premiere at the Wiener Konzerthaus next March:

 

https://konzerthaus.at/konzert/eventid/59191

 

The programme also includes Korngold's Sursum Corda (the origin of his Robin Hood theme) and Stravinskys Firebird suite. Looks very much like something Mauceri would devise, but he doesn't seem to be associated with it.

 

Fantastic news and cool program! The conductor is David Robertson, who is quite fond of film repertoire (especially JW).

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22 minutes ago, mrbellamy said:

Hourlong interview with Danny Elfman on the WTF podcast

 

Interview starts at 12 minutes 25 seconds

 

Also since I don't see it posted here his album Big Mess comes out June 11

 

 

Yeah, the BIG MESS album has its own thread.

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I missed this, Danny Elfman apparently named his top 3 soundtracks of all time in an interview. I'm a bit surprised that Bernard Herrmann wasn't in his top 3 given that he is Elfman's favourite film composer:

 

If you could choose a soundtrack for your life, which one would you choose?

 

Elfman: "It would have to be like a tie bewteen Nino Rota's Fellini Casanova and The Godfather, and Ennio Morricone's Once Upon a Time in America. Some where in there. You'd think that Bernard Herrmann would be in the top of the list, because he's still my favorite composer. But just as actual listening soundtracks, those are my favorites. Because there's a difference between what I think is the best soundtrack in a movie and listening to a soundtrack album. If I had to take a soundtrack with me to a desert island, it would be those three."

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Of Elfman's top 3 soundtracks of all time, I like Casanova by far the best. I think that's one of Rota's best. The Godfather is pretty good, but I don't care for that score on its own and always thought it was overrated. It isn't a favourite Rota score of mine. I do prefer Once Upon a Time in America over The Godfather, but I don't consider it to be Morricone's best work.

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1 hour ago, Aenae said:

I missed this, Danny Elfman apparently named his top 3 soundtracks of all time in an interview. I'm a bit surprised that Bernard Herrmann wasn't in his top 3 given that he is Elfman's favourite film composer.

 

Yes, me too. I think I pointed it out back when this was published (in this thread or another, can't remember).

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10 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

I clutch my heart everytime someone names ONCE UPON A TIME AMERICA.

Morricone wrote MANY a masterpiece; this ain't one of them. Maybe Elfman meant.to say OITW?

Maybe he meant Once Upon a Time in the West?

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