Every year without fail, people groan that film music has lost its edge. That no original music is being written anymore. That films and film scores aren't what they used to be. Elliot Goldenthal's score for “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” should silence these critics as it is simply one of the best scores written in 2001 (and should remain that way until the end of the year). This should come as no surprise to those who know Elliot's music well. His theatrical approach to film scoring has resulted in classics such as “Interview with the Vampire”, “Michael Collins”, “Batman Forever” and “Titus” to name just a few. He has lent great musical weight to films of questionable intelligence like “Demolition Man” and “Batman Forever”. His music often transcends the film it was written for and makes for involving listening on album. After completing “Final Fantasy”, Elliot found some time to speak with me in between work on his next film “Frida Kahlor”, another collaboration with Julie Taymor. You would think a guy with the background and education like Elliot to be intimidating, but he seemed very accessible and, well, like a normal guy!
How did you end up scoring “Final Fantasy”?
The director [Hironobu] Sakaguchi had heard my previous scores to “Titus” and “Batman Forever” and he was really interested in meeting me. We finally had a meeting in Hawaii where his offices are and we got along real well and saw eye to eye so we proceeded.
There are shades of “Alien 3” in “Final Fantasy” – particularly in the cue ‘Toccata and Dreamscapes’ which contains some of the most dissonant music on the album. Did you enjoy revisiting some of those Penderecki-an techniques you employed in that score?
Yes; sometimes one thinks it's revisiting, but that's just part of my vocabulary that lives with me the whole time. Sometimes certain movies come along so that vocabulary is used. “Alien 3” is one, “Sphere” was another, and “Final Fantasy”. I think that you usually take your cue from what's happening on screen and there were certain similarities.
“Final Fantasy” utilizes what seems like an incredible amount of musicians. Was this your largest score in terms or writing, orchestrating and coordinating?
I think so because we had a very large orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra. At one point we had 16 French horns. There was a large amount of musicians and chorus, so it probably was the largest in terms of personnel.
You've written the music for the song ‘The Dream Within’ performed by Lara Fabian. Is writing songs for the films you score something you wish to do more of?
Well in this particular case the song is based on a theme which gets weaved throughout the movie. I think it works. I think it feels better then to plunk something on at the end that has nothing to do with the movie. For me it was artistically more satisfying, because at least the themes in the movie get weaved completely into the end titles credits.
When you are approaching a score at what point does the inspiration hit to write for special instruments like bass saxophone or bass oboe? Or in the case of “Final Fantasy” an extended brass section?
I don't know... I think it's sort of like form follows function in a way that you see something that you know it's going to be a loud sound effects movie so you immediately think that the brass instruments will be able to cut through.
So you might be writing music to compete with the sound effects?
Well, yeah, or writing music that I know will be heard. If it's a very quiet movie, then you think of your solo cellos or solo instruments. But in this particular case [“Final Fantasy”], I knew it was going to be a loud movie.
With “Titus” being released late 1999/early 2000, you've been noticeably absent from the film scoring scene for almost a year and half now. Did “Final Fantasy” take that long to write or were you working on something else?
I've been in between. I had a show on Broadway called The Green Bird so that took a lot of time. My ballet Othello recently premiered at the Paris Opera House. So there's been a lot of non-cinematic things that I've been doing.
What is your inspiration when writing film music? What is it in a film or scene that you look for?
I think that it's different every time. There's the art direction, camera movements, the performances, setting and time it is set in. There's just so many variables that it's impossible to answer the question. The answer really is that it changes every time.
How do you keep yourself from going too far with a scene? Some of your scores get pretty intense.
That depends on the director. A lot of times the director wants a tremendous amount of intensity and other directors want it to sound like there's no score at all. That's a question of the collaboration.
Due to the relative box office failure of “Batman and Robin”, an album of your score was never released. Does it bother you that fans will never get a chance to hear one of your most vibrant and exciting efforts?
Oh, it bothers me a lot! I don't think it had anything to do with the box office at all because an album is usually planned beforehand so that it hits on the film’s release – so that had nothing to do with it. I think they were just very... stingy. They actually thought that if they put out the orchestral album that it would have competed with the pop album – as if you have the same audiences. So that's one of the reasons why they didn't put it out. And I was really furious about that. I've never been more angry.
What was your opinion of the film “Batman and Robin”?
I don't think it was as successful as “Batman Forever”. There are some sequences that are really comic book like, but I don't think that helped in the end. It wasn't dark enough really.
You've recorded a commentary for the “Titus” DVD. What's your opinion on isolated scores?
I think that isolated scores are great if you can hear it. That's wonderful. Young composers and beginning composers can really get a sense of what's going on. In terms of composer commentary all the way through, I don't think it's necessary. I think if the composer chooses five or six examples in the film of what they think is important then that can help.
Do you see a difference in how the classical music world views film composers today as opposed to, say, five-ten years ago?
I don't think musicians see any difference. Other composers... It's composer by composer. If you mean the classical world as critics and boards of theaters, I don't think that has changed much, no. I think critics will always be not that enthusiastic about film music.
A number of film composers don't conduct their own scores – including yourself. Why is that?
I'm not a good conductor. If I wanted to be good enough to be up to the level of my music, I'd have to be awake 24 hours a day.
In a lot of your scores you have what sounds like horns play this interesting figure where they sound like they are sirens playing with the music – almost howling in a way. I've heard this called ‘pitch bending’. What is it really and how do you write it and in turn have the musicians play it?
Well, it's very simple. You just tell the musicians it's a pitch a quarter tone up and down. They can either do it with their lip or their hand inside the bell. If you write a squiggly line after a note and just write ‘bend quarter tone’, they'll know what to do.
What's your advice for young directors in terms of film music? Should they educate themselves on how it works or is a director who knows less about film music a preferable one?
No, I think that young directors should take out ten of their favorite movies that have music in them and listen to the role that it plays and analyze it like anything else.
What's the reality for young composers these days who want to be concert composers or who want to be film composers?
I don't find any difference, and I was taught by my mentors John Corigliano, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein for example that everything is healthy – just keep writing. There's no reason why you can't write for the Broadway stage and write concertos. There's no reason why you can't score movies. Just look at [Toru] Takemitsu for example. I don't find any conflict there, other than if you compose too many film scores you won't have any time. It's just a matter of allocating time and devoting yourself.
Lots of composers have horror stories about a director, film or recording a score. Without being too specific, do you have any horror stories to share?
Not this year! In general I've been lucky.
Who in your opinion is writing good film music these days?
I think that John Corigliano is. Tom Newman is consistently good.
You're currently working on the score for “Frida Kahlo”. Can you give us some details on what to expect from your score?
I don't know yet, because I've actually I've only done some pre-records. It's still early.
Could you make quick comments on the following?
“Alien 3”…
On “Alien 3” when they were mixing the movie when the L.A. riots broke out, so there was no one really present – the director wasn't present. There was a lot of chaos.
I read in an article in Fangoria magazine back in 1995 on you and you said there were some significant picture changes to “Alien 3”. Did you complete your score before those changes?
There were. There were some significant changes. They had two different endings and I think they sent out 2000 last reels to theaters and they finally chose which version the weekend before it opened. It was nuts.
Did you complete your score before those changes?
Yes. But after those changes I made adjustments.
“Pet Sematary”…
“Pet Sematary” I think was very good in its genre. Mary Lambert was a lovely women, although I'm not sure how well she hears music. So it was kind of difficult communicating, but I think it turned out well.
“Michael Collins”…
That's one of my favorite scores and an honor to do. To be an American and write about a hero in Irish culture. It was one of my best experiences.
“In Dreams”…
“In Dreams” continued the collaboration with Neil Jordan. If you look at any of my movies with Neil they are all very, very different.
“Batman Forever”…
It was an extremely difficult work schedule, and was one of the hardest in terms of time – or what little time I had. But it was not very difficult in terms of conception, in that it's very clear that the hero is the hero, the villain is the villain, the zany is the zany, the love interest is the love interest. There wasn't much subtlety there so it made the music pretty easy.
“Cobb”…
“Cobb” is one of my favorite scores. I think that if film score buffs can get the hands on it, they won't be disappointed. I really enjoyed working on that and didn't want to make it your typical baseball, sports-sounding score.
Was it also a chance to right that Americana, Copland-esque music?
Yeah, in a way, knowing Aaron so well as I had I know how to express myself that way. It sort of came out that way. Aaron would often base his music on pre-existing tunes and this case there was a hymn, ‘a fountain filled with blood’, and that's the hymn that I based the “Cobb” theme on. In a way it ended up sounding Copland-ian.
If there was one composer you could raise from the dead and have a conversation with, which one would it be?
[long pause] That's an interesting question. I don't know. I would suppose it would be Mozart. Especially when his line of work was getting so advanced. I don't know what I'd ask him! But I don't know – I'm not sure. There's too many, and all for different reasons. And some that are so great that there's no point in asking... There's nothing I can ask Bach, nothing I can ask Beethoven. Any composers who have lived in the end of the 19th Century into the 20th Century so that they are exposed to worlds like Mahler for example, who lived until 1911. People who saw the changes from the romantic world into the world of jazz and twelve tone, and Stravinsky. But hey... they're gone.
Extra special thanks to Elliot Goldenthal, Michelle Parker, and to Tim Perrine and Mike Lyons for additional questions.