ELFMAN, DANNY  BIOGRAPHY

Danny Elfman, born in 1956, was a composer and multi-instrumentalist in his brother Richard's performance art / new-wave rock band The Mystic Knights of Oinga Boinga (progressive shortenings of the name left only the last word before dissolution in 1995). One of his biggest influences is Bernard Herrmann, as reflected in the driving rhythms and dark, glittering orchestration of Spider-Man (2002). Elfman has scored several comic-book adaptations and sees Spider-Man as an "American" score, in contrast to the more Prokofiev-like Batman (1989). For this concert piece, the Main Title leads into a ghostly Farewell before a brief restatement of the main title.