De La Tour des Héros.
Version originale
Notre traduction ayant éventuellement pu s'éloigner de la version originale, voici pour les anglophones les témoignages des compositeurs tels qu'ils nous sont parvenus.
Lolita Ritmanis
"Batman: The Animated Series" - wonderful memories of a truly amazing series. The entire team behind this show created something groundbreaking. It was a great honor to have been chosen by the late, great Shirley Walker to be on her team. I was just starting out in the business as a composer, having earned my living up until then primarily as an orchestrator on feature films as well as working on the Warner Bros. Studios lot on a regular basis in the music library -doing an array of jobs, everything from proofreading parts, to orchestrating on noteworthy films, and even ghost writing in a few instances. As part of Shirley's inner circle I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to score a solo episode early in the process. That episode was "It's Never Too Late." Although there were an array of contrasting episodes that were assigned to me throughout the series, my first episode is most likely my favorite! I guess there is nothing like "the first." The tone of the episode required a bit of a film noir approach. It was very dark- moody - gangsters that I chose to highlight with a hint of jazz harmony! Every episode had it's charm. The real magic happened on the scoring stage where we were fortunate to work with LosAngeles top studio musicians. Their expertise brought our music to life. I congratulate everyone at Warner Bros who were a part of this remarkable series, with special thanks to Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, Eric Radomski, Jean MacCurdy, Tom Ruegger and Paul Dini. With the green light from Doug Frank (who was a key executive in charge of music at Warner Bros. at the time) these producers put their trust in Shirley Walker. They allowed her the freedom to create an atmosphere of creative expression amongst all of the composers that were blessed to be working on this series, with of course Shirley paving the way for all of us with her musical brilliance. Thanks to all the fans out there. Your support has meant so much to me personally over the years.
Michael McCuistion
"'Off Balance' was a terrific episode to be involved with. We happened to have the wonderful flute player Steve Kujala on the recording session, and he has the amazing ability to play the flute with fully smooth portamento between notes. Knowing this, and being assigned most of the scenes that featured the character Vertigo, I was able to write some motifs featuring Steve's unique flute playing that really evoked the feeling of being disoriented and suspended in anti-gravity - a terrific complement to Vertigo's powers. Combined with Mark Koval's darkly appropriate music for the other scenes, it turned out to be a very memorable episode."
"'Christmas With The Joker' was one of the very first episodes that Shirley decided to split between several composers. Shirley wrote some cues and then divided the rest of the show between myself and Lolita Ritmanis, and I ended up with most of the source cues. Naturally when Shirley told me that she wanted me to do a Joker-style version of The Nutcracker Suite I was absolutely delighted! I originally did a more straight-ahead approach with the orchestration, but when I showed it to Shirley she said "Well, this is fine, and it certainly would work, but it's the Joker - so go ahead and really amp up the Batman feeling as the piece progresses!" And so I went back and added progressively more of the "Batman sound" to the cue so that when it ends it's really bombastic. What a fun ride!"
Mark Koval
BTAS was one of the most enjoyable shows I have ever worked on. The musical language of the show was much more sophisticated and mature when compared to other animated shows. It gave the composers a great opportunity to be creative and step outside the boundaries of "typical cartoon music". And the Batman Orchestra was phenomenal. It was always so impressive to hear them read down a cue and then do a perfect take. Los Angeles has some of the world's best musicians!
I especially enjoyed composing the score for the episode called "Night of the Ninja". This was a particularly interesting episode as it highlighted some of Batman's inner fears. The show featured flashbacks to his days in Japan, studying martial arts and wrestling with his struggle to be "good enough". I think super-heroes are most fascinating when we learn about their innermost weaknesses. The score was laced with Japanese influences and we were very lucky to have a shakuhachi master perform on the score.
There was a great camaraderie among the composers who worked on BTAS. I enjoyed all my collaborations and Shirley Walker was a great mentor and teacher. We were all very lucky to have known her and learned from her.
Kristopher Carter
"Batman TAS began airing when I was in college at the University of North Texas. I was instantly a fan of the groundbreaking visual style, excellent voice acting, and of course the wonderful music that Shirley, Michael, Lolita and the other composers created for the series. Almost every time it was on television in the common room of my dorm I could be found watching it, and my friends and I eagerly anticipated every new episode. When I graduated from college and Shirley invited me to join her team—first orchestrating and then finally writing on the series—it was like a dream come true for a young composer! Shirley was the most amazing mentor, and I cherish all the time I was privileged to work under her and grow as a film composer. Even after all this time, I still consider my writing on BTAS some of the most meaningful work of my career."
Todd Hayen
I had been progressing relatively well with my composing career when I was asked by my agent to send Shirley Walker a demo tape (yes, it was "tape" back then!) of a recent project I did for Marvel Productions, they were trying to capitalize on the then rather popular Siegfried and Roy tiger show in Las Vegas and had developed an animated series with Siegfried and Roy as superheroes. The score I composed for the pilot was "action adventure" and seemed appropriate for the new Batman Series. Needless to say this particular series never materialized. After my submission, I soon got a call from Shirley and was invited to a BTAS recording session at Warners. I was excited to go but it wasn't quite what I was looking for at the time…there were about 20 or so composers there, all believing they were going to be the next Shirley Walker "partner"…it seemed like a cattle call to me, and I was a bit turned off. But the show I saw being scored to picture was amazing, and Shirley, although rather intimidating with her massive experience and talent, was someone that I sincerely wanted to attempt to impress! I went home wondering what would come of it all and soon was being asked to orchestrate, then compose a few cues, and was ultimately scoring solo episodes. Shirley had narrowed her team down to a handful of composers, all of which were incredibly talented, and I was quite lucky to be one of them. Although I had started out thinking I had been "progressing relatively well" in my career when I started working for Shirley, I soon realized how much I had to learn from my fellow BTAS composers, and Shirley's amazing talent, patience, and musical passion. I don't think I have ever met a more dedicated composer, one with such awesome talent, but also so humble in the presence of the great musicians we had the opportunity to work with. It was all a great experience and I am very proud to have been included in this one of a kind Hollywood experience.
