Janet K. Halfyard

Characters and plot developments, similarly, are enhanced by their musical accompaniment. The different scoring strategies employed in supernatural and horror-based genres, comprising for example True Blood and Supernatural, are considered alongside cult shows set in our reality, such as Dexter, The Sopranos and 24. These discussions are complimented by in-depth case studies of musical approaches in two high-profile series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Hannibal. Written from a musicological standpoint but fully accessible to non-musicologists, the book significantly advances television and music studies.

Music in Cult TV

Sounds of Fear and Wonder

Equinox's Genre, Music and Sound series documents contemporary film genres as they have developed in the postwar era. Each volume analyzes the variety and shared patterns of music and sound use that characterize a particular genre. Fantasy has had a modern resurgence in cinema due largely to the success of superhero narratives and the two major fantasy series, The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter films. This volume examines music in fantasy cinema across a broad historical perspective, from Bernard Herrmann's scores for Ray Harryhausen, through the popular music scores of the 1980s to contemporary scores for films such as The Mummy and the Harry Potter series, allowing the reader to see not only the way that the musical strategies of fantasy scoring have changed over time but also to appreciate the inventiveness of composers such as Bernard Herrmann, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman and Elliot Goldenthal, and popular musicians such as Queen and David Bowie in evoking the mythic, the magical and the monstrous in their music and contributing to the creation of fantasy narratives.

The Music of Fantasy Cinema

Danny Elfman is recognized as one of the most successful, interesting, and innovative figures in recent film music composition. He came to the fore in the late 1980s in connection with his collaboration with Tim Burton on his films including Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), and Sleepy Hollow (1999). In addition to this, Elfman has composed music for more than 40 other films, including Somersby (1993), Dolores Claibourne (1995), Good Will Hunting (1997), Men in Black (1997), and Spiderman (2002). Beetlejuice was the first mainstream commercial success of the collaboration, but Batman was the film which marked Tim Burton's arrival as a major figure in Hollywood film direction, and equally established Danny Elfman as a film score composer, particularly in relation to action and fantasy genres. The score for Batman won a Grammy in 1989 and is an outstanding example of his collaboration with Burton as well as admirably demonstrating his particular talents and distinctive compositional voice. In particular, it displays the characteristic "darkness" of his orchestration in this genre and the means he uses to create a full length film score from what is often a relatively small amount of musical material, in this case the famous Batman theme. This book examines Elfman's scoring technique and provides a detailed analysis and commentary on the Batman score. The film is discussed in the context of its comic-book origins and the fantasy-action genre, setting it and its score against the late 1970s and early 1980s equivalents such as Star Wars and Superman, and revealing how Burton and Elfman between them changed the cinematic idea of what a superhero is. The book also explores Elfman's musical background, his place within the film music industry and the controversy that sprang up following the release of B

A Film Score Guide

Danny Elfman's Batman

This resource is the most in-depth scholarly resource available on Danny Elfman. It integrates a careful study of Elfman's scoring technique with a detailed analysis of the film itself.

Paul Gregory Attinello

Vanessa Knights

The intense and continuing popularity of the long-running television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) has long been matched by the range and depth of the academic critical response. This volume, the first devoted to the show's imaginative and widely varied use of music, sound and silence, helps to develop an increasingly important and inadequately covered area of research - the many roles of music in contemporary television. Chapters focus on scoring and source music, the title theme, the music production process, the critically acclaimed musical episode (voted number 13 in Channel Four's One Hundred Greatest Musicals), the symbolic and dramatic use of silence, and the popular reception of the show by its international fan base. In keeping with contemporary trends in the study of popular musics, a variety of critical approaches are taken from musicology, cultural studies, and media and communication studies, specifically employing critique, musical analysis, industry studies and hermeneutics.

Janet K. Halfyard

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