An Introduction to America’s Music

CHAPTER 20 | CDS, MTV, AND POP SPECTACLE 503

timing section comments

0:00 slow Low-register French horns softly intone the fi ve-note minor-mode “Bat-theme”

twice over an almost inaudible tonic pedal point in the basses; irregular rhythm

obscures any sense of meter.

0:12 English horn enters with a more rhythmically stable version of the Bat-theme in

canon with the French horns. Glockenspiel ( bells) plays a repeating four-note

descending fi gure derived from the Bat-theme, establishing a duple meter.

0:19 A distant bass-drum stroke and growing volume from the lower instruments,

playing the Bat-theme in canon, set an ominous tone.

0:40 The crescendo reaches its peak as the Bat-theme is extended by one note, a “tail”

that resolves chromatically to a new, unexpected chord, the fi rst departure from

the sustained tonic triad; the entrance of a pipe organ heightens the gothic mood.

0:47 march Return to the tonic as brass establish an urgent march tempo, much faster than

the preceding.

0:50 French horns, then woodwinds, transform the Bat-theme into a march; a sudden

drop down a whole step is signaled by a trumpet fanfare.

1:01 Another drop of a whole step, as strings and low brass introduce a new, more

sustained version of the Bat-theme; falling arpeggios drop the key down a

further half step.

1:13 The key lurches downward a major third.

1:20 lyrical

development

At the gong stroke, the tempo increases, but the volume decreases and the

martial rhythm falls away; modulation down a perfect fi fth. A series of canonic

statements of the Bat-theme from low to high, ending with the chromatic tail

fi rst heard at 0:40.

1:39 At the second statement of the chromatic tail, shift to remote key a tritone away.

1:45 A pair of statements of the Bat-theme include the chromatic tail, harmonized

with a dissonance reminiscent of Tchaikovsky.

1:58 The second dissonance resolves unconventionally, with a modulation up a whole

step. A new idea alternates two chords, with an upper-register accompaniment

fi gure derived from the Bat-theme.

date: 1989

performers: Sinfonia of London; Shirley

Walker, conductor

genre: fi lm music

meter: changing

form: through-composed

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

• scored for traditional symphony
  orchestra


• unifi ed by fi ve-note “Bat-theme”


• emphasis on minor keys, frequent
  downward modulations

CD 4.6 Listening Guide 20.1 Title music from Batman DANNY ELFMAN

(continued)

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