Historien bag [url= i begyndelsen[/url] af "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm":

For the main title sequence, which combined chorus and orchestra, Shirley Walker had the vocalists sing the names of her collaborators backwards:

Walker: Well, what I did is... it comes from the fact that, frequently, music people are the last people to enter as new workers on a film. Even sound effects start before the orchestra, the orchestrators, and all of those people who create the score. A lot of times they're so close to the printing process, striking their prints of the film, that the people just don't get the credit they should. It was something that had really, really annoyed me for quite some time, and I thought, "You know what? I'm going to do something about this." So I came up with this idea. I wrote out all of my orchestrators, and I think I put the music contractor in there, too -- Patti Zimmitti. And Tom Milano, my music editor -- "O nal im mot"...

And then I thought, wow, this is really turning out to be fun! I'd better put some of the film people in -- the animators, they're going to be annoyed that they got left out! I put in Bruce Timm and Doug Frank... I don't think I put Jean MacCurdy in... and then I made a chart for myself. I wrote out all of the names, and I divided them into syllables. I had two-syllable names, one-syllable names, three, four, five, etc. So as I was going along in the flow of the music-writing, I thought, "Okay, I need three syllables here," or whatever. It had nothing to do with any linear, textual concept... it was just, how many syllables do I need at this point?

Then I get this call from Doug Frank, because of course they have to clear all this kind of stuff. They'd had a bad experience with somebody... I don't know if they put swear language in backward, or they did a Morse code that said "F-ck you," or whatever studio it was... you know, all that kind of stuff that film people try to get away with.

So he said, "Shirl, I need to talk to you about those...what are those lyrics gonna be, that the choir's gonna sing?" And I just lied to him. I said, "Oh, Doug, it's a very obscure, ancient choral language. It really isn't even used anymore... but it's just, you know, it has the right feel. I think it'll sound really cool." And he was, "Okay, fine." He didn't ask me to send anyone in their research department anything for them to look at.

So we're recording the score, and Carlos Rodriguez, who is - he did some of the Batman cartoons, but he's also really an extremely talented concert composer. And Carlos is there, on the scoring stage, and he's lingering, kind of lingering around some of the scores. Then he comes up to me in a break, and he says, "You didn't do what I think you did, did you?" And then he pointed to the lyrics. And I said, "Shhh! Don't tell anybody... I don't want anybody to know this."

The hardest part was the choral recording, because it was really hard for them to sing that stuff! It was very... it didn't have proper resonance, and it made it very difficult for the singers. I kept it hidden and everything. And then we're mixing - Bobby, my mixer, his name got in there, too: Bobby Fernandez - and Tom Milano and I are slaving away, mixing the sound, getting the mixes done.

And I kept telling Bob, "You know, Bob, this is the first choir that I've gotten to do and I want to have some for my sample reel. So whenever we have a choral cue, would you please just roll it off onto a DAT for me? And then I can have that just a capella for my sample reel." "Oh, yeah, sure. No problem."

So we're recording all that stuff, and then all of the sudden Tom Milano gets the funniest look on his face. And he got it! He recognized his own name! And he's like, "Oh my God, I can't believe this!" And then Bobby figured it out. And so I used that DAT, and when I gave a party - you know, a "finishing the score" party - there's a little local restaurant where I used to live that they would shut down for us.

So all the music people came and I had that playing on the restaurant PA at a certain point - I had a little thing they put it in and played it. And people started hearing their names in the music. I think I gave them each a copy of that. And it was like, "Oh man, I can't believe that Warner Bros. paid for this practical joke!"

So that's the full, complete, unabridged story. Yeah. I mean, that's why they didn't get upset. Because it worked in the film. It worked well with the film.
Film Score Monthly, October 2006

Awesome! takker, har først set det her nu fordi film musik tråden ikke har opdateret i min liste, må heller få den tjekket jævnligt fra nu af, vi takker mange gange.

#3... og se så at få købt resten af serierne. ;)