The music was used in the soundtrack for the 2006 IMAX film Deep Sea 3D. The movements "Pianos" and "Blue Strings" were adapted for the soundtrack to Errol Morris's 2008 documentary Standard Operating Procedure, for which Elfman also composed the full music score.
The series consists of 6 movements, running approximately 42 minutes:
Pianos
Blue Strings
A Brass Thing
The Quadruped Patrol
"I Forget"
Bells and Whistles
The 2006 recording also consists of two extra tracks following the work: "End Tag" and "Improv for Alto Sax". The tracks are respectively listed as the seventh track and a bonus track.
The movement "I Forget" features Spanish lyrics by Claudia Brant and Livia Corona sung by female solo voice and chorus.
Instrumentation
Serenada Schizophrana is scored for the following large orchestra and chorus:[2]
Voices (in "The Quadruped Patrol" and "I Forget" only): a women's chorus (SSA)
Composition
In the liner notes for the 2006 CD recording, Elfman writes: "I began composing several dozen short improvisational compositions, maybe a minute each. Slowly, some of them began to develop themselves until finally I had six separate movements that, in some abstract, absurd way, felt connected."[3]
Both the 2005 premiere and subsequent 2006 recording of Serenada Schizophrana received favorable response from critics. After the premiere performance, The New York Times called the piece "music that works. With six movements, rolling piano solos (by Christopher Oldfather) and the charming hoots and chirps of eight female voices (the ACO Singers under Judith Clurman), Mr. Elfman gave us music comfortable in its own world and highly professional in its execution... The composer of this piece has an ear for symphonic colors and how to balance them."[4]
Film Score Monthly hailed the CD release as "a freewheeling six-movement composition for full orchestra that forever teeters between the worlds of scowling academia and impish rebellion... perfectly balanced... Serenada Schizophrana sparkles with orchestral color and energy..."[5]Soundtrack.Net called it "a musical roller coaster ride through various little set pieces and landscapes, containing at times the orchestral majesty of Elfman's early career, his minimalist phase, and his more recent bouts of complex overlapping constructions and controlled dissonance."[6]
