Use Cimbalom to Signify Light-hearted London Crime Stories in Your Movie Soundtracks

Stumbled on this promo video for a new score from Benjamin Wallfisch for some upcoming movie that is apparently some sort of London-based caper movie.

Now I'm a big fan of Wallfisch's Blade Runner score so this is not a value judgement- but I couldn't help but notice WTF is a Cimbalom doing in that big band.

I mean I like big-band cimbalom playing as much as the next guy but it is truly a bizarre musical association that this instrument has come to signify "light-hearted-London-based-crime-capers."

Well maybe it's not THAT weird. It's perhaps meant to signify something even more specific: the general "violent-yet-devil-may-care-comedy-machismo" of a Guy Ritchie film. In fact we can trace this associative meaning of the Cimbalom directly back to Guy Ritchie's 2009 Sherlock Holmes - music by of course Hans Zimmer. I say "of course" because I don't know if Hans invents these things or not (can one "invent" a cliché?) but he certainly has a knack for latching-on and adopting these film-score trends right at the beginning (witness the debate over who invented the low-brass BWAAAAA or the "minor-thirds-on-low-strings-means-spies" clichés- perhaps signifiers worthy of another post- but either way Hans or his disciples are always right on the forefront of these things).

This was picked-up either explicitly or subconsciously for the BBC Sherlock Holmes series (music by David Arnold and Michael Price). Now we had a modern setting of the Cimbalom in London crime stories.

Now let's be clear the Cimbalom has very little historical basis in Victorian London, although Dulcimer instruments are prevalent in various Celtic music traditions from the British Isles. In fact, its primary pre-Sherlock-Holmes association would be to that of various Gypsy-music traditions or other "folk musics," specifically and primarily out of Hungary and Central-Europe. I'm not sure a sophisticated Victorian like Sherlock Holmes would have ever heard the instrument.

I've been trying to find a precursor to the Zimmer use of the Cimbalom in a similar context. Any leads are welcome.

Meantime, watch this:

Batman Soundtrack Update

As I mentioned before in my last post, La-La Land Records has released a complete, anniversary re-issue of the original Batman motion picture soundtrack by Danny Elfman. Well, now that I have it, I can confirm your suspicion: it's pretty much the dorkiest thing ever. But I stand by the awesomeness of the music.

Original BATMAN SOUNDTRACK full score release

Finally, after the world has been waiting- ney- demanding action on this important issue for over twenty years, after all those protests and angry letters and boycotts, action has been taken. And I'm not referring to the return of Futurama. No, I'm referring to something much more dramatic. As previewed at Comic Con this year in San Diego- that ridiculous mecca for all things nerdy that may also involve comics somehow- the unbelievably small record label LA-LA Land Records will release a two CD set of the Original Danny Elfman score to the original Batman, you know, the one starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Today, supposedly. July 27th.


The 2-CD set will feature the COMPLETE movie score, remastered, and the complete original score album remastered with a bunch of extras thrown in. And they are only going to press 5,000 copies, making this an extremely limited collectors album. I know, it's hard to believe. But how cool will you be if you own one of those 5,000 copies? It's like you'll be in a super awesome secret society with only 5,000 other people. There can be secret handshakes and everything, like you're finally in that fraternity that you didn't want to be in anyways. Suffice to say, with this soundtrack, your parties will never be the same.

Actually, I list this because the point of my blog (and I can't go a blog post without a meta-reference to the fact that I'm writing a blog) is to talk about obscure but deserving musical achievements of all genres, and this definitely qualifies on both fronts. Though the actual movie soundtrack is not obscure at all- indeed, it is something of a cultural icon- this album release surely is. And it is well worth checking out.

Elfman detractors aside (and they still exist, mainly in cushy academic jobs where they have plenty of time to be bitter that they are not Danny Elfman), this is a pretty seminal musical achievement. And nobody, from what I can tell, debates that this isn't a great soundtrack. They just argue that he didn't write it or something, though they weren't there, but they knew a guy who knows somebody who worked for Shirley Walker or something. This argument makes no sense on so many levels that I would have to make up a really creative new metaphor to explain my exasperation with it. Leaving aside that it is hard to say just who writes what on any movie score, even those by academically acceptable composers, let's just say I know a guy who knows some people that work for Danny Elfman, and- oh, who the hell cares. It's great music. It's the end product that counts. And it makes you want to put on a cape and mask and brood. And make uber-dramatic poses.

Like all good music should.

Available (from what I can tell) only from the La La Land record label directly.