American composer Danny Elfman is no stranger to orchestration, having composed scores for more than 100 films including Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and most of Tim Burton's outfit (not to mention the theme for The Simpsons). He was also the lead singer of the rock band Oingo Boingo. Despite this impressive track record, he was more or less spontaneously seized by a desire to write abstract orchestral music, and this 2019 release provided the first fruits of the impulse. Generally speaking, ventures into abstract music by film ...
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American composer Danny Elfman is no stranger to orchestration, having composed scores for more than 100 films including Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and most of Tim Burton's outfit (not to mention the theme for The Simpsons). He was also the lead singer of the rock band Oingo Boingo. Despite this impressive track record, he was more or less spontaneously seized by a desire to write abstract orchestral music, and this 2019 release provided the first fruits of the impulse. Generally speaking, ventures into abstract music by film composers have yielded less-than-impressive results. Yet rules have exceptions, and Elfman, apparently feeling his way according to his own notes for the album, has managed a considerable achievement right out of the gate. The trick seems to be that he neither discards his cinematic influences nor writes a film score with the themes lightly strung together. The Violin Concerto "Eleven Eleven" -- so called because its score contains 1,111 measures (and Elfman's own name contains the...
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