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Danny Elfman – Musiker und Filmkomponist im Interview

Danny Elfman war lange Zeit als Musiker tätig, bevor er in der Film- und Fernsehbranche Fuß fasste. Besonders bekannt sind seine Arbeiten für den Regisseur Tim Burton: The Nightmare before Christmas, Batman und Alice in Wonderland. Im Interview hebt er den Beitrag der österreichischen Komponisten Max Steiner und Erich Wolfgang Korngold besonders hervor.

„Steiner was starting with nothing, he was starting with a blank slate, a new art form that didn’t exist [… and] he created a language of a narrative. The narrative meaning the music is telling a story and builds with the action and has dynamics, and that really began – for me – the entire art of film composition.“
„There would be no Star Wars without [...] the great Eroll Flynn adventure films of the 40s that Korngold scored.“
„When I think of Max Steiner, I think of one who [...] made a major contribution to creating the language that would be the language of film music for the next half a century or 75 years.“


Question: Does film music work in a concert hall?

Question: It would be wonderful, if you could say a sentence about the influence and the impact of Max Steiner.
Details from an interview with the total length of 91 min.

Danny Elfman, famed Hollywood film composer, discusses film music, his career, and the impact of composers of the Golden Era in Hollywood. Elfman describes how Austrian composers, such as Max Steiner and Erich Korngold, contributed to the creation and development of film music. As the composer of one of the most recognizable film scores in history, Gone With the Wind, Steiner is admired by Elfman for his bold compositions, theme fragmentation, and ability to create a compelling narrative. Elfman also contemplates the state of current film music as it competes with sound effects and the rise in popularity of electronic music. An intriguing narrative evolves as Elfman describes the beginnings of his career, his relationship with director Tim Burton, his work processes, and his evolution as a musician.

Die Fragen stellte Sandra Tomek.