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Danny Elfman

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Danny Elfman
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Danny Elfman

Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953 in Los Angeles, California) was a singer-songwriter with rock band Oingo Boingo throughout the 1980s, who has since gone on to become one of the most sought-after film composers working in Hollywood today.

Contents

Early Career

As a teenager Danny Elfman loved film but never thought he’d end up composing for the medium. In the 1970s, after realising that taking lessons with music teachers wasn’t working for him, he started playing violin in a theatrical troupe in France called Le Grande Magic Circus, of which his elder brother Richard was already a member. The two of them later joined another troupe in Los Angeles called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, and it was in this setting that he learned to write original compositions, as well as transcribing and arranging music from the likes of Duke Ellington and Django Reinhart.

After eight years in the Mystic Knights as a composer, singer, guitarist, fire-breather and trombonist, Elfman pared the troupe down to the rock band Oingo Boingo, where his vocal range and manic stage presence helped gain the group a cult following. In 1980 he had his first shot at composing for the big screen, writing the music for the cult film Forbidden Zone, directed by his brother.

Danny Elfman and Tim Burton

In 1985 Danny Elfman met director Tim Burton who as a student had gone to clubs to see Oingo Boingo and was delighted to have him come on board to write the score for his first feature film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Lack of formal musical training was cause for a little apprehension, but he has described the first time he heard his music played by a full orchestra as one of the most thrilling experiences of his life. And from that moment on he was "hooked" on film scoring. He has spoken of the affinity he developed right away with Burton, and indeed he has gone on to score all but one of his films. To date these include:

"Creative differences" meant Howard Shore was to take over scoring duties on Ed Wood (1994).

Burton has said of Elfman: "We don’t even have to talk about the music. We don’t even have to intellectualize – which is good for both of us, we’re both similar that way. We’re very lucky to connect" (Breskin, 1997). Like Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock, or Ennio Morricone and Sergio Leone before them, the music of Danny Elfman and the images of Tim Burton have become so one can hardly imagine one without the other.

Selected Filmography

In addition to his work with Tim Burton, Danny Elfman has written scores for dozens of other films including:

He has also written the theme music for several television series, including: As well as composing, Elfman provided the singing voices of Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Bonejangles in Corpse Bride. Those with a sharp eye can also catch him in a brief cameo during a dream sequence in The Gift (Sam Raimi, 2000).

Musical Influences

Danny Elfman’s film scores can be described at times as dark and brooding, other times as lush and romantic, other times still as wild and manic, reflecting the many composers and styles which have influenced him over the years.

He recalls that the first time he became aware of film music was in his youth during a screening of The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951). The music was by Bernard Herrmann, and that, he has said, was where his love of film music began (Russell and Young, 2000). The most obvious and self-consciously Herrmannesque influence can be heard in his music for the sci-fi spoof, Mars Attacks!.

Other film composers have also proved to be influential, such as Nino Rota and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the former in his playful music for Pee-wee's Big Adventure, the latter in his much grander work in Batman. Sometimes his music has a distinctly Eastern European feel, inspired by the likes of Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky’s ballet music, while his love of choral music by the likes of Mozart and Carl Orff has resulted in his frequent use of choirs – one of his signature devices. Then there are the jazz and rock influences from his earlier career, most evident in films such as Chicago and To Die For respectively.

Rather than merely emulate these musical influences, however, he has combined aspects of them all with his unique brand of wit and grandeur and managed to create a recognisable style all of his own, in the process producing a body of work as distinctive as any of his film composer contemporaries.

Selected Awards and Nominations

Odds and Ends

References

External Links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
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