Buy it... if you seek Danny Elfman's most accomplished and violent horror score, complete with truly haunting choral layers and a superbly recorded and mixed series of mostly palatable orchestral romps.

Avoid it... if you expect this return to the realm of gothic darkness by Elfman to exude the same personality and spirit in the fantasy genre as the composer's early classics.

Elfman

Sleepy Hollow: (Danny Elfman) There are several uneasy aspects of Tim Burton's 1999 adaptation of Washington Irving's story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," and not all of them involve 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. Substantial re-shoots and last-minute edits of the movie caused challenges for everyone involved, including (perhaps foremost) composer Danny Elfman. Because the film was being edited in New York and Elfman's score was being recorded in London, the composer had to assemble recording sessions on multiple occasions. The studio for the ensemble was subpar as well, causing nightmarish logistical issues. Despite all of these difficulties, Elfman looks back fondly upon the Sleepy Hollow score as one of his personal favorites. For the film music community, the hype and anticipation involving the score 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 style 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, melodically overflowing style from the start of the 1990's were watering at the mouth due to the opportunities that Sleepy Hollow presented the composer. There were arguments about whether or not Elfman's growing maturity in an artistic sense, as heard in A Simple Plan and A Civil Action, made it unlikely that the composer would ever be inclined to produce another tragic score in the mould of Edward Scissorhands or Sommersby. He had, simply put, moved on.

What Sleepy Hollow proved, however, was that Elfman was able to reach back into the rich well of his early 1990's sensibilities 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. All of the horror elements previously explored in the Burton/Elfman collaboration had existed within the confines of comedy or animation, and all semblances of the associated Elfman zaniness are gone. 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 relatives (like Sommersby and Black Beauty), 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 had 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, Sleepy Hollow is a bit of an oddity in that it's a purely monothematic score. Elfman follows his standard structure of introducing the main theme in an overture format and building it to a massive crescendo for the title sequence. 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 his awkward character interactions.

The versatility of the Sleepy Hollow title theme extends from the explosions of horror foreshadowed in the two opening cues. The primary phrases of the melody and, in partial shades, its lush interlude are 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" is intriguingly connected to the romance in "The Gift," "Tender Moment," and "Love Lost" and offers 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 aspects of Sleepy Hollow is the romantic string interlude, first heard 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 fully 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 usually conveyed a clear narrative. 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. The difference here, however, is that 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 is due to Elfman's elegant mixing of the various shades of the voices together, culminating in such truly haunting moments as "Into the Woods," which uses an especially wet mix of the sopranos to set a perfect atmosphere.

	1999 Hollywood Album: Only $9.99

For Elfman veterans, some of the 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. There are occasional, curious references to previous Elfman/Burton scores' themes as well, including a hint of Penguin material from Batman Returns in the middle of "The Gift," and phrases in the main theme that are clear carry-overs from the main theme of Black Beauty and, strangely, "Making Christmas" from The Nightmare Before Christmas (especially at the start of "End Credits"). The romping action material in the score 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 tone of the score's opening introductions. The creatively 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 that many had hoped to hear, it offers a violent contrast to the minimalistic scores penned by the composer throughout 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. The generous 68-minute album from Hollywood Records in 1999 is all that most collectors will require from the work. An extra ten minutes of material was added at the end of that existing presentation on CD #8 in the enormous and expensive 2011 set, "The Danny Elfman and Tim Burton 25th Anniversary Music Box." Only four totally new cues are added at the conclusion of the previously available commercial ordering of tracks, "Philipse's Death" easily the intellectual highlight despite being unpleasant. Also finally available on the set is the extended film version of "Main Titles," recorded in a different session and adding another minute to account for late changes to the film's final cut. The set's USB stick-only contents include a drab alternate version of "More Dreams" and an early demo of the themes for the score; even Elfman admits that there wasn't much of substance to add. No doubt, do not spend $500 on this limited, 2000-copy product for the sake of this score alone, despite its many strengths. Its less than spectacular personality and overbearing darkness keep it from being the kind of score worth cutting off someone's head in order to obtain. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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