Symphonic Universe

This past January, we played a film music concert, directed by Robert Ziegler, that featured primarily music from superhero films. This was a real career highlight for me! I say that in part because recording soundtracks is one of the things I miss the most from my years freelancing in Seattle, and it was a thrill to get to get back to performing this kind of music. Moreover, as I’ll detail in a moment, there was a personal family connection to some of the music on the program that made it particularly meaningful.

I have to begin by giving credit to my low brass group, which consisted of me, Anna Hjerrild Weitling, Joshua Blows, Samuel Taber, and Pernilla Brown. It was a true pleasure performing with these guys!

The set list consisted mostly of Marvel movies, but I thought I’d share audio clips from two different DC soundtracks, both from Batman movies. (These clips are live from the Alsion performance.) To start, here’s some music from Hans Zimmer’s Dark Knight Rises. One of the reasons I know I am meant to be an orchestral trombone player is that I find unique enjoyment and satisfaction in rehearsing and performing simple block chords with a low brass section. Although I am a sucker for loud octave melodies in a minor key over taiko drums as much as anyone, I find that, looking back on a performance like this, it’s the fine details of the kind of quiet section moments you can hear in the first minute and a half of this clip, that I end up regarding most fondly. I find it super rewarding to be a part of an ensemble-before-self mindset and a team effort. It’s why I’ve often favored ensemble playing over solo playing.

Next up we have Danny Elfman’s score to the 1989 Tim Burton classic Batman. This was the Batman movie of my youth. I remember seeing that film in the theater, and then sprinting home on my bicycle, inspired by all the themes I had just heard. There was a record store a few blocks from my house, and I found a cassette tape there of Elfman’s original soundtrack. I wore that tape out, going as far as dictating a lot of my favorite sections and writing a little arrangement for piano. My father was kind enough to sit down at the piano with me and play through it, giving me some ideas and encouragement for what I had written. We lost Dad last year, and this memory is one that I really cherish.

I’ll include two sections from the rather lengthy Batman suite we played in January, the first one being a delicate soft bit. One of the. . . challenges, let’s say. . . of playing first trombone is that you occasionally get something high and soft placed awkwardly in a program. So, although I am a big fan of Elfman’s Batman score, I was not really thrilled to see this lick in my part, which I would be asked to execute after a good hour of a mostly loud and aggressive progam:

Since it’s the focus of this website, I would like to describe my mental process in playing this little line, or at least what I was thinking about at the time. As I mentioned, I love the soundtrack, and it goes back to my years growing up in Kentucky. This source material is a pretty deep well to dip into emotionally. So, although the performance made me nervous, I was able to recognize the anxiety as being in striated, and then let myself feel the underlying passion for what I was playing. That sort of inoculated me against any unwanted or misplaced tension. (I come in at about 46 seconds in the clip.)

I thought that the ending of the Elfman Batman Suite was so satisfying to play that I would post it here. It also provides a chance for me to give a shout out to my brass colleagues in the orchestra, as well as the several very fine extra musicians included in the production. I am so proud of having been a part of that group!

This concert was a whole family affair, with my kids, big superhero fans themselves, in attendance. My youngest, Ingvar, came to the concert in Captain America cosplay, and Pernilla and I gave the orchestra permission to use his photo in their press materials. (He looks so serious b/c, like I said, he was in cosplay, answering only to Cap or Steve Rogers that evening.) Having my family there made the concert particularly special, and created a link between me as a boy, bicycling home, thrilled by Elfman’s score, my father, playing through my version for piano, and my kids, finding inspiration in this very same music. Our orchestra really did a great job producing the show, with lights and images, as well as bringing in Danish YouTuber Jørgen Bjørn as emcee. It was defintely one of my favorite weeks I’ve had at work.