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It was always asked what your favorite Danny Elfman score is. But I want to know which Danny Elfman score you don’t really like
heheRed Dragon
Probably the only Danny Elfman score that I don’t love is Big Top Pee-Wee. And that’s probably just because it’s got the annoying dialog during the soundtrack album.
dolores claiborne- a good sedative
red dragon- chillingly dull
POTA- except for the main titles (why is the hunt so overrated)Man, Robert. I disagree with you 100%. Those are some of my favs.!
“Man, Robert. I disagree with you 100%. Those are some of my favs.!”
Mine too.
“…why is the hunt so overrated…”
Usually when something is perceived as overrated it is for a very good reason.
Well, if I had to choose, I’d have to go with MIIB. I didn’t care for the score much in the movie. I was so dull compared to the first one, although so was the movie itself.
Seriously…no contest.
I can’t possibly be the only one that thinks this can I?
As much as I looooove Elfman, he phoned that one in, in a big way.
Burt
MIIB. Not a fan of that one. Batman also bores me after listening to more than once…sorry guys, I know there are quite a few Batman fans out there.
However, I’m siding with Mr. Dantz and Bodhi – I thoroughly enjoy POTA, Red Dragon and Dolores Claiborne…they get more and more wonderful after each listen.
-E (speaking of movies that star Kathy Bates, I am still singing director Alexander Payne’s praises several days after seeing “About Schmidt.” Hooray for “The Bard of Omaha!” Nice to have a film that portrays Nebraska accurately…boring, yes, but certainly not the intolerant, homicidal characters presented as “typical Nebraskans” in the also excellent film, “Boys Don’t Cry.” Do see both excellent films, but please take only the characters in “About Schmidt” as representative of the majority of us Cornshuckers…)
E:
MIIB was iffy. As a score, it was effective enough. I.E., when I sat through the interminable hell of actually watching the movie (after paying for it, no less) the score kind of vaguely sucked me into the flick, which is what a good score is supposed to do. (Think about it: with a proper score, you don’t notice it – you’re just kind of in there with the characters) As just plain music, however, it seemed to me that Elfman was sort of going through the motions. Having said all that, and at the risk of sounding wishy-washy, “Worm Lounge” was pretty cool.
As for Batman… With over 10 years of hindsight, I think most people would agree that it’s not the best thing that the big E has ever done, considering that, as many have noted before, you can easily hear his maturation as a composer if you listen to his scores in chronological order. However, sincee Elfman’s compositional range was rather limited at the time, “Batman”, in my opinion, is one of his biggest accomplishments, if only as a quantum stylistic leap. Perhaps it’s not as diverse and technically accomplished as some of his more recent stuff, but compare “Batman” to the orchestral shtuff he did bofore – BIG difference, no?
Peace and such,
BurtBurt –
Yes, that was one aspect that I failed to mention in my discussion of Batman. It *was* a big leap in terms of style for Elfman, and for that, it should be admired. However – as you mentioned – in hindsight, it is not his most “mature” work…he’s also come a long way since *then*, no? In fact, in terms of sheer complexity of orchestration and rhythms, I’d put POTA at the top. Sure, some may not like it as music, but that’s one helluva complex score!
Ah, MIIB was decent enough for the film, but it didn’t do anything special for me – even with watching/snoozing through the film. I’ll go with the “borderline okay” label. I’m not saying anybody can’t like it, I’m just saying that I wasn’t particularly fond of it – in the film or as pure music. (I’m really interested in hearing how Elfman’s score to Chicago sounds in the film – alas, I’ll have to wait for that and a couple of other “big” flicks to come to my town).
-E (congrats are in order for Alexander Payne! Wonderful filmmaker; of course, I probably *am* biased. Nice to see someone taking a new perspective on “the great flyover zone”)
…except that I dig the Batman score more than you.
Whatever.
You know what they say about opinions and…um…that body part that would probably be censored if I typed it in this post.
And you’re right about POTA. It’s one of his most rhythmically complex scores and, as a drummer/percussionist, that excited me. The sampled percussion still kind of pissed me off though. The dude goes on in interviews about all his African instruments that he collected in his wandering days, and doesn’t even bother to play them on his scores.
Ciao mein,
Burt“The dude goes on in interviews about all his African instruments that he collected in his wandering days, and doesn’t even bother to play them on his scores.”
Yes he does. He uses them in the POTA score. He probably makes his own samples, also.
YOU PEOPLE ARE CRAZY! THERE IS NO BAD ELFMAN SCORE! hehehe
Oh, and POTA was more geared towards those percussion nuts like me, and it’s one of my favs, MIIB was awesome, and Robert is completely insane because all of those scores where totally brilliant!!!
Knight (Now bicker at me, I don’t care
)I’m with you Knight.
I just don’t like the question so I refuse to answere it.
:-$ (my lips are zipped)
Nat
Mr. Dantz:
“Yes he does. He uses them in the POTA score. He probably makes his own samples, also.”
No offense, but in what effing way is triggering a sample playing an instrument?
I don’t mean to come across as a loudmouthed blowhard here, but seriously…
Pressing a button to make a sample come out of a computer isn’t real playing, in my opinion.
Burt
p.s: again, we’re only dealing with opinions here, so if you were planning on getting all riled up, chill out.
Well, in the first place you’re pressing a key on the keyboard, not a “button”. If you can play a keyboard, you can play an instrument, right?
Anyway, I won’t get all riled up about it.
Mr. Dantz (WHY YOU LITTLE!!!)
Whoa, slow down. Doesn’t Elfman do most of the sampling himself? He has admitted to having a pretty big percussion collection that he takes his samples from. So really he did play the instruments (actually, according to Mr. Dantz accretion he played them twice).
Just thought I would throw some cork out there and see if I can get a tug on the line.
That’s all.Nat
Yeah, but making a sample isn’t really that difficult to do. Press record, play your phrase into the mic, and press stop. Pretty basic stuff.
The entire reason that sampling is so popular nowadays is that it’s quick, inexpensive and easy to do. The fact that it’s easy also has a lot to do with the proliferation of crappy albums out these days – spend a couple hundred bucks on a sampler, record into your computer, and burn the results onto a CD that afternoon. But I digress.
So yeah, he does play the percussion at some point, but what I’m saying is that due to the sequencing and whatnot, the samples sound like samples, not instruments.
Burt
Well, you’re waaaay off on how easy it is to make a sample. It can be a very hard and intrucate (sp?) process that can take YEARS to perfect, especially with acoustic instruments. Believe me, I’ve done it before. There’s just much more to it than you’re making it out to be.
Lonesome: Is the piano an instrument? Yes? Then when playing samples you are playing an instrument. And as Mr. Dantz said, it is a hell-of-alot harder that hitting record. There is a program out there which Danny Uses called Gigastudio, and in this program you have velocity splits (hit the note harder and it will play the louder sample, hit it softer and you will have the softer sample, and there can be 127 of there samples per note), and you can also do this thing called “articulations” which can change the sample even more if you play the same velocity twice. AND there is cross-fading velocitys, AND there is the whole effect of room ambience, correct mic-ing, production, and setting up the sample itself. Elfman uses tuned percussion so that there are different samples on every note of the keyboard. On top of this, as I once heard him say: There are some percussion instruments that take a lifetime to learn to play, so haveing samples allow him to have these instruments playing, instead of finding that 1 in 1,000,000,000 people who dedicated thier life to studing a certain instrument.
Knight (AND he builds his own percussion, AND there isn’t enough room or time or money to get all these instruments played live, AND he knows a hell-of-alot more about it then you do so don’t rag on it unless you can outdo it, get the point?)
FYI, you don’t have to play samples from a keyboard, I highly doubt Elfman performed many of those parts on PotA. He most likely used loop based sequencers. I even remember him reading about him saying if it is a rhythm thing he prefers to sequence it so it is more rhthmically accurate… its in an interview somewhere… i think on filmscore monthly.
So many messages but it seems that nobody answers my question. Thats very sad
wisdom hands down, dolores and dragon, im standing by those two till death do us part because nobody else hear cares to say it, they’re too busy B.S.ing
I answered. MIIB is his worst score, and I’m standing by that ’till death do us part because nobody else hear cares to say it, they’re too busy B.S.ing.
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