The Official Star Trek Music Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

Scott, I'm guessing that Kevin is referring to new recordings they could have done during the TOS remaster. Something I don't think was needed. They did recreate the opening theme and they did it well, but it was a dubious effort I think to make it a modern recording. it sounds close, but not the real thing.
But to re-record all the tracks for the episodes sounds a little over the top!

 

[KPmusmag]

Scott, I'm guessing that Kevin is referring to new recordings they could have done during the TOS remaster. Something I don't think was needed. They did recreate the opening theme and they did it well, but it was a dubious effort I think to make it a modern recording. it sounds close, but not the real thing.
But to re-record all the tracks for the episodes sounds a little over the top!

That is indeed what I am referring to. I really do not know how much was re-recorded for the TOS on blu-ray, to be honest. I will do some research. I did watch one of the special features on the blu-ray showing the orchestra and conductor, who stated that he considered the originals sacred and that he and all the musicians involved wanted to be faithful to the originals. I do have a quibble with season 2 and 3 because the soprano in the opening theme has a slightly different quality than the original and I notice it every time. Other than that, the improved fidelity is rather thrilling.
EDIT: After doing some googling, I found some early reports stating that all of the music had been re-recorded, which may be where I got that idea. However, some later reports, including one on trekmovie.com state that only the theme music was re-recorded.

 

[Ockeghem]

Nelson,
Yes, when you state "it sounds close, but not the real thing," this is what I was referring to when I used the words 'similar' rather than 'identical' with regard to the recordings.
Kevin,
Okay, thanks.

 

[Kevin EK]

Having watched many of the HD episodes on Blu-ray, I can say that the music is the original recording material, except for the opening title music, which was re-recorded. The featurette about the re-recording pretty much shows that this was the one thing they were focused on doing. Part of the reason to do it was that in the 3rd season of TOS, one of the consequences of the severe budget cuts was that they could no longer use the opening title theme with the soprano's voice. (Since they would have to pay her for each use of it) The re-recording allows all the episodes to have a new recording of the title music with a soprano in every case.

I too would be very happy to see more of the scores from TOS released on CD. The music is out there, and if the right people agree to do it, there could be more releases. But someone has to say yes to doing this, and that doesn't seem to have happened yet...

 

[Osato]

Just confirmed it on the  Director's Edition DVD, and rechecked it in The Music of Star Trek book.
There are three appearances of the TV theme in the score of TMP, each underscoring a Captain's Log.
The first one happens before the wormhole.  (0:19)
The second one happens when Spock has fixed the warp drive and there's another Captain's Log update. (0:35)
The third one is the final Captain's Log, happening after the Ilia probe has been examined and torn her way into the closet.  After Spock's line "I am concerned with that being our only means of...", the theme comes back in and goes over the third log.  The third one sounds like it's really just the second one repeated, which would explain why it's not a separate cut on the CD before "Games".  (0:36)  Given how close the timing is, it sounds like Goldsmith just re-used the 2nd cue and let it go on a second longer.

Nice catch.
Nice to see that there is a music forum and that this thread is going too.
Is there any news on Generations, Insurrection and Nemesis being expanded and reissued?
I still have not picked up The Undiscovered Country and First Contact, but have all of the rest.
I am really enjoying the great sound of The Motion Picture soundtrack on the new 3 cd issue!

 

[Kevin EK]

I wouldn't be surprised to see reissues of those three.
But the only one of the three that has what I consider really memorable cues is Nemesis.
Generations is a continuation of the kind of scoring that Dennis McCarthy was doing for TNG, only with some more robust action notes thrown in. The main theme is a replay of the TV theme for DS9. Much of the scoring in the movie doesn't distinguish itself for me.
Insurrection has a nice pastoral theme for the planet-of-the-week, but the action beats feel like replays from First Contact, which had more memorable cues.

Nemesis, ironically, had a score that at times felt like a TOS score - particularly the reveal of the Scimitar and the first communication with it.

Now that I have the full boat on TMP, the real treasure I'm waiting for is the raft of TOS scores that we haven't seen:

-The Man Trap
-Charlie X
-The Enemy Within
-The Conscience of the King
-Catspaw
-Friday's Child
-Who Mourns For Adonais?
-Metamorphosis
-Spock's Brain
-The Empath
-The Enterprise Incident
-Spectre of the Mind
-Elaan of Troyus

And there are more that I am forgetting here - more Duning, more Steiner, etc.
And there are also cues from the already-released scores from GNP Crescendo that never made it
-There's the famous choral cue from The Cage that gets repeated all over the first season
-There's the fight cue from Where No Man Has Gone Before that was re-purposed by Steiner for Mirror, Mirror

In an ideal world, we'd start to see these scores coming out next year with the next Abrams movie. But we'll just have to see if the powers that be find it worth their time.

 

[Nelson Au]

That's a nice start Kevin. I think of the ones not released yet, you've covered all the major ones.
Of course the Powers that Be need to know we want these soundtracks!

 

[RickER]

Oh man!
Now i got "headin' off to Eden, yea brother!", stuck in my head! Only because it wasnt on your list Kevin!

 

[bryan4999]

I have been loving the new 3-cd set of TMP. My favorite track (as it was even back in the days of LP) is #5 - The Enterprise. I especially love the section at 4:37. It sounds like Beethoven there, the rhythms and meter pulling against each other. Fascinating and delightful. I remember seeing the film in 1979 and how thrilling the reveal of The Enterprise was as Kirk and Scotty came about in the shuttle.
I also love the rough takes of the Main Title on disc 3, track 17. Interesting to hear the false starts, the tuning, etc. What accomplished musicians, even the roughest take sounds great.

 

[Osato]

I have been loving the new 3-cd set of TMP. My favorite track (as it was even back in the days of LP) is #5 - The Enterprise. I especially love the section at 4:37. It sounds like Beethoven there, the rhythms and meter pulling against each other. Fascinating and delightful. I remember seeing the film in 1979 and how thrilling the reveal of The Enterprise was as Kirk and Scotty came about in the shuttle.
I also love the rough takes of the Main Title on disc 3, track 17. Interesting to hear the false starts, the tuning, etc. What accomplished musicians, even the roughest take sounds great.

Yes! I am pretty much listening to it all of the time as well.
I noticed that the mix of the complete score sounds so much more defined then even the original 79 album on disc 2.
Wonderful score. It's been such a great run with the Trek scores being reissued over the past 2-3 years.

 

[Nelson Au]

Oh man, mine didn't get shipped till yesterday. So I won't get to hear it for a week or so.
I guess that's because I also ordered a few of the other Star Trek film scores I had been meaning to get.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I've always been disappointed that the entire Kirk/ Gary Mitchell fight (including the famous bit where Gary Mitchell gets crushed by the rock you hear in a lot of Season 1 episodes) was left off of the GNP "WNMHGB" album, which has not aged well in general. I'd kill to see some company do season by season box sets with improved sound quality if the tapes are still there.

EXAMPLE...

Season 1:

Disc 1

Alexander Courage - The Cage**
Alexander Courage/Joseph Mullendore - Spaceship Titles/Theme from Star Trek (Theremin Version)*
Alexander Courage - Where No Man Has Gone Before**
alexander Courage - Star Trek Closing Theme (Theremin Version)*

Disc 2

Alexander Courage/Joseph Mullendore - Spaceship Titles/Theme from Star Trek (Strings Version)***
Fred Steiner - The Corbomite Maneuver**
Fred Steiner - Mudd's Women***
Sol Kaplan - The Enemy Within***
Alexander Courage - Star Trek Closing Theme (Strings Version)

Disc 3
Alexander Courage - The Man Trap
Alexander Courage - The Naked Time**
Fred Steiner - Charlie X***
Fred Steiner - Balance of Terror**

Disc 4

Fred Steiner - What Are Little Girls Made Of?
Joseph Mullendore - The Conscience of the King***
Gerald Fried - Shore Leave**

* - remastered
** - remastered and expanded
*** - remastered original version of rerecorded material
No asterisk - comercially unavailable.

Originally Posted by KPmusmag /t/267979/the-official-star-trek-music-discussion-thread/90#post_3935366
So do you feel they "missed the boat" on re-recording the scores for the hi-def versions on blu-ray? Or are you talking about the symphonic re-recordings expressly for CD?

They only rerecorded the opening title themes. The rest of the music is reprocessed mono originals.

 

[Kevin EK]

There is a brief suite of What Are Little Girls Made Of? on one of the GNP "Best of Trek" CDs. It includes the famous "Big Ruk" theme that got used under many fights in seasons 1 and 3.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

Many of the people that worked on the Star Trek soundtrack re-issues, including yours truly, will be having a discussion about Star Trek music at the upcoming Creation convention in Las Vegas on August 10. Here are the details:

"4:50pm Exploring the Star Trek music renaissance
In the last few years much of the music of Star Trek has been remastered and re-released in new extended and complete collections. TrekMovie contributor and "Music of Star Trek" author JEFF BOND will moderate a panel featuring Film Score Monthly's LUKAS KENDALL, re-release albums co-producer NEIL S BULK and LaLaLand Records executive album producers MV GERHARD and MATT VERBOYS as they discuss their recent and upcoming Star Trek music releases and talk about how they are restoring Star Trek music history."

I hope you all can make it!

 

[Kevin EK]

I won't be able to attend that, but I'm very interested to hear what gets discussed.
Particularly if they're going to talk about music from TOS finally coming out of the vaults.
I have a feeling the next thing up is probably a re-issue of Generations, but I would be very happy to hear about the old episodic scores finally getting some love.

 

[Nelson Au]

Wow, didn't know we had a member who also is a record producer, cool. And was in the 2009 Star Trek film.
Every year, I somehow for some reason or another miss the Las Vegas convention! If I can go, I'll be sure to check out the panel Neil.
I too would would love to hear more original TOS music releases.

 

[Osato]

I've picked up Star Trek 1-5 remastered scores.
However, I have not picked up 6 or First Contact yet.
I'm kind of on the fence about those 2 scores. I would like them, but not sure which one to get first.
I know First Contact is a limited edition score. Probably should get that one very soon.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

Originally Posted by Nelson Au /t/267979/the-official-star-trek-music-discussion-thread/90#post_3955248
Wow, didn't know we had a member who also is a record producer, cool. And was in the 2009 Star Trek film.
Every year, I somehow for some reason or another miss the Las Vegas convention! If I can go, I'll be sure to check out the panel Neil.
I too would would love to hear more original TOS music releases.

You should go. I don't know how many times they've had panels devoted to just the music, so this could be a rare opportunity.

 

[Nelson Au]

Sure, I'll see what my schedule is like.

 

[bryan4999]

Does anybody know if the jazzy, "cocktail" version of the Star Trek TOS theme from "Conscience of The King" is available anywhere? I picked up the Symphonic Suites CD that includes Conscience, but that cut was not included. Thanks so much.