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If anybody would know this, you guys on this chat would: Does anybody know if Danny Elfman is affiliated with a university or a music school anywhere? Does he ever do any kind of teaching?
No, he doesn’t.
Um, well, he doesn’t have a degree and never took any music theory classes (to my knowledge) so I don’t think he is going to be teaching any time soon. It would be a cool class if he did though!
Knight (Who says you need education to be an awesome composer?!?!)
Well, they give all sorts of honorary degrees to all sorts of celebrities and such. I don’t think anyone would say he’s not qulified to give a class on any sort of musical subject. Some universities let famous people do guest series/lectures and what-not. But that would be most awesome, to have Danny do a guest spot at some college.
Jo Elfgirl
im sure he took theory classes.
how can you write music the orchestra will play if you dont know what your doing? you wouldnt know a 16 th note from a 32 nd note, and the orchestra would play it wrong…sure, Bartek helps him, but I think Danny knows what hes doing… he still as to send it to Bartek, remember..
You don’t have to take university courses to learn the difference between a 16th note and a 32nd note. It’s pretty simple to learn musical notation on one’s own, and I’m pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that that’s what Danny did — taught himself to read music.
You don’t have to go to school to learn anything. As long as you can read (which was taught to me by my parents) you can learn anything – except for common sense.
I actually started to compose without any formal music education, that’s not to say that when I eventually received education in the music field that I didn’t learn some invaluable lessons. One of the greatest teachers I know was my composition teacher.
Nat
I personally don’t think he’d be qualified to teach anything at all.
I’m incredibly tired right now (I just spent a week at a college’s honor band . . . dear god, non stop rehearsal) but isn’t there a saying that the more you learn, the less you know? I know that for me, that’s how it is with music theory and that there’s this entire vast world of knowledge about music that in my 10 years of playing various instruments have barely begun to tap (and only started to learn a little bit about in the last two years). It is SO complex and I really don’t think you could actually teach that without having been taught it yourself.
Personally, I think that if you can write good music without any training, you’re either a prodigy that taught yourself from books or else just freakishly talented and lucky. But then . . . I’m so tired I think I’m starting to halucinate and what would I know about this subject anyway? :-p It’s gotten to the point where I don’t think I have the right to talk about music at all because there is so much I don’t know!
Besides, music theory students freak me out. That kind of knowledge is really not healthy. They’re very scary people.
Even if the guy did/could/would/whatever teach, when the hell would he have time?
Nat was right, you don’t need a class to learn. Personally, I hate school, and I learn better on my own, so that is what I do. Sure, I won’t get a degree, but I will acually learn instead of worrying about a stupid grade. There is a ton of books that will tell you all you need to know about music (as long as you can read and understand what you are reading), and practice is even a better way of learning.
I didn’t know what a quarter-note was or anything until I sat in front of a sequencer and started playing with it. Next thing you know, I can read and write music. The hard part is the terminology, which either Elfman read about or Bartek helps him with it. There is always something new to learn about with every score that I look at (new terms added just today: Rubato, Largo, and Dolce).
And all that I know so far (which is enough to prepare a score for performance) I learned in 1 year, without the help of a teacher or class. Now how long has Elfman been writing music (not just film, but music in general)? I think he has about 27+ years, so to say he has not learned anything by now is just insane.
Even if he didn’t teach theory, he could teach about timings, preparing, melody, harmony, ect. because he has had a ton of hands on experience (which, by the way, your college instructors probably do NOT have).
So there you go.
Knight (Who REALLY writes too much)
I definitely agree that you could probably learn music theory entirely from books but there’s no way that you could learn everything there is to know! You couldn’t learn crap about actually playing an instrument from books, and you have to listen! If I sat down and read all the books I could that existed about music but I had never heard music before, I still wouldn’t have a clue about it, especially the entire emotional aspect. Even the most experienced professionals are constantly learning.
And Knight, PLEASE don’t take offense because I don’t mean any, but if you just learned rubato, largo, and dolce today, you’ve still got a LONG way to go on music theory (not that those terms count as theory . . . do they?)
And if you’re suggesting that college instructors don’t have tons of hands-on experience, you’re severely underestimating them. Quite a few are established composers themselves and they probably know infinitely more than Elfman ever will, though in my opinion few have as many talent (beauty is in the ear of the beholder).
Ah, see? That is the thing! Another thing you can go out and get are these round things called CDs! They contain music on them! hehehe.
Infynitie: No offence taken, did you read that I have only been doing this for a year (1 year, not 20)? I knew about the terms, but didn’t know exactly what they did.
As for the instructors, you where right. Quite a FEW (very few) are established composers, but I was talking about your run of the mill Jr. College, which they usually do NOT have experience.
Knight
First thing I found on a search:
http://www.societymusictheory.org/mto/issues/mto.02.8.4/mto.02.8.4.leydon.html
And this is why music theory students frighten me. A lot.
Why does this scare you?
Being a great fan of Michael Nyman’s score and concert work respectively, I found the article pretty fascinating. I also own the Dr. Sacks book that details the subject of “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat”, and find the opera very successful as well being interesting and thought provoking (not just entertaining). You must also hear Nyman’s new opera “Facing Goya” if you like “The Man Who…”. It deals with cloning and the question of what is “self” and can it be cloned as well.
The very interesting revelation for me in this article is the work of Raymond Scott who I knew only through his jazz pieces that were later used for Stallings’ Loony Toon scores. Incidentally John Williams’ father was Raymond Scott’s drummer in his band.
If you are scared by this stuff then I suggest that you study it, because fear only happens when there is a lack of knowledge in something. PLEASE don’t take this as a bad thing – I love to see people discover new things, because I love to discover new things myself.
Stop learning and you grow old, keep learning and you stay young.
At least that’s my philosophy. Take it for whatever it is worth.
Nat
actually millions of yrs. ago before boingo,before the f.zone and even before the mystics danny and richard moved to france .there they joined a theatre group and ther danny studied orchestra.also as some of you know he plays the guitar(electic and other,ect.),he also knows how to play several other insterments,for example in hig school he took violen.so when you take orchestra or learn to play an insterment at school they teah you how to read music.and if you were a deep deep deep fan you’d know danny composes the music but steve bartek orchastates(sp?) the music.so yeah,there ya go-the answer to your question.
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