Danny Elfman - Rabbit & Rogue (Original Ballet Score) '2016

Tracks list

If, like me, you thought that Danny Elfman’s Rabbit & Rogue looked like a
fashionable reboot of a Bugs Bunny cartoon, you might be tempted to write off
this score as self-indulgent and twee. But hear me out—

Rabbit & Rogue was the source material for a collection of short films that
premiered at the LA Film Festival just last month. Produced by Indi.com, the
Danny Elfman Project: Rabbit and Rogue was a contest inviting filmmakers to
create a short film to set to the score, in the same vein as Disney’s
Fantasia. Or Baby Driver. Submissions were judged by a star-studded panel, and
the winning pieces screened for LAFF’s 36,000-some-odd festival
attendees. The Limited Deluxe Edition was just released as an album this past
June, brought to life by the Berlin Session Orchestra with conductor Joris
Bartsch Buhle.

Rabbit & Rogue actually first premiered in 2008, as the six-movement score to a
ballet, commissioned for the American Ballet Theater and choreographed by Twyla
Tharp. The production was met with a few curmudgeonly responses (one New York
Times critic named it “irksome” and “relentless”) which,
okay, slow your roll. It’s a Danny Elfman score. Y’know, Danny
Elfman? The guy who wrote the score for The Simpsons, and Batman Returns, and
basically every Tim Burton movie ever? If you’re not here for whimsy,
then get up out my face. But to be honest, I had a hard time imagining this as a
ballet too. It’s just too cinematic (you can take the Danny Elfman outta
the film score…), which is likely the motivation behind repurposing this
piece for short films.

The “Intro” begins quietly with the percussion bubbling with a
nervous heartbeat, which sets into motion the fidgety, pent-up kinesthetic
energy that permeates the entire work. It opens gradually into a
spacious—though no less fidgety—storybook landscape, letting the
saxophone serve some serious Creation du Monde vibes before tumbling abruptly
into the second movement, “Frolic.”

At points, the second movement could be mistaken for a Looney Tunes score (that
xylophone tho). It evokes the sense that Rabbit is scampering through other
symphonic works: there’s a reference to a theme from Rite of
Spring’s third movement, a “Flight of the Bumblebee” nod in
one piano solo section, and this perfectly cheeky moment about nine minutes in,
where we are in full John Williamsy triumphant brass glory, then a
pause—just long enough to raise an eyebrow—then BAM we’re
doing a wild Charleston. It’s worth a listen just for the sonic scavenger
hunt alone.

You know what they say: The way to a new music snob’s heart is through
their gamelan. Admittedly, Rabbit & Rogue’s third movement,
“Gamelan,” bears dubious resemblance to any traditional gamelan, but
still it’s pretty magical. The beginning of this movement reprises the
fluttery rabbit-heartbeat from the “Intro” (Are you trying to pass
off the Berlin Session Orchestra’s xylophones as gamelan, Danny? Tell the
truth…). The movement later leans hard into standard box office film score
territory: sweeping, no-surprises-here anthems that remind you of the VHS tapes
you watched and re-watched as a kid. If any one movement is dangling
precariously close to preciousness, it’s this one. One might rebut,
though, that, in a ballet about the adventures of a bunny, a little preciousness
might be forgiven.

I won’t spoil the rest, but suffice it to say that Elfman continues this
Macaulay Culkin-meets-Milhaud-meets-Mel-Blanc remix all the way through the
Finale. Does this mean that Rabbit & Rogue essentially is, in fact, a
fashionable reboot of a Bugs Bunny cartoon? Okay, yes. But who cares? The value
in this piece is in its marriage of smartypants in-jokes and blockbuster
soundtrack accessibility.

If, like me, you spend a fair amount of time wrestling for common ground with
friends and family who “just don’t GET classical music,” this
is precisely the kind of music that serves our cause. This kind of
you-got-new-music-in-my-film-score/you-got-film-score-in-my-new-music mashup
allows us to offer “If you liked that, you might enjoy this John Adams;
this Charles Ives; this Conlon Nancarrow,” and before you know it, you and
Uncle Craig are blasting Pierrot Lunaire from his truck like it’s no big
deal.

As classical music people, our biggest image problem is in being perceived as
too serious. Rabbit & Rogue helpfully reminds us to lighten up, lol at
Elfman’s musical jokes, and for goodness’ sake, watch some
cartoons.

Tracklist:
01. Danny Elfman - Intro
02. Danny Elfman - Frolic
03. Danny Elfman - Gamelan
04. Danny Elfman - Rag
05. Danny Elfman - Lyric

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