Spider-Man 2: Four Years in the Making
Our forthcoming release of Spider-Man 2 might be our biggest yet. The film is widely regarded as a genre classic, and Danny Elfman’s score is one of his most popular. When we began this project in February 2022 we had no idea how much demand there would be. Nor did we foresee how many setbacks the production would throw at us. We’ve endured messy source material, a hurricane, several family tragedies, and various shifting priorities. It was the easiest score for us to license yet the most challenging to prepare. Add all of that on top of the sheer volume of music to engrave, nearly 900 pages, and you have quite a daunting task! We have received frequent inquiries asking for the release date of this title and had to implore people to remain patient. Thankfully, the finish line is near.
As with the production of our edition of Beetlejuice, Neumation Music has been working closely with Danny Elfman’s team since day one of work on Spider-Man 2. Danny’s lead orchestrator, Steve Bartek, has been consulted on a regular basis and insights from Edgardo Simone were invaluable until his untimely passing in 2024. We think it would be of interest to share some behind the scenes information about this project.
To our surprise, no one had a true complete set of manuscripts. Copies had to be sourced from various orchestrators, libraries, and archives. Sony Pictures could not locate original score assets, meaning that the orchestra parts and complete pencil scores are MIA. To make things more complicated, the score has extensive revisions and no single copy included all of them. Some revised cues were recorded, some were abandoned in-progress. As a result, we had to compile our reference material from a variety of sources. Thankfully, we had access to the session masters to confirm what was recorded and what was not.
orchestrator holograph score, 5M7 The Fire, mm. 77-80.
Important to note is that this score contains extensive MIDI, pre-recordings, and sampled percussion, much of which was improvised in the composer’s studio early in the composition process. They were not notated in the scores nor ever intended to be notated at all.
As is typical of Danny’s composition process, he often begins a cue by improvising percussion parts and composing around them. In an interview recorded by Adam Weissler in 2002, Danny explained his process, “Everything gets mocked up with samples in the demo…that’s all me playing, including guitars. I play all the parts…All the percussion and things you’re hearing will stay. But all the orchestra will disappear, and it’ll all get replaced.” As such, many cues were built around his custom percussion samples and loops. There is no notated music for dozens of pre-recorded tracks and often no MIDI. Over the years, Danny recorded samples of various drums, special metal instruments, and custom drum loops. Samples and loops heard in Spider-Man 2 didn’t necessarily originate there. For example, the bongos heard in 1M1 Main Title originated from a bongo player nicknamed “Bongo Billy” who recorded it for Danny at his studio around the time Mars Attacks! (1997) was being scored. Other percussion parts, such as glockenspiel, have hybrid parts consisting of both samples and live performances with the orchestra. Danny also used custom string samples for certain special effects such as col legno. Synthesizers used include the Waldorf Q, Waldorf XT, a rackmount Emulator 4, Roland JV series (1080 and 3080), and a desktop Virus. He also used a variety of Giga samples and Absynth. All of these tracks were recorded by Danny in Digital Performer.
Upon consultation with the composer’s team, we present our edition of the score as-written.
Transcriptions, especially of this magnitude, are outside the scope of what we feel is necessary for inclusion in an orchestral score. The parts were neither notated nor ever intended to be performed again. If we had chosen to include these parts, we would be facing major logistical difficulties that make their inclusion impossible—they literally will not fit on the page. An intricate, densely orchestrated score like Spider-Man 2 is already a challenge to condense to fit a 9x12 inch page, and adding a dozen or more staves of transcribed parts is just not feasible.
We hope this article clarifies some of the intrigue behind Danny Elfman’s exceptional score and hope to get the book into your hands by the end of the year.