The Official Star Trek Music Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[FanCollector]

That's interesting about the demand for major last-minute changes. I wonder if things would have been different if the rules had been the same as in the '60s. When Bob Justman didn't like a composer's cue on Star Trek, he went back and replaced it with a library cue or a cue from earlier in the season. By the time of ST: The Next Generation, that technique was not permitted, so if the producers didn't like a cue, they had to have the composer replace it with a new one. Given the timeframe for television series, that would not have left much leeway for the second compositions.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

More things I didn't know: During TOS in the Sixties, union rules forbade performing X amount of score on a TV show, which is why there was so much re-use of cues. And I believe union rules also prevented artists from being compensated for more than 10 tracks on a soundtrack album. Crazy.

 

[FanCollector]

I don't think the union limited the amount of TV scoring, but unlike later union agreements, it allowed for reuse as long as the series paid for and recorded a minimum amount of music per season. If the producers had wanted to pay for brand new complete scores for each episode, they could have done so. Whereas by the time of TNG, they had no choice but to do so.

 

[Osato]

The new 2 disc Nemesis soundtrack should be shipping tomorrow (Wednesday)!!!

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

The new 2 disc Nemesis soundtrack should be shipping tomorrow (Wednesday)!!!

I've had this preordered since the announcement, and can't wait. I've been spinning the expanded Insurrection for the past few days and it's been a pure joy from start to finish!

 

[Jason_V]

I just ordered The Best of Both Worlds expanded release. I was going to splurge on a few other titles (First Contact, for instance), but I need some spending money in Vegas next week.

 

[Osato]

I've had this preordered since the announcement, and can't wait. I've been spinning the expanded Insurrection for the past few days and it's been a pure joy from start to finish!

I've been listening to that one as well. 2, 6, Into Darkness and TMP are others I have listened to this week.

Well, with the Trek films out of the way maybe La La Land or another label can get the Roger Moore Bond scores expanded. Live and Let Die and FYEO are the only ones that have been done to date. It would be nice to have all of the John Barry ones expanded. Fingers crossed for 2014.

 

[Nelson Au]

I have nearly every Bond soundtrack from the 2003 remasters. I thought they did a very nice job on those. I recall the weakest one was FYEO in terms of new tracks. Goldfinger seemed slim too, but perhaps that was all there was. Onto finishing collecting the new Star Trek discs.

 

[Osato]

My Nemesis expanded soundtrack arrived today! I am hoping to listen to it tonight or tomorrow!

The circle is complete!!!

 

[Nelson Au]

If Lee you are lurking here, I'm following on the discussion last week that Gerald Fried must have had the most unused tracks from the trivia thread.In listening to the Metamorphosis disc, it was amusing to here the Patterns of Force tracks. The tracks that end the disc are two more Fried tracks.One is Percussion and that must have been meant for either The Apple or A Private Little War. I haven't checked the Liner notes yet, but will. And Navel Maneuvers follows. That has to be from Wolf In The Fold! I guess they felt the Vina dance number was a higher energy track to open the teaser with. It is an amusing title as usual. and further adds to your theory his tracks were the most unused!

 

[Nelson Au]

If Lee you are lurking here, I'm following on the discussion last week that Gerald Fried must have had the most unused tracks from the trivia thread.In listening to the Metamorphosis disc, it was amusing to here the Patterns of Force tracks. The tracks that end the disc are two more Fried tracks.One is Percussion and that must have been meant for either The Apple or A Private Little War. I haven't checked the Liner notes yet, but will. And Navel Maneuvers follows. That has to be from Wolf In The Fold! I guess they felt the Vina dance number was a higher energy track to open the teaser with. It is an amusing title as usual. and further adds to your theory his tracks were the most unused!

 

[FanCollector]

Now where else would I be?!I think the unused percussion was for The Apple. You would think that if Bob Justman opted to omit so many of Fried's cues that he wasn't a fan, but he kept rehiring him. Maybe Justman appreciated the fact that Fried was bold in trying different things, even if some of them didn't fit Justman's conception of the episodes. Plus, there are unused Fred Steiner cues and we know Justman adored Steiner's work.I liked Navel Maneuvers, although I can see why they went with Vina's Dance. It sounds much more exotic for lack of a better term. I lack the musical knowledge to explain exactly why it sounds more exotic, but that's how it sounds to me.

 

[Nelson Au]

To me Navel Maneuvers sounded very typical of trying to sound middle eastern. Sort of like generic music meant to sound Asian. So I agree, the Orion Slave girl dance number fulfilled the exotic bill. I seem to have in my mind the musicians wearing fez hats. Maybe that influenced Fried. After hearing Navel Maneuvers again, it could have been interesting in that episode.

 

[FanCollector]

Strange hypothetical question that just occurred to me. Not sure I have any answers myself, even. Are there any episodes with original scores that you might have assigned to another composer? Not necessarily that the finished score was bad (although that would apply also), but just a case where you think a different composer might have had an interesting take?

 

[Nelson Au]

Interesting question Lee. I had never thought of that before. But perhaps because Gene Roddenberry hated the score for The Man Trap, perhaps Mr. Steiner would have had an interesting take! Or maybe even Sol Kaplan?

 

[FanCollector]

Sol Kaplan would have been great for The Man Trap! That's perfect!I'd be intrigued to hear Joe Mullendore's ideas for The City on the Edge of Forever. He had such a gift for adapting a melody in so many different ways that I'm sure "Goodnight, Sweetheart" would have been given quite a workout.Also maybe curious about how Fred Steiner would have handled The Enterprise Incident.

 

[Nelson Au]

I listened to The City on The Edge of Forever tracks the other day. Hard for me to imagine someone else scoring it. But I agree Mullendore would have been a good choice.I imagine Steiner might have done a variation of his Romulan theme for Enterprise Incident.

 

[FanCollector]

One reason I thought about City was that a lot of the original, non-Goodnight compositions were rejected anyway.

 

[Nelson Au]

It looks like New York 1930 and Edith's Theme wasn't used. I thought Edith's Theme sounded kind of wonky with bits of the theme in there we hear in the other tracks. IIRC.I had been thinking of the score for Return to Tomorrow too. I don't know about another composer for that one, but it always strikes me as a very effectively eerie score in the first half of the episode. I think that one works great. I'm not sure if I have any others to the level of The Man Trap for another composer.

 

[Jason_V]

Saw this on Trekcore on the way home tonight: Expanded "Encounter at Farpoint"/"The Arsenal of Freedom" soundtrack coming February 26.

I'll admit, this isn't a combination I would have ever expected, but this release is showing a commitment to get more complete Trek (TNG in particular) scores into the marketplace.

On the Facebook post, someone also mentioned LaLaLand Records doing a Voyager multi-disc set this year like DS9's last year. Rewatching a lot of Enterprise on BD right now, I would be happy with some Enterprise music too.