Music by Stephen Flaherty

Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens

Musical Score by Stephen Flaherty

"Bartok the Magnificent

The Specifically, Terrifically Magnificent

A Mammal so Inflammable

He Saved the Day

I Tell Ya

B-A-R-T-O OK"

"Bartok the Magnificent" the direct-to video sequel to "Anastasia" was released on November 11, 1999. It's really more of a prequel than a sequel, as it is set about 300 years before the time of the first movie.  This time around, the hilarious bat Bartok must rescue the young czar from the clutches of the supposedly evil Baba Yaga, a character that is a mainstay of Russian folklore and children's stories.   Many of the people involved in "Anastasia" are back for "Bartok, including  filmmakers Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. Hank Azaria again provides the voice for the title character.  Interestingly, Kelsey Grammer returns as well, but voices a totally different character than in "Anastasia"  Here, he is the voice of Bartok's best friend Zozi, a bear with Shakesperean theatrical training!!  During the making of Anastasia, Ahrens and Flaherty were impressed with Grammer's singing voice, so here he is given what is probably the best of the five new Ahrens & Flaherty songs in the score, a wonderful ballad called "A Possible Hero"

The Cast:

Bartok the Magnificent-- Hank Azaria

Baba Yaga -- Andrea Martin

Zosi-- Kelsey Grammer

Ludmilla-- Catherine O'Hara

Piloff-- Jennifer Tilly

The Skull-- Tim Curry

Vol-- Deedrich Baker

Oble the Ogre-- French Stewart

The Prince-- Phillip Van Dyke

The Songs:

1) "Baba Yaga" ( ensemble)

2) "Bartok the Magnificent " ( Hank Azaria)

3) "A Possible Hero " ( Kelsey Grammer)

4) "Someone's in My House "( Andrea Martin)

5) "The Real Ludmilla " ( Catherine O'Hara)

Sounds

1) "Bartok the Magnificent" ( Hank Azaria)

2.) "A Possible Hero" ( Kelsey Grammer)

About the Music :

The following article is taken from the movie's press kit.

The critically acclaimed songwriting team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty have created five delightfully engaging new songs that musically weave the story of Bartok's comic adventure together.  Well known for their Tony Award-winnig work on Broadway, the talented duo made their musical motion picture debut with Twentieth Century Fox's "Anastasia," and received two Academy Award nominations.

Like the developement of the film's storyline, Flaherty and Ahrens found the crafting of the musical numbers for the film to be a collaborative effort.  Explains Flaherty, "With this project, the creation was very similar to the process used in 'Anastasia'.  As songwriters, we work with the person who develops the story, which in this case was a really funny writer named Jay Lacopo, who came up with the basic storyline of 'Bartok the Magnificent.'

We took Jay's work and met with the directors and the producers and began talking about what might be opportunities for songs.  As we were aware that this was set in an earlier period in Russia, we knew that there would be certain musical elements that we would want to feature; for example, there is a certain Russian folk influence in the score.  But basically this is a comedy, and we wanted to feature the various characters.  So we worked with the story and developed what became the song moments."

Adds Ahrens " Part of what we do is try and have a global view of the story so that we know where we are beginning and where we are ending; then we plot out a series of songs that have enough variety, so that we don't have all up tempo or all ballads.  It begins with an overall picture and then a specific picture of each individual song, but they all add up to a whole."

Ahrens believes that one of their fundamental functions as songwriters is to target key sections in the script that merit musical treatment.  "We spot moments throughout the script which seem not to be only the most active but the most emotional.  When a character is in crisis, or they are making a big decision, or they are having an emotional meltdown of some sort, these are the moments that seem to lend themselves to song.  It's our job not only to write songs that these characters can sing, but to write songs that lead the character somewhere."

As an example, Ahrens refers to the emotionally touching song "A Possible Hero", sung by Kelsey Grammer's charcter, Zozi the Bear.  Notes Ahrens, " At the beginning of the song, Bartok is very insecure about his ability to save the Prince.  By the end of the song, not only is he on the journey to save the Prince, but he's arrived at Baba Yaga's house.  It takes him physically and emotionally from one point to another.  We try to  find those moments where we can supply the animators with scenes that are active to draw.  We also supply things that are emotional for the characters to sing, so that the audience can get into their hearts and souls."

As the story of "Bartok the Magnificent" is a fantasy, the songwriters felt free to incorporate some unexpected genres of music, such as jazz and swing, amongst the more traditional Russian themes heard in the underscore.  This is particularly apparent in the song "Someone's in My House", a musical number performed by Andrea Martin, in which Bartok first encounters the dreaded Baba Yaga.

Explains Flaherty, "the musical underscore that I've written leading up to that moment is very, very frightening.  The audience is waiting for this horrifying moment to happen, and when Baba Yaga leaps out all of a sudden, it's this totally different kind of music which, hopefully, surprises the audience.  Since it was a magical place, we wanted to choose some type of music that was so wild and so unexpected that we could build a really funny number.  I think the choice of that kind of wild jazz music is really kind of from left field, but it tickled us."

The spirit of collaboration is particularly evident in this song, as the lively musical style served as the inspiration for some of the film's most delightful animation.  Recalls Flaherty, "that particular number came out of the story which Jay was relating.  We then came up with a feel for the music.  As we were playing it for Don and Gary, they came up with ideas for certain visuals that might happen as things are appearing, vanishing, and popping out of places during the song.  For that particular number, we  recorded the vocals and didn't do the final orchestration until Don and Gary produced the final animation for the sequence.  There was a lot of active stuff happening and later we were able to paint with music over what the artists had painted with their brushes."  Observes Ahrens, " we found that the artists who work on these things are very sensitive to the colors that they hear in the music.  Even if they hear a trumpet figure or a flute, it inspires them visually.  So, we're inspired by words, they are inspired by the music.  It's a circle of collaboration that's really interesting."

Producer/Director Don Bluth is acutely aware of the undeniably strong relationship between music and motion pictures.  "You know, animation is this creature that keeps changing, so I'm never sure how to identify it.  Animation and music are linked together.  It seems like music is something that lifts you up out of your chair and floats you into space.  You begin to feel feelings because it's a language--a language far superior, I think, to talking.  It goes right to the heart.  So it's easy to put that with colors and with very, very stylized movement; to let that be like a ballet.  You watch and just go right to the feelings of the piece.  even if we don't make a musical comedy, music is such a hard and fast part of everyone's emotional arch that I think it will always be there in some form.  Whether it is organic to the piece or whether it is musical comedy, it will always be in animation or other films"

Both the songwriters and the production team were delighted with the vocal cast of the film.  Each of the performers was eager to sing their own songs, a rarity in animated feature films.

While Hank Azaria had already played the spoken role of Bartok in "Anastasia", Ahrens & Flaherty were unfamiliar with his singing voice, as he did not have a musical number in the film.  Observes Flaherty, "it was an interesting thing writing for the character of Bartok, as we hadn't heard Hank sing.  A friend of mine had a session with Hank in Los Angeles, just getting him to sing bits and pieces of the song in different keys.  Whenever he sings higher or lower than a six note range, he doesn't sound like Bartok anymore. So writing for the character was a challenge because he really has a specific sound and rhythm. Hank only sounds like Bartok within six notes"

"We kind of figured what he would sound like.  I remember I did my imitation of Bartok trying to sing this opening number called "Bartok the Magnificent, and I thought, well, if I can sing it and do my impression of that wierd little accent that Bartok does, then we knew Hank would be able to pull it off, " adds Ahrens laughingly.

Songwriter Flaherty added the task of composing the underscore to "Bartok the Magnificent" to his songwriting duties.  While presenting a challenge, Flaherty welcomed the opportunity to expand his musical horizons.  " I really wanted to branch out.  I naively thought that an animated picture as a choice for scoring a first picture it would be an easier task.  In fact, it turned out to be incredibly complex because in the world of animation, there is so much action that happens frame by frame that needs to be underscored.  It was great fun, but a real challenge"

Interesting Facts

• Stephen and Lynn are both part of the "Bartok the Magnificent" vocal ensemble.