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I am musicaly nerdy. I listen to Danny’s orchastral stuff along with Prog Rock, old 80’s Instrumentalists such as Vai and Satriani, and old school delta blues. I also fansy myself a composer and guitar player for a living. I have also listened to several other soundtrack composers, and I have found something to be quite odd in the world of soundtrack composition. It seems to me that the vast musical education these composers have endured has spoiled any hope of variation or experimental creativity for the most part. For instance, am I the only one who see’s that just about every theme John Williams composes is prime for a high school marching band or just a rehashed Star wars type sound. Same goes for Horner and the rest. I mean not to insult them, for there abilities far excede my own, but isn’t it ironic that the one amoung them without the musical education is the one who pushes the limit on instrument usage and originality in a soundtrack?
Amen.
In defense of the vast musical educated:
Have you heard any of Williams concert works? Besides Williams has been around along time (along with Jerry Goldsmith and Elmer Bernstein) and they, for lack of a better word are part of the “Old Guard”. You will find that with the classically trained film composers they have their more experimental members (Elliot Goldenthal, John Corigliano, and Tan Dun, just to name a few). It must be hard when you’ve “worked” (let’s remember this is a job for them) a certain way for 40 years – consider that Williams still doesn’t use a computer, but remember that Elfman grew up with the computer revolution. Now-a-days you can’t get a scoring job unless you use a computer to temp the score with first.
(Quiz time: what composer uses the rare instrument Ondes Martenot in almost every score since he discovered it’s unique sound? – hint; it’s not a young self taught composer)
Williams can write some pretty challenging stuff when he’s called upon to do so. Star Wars is suppose to be filled with hummable themes because it has an Opera mentality. On the other side Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, and The Fury represent a more cerebral output, but by no means more than what the films called for. I can guarantee that no Band will be playing the theme to Images, or the Spyder cue from Minority Report anytime soon. And let’s not forget that back in the late 80’s it was Elfman who was expected to turn out the themes that were turned into band arrangements. I played some myself.
Nat
Please don’t build up a composer by tearing down another one.
elmer bernstein
Damian wins a prize! Jim, tell him what he wins…
The admiration of his peers.Easy, I know.
Nat
yyyyeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Danny Elfman is amazing! His musical world pulls me in and is the underscore for my own life at times. I worked for Oingo Boingo for a while and I knew he was brilliant in that 80’s medium. I also knew there was more musically that we were not privy to, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine his highly extraordinary work was still to come. Currently, I am disabled, but when I listen to Danny’s soundtracks with their many different musical styles, I am soothed, yet oddly stimulated. He is a juggernaut for works of music to come, and is up there with the Samuel Barbers of today. He keeps my soul alive.
Point well taken. I agree i probably should not have used any names. Its just the fact that all those composers constantly rip on Elfman, and for my thoughts, his music is more interesting than the lot.
QUITE CORRECT
))):Well, I can totally see where he’s coming from. Obviously there are musically trained composers that experiment a lot, but do or has any of them taken the leaps in experimentation that Danny has? I will admit it, that when comparing any two scores by Danny, I can point out similarities, as with any other film score composer out there. But the diversity of sounds and style and the ways he’s experimented cannot be matched to any other composer out there. I see it as not a matter of education, but as Danny just being the musical genius that he is. Even if there were more composers out there that were not musically trained, I couldn’t see anybody living up to what Danny has accomplished with his music.
Ok, one second here. There is alot of composers who don’t always do things the same old way. What about James Newton Howard? I have heard him go from baroque to writing some of the most suspenceful music. Or Trevor Rabin? I have heard him compose Techno-Industrial for one of his films (not to mention that he performs the guitar parts in his scores). I could sit here and list them all day long. Yes, Danny Elfman is awesome, but what makes him awesome is the fact that he has his own distinct tone in his films, and you never quite know what you are going to get. There are other composers out there as well who have the same thing, so lets not all praise elfman as the god of film music just yet…
Knight (Don’t really know why I wrote that…Elfman is still my fav)
Ok, you’re saying that your opinion is a fact. Well, your opinion is wrong! (last sentence was a joke)
Everyone else is just a rip off of someone else then?
Knight (That is alot of people ripping people off lol)
Well, um…..yeah. If I’ve never heard music once in my entire life, I doubt I’d be able to write it. But that’s a different story. Not at all what I was talking about. In my opinion, Danny Elfman is the god of film music. Anyway, I see you’re point and you’re right. But I felt that what I wrote was a good comeback to the previous posts on this thread, and you apparently didn’t see it as such.
nicely put my good man, couldnt have said it butter meself, you know what your talking aboot….DANNY RULES.
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