Hello all,

I was just reading over the thread about copyright stuff, and it got me thinking. Is it possible to get a hold of original scores, for arrangement, such as a score for the movie, ";Dark Knight?"; I was looking online, surfing, and it seems all but impossible to find the actual music you hear behind the movie. It would be really cool to be able to get a hold of things like this, especially if your into arranging works and such.

Thanks Guys!

Let me know what you know. =]

I personally just transcribe the music from the recordings (after getting the appropriate permissions of course). But I do know that sometimes you can get reduced version of the scores for some movies.

This is something that I, too, have wondered.  There's so much film music that I love and I'd kill to own a copy of the score.

That said, sometimes you can find portions of it in concert band music.  A portion is better than nothing.  Try searching on JW Pepper.

If there is a particular piece you are looking for just to play around with for personal use, the thing I do is to search online for a midi file of the music. There are tons of sites which post midi versions of songs. From there just import the midi file into Sibelius or Finale and you'll have a good portion of the music. It usually requires at a fair bit of formatting, but in my opinion is a lot easier than trying to transcribe.

Obviously, if you want to arrange the piece and use it you would have to get the appropriate permissions.

My friend in college asked me about acquiring this as well.  I think it is an unusual request from a professor to ask for an original film score, but I bet there are ways to get it.  If all else fails, you can always try to contact the person who wrote it.  I know they may be some big shot, but you'd be surprised who checks their e-mail and voicemail.

I have used the MIDI thing before, for a lot of my ";messing around"; arrangements. It usually is okay.

Transcribing is something, IMO, that is very difficult. I struggle doing it with snare licks form DCI, let alone actual musical notes.

Transcribing or using the MIDI version will not render the actual score unless you are a genius and or somewhat lucky with scoring etc.

If you're just trying to arrange it for another instrument set, then transcribing or using the MIDI is fine though.

Does anyone know how to get a hold of certain peoples personal emails?

I know this is a difficult request, because many people would send spam and such to their composer of choice.

I'm trying to get a hold of Danny Elfman, because a Friend and me are arranging a drum line show for the first year of an ensemble we plan to start soon, and we would like to use: ";This is Halloween.";

Thanks

Well, generally with composers who have achieved such acclaim as Danny Elfman you will rarely deal with them directly. However, most composers are registered with either ASCAP or BMI, so going there and searching their database would be a good place to start. Elfman's stuff - for the most part - can all be found on BMI. The few exceptions are his recent symphonic works.

However, most likely you're going to be out of luck with regards to getting the rights to arrange that piece as it is from [i]Nightmare Before Christmas[/i], and the rights to that movie (and it's music) are held by Disney.  Disney it notorious for keeping pretty tight reigns on who they let arrange their music.  So unless you're arranging for one of the bigger publishers, you're probably out of luck - but it never hurts to try!
 

Do you know anything about his ";Serenda Schizophrenia"; ?

That would be a sweet drum-line show if done right.