Welcome back to Scoring for Films with Vito Lo Re and Fabrizio Campanelli. So, today one of our favorite scores. Yes! 1989.

There were a lot of interesting things happening in the world, but of course we only talk about movies. The first Batman movie ever? Yes, because actually we all remember the 60s TV series, the slightly ridiculous one with Batman with a belly and the officer who never understood a thing. That series was later turned into a movie in 1966, if I remember correctly, where Batman gets rid of a shark using shark repellent spray, with shark repellent. Because we all walk around with shark repellent. I have it. In Milan, you can't walk around without it. Anyway, okay, seriously speaking, that movie wasn't exactly a masterpiece, but the one by Tim Burton was a masterpiece.

With a very young Danny Elfman who raised a few doubts at the time. Sure, it's true they had just had a big success with Beetlejuice the previous year, also starring Michael Keaton, Burton, Elfman. But it was a more grotesque film, more comedic in tone. So people in Hollywood were wondering: is this guy going to be able to pull off such an ambitious project? He did it.

Our boy was a rock singer in a band, Oingo Boingo. But Tim Burton got great satisfaction from Elfman's soundtrack. Elfman walks on the set at Pinewood Studios through the set design that won the Oscar. From that set design he drew the tone of the movie, but he was still missing the theme, you know, just a small thing. And in your opinion, what's the best place to come up with the theme? Obviously, his recording studio, right? No, no, no, no, no. So at his accountant's office? No, even though the accountant was probably happy about it.

No, on a plane, a nice 747, London to Los Angeles, where he got the idea. Of course, there weren't iPhones with voice memos back then, right? To record his idea on a little tape recorder he locked himself in the toilet. Otherwise, he would have looked like a madman to the other passengers. Of course, also to the flight attendants. He kept going back and forth to the toilet: "That guy's not okay." And he says, I'd stay in there five, six, ten minutes, right? But blessed be that flight, because it gave us an Elfman in a state of grace.

It's also worth noting the incredible instrumentation. Massive: five flutes, eight trombones, six trumpets. A percussion list that looks like the phone book and which we had talked about in a video we'll link here above. We have picked out a fragment from the soundtrack that's particularly interesting. The piece is called Descent into Mystery.

Let's notice how the staccatos in the woodwinds shift the scene into a fantasy world. The initial arpeggio dressed with a choir that is essential for immediately setting that fantasy, magical tone. Sure, it's a Latin text, though a fake Latin, but still very effective. We're in the scene where Kim Basinger is rescued by Batman, he brings her to safety in the Batcave, and she looks at him and has the feeling she knows him, right?

So the whole piece is built around this ambivalence between her doubt and his rather stentorian confidence driven by fast, rapid movement. Batman is reactive, dynamic, so Elfman immediately projects Batman's energy with these quick arpeggios. But also with a rhythmic structure of a march, which of course feels steady, it's Batman's march towards his goal, contrasted with the legato phrasing of the strings which represent the feminine side of her.

So, Batman's March: the staccatos in the flutes, the clarinets, the bass providing emphasis, the rushing runs of the strings and the choir, which also features a very cadenced rhythm. And let's recall the choice of language: a fake Latin, probably also to avoid having material that would draw too much attention from the listener. The text itself was credited to Danny Elfman.

What does Danny Elfman care about? He cares about phonemes, that is, the sound of the words, not the word itself. He wants the sound to have meaning when placed within the musical and sonic context we're hearing.

As happens almost always in film music scores, the key signature is not indicated. Even if a piece like this is entirely in D minor, there's nothing written in the key signature. Why? Normally the reason is that, since the key often changes every few bars within a cue, they avoid saying: now it's in A major, now in C major, now in E flat. They just remove everything and write the accidentals when needed. This habit stuck more out of custom than necessity. Me, when a piece is clearly in a single key, I write the key signature, otherwise I don't.

There's also something interesting in the crossing arpeggios of the violins. I take it for granted that most of the orchestration wasn't done by him, but by the orchestrator. So I assume that this detail is more the orchestrator's work than Elfman's. This arpeggio we see is split between first and second violins. And to make it sound more fluid and more alive, less mechanical, the last note left by the first violins is exactly the one picked up by the second violins to start their arpeggio. This is a typical orchestration technique.

The choir is dropped when she says basically the only line in this scene: "Where are you going?" At that moment, of course, Elfman pulls out the choir, a choir that is based on a tonic pedal, is removed so it doesn't overpower her only line.

The piano is used as an instrument, a percussive one, which it is, but often it's even used in place of the bass, so the orchestra's bass is the left hand of the piano. And even the bass clarinets have a sound that, in the blend, creates a kind of breathiness in their staccato, a little sigh. So, this is one of those things you love, because honestly, in the final film mix with the added visuals and the sound effects, maybe the clarinet part gets a bit lost. But if you listen to the recording, this thing you mentioned, the fact that the bass clarinets create a sort of sigh, the human and also mysterious part, it really comes out powerfully.

Let's move on and push the pedal to the metal. Coincidentally, when we push the accelerator everyone comes in, in crescendo. He hits the gas, the car speeds up, there's a crescendo, but no accelerando. That would be mickey mousing. Exactly. There's an acceleration of our emotion.

Then comes the theme, which is taken from the theme we already heard in the introduction. There are also pieces of classical or operatic music that vaguely recall the opening motif, and that's fine. It's such a simple theme that it could easily cross paths with other things, but the theme is actually the same. At the beginning the film is in B minor, here we are in D minor, the rhythmic phrasing is different, but the relationship between notes is the same.

Danny Elfman was looking for a glorious theme that would stick in people's heads, so simple, yet open to arranging complexity, and he nailed it completely. So, the whole piece is based on this dynamic: her doubt, I know him, but where have I seen him before, and his rock-solid confidence as he looks straight ahead on the road.

The two times she gives that doubtful look, the instrumentation is greatly reduced. The bass is almost always removed, giving a sound that's more feminine, clearer, higher. And in both cases where he is shown, after her moment of doubt, everyone comes in: in the first part, the violins enter with super fast arpeggios; in the second part all the basses come in.

In her moment of doubt the violins have a beautiful sync with her gaze. The doubt is also underlined by dissonance. Of course, dissonance is doubt, and when it's him, it's certainty. These chords already build an expectation that is immediately denied by this second one, which is fantastic, and with Batman's four-four rhythm it descends toward the superhero's confidence, toward the tonic, D minor, that broke the wall the moment he entered the Batcave.

We get the glorious closing with the theme. Yes, with this triplet that naturally brings us back to, that triplet is echoed here. And what is this great theme based on? On the semitone. Because we've talked many times about the function of the semitone, and where if not in the mystery of Batman?

But beware, too much chromaticism shifts the attention towards a very intense sense of mystery. But here we have Batman's heroism. So a diatonic minor start, the heroic leap, and then this interval that encloses the mystery, the inner secret of Batman. So the trait of secrecy is in this semitone.

Before we wrap up, the question we often ask in these cases: where can we find the Batmobile? Well, the Batmobile is sort of a forerunner of Tesla. Elon, if you want to send us a little wire transfer, thanks.

The leap, the hero, Elfman, did he plan all of this? Did he just have it in him because he's a great composer and he does some things by instinct? Or was it just luck? No, it was instinct. Elfman has no formal education, and who cares. No one ever asked whether someone has a diploma. But in general, especially in this kind of work, if you have it, fine, but having it doesn't mean at all that you're capable, or that you have talent, it means nothing.

The only license you're given is to do your best so the producer and the client of your film are happy, and I think they really were. Well, if you also enjoyed this episode, give us a like, because a like is the equivalent of applause. If you liked it, the like is basically good manners, come on. Come on, it won't ruin you. And it won't ruin us either if you don't hit it. I gave a whole speech to explain the importance of the like. Well, that said, leave a comment. See you in the next episode. Bye.