"The Simpsons Theme" (Score Reduction & Analysis)

[@underscorepodcast5688]

Just wanted to say I'm in awe of your channel. The quality and musicality of your engraving/analysis is superb and is potentially the most substantive musical analysis I've come across on film cues. Keep up the wonderful work!

[@bradfrey]

Thank you so much! Just watched your Stranger Things rescore the other day... you did a great job with that! :)

[@underscorepodcast5688]

FilmScoreAnalysis many thanks! If at all interested, we host a weekly podcast on film music with more of a musicological/theory emphasis (including supplemental score excerpts, etc). Thanks again for the great channel. Cheers,

[@DavidLovrien]

Many versions of the bari sax solo show up in different episodes/seasons, but this version (Season 1?) actually uses a tenor sax (up an octave from what's written).

[@JoshFreilich]

Or is that an alto?

[@ingwerschorle_]

@@JoshFreilich that sounds like a tenor's middle register

[@richardhembree2058]

@@JoshFreilich Definitely not an alto.

[@dukeofrodtown1705]

@@JoshFreilich Not an alto - that's a tenor sax

[@jobrodriguez3016]

Elfman is from other world, I love his creations

[@MaxTooney]

OK, I'm "schooled." Didn't realize Elfman wrote this score. I always learn something (many things, actually) watching your analyses. Thanks for your efforts. This has to be incredibly time-consuming.

[@marcellogobbi]

Discovering your Channel is a Christmas gift. Wonderful work!

[@Vini087z]

I am GEEKING OUT!!! This is like pop up video but for music theory!! lol... Thank you so much for all your hard work!!! As a kid I was always fascinated and with what those 16th note runs were!! I finally know they're lydian dom scales! lol

[@samuelconnolly347]

I knew about the tritone cluster in the opening vocals, but for some reason I'd never realised it was in lydian. It seems obvious now, but I've never really associated lydian with comedy. I think the cleverness of Elfman shows in just how well it works in such an upbeat, fun score. It's incredible how organic-sounding all those key signature changes are. Just such a good example of a piece of music that's really quite complex not sounding too show-offy.

[@rollomaughfling380]

Never associated Lydian with comedy? JETSONNNNNNN!!!!

[@dushdy7160]

This channel is a really great and compact presentation of information I'd otherwise need a lot more time for extracting or transcribing, especially given how hard it is to decipher orchestral scores. I Should try to practice this on my own anyways :) Great choice with The Simpsons theme too. It's always been a chaotic but beautiful sounding mystery to me. Is there any chance to get maybe pdf versions of the sheet music with your annotations? Would make a great and handy quick reference :) Do you really transcribe all these big chord voicings that are often spread all over the instrumentation by ear? I can imagine hearing these on piano or guitar, but it must be quite challenging to get the right voicings of an orchestral setting.

[@NovaVortex193]

Those violins when marge honks the horn make me happy for some reason

[@chucollin]

dude this is a complex score. Seriously, those who are composition professors. Learn from this. Don't just say you know everything you are good enough to break in and do the same, you really don't. I am so tired of so many professors saying this. I know some can, but many of them don't.

[@盧長劍]

Which professors are you talking about? How many have you met? This is a very odd comment.

[@Halberds8122]

That's like saying that you can't analyse _A Tale of Two Cities_ because it was written by Charles Dickens!

[@florianraepke188]

Good job again. :) I think the C7 -> B7 in bar 11/12 can also be explained by tritone substitution of the dominant. So instead of F#7(b9#11) -> B7 he just uses C7

[@bradfrey]

Totally, I'd say that's a much better explanation than what I wrote there. I completely overlooked the rest of that chord in context... Thank you! :)

[@james_subosits]

Yeah this is one of those fancy "augmented 6th" chords that you talk about in theory class and tend to forget about

[@musical_lolu4811]

It's all the same to me.

[@DisRespectoids]

Fun fact - the analysis in measure 12 of the theme is wrong - the technical name of that chord is not C7, but C augmented 6, used contrapunctally to modulate to the V7 of the origional key (traditionally in sonata form in classical music), which is what normally happens when you hear that color and see it written as a sharp 6th rather than flattened 7th.

[@TheUKNutter]

0:57 I don’t think that’s an Eb Lydian Dominant. I think that’s just a pivot chord to the B Lydian Dominant later

[@felipepatino6804]

this is amazing, very thanks you!

[@treypoling]

If the views for this video are going up a lot its probably me. I'm writing a song for a class that's like in the style of the simpsons theme so I'm rewatching this so much

[@chrisridenhour]

This could have been the only thing Elfman ever wrote and he would still be a very rich man :)

[@fingersfingersthumb]

Your videos are gold

[@MyXAHOB]

This is was amazing Thank you a lot

[@btf_flotsam478]

There's a few things I think are slightly wrong about how it is transcribed; I think there's a glockenspiel rather than a harp at bar 8, for example, and there's definitely an xylophone or something at bar 16 (it's more noticeable at the start of the notes; no wind or bowed string instrument can punch a note out as instantly as that).

[@calvinnigh5489]

He’s done dozens of great scores, but it’s because of ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Batman (89)’ that this man is one of the greatest of all time.

[@adrianschagerl4486]

I would say a lot of percussion, but for an Elfman score it's underplayed😂 But seriously, I love this theme.

[@tempestsp]

Awesome score. Though the 2/4 measure on the first page isn't really in the recording.

[@베니-u9b]

incredible job! you and Elf both!! Thanks a LLLLLot..

[@JoyandStrawberry]

You did a great job! Thank you so much. Though I have a question. In measure 27, there is also G# in 2nd Horn. I think this is also "Wrong Note". Why did you except this One? Did you consider this note as a fifth from Bass Db?

[@ivanrangga]

Great analysis! Should've discovered your channel earlier!

[@pedroplays3090]

Awesome Awesome Channel

[@Daruqe]

Why do some film/TV scores like this use synth for acoustic instruments? Like there's a lot of synth pizz violins in this but there's a violin section available. I've seen it in Nightmare Before Christmas and Phantom of the Opera too.

[@evilclownattack]

Was this transcribed by ear? Or did you actually manage to find the original score?

[@JeZe-i9b]

evilclownattack I really want to know answer of this

[@evilclownattack]

@@JeZe-i9b Right? It's so accurate and so specific as to what instruments are playing. Also the fact that it transcribes the Alf Clausen arrangement instead of the Danny Elfman arrangement (the one we are hearing) suggests that it wasn't done by ear; the author found the Alf Clausen score but not the recording. Either way I really want to know where to find original Hollywood scores lol

[@brandonguimbellot7734]

evilclownattack I believe the guy has access to lots of Hollywood scores and does reductions via scored rather than transcribing.

[@musical_lolu4811]

Original score.

[@typo1345]

Could you do The Boat Arrives from the 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? It would be really appreciated!

[@mitchlg531]

Where do you find all of these film scores? I'm trying to find some Star Wars film scores.

[@mydogskips2]

Sheet music plus has many modern day film scores for sale I believe, but they are a tad expensive. And if you want Star Wars scores, at least to see them, there are a few channels that provide that here on YT.

[@Daruqe]

Is q = 155 what it says on the original score? 'Cause the recording is much faster.

[@andrewm6244]

OH MY GOD HOW DO ONLY HERE THE NINO ROTA NOW?!?!

[@zoltan902]

Kudos!

[@goodmanmusica]

Is a good piece but The inizial “motto” is “Maria” by Bernstein, and the principal theme comes in part from Brahms piano trio op.8.

[@elijahvaldivia3729]

That was a tenor sax

[@oskarhrankowski]

Why video is locked?

[@ruboc-musica]

Oskar's Music same for Me

[@bradfrey]

Are you trying to watch on a mobile device? The copyright claimant seems to have put a viewing restriction on some mobile devices. Other than that, there shouldn't be any other restrictions.

[@sonicmastersword8080]

Season ones is the best most defined.

[@jotaerreito]

Bradfrey: Very very good job!! Please listen to this version without the wrong notes from school: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKXXpKdvmaxpgdE The E Major in bar 29 is my favorite moment. Also bar 27, where I think I hear C/Db

[@mydogskips2]

OMG, while I was watching your videos on Star Wars and Pirates yesterday I was thinking how great it would be to have something by Danny Elfman, and now this, fantastic. If I may, I'd ask if you could do something from Edward Scissorhands, Batman and/or Spiderman.

[@bradfrey]

There will definitely be some analysis videos of those scores in the future! :)

[@alecwoodruffmusic]

Hey theory question here, maybe someone can tell me what exactly I'm missing here: In measure 5 of the pizz line (second from the bottom) why is it that E# and F are both written out to be played within the same chord? E# and F being enharmonically identical, that doesn't make sense to write it out that way to me. I'm guessing there is a reason because this was obviously written by a pro, but I can't think of why that would be written that way.

[@brandonguimbellot7734]

There is neither E# nor F in said measure. I believe you're misreading the accidental which should be applied to F and not E, i.e. the notes are E and F#. It's more so a C(#4) voicing as opposed to a C(b5) voicing which is what the sheet music has labeled via chord symbol.

[@richardhembree2058]

You are misreading it. The # is on the F, not the E.

[@petergainsford4339]

Thanks for the analysis. It's easy to hear The Jetsons in this, but looking at the score, and the incessant alternating between instruments to a quaver beat, makes me think of Prokofiev: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6PJnZhurLiqgK8 (v fast recording), kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3XTgpushLZgerc (slower)

[@lennonpie9946]

Crack Elfman!