Hearing Gotham

As I mentioned earlier, I've become more interested in putting my interest/knowledge/love of film music to use (beyond composing). So I've begun some preliminary work on a project or two that 1) gives me something to do and 2) forces me to listen more attentively to my favorite music.

I've decided that these projects are going to deal with Jerry Goldsmith because 1) he's my favorite, 2) he's one of the best ever and 3) astonishingly, there seems to be very little in the way of actual research out there regarding his music (most film music researchers tend to focus on "old" film music). Meantime I've been trying to figure out how to approach this whole concept of 'Writing About Music'. Further complicating the issue is that writing about film music is its own entirely different animal. Film music has its own sets of traditions, expectations and gestures that can be reinforced, broken or rewritten at any time. Oh yes: there's also that whole "It's connected to the film" thing which one has to have some kind of understanding of how it works in theory. I guess I'll be brushing up on that, too.

One of the things I've been reading in order to gain a greater understanding of writing about film music is Danny Elfman's Batman: A Film Score Guide, pictured above. (I also have a host of film music books that I'll be diving back into once I get them back from a friend of mine). There are other volumes in this series but I figured starting with a score I know well (and dearly love) was best. Ms. Halfyard's reading of the film provides a healthy (and useful) analysis of both film and score and how they interact. The analysis is largely specialised and the discussion is long on both musical examples and terminology. Ms. Halfyard's discussion of the score, its context, the film and certain aspects of the comic mythology of Batman over his many incarnations (and especially the view of the '60s television show as an aberration) is quite interesting. She brings to light interesting facets of the score's composition that I'm quite certain Danny Elfman had no real idea he was doing (that being said, there's quite a lot of unity in the score). She also discusses the controversy surrounding Elfman's composition technique and through the cunning use of logic quite brilliantly puts it to rest. (Some, though, will never be convinced even if they sat in his studio and watched him compose an entire film's score).

One thing reading this text has done is cause me to reexamine my Batman scores in all of their incarnations. When I was a kid I thought that Danny Elfman's Batman scores were far superior to those of Elliot Goldenthal. When I found out that Hans Zimmer was going to be involved in Batman Begins I was horrified. Sure, James Newton Howard was there, too, but we all knew which musical personality was really going to dominate. Over the years, though, I've learned to appreciate them all as their own completely separate takes on the Batman mythology. There is much stylistic diversity in all of these, but, interestingly, each of the films got a score appropriate to it. Through a friend I also recently acquired the La-La-Land release of the two-disc set of music from Batman: The Animated Series. It's good stuff that carries on the same tone that Elfman set. I haven't listened to all of it but will soon.

Michael over at The Temp Track suggested I write a paper comparing and contrasting the Elfman and Goldenthal approaches to Gotham City and the Dark Knight. While it's an excellent idea, I have other plans. Quantum phase shift anyone?