Beetlejuice: "Titles” by Danny Elfman (Score Reduction and Analysis)
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Beetlejuice: "Titles” by Danny Elfman (Score Reduction and Analysis)
A wacky full score reduction of the main titles from Beetlejuice.
I own nothing.
Enjoy!
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Incredible reduction! Thank you! I have a question. Your instrumentation list said there 4 percussion sections. On the basis of your reduction, I tried my hand at recreating those four sections. Is this correct?
Percussion 1: Rattlesnake Shaker, Suspended Cymbal, Bass Tom Toms
Percussion 2: Tambourine, Snare Drum, Bass Drum
Percussion 3: Crash Cymbal, Bass Tam Tam, Big Bass Drum, Bells
Percussion 4: Glockenspiel, Steel Drum
If this is wrong, don’t hesitate to correct me. Again, thank you for this great reduction.
Lionel Newman, the famous conductor and brother of Alfred Newman got fired first day when conducting this score because he kept making snarky comments about Danny Elfman and his music, he refused to give the orchestra the correct instructions and called Elfman Beethoven jokingly.
1:00
Awesome! Could you do themes from James Horner's "KRULL" e.g "Ride of the firemares": ua-cam.com/video/CwQZ9UrnyJw/v-deo.html
Was it just me or did the choir not appear in the reduction?
Well, my guess is they figured those parts didn't need to be translated or printed, which indicates that they were not recorded with the orchestra, and are either synthetic voices (as at bar 71) or, as he has done in many of his other scores, Elfman himself singing those parts. (such as at 0:20, and probably even 0:38)
David, thank you so much for sharing the sheet music. Your contributions are incredible. Super educational. Thanks.
I love the subtle synth parts in this
Spooky. One of my favorite films.
Due the Herrmann-esque Main Title to MARS ATTACKS. One of the few really great recent main title sequences!
YASSSS! Finally, more Danny Elfman!!!!!
It is nearly like more credit should go to the sound engineer compared to composer. I can write the same, but the result will be awful. It's finding out how to present all the instruments that makes this score succesful.
A simple question: did you transcribe it by ear or do you have the score, and if you do, where did you find it?
Of course it's all done with a score
Absolutely stolen of soviet composers like Dunaevsky and Kabalevsky, even Khachaturyan! But sounds perfect, fantastic orchestration and skills. I love Danny!
By or from? That's the difference between this comment being sarcastic and serious
Acialist No, it’s not sarcastic! I’m sorry, I’m from East Europe and my english is not very well
@@MrRbjunior83 it's all good 👍
@@MrRbjunior83 perhaps you wanted to say inspired by those composers? We know your intention was well meant and don't worry your English is far better than we would do in your language!
@@TheMaestroCraig Yes, “inspired” is the right word. Good idea to have influence by the Soviet composer. They are very unrated because of the political system
My favorite Danny Elfman score
Now, that we have learned how many musicians for the brass, the percussion, the pianos, the woodwind, and the harps. Now all we need to know is that how many musicians are in the string ensemble (1st violins, 2nd violins, violas, cellos, and double basses).
Woodwinds and Brass are notated in parts, not number of players. For example, In Star Wars 'Main Title' Williams notated 4 horn parts, but Williams has been known to have it performed with upwards of 8 players. Besides, the number of string players on any given part isn't relevant.
Hi! I have trouble knowing who plays what! whether the horns and Trumpets are at the top of the treble clef or at the bottom! Thank you for this analysis!

Loving the ‘train whistle’ at 1:29!
Fantastic! What instrument plays the highest note at the very end? Someone please tell me lol been wondering for years.
The score is somewhat undecided about it, only specifying "Bowed glass (or metal)" - it's a bit too distinct to be rub rods, which sound somewhat similar, so it's likely they ended up with something like crotales - a D crotale bowed with a violin bow. Dug up a random video that includes an example of that (after the cymbal): ua-cam.com/users/shortsyy-NHaHIgwQ
@@thejither The smaller crotale is TOTALLY it. You can hear the sound repeatedly in Jerry Goldsmith's score for Poltergeist as well, and I could never find out what I was. Thank you so much for this, I have been wondering about it for many years! 🙏💖
@@alaskaredhead Goldsmith used a lot of somewhat similar instruments in Poltergeist - he was very fond of the aforementioned rub rods, which he also used in Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, etc. Those show up in all kinds of movie scores, not always for "creepiness factor", but also just to emphasize the treble of e.g. a glockenspiel. You can see rub rods demonstrated along with multiple different cues in this video (and along with a *lot* of other special percussion instruments) - ua-cam.com/video/WK1r1YpiBw8/v-deo.html. For Poltergeist, in addition to rub rods, he also used musical saw (that's what you hear at the very beginning of "The Calling" - together with rub rods and possibly bowed metal of some kind) and waterphone (also demonstrated in the video), as well as a bunch of other similar "whining" instruments. 🙂
is there a way to do a full percussion analysis? I want my students to play this theme for our upcoming concert, and I am trying to do a very accurate transcription
So wonderful to see this, thank you!!
Where did you get all your full scores?
This is great! Thank you!
I love it !!!