Film & Television, Batman Returns

Omni Music Publishing was launched in 2011 by veteran of the film music recording industry, Tim Rodier. Based out of Los Angeles, they are one of the few music publishing companies devoted to publishing full orchestral scores of modern film music. Providing an excellent opportunity to study some of the greatest film scores of all time, Danny Elfman's Batman Returns is now available. Find out more below.

Danny Elfman: Batman Returns

Somewhere between gothic opera and candy-coated nightmare is where Batman Returns exists. After the enormous success of 1989’s Batman, Warner Bros. was eager to capitalize on the success and popularity. This led the studio to give an unprecedented amount of creative freedom to director Tim Burton, a filmmaker known for his bold, visually innovative style: a style that often also included peculiar characters with dark motivations or twisted psyches. It’s safe to say that the dark and weird elements of Batman became darker and weirder in Batman Returns, with mixed reactions by audiences and critics. The desire to make a sequel with as much universal appeal as the first may not have been a complete success, but two of the film’s contributions soared above and beyond expectations: Bo Welch’s German expressionist production design and Danny Elfman’s colorful score.

When composer Danny Elfman sat down to make sense out of all this, the order of the day was “opera.” More grand in scope than its predecessor, the composer delivered a classic and beloved score. And whether or not one can call it operatic, it certainly aligns with Burton’s unique vision. Elfman had to delve deep into the psyche of the characters, and what emerged were two new themes: one for the abandoned Penguin and the other for the sinuously sinister, yet conflicted Catwoman. The tone of Penguin’s theme is very somber and sorrowful, lumbering along like the gentle rocking back-and-forth movement of a penguin. The treatment of Catwoman’s theme is, at times, with high strings slyly moving between notes, mimicking a cat’s meow, and other times a gorgeous melody that shows the graceful tragedy of her character. With an unmistakable style for storytelling through music, Elfman weaves the themes from one to another and even combines themes, such as in the main title — wisely setting up the drama that is about to unfold. It is undeniable that Elfman succeeds on many levels and demonstrates that his instincts for an operatic score would match the drama and visuals perfectly.

Where the score for the first film was recorded in London, recording for this score was in Los Angeles. The orchestra needed to wade through a considerably greater amount of music than the original film, about twenty minutes more, and one can hear on the soundtrack how the players are pushed to the extreme. Elfman is very fond of trying new instruments and orchestration. For this score, he added a choir of both female and children’s voices which, along with scintillating celesta passages, aided not only in underscoring the humanity of the characters, but also the Christmas mood present in the film. In addition to a very large ensemble is a huge array of percussion instruments, some of which were even performed and recorded by the composer himself at his studio.