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Sleepy Hollow: (Danny Elfman) There were several
uneasy aspects of Tim Burton's 1999 adaptation of Washington Irving's
story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," and not all of them involved the
headless horseman. The production will always be remembered for its
remarkable design, both visual and auditory, a trademark of a truly fine
Burton film. But
Sleepy Hollow suffered from stale acting
performances (despite several notable cameos) that attempted to infuse
life into a truly underachieving expansion of the short story for the
purposes of filling a feature length picture. The lack of a strong
narrative may have been one of the reasons why the film failed to debut
for Paramount in time for Halloween in 1999, instead languishing against
the winter blockbusters of late November. For the film music community,
the hype and anticipation involving
Sleepy Hollow over the
previous year was tangible enough to knock a person's head off by
itself. Not only had there been the issue of a strained professional
relationship between Elfman and Burton a few years prior, but the
composer had also abandoned his massively gothic fantasy scores from
early in his career in favor of a stretch of more minimalistic or
comedic entries in the middle and late 1990's. Many of the delicious
details of Elfman's early writing had been deemed lost, and nostalgic
fans yearning for another taste of Elfman's grand, thematically
overflowing style from the start of the 1990's were watering at the
mouth at the opportunities that
Sleepy Hollow presented the
composer. There were arguments about whether Elfman's growing maturity
in the art, as heard in
A Simple Plan and
A Civil Action,
made it highly unlikely that Elfman would ever be inclined to produce
another tragic score in the mold of
Edward Scissorhands or
Sommersby. He had, simply put, moved on. What
Sleepy
Hollow proved, however, was that the composer was able to reach back
into that rich well when necessary.
The most important thing to keep in mind when thinking
about
Sleepy Hollow (and this remains true many years later) is
that anyone expecting a return to the straight fantasy genre could be
disappointed by the fact that it is, primarily, a horror score. There
are still fantasy elements within the plot, but while the concept of
tragedy carries over from Elfman's famed period of early production,
Sleepy Hollow is far more excessively violent and brutal. Rather
than looking at this score as an extension of Elfman's more melodically
accessible scores, it should be viewed as a maturation of the ideas
heard in
Nightbreed and, to a lesser extent,
The
Frighteners. One notable difference between those scores and this
one, however, is the incredible depth of the recording. The performances
and mix of the orchestra and two choirs in England are more dynamic for
Sleepy Hollow than in perhaps any other Elfman score. Some of the
raw and undeveloped ideas that Elfman flirted with in
Nightbreed
are applied to a much more substantial group of players and singers,
giving the style a level of intensity that never existed before (and
arguably not since) in Elfman's career. The sound of the ensemble is
remarkably similar to that of John Debney's concurrent
End of
Days (aided by a coincidental overlap of the opening four notes of
the primary themes), largely due to the employment of raw orchestral
might as well as a merging of boy soprano tones and a menacingly deep
male chorus. Thematically, Elfman follows his standard structure of
introducing his title theme in an overture format and building it to a
massive crescendo. This theme, like Debney's, has slightly religious
undertones, but here they relate more closely to the mystery of
witchcraft rather than the traditional establishment. Elfman is
extremely loyal to this theme throughout the work, adapting it well for
scenes of Ichabod Crane's youth and character development.
The versatility of the title theme extends from the
explosions of horror foreshadowed in the two opening cues and realized
in the climactic confrontations to the romantic tones that attempt to
inject some warmth into otherwise ice cold interactions between Ichabod
and Katrina Van Tassel. The use of layered boy soprano voices in "Young
Ichabod," "Sweet Dreams," and "More Dreams" are intriguingly connected
to the romance in "The Gift," "Tender Moment," and "Love Lost" and offer
the score a much-needed sense of rounded, three-dimensional development
that the action and horror cues alone cannot sustain. One of the more
curious sub-themes in
Sleepy Hollow is a romantic string
interlude directly in the middle of the "Main Titles" (after the primary
horror motif is explored); despite some general harmonic hints in
places, this theme is not really adapted for either of the situations
involving Crane's youth or his love interest in Katrina, and only in the
suite of the themes during the end credits does an abbreviated form of
this idea arise once again. Still, the impressive extent to which Elfman
restates and manipulates the title theme is the glue with which
Sleepy Hollow is held together. This is an important point, for
despite the score's immense technical strengths, it lacks a distinctive
direction and, outside of its brute force, a transcendent personality.
From
Batman to
A Simple Plan previously, from the most
grandiose to the most sparse, Elfman scores had conveyed a clear spirit.
One of the obvious exceptions was
The Frighteners, and the most
significant weakness of
Sleepy Hollow is the score's tendency,
like the earlier work, to stir up a mess of noise that never goes
anywhere. There difference here, however, is that the
Sleepy
Hollow is so well orchestrated and mixed that some of that lack of
personality, especially in the latter half, can be forgiven.
Related to this one weakness of the score is the
occasional inadequacy of its fantasy appeal. Though thematically
functional and energetically verbose,
Sleepy Hollow loses some of
the "wonder" factor in its brutal second half. Much of the bewildering
enchantment that sprouted in the first half of the score was due to
Elfman's elegant mixing of the various shades of the voices together,
culminating in such truly haunting moments as in "Into the Woods," which
uses an especially wet mix of the sopranos to set a perfect atmosphere.
For Elfman veterans, some of this lack of identity in the latter half of
Sleepy Hollow will be compensated for by a style of
instrumentation that reminds of
Black Beauty in its flowing viola
solos and
Batman Returns in its creepy, low woodwinds. The
romping action material is complete with harsh, pulsating brass,
floating and whiny strings, ripping snare, and the always-gothic pipe
organ. Some of the exciting rhythms will exhaust you with their length.
By "The Chase" and "The Final Confrontation," however, Elfman resorts to
flashy orchestral strikes without the thoughtful spirit of the score's
opening introductions. The light finale and, to an extent, the pounding
end credits, try to recapture that sense of magic. Overall, even though
Sleepy Hollow was not the monumental return to raw, early fantasy
form for Elfman, it offers a violent contrast to the minimalistic scores
penned by the composer through the late 1990's and well beyond. Its rich
texture and resounding sound quality make it the best, quality horror
score in Elfman's career. A generous 68-minute album from Hollywood
Records is all an avid Elfman collector will require from the work. Its
less than spectacular personality and overbearing darkness, however,
keep it from being the kind of album worth cutting off someone's head in
order to obtain.
****
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
