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Like many of Danny’s score albums post-1994, my liking and admiration for his work increases the more I hear the albums, though they tend not to overwhelm me upon first listening. As I was listening to “The Hulk” soundtrack today, I think I finally GOT his vision for the score. About ten seconds into the opening track, forget that it’s Danny Elfman, forget that it’s the Hulk, and imagine that what you’re listening to is a Bernard Herrmann score for a late 50’s Hitchcock film or a black & white sci-fi drama. Though the music is all Elfman, it has a style and tone that really fits with Herrmann’s approach for movies like “Vertigo” and “Cape Fear”. I think it’s that undercurrent of tension that you hear in Hulk’s opening credits, as well as the way he uses the strings section of the orchestra that really (and I think intentionally) evokes Herrmann.
On the Hulk DVD, Danny even says that director Ang Lee occassionally suggested to him that some of his music for the film was “too Danny Elfman,” so I think Danny perhaps took that suggestion and thought, “Well, how would Bernard Herrmann have scored this film?” and then added his intrepretation to that style.
I’ve done this a lot of times with some of Danny’s more challenging works, trying to disassociate either him or the film from the music and interpret the music from a new perspective, and, in the end, I always appreciate his scoring even more (especially on those darn albums that don’t impress me upon first listening).
Any thoughts on this?
i dont recall Danny saying anything on the disc….
Though that 6-note motif does resemble Herrmann’s theme for “Cape Fear,” nothing else in that score sounds remotely like Herrmann, at least to my ears (and Herrmann is my favorite composer).
There was a short section of the DVD about the music, half of which was about “Set Me Free.” Danny never did talk about Bernard Hermann, but Composeth was just saying how he figures that Danny said that to himself. I really enjoyed this score, by the way.
There is a moment in Herrmann’s Symphony that reminded me of the Hulk score. I remember it being in the first movement.
Nat
Actually that’s how I got into A Simple Plan. Previously I’d had nothing to hook this style onto (just vagueries of Dolores Claiborne and Extreme Measures), but then I fitted the orchestration to Herrmann. It doesn’t fit well, mind, but somehow the intensity of the quiet parts also remind me of Psycho, and the film itself gives a disjointed impression of The Trouble With Harry but much bleaker.
Blunt
A Simple Plan grows on you and certainly gets underneath your skin. It might even be a masterpiece.
For fans of A Simple Plan, I’d highly recommend the Barnard Herrmann Twilight Zone album. It doesn’t have the intensity or sonic value of the Hitchcock criteria, but absolutely spellbinding, nevertheless.
The recording of The Living Doll show — with the bass clarinet solo — is simply hypnotic. It won’t leave your head either.
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