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i’ve been lurking in these discussions for a while, enjoying the exchanges and getting exposed to some of the vocab and concepts behind composing scores. i’m a complete ignoramus about this stuff, but am totally impressed with elfman’s scores. i very much want to learn the basic terms and concepts so i can one, start listening to scores more consciously and critically and two, have the ability to talk coherently about what i hear.
can anyone suggest some readings i could do? books i must have? other sites i should visit? keep in mind that i have no musical training. (-;
thx — chris
hey, i have no musical knowledge whatsoever…but i love elfmans music and thats all that matters. all u need to know is that he is the best composer for offbeat, dark, scary, funny, and action scores in the land, and a great songwriter as well. did i miss anything?
I found it best to listen to his music and think at the same time.
think about what/
i totally agree with your point, spider-fan… i guess what i’m asking for, though, is… well, if you were to teach an intro course for college undergrads in “appreciating film scoring” (or some such stupid title), what would you have them read to develop a vocabulary and conceptual basis so they could begin learning to listen critically and then be able to express what they heard in terms actually used by folks who compose?
i’m fascinated with composition processes in general. i write, and teach writing, so i have my writing process, and a vocab to describe conceptually what i do as i write and revise a piece. i’d like to have a rudimentary ablity to do the same for film scores.
sorry if i’m not being clear about what i need. (-;
A few terms I think I’ve picked up definitions for:
schizophrenic – rapidly changing styles of music in a cue
mickey mousing – cartoonish music that starts and stops, commonly found in comedies and horror movies
I don’t know if these are official terms, but when they’re used, that’s the impression I get from them.
I think the best thing you can do (at this point) is to read interveiws with composers (lots of them out there). Other than that, read any music composition and theory book you can get your hands on (if you are obsessive about it like me). If you come across a term you don’t understand, just look it up. Hope that helps.
Knight (Here are a few to get you started: Marcato, Staccato, Pizzicato, Legato, Arco, Tremolo, and so on. Also look into the different keys and key changes because that is [to me] what makes Elfman’s music so unique.)
thanks, knight and bartNfink93 — you’re getting me started!
and yeah, knight — i can see how i could become pretty obsessed with this pretty quickly.
chris
Hey Chris – The best book for the novice to learn about filmmusic appreciation is Fred Karlin’s “Listening to Movies.” We used it for a Film Music class I helped teach. There’s some great quotes from Elfman, and there’s a middle chapter where the author breaks down 8 scores que by que. I did this with Edward Scissorhands for the week dedicated to Danny Elfman (will try to see if I have the file saved somewhere, but doubt it.) The book even teaches you (take note BartNfink93) that Mickey Mousing is a device used where the music punctuates the action (like in most cartoon music)–e.g. in Edward Scissorhands when Diane Wiest climbs the stairs of the mansion looking for Edward, Elfman catches her foot steps with the music. New and used books are available at Amazon.
saj
Wow sajrocks, I was thinking of recommending the same book. I also have “The Reel World” by Jeff Rona (composer and columnist in Keyboard mag), but it is more technical, if (and when) you are ready for that. I’ve also got “Film Music” by Roy M. Prendergast, which has more information on the history and early development of scoring, but I would have to agree with sajrocks about the Karlin book. I was wondering if there was a new edition of that book available because the filmography in that book is really dated now. It was that book that introduced me to Film Score Monthly, and the Intrada film score store.
Also, if you are looking for a good book on orchestration I have to recommend Alfred Blatter’s “Instrumentation / Orchestration”. After reading all the other Orchestration books out there (Rimsky-Korsakov, Berlioz, and Baker to name a few) I was glad to see a more modern orchestration book come around. The first edition was published in 1995 and I know that there has been at least a second edition printed of it since. A lot of the more modern techniques that are by-passed in the other orchestration books (due to age) are addressed here.
Happy reading!
Nat
nat and saj —
you two are fabulous. thx for the thoughtful recommendations. i appreciate you all taking the time to share your ideas with me!
time to head to the library… (-;
i also explored film score monthly’s article archives last night, and found several really informative pieces — that are also packed with reading references — and their books list… great resource, that.
heheheh — time to dive into reading! chris
…and hot! Dude could melt steel.
thank you.
saj
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