Bluntinstrument's - Danny Elfman Myths
A new page to explode common misconceptions, explain difficult
concepts and save the message board some burning questions answered many many
many many times before. Feel free to e-mail
with any rebuttals/additional info, so long as you can name a SOURCE!
Contents:
MYTH: DANNY ELFMAN CANNOT WRITE MUSIC.
HE HUMS IT.
Q. I've heard a rumour that Elfman's orchestrators write his
film scores and he just hums the tunes.
A. I won't hit you this once because you can't be blamed for
being uneducated and therefore liable to believe what people tell you without
asking for proof first. Only kidding - the web is rife with this myth to the
extent that everyone "knows" but noone "knows how". As Elfman
said, "The fact is, if I had done some more pop- oriented or synthesizer-oriented
scores, nobody would have thought twice. It is because I entered the sacred
territory of orchestral composition, of classically styled composition. Because
I broke the taboo." (American film, 1991). Here are facts based
on interview and documentary evidence: 1. Danny Elfman could write music before
he composed for films (he wrote an early 'piano concerto number one-and-a-half,
and spent much of his time transcribing Duke Ellington during his time with
Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo) but had help with some of the notation side
from his orchestrator Steve Bartek on their first feature, Pee-wee's big
adventure. Bartek, in turn an inexperienced orchestrator (though musically
trained), was helped and proof-read by Lennie Niehaus. 2. Since then both Bartek
and Elfman attest most strongly that as a rule Elfman composes and writes (gradually
shifting to a mix of synth/samply mock-up and notation) the music and Bartek
normally orchestrates - i.e. makes it readable and performable by the desired
forces. 3. The exceptions prove the rule: where Bartek is aided in orchestration
(a film composer's schedule is an ever narrowing one, especially with the advent
of digital film editing) the help is credited, and where cues are commissioned
by other composers (e.g. Jonathan Sheffer for Darkman, Shirley Walker
for Nightbreed) or where existing material is used (Schifrin's theme
in Mission: Impossible, Mychael Danna's theme for Hulk), Elfman
is studious in giving them credit. 4. In the Film score monthly article
'Sound effects suck' (1995.12), Elfman gave permission (out of pure frustration
perhaps) for two pages of autograph scores to be reproduced - one from Batman
returns, another from Black Beauty. So long as we take his assurances
that this is his hand, then we are de-mythtified.
DIFFICULT: ELFMAN VS BURTON. THE BUST-UP
AT ED WOOD CORRAL
Q. Danny scored all Burton's films except Ed Wood. Why
is that?
A. Partly true: Danny Elfman has scored all Burton's features
since Pee-wee's big adventure. He didn't score work prior to this, and
did not score all of the Stainboy episodes. And then he didn't score
Ed Wood - Howard Shore did. Why? Well, it is common knowledge that some
kind of disagreement or even personal animosity grew up at around the time of
A nightmare before Christmas, but was resolved just in time for Mars
Attacks! (Ryan Keveaney claims that Shore was hired for the score but remains
silent over how this didn't come about).Prior to Nightmare, Elfman
had been bitterly disappointed with the dub of his score to Batman returns
(according to several 1995 interviews), and with an intense relationship between
them on this animated feature, tempers appear to have frayed. Whether this was
during or after the work, though, is a mystery. A lighthearted comment during
a Nightmare scoring session: Elfman "Tim, when was the last time
I decked ya?" Burton: "When was our last meeting?" - telling
in retrospect, but interviews at the time of the publicity merry-go-round suggest
that Elfman was expecting to score Ed Wood. By 1995 Elfman was making
oblique hints that he wouldn't be working with Burton again; Michael Fleming
(Variety) claimed Elfman backed out in anger after not getting communication
or support needed; Elfman eventually saying "Why does any marriage end?
We had a falling out, and that was that." (Penthouse). Maybe the
swiftness of the change-of-heart was over the perhaps excessive use of Burton's
name in conjunction with the film at the expense of composer and director. However,
by the time Mars Attacks! was released, it was clear they had sorted
out their differences, both admitting they worked well as a team, being on the
"same wavelength" (Starlog, 1997). One thing is seems certain:
only Elfman really knows what was going through his head at the time. Because
even Burton can only suggest a reason for the estrangement: "I think he
was mad at me from Nightmare. Nightmare was hard because between
Danny, Henry [Selick, director] and Caroline [Thompson, screenplay] we were
like a bunch of kids, fighting. That's what I felt like anyway, and I think
it was just one of those times when, like in any relationship, we just needed
a break, and it was probably good for all of us." (Burton on Burton,
2000)