Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s.[3] Since scoring his first studio film in 1985, Elfman has garnered international recognition for composing over 100 feature film scores,[4] as well as compositions for television, stage productions, and the concert hall.
Danny Elfman
- Composer
- record producer
- singer
- songwriter
- musician
1972–present
3
- Blossom Elfman (mother)
Richard Elfman (brother)
Elfman has frequently worked with directors Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, and Gus Van Sant, contributing music to nearly 20 Burton projects, including Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Wednesday,[5] as well as scoring Raimi's Darkman, A Simple Plan, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,[6] and Van Sant's Academy Award-winning films Good Will Hunting and Milk.[7] He wrote music for all of the Men in Black and Fifty Shades of Grey franchise films, the songs and score for Henry Selick's animated musical The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the themes for the popular television series Desperate Housewives and The Simpsons.[8]
Among his honors are four Oscar nominations,[4] three Emmy Awards,[9] a Grammy,[10] seven Saturn Awards for Best Music, the 2002 Richard Kirk Award,[11] the 2015 Disney Legend Award,[12] the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award in 2017,[13] and the Society of Composers & Lyricists Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.[14]
Early life[edit]
Elfman was born on May 29, 1953, in Los Angeles, California,[15] to a Jewish family of Russian descent.[3][16] He is a son of Blossom Elfman (née Bernstein), a writer and teacher, and Milton Elfman, a teacher, and the brother of actor, musician, and journalist Richard Elfman.[17] Elfman was raised in a racially mixed affluent community in Baldwin Hills, California, where he spent much of his time at the local movie theater discovering classic sci-fi, fantasy and horror films and first noticed the music of such film composers as Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman.[18] Elfman has admitted to fabricating stories about his past out of boredom, including a false birthplace of Amarillo, Texas, and parents in the United States Air Force.[19]
In his early school days, Elfman exhibited an aptitude for science with almost no interest in music, and was even rejected from elementary school orchestra "for having no propensity for music."[20]: 15 This would change when he switched high schools in the late 1960s and fell in with a musical crowd, who introduced him to early jazz and the work of Stravinsky and his 20th-century contemporaries.[20]: 17
After finishing high school early with plans to travel the world, Elfman followed his brother Richard to France, where he performed violin with Jérôme Savary's Le Grand Magic Circus, an avant-garde musical theater group.[21] He then embarked on a ten-month, self-guided tour through Africa, busking and collecting a range of West African percussion instruments until a series of illnesses forced him to return home.[22] At this time, Richard was forming a new musical theater group in Los Angeles.[23]
Influences and style[edit]
Elfman has said his major influences are composers from Hollywood's Golden Age, such as Bernard Herrmann, Dimitri Tiomkin, Max Steiner, David Tamkin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and Carl Stalling; 20th century classical composers Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Carl Orff; and jazz, experimental and minimalist composers Kurt Weill, Duke Ellington, Harry Partch, Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich.[90][91][92] Influences on specific scores include Erik Satie (Forbidden Zone), Nino Rota (Pee-wee's Big Adventure), George Gershwin (Dick Tracy), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Edward Scissorhands), and Jimi Hendrix (Dead Presidents).[39][93][8] Though not considered direct influences per se, Elfman has discussed his respect and admiration for film composers Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone,[35] Thomas Newman, Alexandre Desplat and John Williams, as well as classical composer John Adams.[94]
Though many believe Richard Wagner informed his influential score to Batman, Elfman has said it was more likely from Wagner's influence on classic film composers such as Herrmann, Steiner, Waxman and Korngold, as he was unfamiliar with Wagner's work at the time.[95]
Elfman counts Herrmann as his biggest influence, and has said hearing Herrmann's score to The Day the Earth Stood Still when he was a child was the first time he recognized film music as a cinematic art form and realized the powerful contribution a composer makes to the movies.[96] Pastiche of Herrmann's music can be heard in Elfman's Pee-wee's Big Adventure, especially the cues "Stolen Bike" and "Clown Dream", which directly reference Herrmann's music from Psycho and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad respectively.[97][98] His score to Batman makes more subtle nods to Herrmann's Journey to the Center of the Earth and Vertigo,[99][100] and more integral homage can be heard in later scores for Mars Attacks! and Hitchcock, as well as the "Blue Strings" movement of his first concert work Serenada Schizophrana.
While Elfman is primarily known for writing large-scale orchestral works in the romantic, 20th century and Hollywood Golden Age film score traditions, his compositions have used a wide range of idioms, including rock and blues (Midnight Run, Hot to Trot), big band and jazz (Dick Tracy, Chicago), operetta (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride), funk and hip hop (Dead Presidents, Notorious), folk and indie rock (Taking Woodstock, Silver Linings Playbook), Americana (Article 99, Sommersby, Big Fish), minimalism (Good Will Hunting, Standard Operating Procedure, The Unknown Known), and atonal or experimental (Freeway, A Simple Plan, The Girl on the Train).
Given his appreciation and study of world music and his vast collection of instruments from non-Western cultures,[22] Elfman will often use traditional instruments in his scores when there is an international setting, such as African percussion for Instinct, the oud for The Kingdom set in Saudi Arabia, and pan flute for Proof of Life set in South America.
When working on films with established musical identifiers, Elfman will often incorporate original themes in addition to his own thematic material. Examples include Lalo Schifrin's main theme and "The Plot" from the original Mission Impossible TV Series for Mission: Impossible;[44] John Williams' theme for Superman, the Hans Zimmer/Junkie XL theme for Wonder Woman and his own original Batman theme for Justice League;[101][102] the "Welcome Christmas" song from the 1966 How the Grinch Stole Christmas! for The Grinch;[48] and "Casey Junior," "Pink Elephants on Parade," and "When I See an Elephant Fly" from Disney's original 1941 animated film for Dumbo.[49]
The songs for The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride were influenced by Kurt Weill, Gilbert and Sullivan and early Rodgers and Hammerstein.[103] At the request of Tim Burton, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory songs drew inspiration from Bollywood, the Mamas and the Papas, ABBA, and Earth, Wind & Fire individually.[104]
Elfman's work in pop music and specifically as songwriter for Oingo Boingo was influenced by the Specials, Madness, the Selecter, Devo, Fun Boy Three, and XTC.[2][105]
In popular culture[edit]
Since The Simpsons' second annual Treehouse of Horror episode aired in 1991, launching "scary names" tradition in the opening and closing titles, Elfman has been alternately credited for the theme music as "Red Wolf Elfman", "Danny Skellingelfman", "Li'l Leakin Brain Elfman", "Boris Elfmonivich", "Danny Elfblood", "Danny 'Hell'fman", "The Bloody Elf", "Danny Elfbones", "Elfmunster" and "Daniel Beilzebelsman".
Elfman's composition "Clown Dream" from Pee-wee's Big Adventure is used in the video game Grand Theft Auto V[152] and has often been used as the opening music for Primus concerts.[153]
In the 2007 sixth season Star Wars parody "Blue Harvest", Family Guy lampooned Elfman's orchestral style. A scene shows Elfman replacing an incinerated John Williams to conduct a full orchestra playing the score, only to be decapitated by a lightsaber after conducting a few bars of oom-pah music.[154]
Episode five of the 14th season of South Park in 2010 criticized Tim Burton for using the "same" music in all his films, referring to Elfman's scores.[155]
In October 2016, Elfman produced a video clip for Funny or Die with original "horror" music composed to footage of Donald Trump pacing around Hillary Clinton at the second United States presidential election debates, 2016.[156][157]
In 2019, selections from Elfman's Midnight Run score were used in the third season of Netflix's Stranger Things,[158] including "Stairway Chase" in episodes 5 and 6, and "Wild Ride" and "Package Deal" in episode 6.
Christina Aguilera revealed that Elfman's music inspired her Las Vegas concert residency The Xperience.[159]
