Batman: The Animated Series Soundtrack Review

Shirley Walker’s Beloved Scores Receive Long-Awaited Deluxe Release

Feb 2, 2009

Thanks to La-La Land Records, Shirley Walker's stirring and coveted music for Batman: The Animated Series, has finally seen the light of day.

The musical world of Batman has a rich, fascinating history, with major scores composed by Nelson Riddle, Danny Elfman, Elliot Goldenthal, Hans Zimmer, and James Newton Howard. But there is another major (and often overlooked) contributor to the musical legacy of Batman: Shirley Walker.

Shirley Walker: Orchestrator, Conductor, Composer

Shirley Walker was notable as one of the first woman composers to work in the film industry: she began composing additional music for various scores in 1979, and her career quickly flourished as she began receiving solo assignments. In addition to composing, she also worked as an orchestrator and conductor for other composers, such as Carmine Coppola and, most notably, Danny Elfman, for his scores to Scrooged and Batman, as well as the TV series The Flash.

It was her excellent work on Batman and The Flash that brought her to the attention of Warner Bros. as they began producing a new television program, Batman: The Animated Series. Desiring to extend the dark, gothic-majestic tone of Tim Burton’s Batman films to the animated series, Warner hired Walker to compose the orchestral scores for the edgy new episodes, incorporating Elfman’s original Batman theme in addition to Walker’s own material.

Music of Batman: The Animated Series

Due to the hectic schedule of television productions, Walker was not always able to compose the scores to the numerous episodes on her own, and sometimes enlisted the aid of co-composers Michael McCuistion and Lolita Ritmanis. Their work meshed perfectly, and the music of the series was completely congruous with the distinctively dark, gothic-deco visuals of the Emmy-winning series.

Walker was a composer dedicated to classic use of Leitmotif, a compositional technique in which distinct themes are assigned to every character. Her themes for the wide array of characters in the Batman universe are astonishing in their variety and adaptability: from the carnival/game show tunes of the Joker to the slithering film-noir themes for Poison Ivy and Rupert Thorn, to the nightmarish melodies for Harvey “Two-Face” Dent, to the powerful and heroic fanfares for Batman himself.

Critical Acclaim for Shirley Walker's Batman Music

The musical tapestry Walker wove for the series was a colorful and intensely interesting one, not to mention eminently suitable for the subject matter. Her music for Batman: The Animated Series is considered comparable to Elfman’s own brilliant film music for the character. Walker was honored for her work with an Emmy Award for Distinguished Composition.

The response from Warner Bros. was extremely positive: Walker remained connected to the series for its entire run on television, and when a full-length animated feature film was produced, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, she was again hired to compose the score. She was also involved in composing music for Superman: The Animated Series, with inspiring results.

Positive feedback did not just come from the studio, however: fans of the television series and of orchestral soundtrack music recognized the quality of Walker’s work for Batman, but it remained unreleased for some time. Walker remained a prolific and acclaimed composer, but tragically passed away in 2006. Her much-desired scores to Batman: The Animated Series remained unavailable until recently.

Deluxe Release of Walker’s Batman Scores

As part of their Limited Edition pressings of 2008, La-La Land Records released a two-disc set of music from Shirley Walker’s Batman scores, with a total of over two and a half hours of music from eleven episodes of the series.

The set is lavishly produced, with a booklet filled with liner notes by Paul Dini, as well as composers Lolita Ritmanis, Michael McCuistion and Danny Elfman. A highlight on the album is an audio recording of Shirley Walker verbally explaining her compositional technique for the series while playing them on piano. The set is an excellent and long-overdue tribute to one of film scoring’s greatest unsung pioneers, and the set is highly recommended.

The copyright of the article Batman: The Animated Series Soundtrack Review in Classical Music is owned by David Abraham Dueck. Permission to republish Batman: The Animated Series Soundtrack Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.