The recent film Notorious illustrates the journey behind Notorious' B.I.G. (a.k.a. Christopher Wallace) entering the world of rap music by storm straight out of Brooklyn from life to death.
The film composer depicted the character and the suspense within the first notes of the piece beginning. Elfman needed to create a leitmotif supporting the identity of Notorious and create awareness to the audience of his presence, composing title music and underscoring. The sustained low strings as a drone moving into a two note ascending and descending riff across semitones. The use of the swung hi-hat gives that gangster feel and the offbeat bass guitar as pedal note. Following the layering of higher strings and flute melody gives this running chase feel as if its a race. The entire use of strings, woodwind and percussion throughout the theme not only reflected the character and his position yet the composer set the scene behind the music. Introducing the pure nature of the people and culture at that location in the time of year the film was representing and the conditions the characters were portrayed.
Elfman’s film scores can be described as dark and brooding, lush and romantic, wild and manic - reflecting the many composers and styles which have influenced him. His influences range from Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky’s ballet music, jazz and rock, yet he is not a typical classical composer and he is self- taught and uses synthesizers as a layering to his music. Furthermore he has composed many phenomenal scores for the motion picture industry such as Batman, Batman Returns, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Simpsons soundtrack. His work for the film, Planet of the Apes is highly polyphonic with dissonant lines among the complex use of cross rhythms. Furthermore Batman, his biggest work today uses the whole tone scale with chromatic ostinatos and juxtaposing dramatic chords e.g. E♭minor to C♯major within an antiphonal texture throughout each of the themes for film.
Film Music today is underrated and is not recognized as popular music, yet really it is where the biggest fusions are created. The soundtrack to a film is a score expressing the characters in their different situations and sinarios, their emotions. Furthermore the music can simply set a geographical scene e.g. Bhangra and hip hop in the award winning film, Slumdog Millionaire.
Feel free to comment on what film soundtracks have caught your ear and grasped you emotionally to the particular scene you are waiting and thoroughly engaged in.
Check out his website...... http://elfman.filmmusic.com/
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