“Danny Elfman’s Batman” – the book

[Anonymous]

I was just wondering if anyone owned this book and if they did what it was like and if it was recommendable or not. Batman is probably my favorite score but I’m afraid that this book might dig too deep into music theory, something I really don’t understand but would like to know more about. Anyways, I’d like to know more about the book if anyone has it/has read it.

[Ryan Keaveney]

I ordered the book from Amazon.com and it’s fantastic. It actually carves a pretty wide path around Elfman’s BATMAN score, first going through his entry to film scoring, his influences, his relationship with Burton, and a history of BATMAN on film, before moving into the score itself. The theory never gets too deep (although there is deconstruction of the major themes), and the author, Janet K. Halfyard, always relates each idea in the score back to the film and what it’s trying to do.

It’s a book about Danny Elfman’s BATMAN score. What more do you need!?!?

Ryan

[Anonymous]

I think if you have a genuine interest in him and his score for Batman, this purchase can only be avoided by the affordability of the book itself. Halfyard is quite a readable author and certainly seems to have researched her stuff to a level that hard-core Elfman fans would probably go “hmmm, interesting to see it in print”. I think where non-music-readers might just come unstuck will be the chapters on “Reading the score”. They do include quite a number of musical exemplar which could prove confusing to you (I might be wrong!), although to others they could bring out that champagne moment. I admit I’m surprised the book has been so little discussed, so thanks for bringing it up.

Blunt

(Details at http://www.bluntinstrument.org.uk/elfman/news/index.html)

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the imput! And thank you Blunt for maintaining your site the way you do! I first heard about the book on your site. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it in any of the stores around here, so I’m going to have to head over to Amazon. But thank you again for the information!

[Author]

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