notes from score - batman vs the circus

Question 1

general

Answer 1

• structure completly dictated by medium on screen
• unlike bernard herrman (eg 4 bar sequences)
• worked with hitchcock more - more etc in modern edits

Question 2

opening

Answer 2

• begins with extreme B pedal - wide texture over 6 octaves (as seen in BoaP1)
• batman theme played in brass b 3, imitated in woodwind b 4&5
• celeste & harp - repeated arpeggiated motif (as seen in BoaP)
• Emin chord played b 10

Question 3

bat signal

Answer 3

• C#maj chord played fro 2 bars tutti as bruce wayne stands in front of bat signal - link to BoaP2 (min 3rd down from Emin) - previously key of Bbmin - Cmaj, here key of Bmin - C#maj - brighter
• Emin-C#maj chords repeated in following bars

Question 4

scene change after bat signal - back to ‘circus’

Answer 4

• detailed articulation - very staccato/accents
• muted trumpets
• trombone semiquavers add humourous feel (low-sounding with addition of tuba)
• horns stopped (nasal sound)
• texture - through-composed nature - often switching from very high to very low
• b 18 - frequent use of syncopation - lose sense of rhythm until b 26
• frequent changes of metre
• b 25 - high ascending gliss in strings up to G (sfz) against held Ab - dissont - referencing phycho - shows influence of herrman

Question 5

dog etc

Answer 5

• more percussive eg with use of temple blocks
• arppeggiated melody styles (doubled in different octaves in pieno & xylophone)
• varied ostinato figures
• still diatonic but loses ‘diatonic flavour’ - unrelated chords
• detailed dynamic markings
• b 39 strings immitate horns
• b 42 - horn glissandos (sfz) like hunting horn - Jerry Goldsmith ‘Planet of the Apes’ - ‘The Hunt’
• b 43 - harp ascending & descending glissandos using whole tone scale - almost referencing harp gliss in
  vertigo when he looks down