Program Notes: Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton

OCTOBER 29 DANNY ELFMAN'S MUSIC FROM THE FILMS OF TIM BURTON SATURDAY October 29, 2016 – 8:00pm SPECIAL CONCERT

conductor Scott Dunn

Performance at The Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall

PROGRAM DANNY ELFMAN

Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Pee Wee's Big Adventure Beetlejuice Sleepy Hollow Mars Attacks Big Fish

Batman / Batman Returns

INTERMISSION Planet of the Apes Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Dark Shadows Frankenweenie Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Edward Scissorhands Alice in Wonderland

THE MUSIC OF DANNY ELFMAN FROM THE FILMS OF TIM BURTON Credits: Music Composed and Arranged by Danny Elfman Films & Artwork by Tim Burton Concert Produced by Columbia Artists Management, LLC - Tim Fox & Alison Ahart Williams, Kraft-Engel Management - Richard Kraft & Laura Engel Supervising Orchestrator: Steve Bartek Orchestrations: Steve Bartek, Edgardo Simone, David Slonaker, Jeff Atmajian Additional Orchestrations: Scott Dunn Music Production Supervisor: Melisa McGregor Midi Supervision & Choir Music Preparation: Marc Mann Synth Programming & Technical Supervision: TJ Lindgren Score Proofreading: Misha Morgovsky, Tim Rodier Music Preparation: Dakota Music Services - David Hage, Reprise Music Services - Rob Skinnell Assistant to Mr. Elfman: Melissa Karaban Pre-record Mix Engineer: Noah Snyder Chief Studio Tech: Greg Maloney Transcriptions: Tim Rodier Midi Mock-ups: Dan Negovan, Peter Bateman, Miles Bergsma Technical Directors: Mike Edelman, Brendon Boyd Librarian: Travis Hendra Sibelius Set-up: Sandra Schneiders Project Interns: Alex Arntzen, Seth Kaplan, Sergei Stern Video Editing: Todd Miller & Chris Lebenzon Concert Producers' Assistants: Jonathan Clark, Sarah Kovacs, Sarah Ruiz

S AN DI EG O SYMPHO NY O RCHEST RA 2016- 17 SEA SO N OC TOB E R 2016

P E R FOR M AN C E S M AGAZ I NE P25

Credits Continued: Special thanks to: Derek Frey, Holly Kempf Keller and Leah Gallo at Tim Burton Productions, Bill Abbott, Bob Badami, Peter Cobbin, Bobby Fernandez, Isobel Griffiths, Mike Higham, Doug Mark, Shawn Murphy, Bobbi Page, Shie Rozow, Dennis Sands, Steve Savitsky, Ellen Segal, Nick Woolidge, Gina Zimmitti, Patti Zimmitti, Cinesamples, In Loving Memory of Richard Zanuck Assets from Alice in Wonderland, Frankenweenie and The Nightmare Before Christmas courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc. Footage and Stills from Planet of the Apes (2001) and Edward Scissorhands courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved.

Sleepy Hollow courtesy of Paramount Pictures Big Fish courtesy of Columbia Pictures Corpse Bride, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Batman, Batman Returns, Mars Attacks!, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dark Shadows and Beetlejuice courtesy of Warner Brothers.

Music provided for: Alice in Wonderland, Frankenweenie and The Nightmare Before Christmas courtesy of Wonderland Music Company, Inc. and Buena Vista Music Company Edward Scissorhands and Planet of the Apes courtesy of JoAnn Kane Music Service Sleepy Hollow and Big Fish courtesy of Mandalay Entertainment Group & Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC Licensing of copyrighted material for Corpse Bride, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Batman, Batman Returns, Mars Attacks!, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dark Shadows and BEETLEJUICE provided by Alfred Music on behalf of Warner Bros. Entertainment

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

DANNY ELFMAN'S MUSIC FROM THE FILMS OF TIM BURTON - OCTOBER 29

O

DANNY ELFMAN

P 26 PE RFORMA NCES MAGA Z IN E

ver the last 30 years, fourtime Oscar nominee DA N N Y ELFMA N has established himself as one of the most versatile and accomplished film composers in the industry. He has collaborated with such directors as Tim Burton, Gus Van Sant, Sam Raimi, Paul Haggis, Ang Lee, Rob Marshall, Guillermo del Toro, Brian De Palma, and Peter Jackson. Beginning with his first score on Tim Burton’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Elfman has scored a broad range of films, including: Milk (Oscar®-nominated), Good Will Hunting (Oscar®-nominated), Big Fish (Oscar®-nominated), Men in Black (Oscar®nominated), Edward Scissorhands, Wanted, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mission: Impossible, Planet of the Apes, A Simple Plan, To Die For, Spider-Man (1 & 2), Batman, Dolores Claiborne, Sommersby, Chicago, Dick Tracy, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Alice in Wonderland. More recently he has provided the music for David O. Russell’s award-winning Silver Linings Playbook, Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie and Big Eyes, Sasha Gervasi’s Hitchcock, as well as

Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful, Chris Wedge’s animated film Epic and the Errol Morris documentary The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld. He has also contributed tracks to 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey, Avengers: Age of Ultron and The End of the Tour. His latest music can be heard in the Tim Burton-produced Alice Through the Looking Glass.

A native of Los Angeles, Elfman grew up loving film music. He travelled the world as a young man, absorbing its musical diversity.

He helped found the band Oingo Boingo, and came to the attention of a young Tim Burton, who asked him to write the score for Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. 25 years later, the two have forged one of the most fruitful composer-director collaborations in film history. In addition to his film work, Elfman wrote the iconic theme music for the television series The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives. He also composed a ballet, Rabbit and Rogue, choreographed by Twyla Tharp, a symphony entitled Serenada Schizophrana for Carnegie Hall, an overture

SAN DI E GO SYM P H O N Y O R C H E ST R A 2 016 - 17 S E AS ON O CTO BER 2016

COMING UP IN NOVEMBER AT THE JACOBS MUSIC CENTER

Rachmaninoff and Mozart

Beyond the Score®: Dvořák Symphony No. 9: Whose World?

Friday, November 11 – 8pm Saturday, November 12 – 8pm Sunday, November 13 – 2pm

Friday, November 18 – 8pm

Johannes Debus, conductor Joyce Yang, piano

A production of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gerard McBurney, creative director Cristian Mācelaru, conductor

Diego el Cigala, Master of Flamenco

Count Basie Orchestra: Sinatra's Jazz

Saturday, November 19 – 8pm

Saturday, November 26 – 8pm

Winner of multiple Latin Grammys, El Cigala has enhanced his Spanish gypsy heritage with acclaimed forays into the Argentine tango tradition.

Count Basie Orchestra Jane Monheit, vocals

Tickets and Information

SANDIEGOSYMPHONY.ORG (619) 235-0804

S AN DI EG O SYMPHO NY O RCHEST RA 2016- 17 SEA SO N OC TOB E R 2016

P E R FOR M AN C E S M AGAZ I NE P27

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

DANNY ELFMAN'S MUSIC FROM THE FILMS OF TIM BURTON - OCTOBER 29 called The Overeager Overture for the Hollywood Bowl, and Iris—a Cirque du Soleil show. “Having a particular style is not bad,” says Elfman, “but I prefer to push myself in the direction of being a composer who you never know what he’s doing next.” n

Wonderland also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, and won two Academy Awards®, for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

Burton was previously honored with an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Feature for the 2005 stop-motion film Corpse Bride, which he directed and produced. He earlier received BAFTA Award and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for Best Director for the acclaimed fantasy drama Big Fish. More recently, Burton won a National Board of Review Award and garnered Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for his directing work on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which also won the Golden Globe for Best Film – Musical or Comedy. Johnny Depp earned an Oscar® nomination for his performance in the title role of Burton’s 2007 film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical thriller, also starring Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman.

which he also produced, and the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes, which marked his first collaboration with producer Richard Zanuck. His latest film, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, is currently in wide release.

Burton also conceived and produced the stop-motion animated feature The Nightmare Before Christmas, which remains an enduring holiday favorite. In addition, he has produced such films as Cabin Boy, Batman Forever, the recent Alice through the Looking Glass and the animated features James and the Giant Peach and 9.

In 2010, the filmmaker released The Art of Tim Burton, a 430-page book comprising more than 40 years of his personal and project artwork. In November of that year, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opened an extensive exhibit of his work, which went on to tour in Melbourne, Toronto, Los Angeles, Paris and Seoul. n

Burton began his film career in animation, and, in 1982, directed the stop-motion animated short Vincent, narrated by Vincent Price, which was an award winner on the film festival circuit. He made his feature film directorial debut in 1985 with the hit comedy Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.

TIM BURTON

T

I M BU RTO N widely regarded as one of the cinema’s most imaginative filmmakers, has enjoyed great success in both the live-action and animation arenas.

Most recently Burton directed and produced the critically acclaimed Frankenweenie (which was a 2012 Academy Award® nominee for Best Animated Picture) and Big Eyes.

Earlier in 2012 Burton directed Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter and Eva Green in the gothic thriller Dark Shadows, based on the cult favorite television show. He also produced the fantasy horror film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter which was directed by Timur Behmambetov.

In 2010, he directed Alice in Wonderland, an epic fantasy based on the classic story

by Lewis Carroll, and starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway and Mia Wasikowska in the title role. The film earned more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office, making it the secondhighest-grossing release of 2010. Alice in

P 28 PE RFORMA NCES MAGA Z IN E

In 1988, Burton helmed the inventive comedy hit Beetlejuice, starring Michael Keaton as the title character. He then reteamed with Keaton on the action blockbusters Batman (which became the top-grossing film of 1989 and also starred Jack Nicholson as the Joker) and Batman Returns, also starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito.

In 1990, Burton directed, co-wrote and produced the romantic fantasy Edward Scissorhands, which was acclaimed by both critics and audiences. The film also marked the start of his successful cinematic partnership with Johnny Depp, who delivered a poignant performance in the title role. Their subsequent collaborations include the Burton-directed films Ed Wood, also starring Martin Landau in an Oscar®winning portrayal of Bela Lugosi; Sleepy Hollow, adapted from the classic tale by Washington Irving; and the 2005 worldwide smash Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was based on Roald Dahl’s beloved book and grossed more than $470 million worldwide.

Burton’s additional directing credits include the all-star sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks!,

SCOTT DUNN, CONDUCTOR

A

merican conductor S COT T D UN N is the Associate Conductor of the LA Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. He has also conducted the Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orchestre Nationale de France, Pittsburgh Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Vienna Radio Orchestra (RSO), the St Petersburg (Russia) Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and many other distinguished ensembles.

SAN DI E GO SYM P H O N Y O R C H E ST R A 2 016 - 17 S E AS ON O CTO BER 2016

ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR

DANNY ELFMAN'S MUSIC FROM THE FILMS OF TIM BURTON - OCTOBER 29 Dunn has an affinity for American and contemporary music with a special passion for film and so-called crossover composers — ranging from George Gershwin and Vernon Duke to Leonard Bernstein and Danny Elfman. Noteworthy projects include Scott Dunn conducts Richard Rodney Bennett at London’s Barbican with singer Claire Martin, the BBC Orchestra and Chorus in a wide ranging program including new orchestrations of Bennett jazz songs for Martin by Dunn; Disney’s Fantasia with the Seattle Symphony and with the RSO at the Konzerthaus in Vienna; Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton (with additional orchestrations by Dunn) at the Sydney Opera House, the Atlanta Symphony and in Mexico; The Duke Violin Concerto and the Complete Violin Works of Vernon Duke for Uhrlicht Audiovisual; the cast recording of a “new” Vernon Duke musical Misia (with music arranged and adapted by Dunn) for PS Classics; Elvis Costello and Ben Folds with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl; Sondheim and Jazz Side by Side with pianist Bill Charlap and others at the 92nd Street Y; the world premiere, with Dunn as pianist and conductor, of Daron Hagen’s Chaplin’s Tramp: a Concerto for Piano, Orchestra and Film; symphonic concerts with Phish front-man and guitarist Trey Anastasio with the LA Phil, Atlanta, Colorado, Oregon, Pittsburgh and Seattle symphonies; Il Volo at the Greek Theatre in LA; a Serge Gainbourg tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl with Beck, Sean Lennon, Lulu Gainbourg and

others; an Atlanta Symphony gala concert with Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers; work on the Boston Symphony presentations of Bernstein’s CANDIDE as well as on Gershwin’s 1935 original production version of Porgy and Bess (which Dunn helped recreate); and publication

by Universal Editions/Belmont of Dunn’s arrangements of Arnold Schoenberg’s Four Brettl-Lieder (for voice and chamber orchestra) and Notturno (for string quartet and piano).

A former student of the great Byron Janis, Mr. Dunn has performed since childhood as a piano soloist appearing in many of the world’s greatest venues. He is known for his performances of Ives and has championed the works of his mentors Richard Rodney Bennett, Lukas Foss and Leonard Rosenman.

A true “composer’s pianist,” he has also premiered and/or recorded works by John Adams, Franco Alfano, Irwin Bazelon, Elliot Carter, Vernon Duke, R.I. Gordon, John Harbison, Daron Hagen, Peter Lieberson, Nico Muhly, Roger Reynolds, Ned Rorem and many others.

As a “composer’s conductor,” Mr. Dunn recently premiered Roger Bourland’s opera La Paloma y la Ruiseñor (with additional orchestrations and Spanish adaptations

by Dunn); for Mohammed Fairouz, the NY premieres of Audenesque and Sadat and the acclaimed Bridge Records recording of the opera Sumeida’s Song; a world premiere recording of unknown choral works by Leon

Kirchner; the west coast premiere of Phillip Glass’s Another Look at Harmony Part IV (“Dunn conducted almost as if he were in the trance of sacred Bruckner…” – LA Times); the LA premiere of the fiendishly difficult Ligeti Piano Concerto with pianist Gloria Cheng; and finally, multiple memorial concerts in New York, London and elsewhere for the late Sir Richard Rodney Bennett featuring American and world premieres of works by Bennett and Nico Muhly.

He studied music at the Manhattan School, Aspen Festival and School, University of Southern California and University of Iowa.

Though he does not practice medicine, Dunn also earned an MD, Board Certification in Ophthalmology and Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons. His professional conducting career began in 1999 when Lukas Foss appointed him Associate Music Director for the Music Festival of the Hamptons. He subsequently help posts at Glimmerglass Opera and Pittsburgh Opera. In 2007, he joined the conducting staff of the LA Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and in 2010 was named Associate Conductor.

Of his remarkable musicianship, one New York critic noted…”he is a conductor of great promise, a pianist of note, and a sensitive and intelligent artist. All of these elements came together to give the audience an experience closer to heaven than most of us will get in this lifetime.” n

A NOTE FR OM JOHNNY DEPP Danny and Tim, without doubt, are the two greatest gifts this job ever gave me. I would be neither here, there, nor probably anywhere without them and their general magnificence.

Now, the world is fully aware of the individual genius to be found betwixt the two, but what is more important here is the way in which these unique talents combine and ultimately complement one another, allowing the other’s work to bloom in a way unforeseen independently.

Essentially, Danny’s darkly sonorous creations are the audio manifestations of Tim’s singularly shadowy visions. He is the Ralph Steadman to Tim’s Hunter S. Thompson. Together they breathe color into one another’s worlds – from my initial experience, working alongside them both – on Edward Scissorhands, throughout the many projects that constitute a relationship, which now spans some 20 years…and counting. His music, so warm and inviting, yet somehow unnerving, ultimately manages to sound both elegant and haunting, perfectly defining the character of that very first collaboration. Having then unearthed the precise mood of Tim’s film, within the divine notes of his celestial score, Danny soundtracked the tale’s soul deep into the hearts of millions.

Subsequently, their working relationship has never floundered. Time after time, their industry gives birth to new beings of wonder and weirdness, charged to delight and excite cinema goers the planet ‘round.

So, a match made in the stars, you might say. Tim and Danny, it was simply meant to be.

S AN DI EG O SYMPHO NY O RCHEST RA 2016- 17 SEA SO N OC TOB E R 2016

P E R FOR M AN C E S M AGAZ I NE P29

ABOUT THE MUSIC

DANNY ELFMAN'S MUSIC FROM THE FILMS OF TIM BURTON - OCTOBER 29

DANNY ELFMAN & TIM BURTON

A PROGRAM NOTE: DANNY ELFMAN AND TIM BURTON DA N N Y E L FM AN’S working relationship with T I M BU RTO N is one of the longest and most successful filmmaker/ composer collaborations in the history of film — and one of the most unexpected. Elfman was drawn to the movies his entire life, but only came to music as a young adult and with no formal training. It was at 18, during a year of traveling in West Africa, when Elfman picked up his first musical instrument (violin) and began to toy with the fantasy of a musical direction for his life.

At 19 he teamed up with his brother Richard, who founded the avant-garde musical cabaret troupe “The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo”, and it was there Elfman taught himself to write music by doing transcriptions of early 1930’s jazz bands. He also began writing his first compositions.

After eight years with the troupe, Elfman started the idiosyncratic rock band known simply as Oingo Boingo. As their writer and singer he performed and recorded with them for almost two decades.

But there was another side to Danny Elfman — the kid who religiously attended Saturday matinees, watching every type of horror and fantasy movie imaginable. The young Danny had no interest in music — he wanted to be a scientist, or a “radiation biologist” as he once explained. When he did begin to notice music, it was movie music, and he found a particular delight in the filmmaker/composer relationship of stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen and Bernard Herrmann. “If I saw the names Harryhausen and Herrmann in the same title sequence,” he said, “I already knew the movie was going to be a huge favorite— something really special.”

In high school Elfman began listening to the classical composers who would later become his inspiration. The Russian composers Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich particularly got under his skin. He also began to refine his interest in film, rediscovering Bernard Herrmann through the legendary composer’s other

P 30 PE RFORMA NCES MAGA Z IN E

great collaborator, Alfred Hitchcock. Elfman was absorbing the language of movie music. His first taste in scoring would come from another collaboration with his brother, who directed the cult film Forbidden Zone in the late ’70s—but he wouldn’t truly become a film composer until 1985, when he got a strange call from an extraordinary young animator he had never heard of.

Tim Burton came out of the suburbs of Burbank and the California Institute for the Arts (CalArts), and, like Elfman, he had been mesmerized by Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion fantasies as a child, as well as the vivid black-and-crimson iconographies of horror films. Burton had made an uncomfortable fit for the Walt Disney Company, toiling as a conceptual artist and animator on movies like The Fox and the Hound. But his short film Frankenweenie grabbed the attention of executives and filmmakers in Hollywood...including Paul Reubens, the performer who created and portrayed Pee-wee Herman. Reubens and Phil Hartman had written a movie for the character called Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, and after seeing Frankenweenie, Reubens quickly lobbied for Burton to direct it.

Both Burton and Reubens were familiar with Danny Elfman through Oingo Boingo and Forbidden Zone, and when editor Billy Webber tracked a scene from the movie with music from Bernard Herrmann’s score to the Harryhausen movie The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, Burton loved the effect. When Elfman came in to interview for the job, he happened to mention that very same score as one of his life-long favorites. Burton was sold, and Elfman, after some hesitation, decided to jump into a completely new world, figuring he’d either learn to swim or drown in the attempt. He was certain of one thing: the score would not be a rock score. He would explore an insane mashup of Bernard Herrmann and Nino Rota (who did Federico Fellini’s scores) and in the process created an alternately joyous and manic sound that fit the hyper-enthusiastic Pee-wee character like a glove.

SAN DI E GO SYM P H O N Y O R C H E ST R A 2 016 - 17 S E AS ON O CTO BER 2016

ABOUT THE MUSIC

DANNY ELFMAN'S MUSIC FROM THE FILMS OF TIM BURTON - OCTOBER 29 Elfman’s score to Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was a revelation, and an instantly indelible musical personality had invaded film. And Elfman was also now hooked on a new addiction…film scoring. He immediately began getting offers to score other films, but it was already clear he had a special working relationship with Burton.

Their next collaboration was another comedy, but one out of left field — the “ghost exterminator” story Beetlejuice, a movie that allowed Burton to express his own personality more than he had on Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. Elfman’s frantic opening music demonstrated his love for the “danse macabre” — the ability to have a fiendishly good time.

Elfman and Burton would both have to prove themselves on their next project: Batman. Shot well before the current vogue of costumed superheroes, Burton’s take on the Caped Crusader created a shadowy world halfway between a film noir and an animated graphic novel. The film required a major symphonic score, which he knew would be an enormous challenge. Elfman’s score was a sensation — as quirky and unpredictable as his earlier comic works, yet so muscular and violently stark that it instantly helped define the comic book genre.

Amazingly, Elfman faced doubts again on his fourth collaboration with Burton, Edward Scissorhands. With three successes under his belt, Burton could afford to make a film that was truly his, and Edward was nakedly autobiographical, depicting an inarticulate, artistic character adrift in a hostile world that looked suspiciously like the suburbs of Burbank. There were no questions about whether Elfman could score this kind of a movie, because no one knew what kind of a movie Edward Scissorhands was. But from the opening celeste notes of Elfman’s score, it was clear he had found Edward’s soul. Edward Scissorhands became a film music genre just as much as Burton’s film defined his output as a director — and it’s still perhaps Elfman’s most imitated and personal work.

Burton and Elfman revisited Batman with Batman Returns, expanding on the gothic landscape both men had initiated in their first effort, with Elfman providing distinctive approaches to Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman and Danny DeVito’s Penguin.

But for their next project, the two men dug into their past love of stop-motion animation and took advantage of Elfman’s skills as a songwriter and performer. The Nightmare Before Christmas turned vintage Rankin-Bass holiday specials inside out, exploring a monsters-eye-view of Christmas through the character of Jack Skellington, brought to life with the singing voice of Elfman himself. The Nightmare Before Christmas was a vivid, original vision and a cult smash, throwing songs like “This is Halloween” into the cultural marketplace and again demonstrating Elfman’s versatility.

Mars Attacks! bubbled with subversive humor, kicked off by Elfman’s Russian-inspired main title march, which grows from an impishly comic rhythm into a full-blown sci-fi anthem complete with theremin.

Elfman and Burton explored more serious genre territory in their next two collaborations. Sleepy Hollow was Burton’s love poem to the British Hammer horror movies he’d loved as a child, and Elfman responded with a richly atmospheric and gothic score. For Planet of the Apes, Elfman stepped into the footsteps of legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith, fashioning his own musical world of

S AN DI EG O SYMPHO NY O RCHEST RA 2016- 17 SEA SO N OC TOB E R 2016

simian rule using the massive collection of exotic percussion instruments he’d collected as far back as his teenage trip to Africa.

As he had with Batman, Burton followed up Planet of the Apes with a more personal project. Big Fish mixed Burtonesque fantasy with a more serious personal drama, as a resentful son tries to come to terms with his father’s predilection for tall tales — lies, as the son sees them. By the time he scored Big Fish, Danny Elfman had been completely accepted in Hollywood — in 1997 he received his first Oscar® nominations for both Good Will Hunting and Men in Black.

For his touching Americana score to Big Fish, Elfman received his first Oscar® nomination earned by one of his collaborations with Tim Burton.

For Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Elfman again took advantage of his rock and performance background to create the songs performed by the movie’s diminutive Oompa-Loompas (all voiced by Elfman) in a pageant of pop rock styles — everything from Beatles-esque to Bollywood, all alongside an evocative orchestral score to characterize the edible environment of Willy Wonka’s sweets factory.

Burton and Elfman returned to the gothic stop-motion territory of The Nightmare Before Christmas in Corpse Bride, with Elfman creating songs whose inspiration ranged from Gilbert and Sullivan to Cab Calloway.

Burton’s adaptation of Alice in Wonderland became one of the biggest money makers in movie history in 2010, a hugely challenging technical exercise for the director, who shot the majority of the film on green screen sets so most of his cast could be transformed into computer-generated versions of Lewis Carroll’s classic characters. Elfman responded to the controlled chaos by writing one of his grandest scores, driven by his stirring “Alice’s Theme.”

For their most recent collaborations, Burton and Elfman once again turned to their genre pasts. Burton cast Johnny Depp, the star of numerous Burton films, as Barnabas Collins in his tonguein-cheek remake of the Dark Shadows television series, which showed the director still has chops for the offbeat comedy he demonstrated in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice. Elfman created a lush score dominated by the iconic, sensuous flutes inspired by the eerie vibe on from the ’70s television series.

Burton mounted an animated version of his own Frankenweenie in 2012 (which ironically, was his first live-action film). Filmed in black-and-white, Frankenweenie sprang directly from Burton’s illustrations, and Elfman returned to his gothic, yet emotionally charged style to accompany the story of a young boy who brings his pet dog back to life.

Elfman and Burton continue their movie music relationship with Burton’s forthcoming Big Eyes, which will mark their 16th collaboration spanning over 25 prolific years.

(Jeff Bond is the author of Danse Macabre: 25 Years of Danny Elfman and Tim Burton.)

P E R FOR M AN C E S M AGAZ I NE P31