''Serenada Schizophrana'' is a suite of six symphonic movements written by American film composer
Danny Elfman in 2004. It was commissioned by the
American Composers Orchestra, which premiered the work at
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
on February 23, 2005, conducted by Stephen Sloane. A studio recording was released on October 3, 2006, with
John Mauceri conducting the
Hollywood Studio Symphony orchestra. Album art was done by
George Condo.
The music was used in the soundtrack for the 2006
IMAX
IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...
film ''
Deep Sea 3D''. The movements "Pianos" and "Blue Strings" were adapted for the soundtrack to
Errol Morris's 2008 documentary ''
Standard Operating Procedure
A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a set of step-by-step instructions compiled by an organization to help workers carry out routine operations. SOPs aim to achieve efficiency, quality output, and uniformity of performance, while reducing mis ...
'', for which Elfman also composed the full music score.
The work is Elfman's first major
classical composition.
Movements
The series consists of 6
movements, running approximately 42 minutes:
# Pianos
# Blue Strings
# A Brass Thing
# The Quadruped Patrol
# "I Forget"
# Bells and Whistles
The 2006 recording also consists of two extra tracks following the work: "End Tag" and "Improv for Alto Sax". The tracks are respectively listed as the seventh track and a
bonus track.
The movement "I Forget" features
Spanish lyrics by Claudia Brant and Livia Corona sung by female solo voice and chorus.
Instrumentation
''Serenada Schizophrana'' is scored for the following large orchestra and chorus:
[Elfman, Danny. Serenada Schizophrana. New York: G. Schirmer Inc.]
*
Woodwinds: four
flute
The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
s (second doubling
alto flute, third doubling
piccolo), three
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites.
The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...
s (third doubling
English horn), three
clarinet
The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell.
Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...
s in B-flat (first doubling
clarinet in E-flat, second doubling
bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common Soprano clarinet, soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays no ...
in B-flat, third doubling bass clarinet in B-flat and
alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...
in E-flat), three
bassoons (third doubling
contrabassoon)
*
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...
: six
horns in F, three
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
s in B-Flat (first doubling
piccolo trumpet), three
trombones (third doubling
bass trombone), one bass trombone (doubling
contrabass trombone), one
tuba (doubling
cimbasso)
*
Percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
(6 players):
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...
,
snare drum, two
bass drums,
tambourine,
vibraphone,
xylophone,
wood blocks (piccolo, high, and low),
cymbals (crash, Chinese, suspended,
hi-hat),
tubular bells,
temple blocks,
shakers (metal, rattlesnake, wood),
glockenspiel
The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...
,
claves,
tom-toms, two
marimbas
*
Keyboards: two
piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
s (second doubling
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
), one synthesizer
*
Strings: a
harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...
, fourteen first and twelve second
violin
The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
s, eight
violas, eight
violoncellos, six
double bass
The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...
es
*
Voices (in "The Quadruped Patrol" and "I Forget" only): two women's
chorus (SSA)
Composition
In the liner notes for the 2006 CD recording, Elfman writes: "I began composing several dozen short improvisational compositions, maybe a minute each. Slowly, some of them began to develop themselves until finally I had six separate movements that, in some abstract, absurd way, felt connected."
He goes on to list the following influences for ''Serenada Schizophrana'' and his work in general:
Bernard Herrmann,
Nino Rota,
Dimitri Tiomkin,
Max Steiner,
Erich Korngold,
Sergei Prokofiev,
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...
,
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...
,
Dmitri Shostakovich,
Carl Orff,
Kurt Weill,
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life.
Born and raised in Washington, D ...
,
Harry Partch and
Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
.
Reception
Both the 2005 premiere and subsequent 2006 recording of ''Serenada Schizophrana'' received favorable response from critics. After the premiere performance, ''The New York Times'' called the piece "music that works. With six movements, rolling piano solos (by Christopher Oldfather) and the charming hoots and chirps of eight female voices (the ACO Singers under Judith Clurman), Mr. Elfman gave us music comfortable in its own world and highly professional in its execution... The composer of this piece has an ear for symphonic colors and how to balance them."
''
Film Score Monthly'' hailed the CD release as "a freewheeling six-movement composition for full orchestra that forever teeters between the worlds of scowling academia and impish rebellion... perfectly balanced... ''Serenada Schizophrana'' sparkles with orchestral color and energy..."
Soundtrack.Net called it "a musical roller coaster ride through various little set pieces and landscapes, containing at times the orchestral majesty of Elfman's early career, his minimalist phase, and his more recent bouts of complex overlapping constructions and controlled dissonance."
[Jarry, Jonathan]
"Serenada Shizophrana: Review"
Soundtrack.Net, October 6, 2006.
References
External links
*
ttps://www.scoringsessions.com/news/100/ A photo essay of the recording sessions
{{Authority control
2006 albums
Danny Elfman albums
Albums produced by Danny Elfman
Compositions by Danny Elfman