La-La Land to release 15-disc original series score set

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by Harvey, Aug 11, 2012.

  1. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Done with Disc 3. I never realized that each of the "Star-Spangled Enterprise" fragments in "Omega Glory" was a different bar of the anthem, and the cue numbers seem to represent their order. I would've liked to hear them put in order according to the anthem so that it would make the whole tune (with a couple of Trek fanfare interpolations), rather than what I assume to be the episode order.

    What Steiner chose to do with library cues was very interesting, the way he pulled out these pieces of various cues to serve as standalone segments. For some reason, in the ones based on second-season scores, they're divided into separate tracks, but on the ones from "Charlie X" and "Corbomite," it's the whole piece straight through, but with breaks in the middle where one part trails off before the next begins, rather than making direct transitions as in the original.
     
  2. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Done with Disc 4. It's great to have "Metamorphosis" and "Return to Tomorrow" at last, though it seemed the audio quality on the former was a bit lower than it's been for most of the set, with more tape noise again.

    The rest of Disc 4 is not exactly a highlight of the set. Duning's Nazi march for "Patterns of Force" is good (for a Nazi march, that is), but all those variations got repetitive; and between the last percussion-only variant and Fried's unused "Apple" percussion immediately after, there's a block of nearly 8 minutes of straight drumming. Although the Fried percussion was more interesting that the minute-and-a-half snare drum solo. And the Fried belly-dance music was less interesting than I'd expected it to be; I can understand why they replaced it.


    Apparently it wasn't Duning. It must be one of the Courage library cues on Disc 5, but I haven't gotten there yet.
     
  3. Dalen Quaice

    Dalen Quaice Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I gather the music cue sheets are not included in the set booklet, else you could just look it up to see?

    Are those in the book, "The Music of Star Trek" in entirety (I don't have this book)? Is there a way to get exact copies of the original typed cue sheets, not molested retypeset versions?
     
  4. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    ^The cue sheets are not in the notes, and Music of ST only has some of them.

    Done with Disc 5. The ending cue for "Bread and Circuses" is Track 25, the "Smooth Neutral Ship Theme" library cue by Courage. Which, if you ask me, is misnamed. It's more stirring than neutral.

    Matlovsky's "I, Mudd" score is more interesting than I remembered. Not exactly easy listening, rather edgy and experimental, but it has its nice bits. I wonder, though -- was any of Matlovsky's work tracked into other episodes? I don't remember hearing any of it reused.

    No surprises in the "Tribbles" score since most of it was released before by GNP. I would note that there's a bit of an error in the liner notes, saying Cyrano demonstrated the tribble invasion of "his establishment" when it was the bartender who demonstrated it to Cyrano. There's a typo in the "I, Mudd" notes too, identifying "Stella 500" as "Stella's Response."

    The Courage library cues are the highlight of the disc and quite a revelation. It's striking how many of season 2's memorable cues were done by Courage without credit. We know "Ship in Orbit" was used in "Catspaw" and probably elsewhere; "Sad and Thoughtful on Captain's Theme" (at least its middle portion) climaxed "Mirror, Mirror" and "Fight on Captain's Theme" was used twice therein; "Smooth Neutral Ship Theme" ended "Bread and Circuses"; and "Captain Playoff No. 1 (Heavy)" and a couple of the "Stingers" were both used onscreen, though I can't think of specific instances. I don't recall the other library-only cues getting used.

    And I was almost right about the "pingier" version of "Monster Illusion" I remembered being a library re-recording, but it was this one for the second season, not the third. I forgot it was used in season 2 for the Mako root sequence in "A Private Little War." The orchestration must've been different because they didn't have the "magic box" (modified organ) to produce the ostinato.

    The Courage-conducted versions of Steiner's cues are interesting -- I realize I recognize these different versions but was never entirely sure I was right to think they were different. The orchestration is different on a lot of them, with bass clarinet taking the place of double bass.

    The "Metamorphosis" cues listed under "Alternates and Outtakes" sound like they were recorded as library versions, so I wonder why they weren't listed that way.
     
  5. cbspock

    cbspock Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    and some of it has been used in Uncommon Valor, Titanic, Rocketeer as well.


    -Chris
     
  6. Methuselah Flint

    Methuselah Flint Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Hi guys,

    I'm new to the forum, but love Star Trek TOS and the music, and got my set last week. I'm going through it slowly. One of the first CDs I turned to was Spock's Brain. It's a favourite score of mine. However, I can't seem to find one particular piece. I always assumed it was from Spock's Brain but I can't find it either in the main score or on the library cues. It is repeated many times during the latter part of season three. The piece I am referring to is first played in the sickbay scene in that episode ("That girl" "Ay"...). A slightly different version is played and then this particular one is heard a few moments later; it's only a short motif. Other examples include Kirk saying "an alien life force" on the bridge just after Spock's scan in Day of the Dove, during Spock's "we are being monitored" dialogue when Flint observes him and Kirk in Requiem for Methuselah, just after Spock crushes the chalice in the chamber in Plato's Stepchildren and McCoy ushes Kirk away, or when Kirk leaves the bridge after shouting at Spock in Turnabout Intruder (the cue just before the scene in which he files his nails).

    Can anyone identify and find this?

    Thanks :)

    PS The earlier version (not the one in question, but you'll recognise it from that one) can be found on Season 3, Disc 2, Track 17.
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2012
  7. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    Don't have the set (yet), but I distinctly remember a memo in the Roddenberry papers at UCLA saying that the producers were unhappy with Matlovsky's work and didn't want to work with him again. Based on that, it doesn't surprise me that his work wasn't tracked into other episodes.
     
  8. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Well, it's not as if Matlovsky's stuff would've really translated well to other contexts. It was very offbeat.

    Just finished "Spectre of the Gun"/"The Paradise Syndrome." Once again I'm used to the Bremner suite arrangements of these and it's interesting to note the differences.

    I'm surprised by how tight the edits between cues in the same track are on "Paradise." Instead of letting one fade out before the other starts, they overlap. Were they all blended like that in the episode? It sure doesn't seem it was done for length, since the disc runs only 64-ish minutes. I think that even if they were overlapped in the episode, I'd prefer to have them discrete on the album. Certainly it would make things easier for those who wanted to reconstruct tracked scores or create their own.
     
  9. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Okay, done with the Steiner disc now ("Elaan of Troyius," "Spock's Brain," and library cues from both). It's wonderful to have these two fantastic Steiner scores at last. I think I'm going to have to reassess which of my speakers are higher-quality, though, since "Battle Music" from "Elaan" sounded better on my computer speakers than on the Bose Wave thingy in my bedroom, which I'd been led to understand was a high-quality device. Maybe it's just getting old; it's a hand-me-down.

    Anyway, the cue list for "Elaan" is funny, since Steiner had to come up with so many different synonyms for Elaan's mood -- "Elaan is Annoyed," "Peevish Elaan," "Elaan Angry," "Elaan's Temper."

    One oddity about "Spock's Brain," though -- there are several cues where you can faintly hear someone (Steiner?) talking right at the end, at one point even before the music has faded altogether. Somebody was getting a little lax there at the studio.

    "Caveman Fight" is an interesting cue for Steiner, because it sounds more like a Gerald Fried composition.

    Was "Operation Spock" used in the episode? I can't remember whether there was music under the entire surgery sequence.

    On the last track on Disc 2, the "Kara Motif" rehearsal, that's not Gene Roddenberry's voice calling out the take numbers, is it? I doubt he would've done that himself, certainly not in season 3. So it's probably just someone with a similar voice.
     
  10. Kagan

    Kagan Commodore Commodore

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    Just ordered mine. Can't wait to get it.
     
  11. Ssosmcin

    Ssosmcin Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I just noticed something in the very beginning of And the Children Shall Lead. As soon as the opening cue starts, about 3 seconds in, the volume dips and it sounds like a quick edit. I thought this was some kind of error, but I popped in the episode and it's right there. Weird, but not a glitch. I dunno, just wanted to mention that.
     
  12. Esteban

    Esteban Commander Red Shirt

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    Thank you for that; I'll go listen to it tonight. Another mystery solved. I'm almost out of them.
     
  13. 22 Stars

    22 Stars Commodore Commodore

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    Lol yes, i was just kidding around. The set came this weekend and is amazing! I just need to take the time to work through it. Thanks again for all the work that made it possible!
     
  14. Methuselah Flint

    Methuselah Flint Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    On the Region 2 DVD boxset [the non-Remastered version] production subtitles for The Savage Curtain indicate The Venus Drug cue was re-recorded for Season Three, but it obviously appears not, unless it was too similar to replicate for the set...
     
  15. Harvey

    Harvey Admiral Admiral

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    Union rules required them to re-record any music being used from previous seasons. Since that's a season one cue in season three, they definitely had to re-record it.
     
  16. BoredShipCapt'n

    BoredShipCapt'n Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Could they have re-recorded it and then used the first version anyway?
     
  17. doubleohfive

    doubleohfive Fleet Admiral

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  18. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Done with season 3 disc 3. This contains the two scores, "The Enterprise Incident" and "Plato's Stepchildren," that I'd convinced myself were ghostwritten for Alexander Courage by my father's former teacher (and Courage's former classmate) Scott Huston. (See earlier in the thread for that discussion. With help from other posters, I now think Huston probably just helped out with some uncredited orchestrations, a common practice, and it got misremembered or misinterpreted somewhere along the line. Someday I should track down that Cincinnati Enquirer article from the early '80s where Huston talked about it.) One reason I find it credible that they were ghosted is because the style seemed different to me -- I never really pinned down how, but I guess I felt they were more melodic and lyrical, less avant-garde, less exotic in orchestration.

    Anyway, listening now, although they do have those characteristics, I can hear more details that make it obvious they are Courage's own work. The "Enterprise Incident" score in particular is very much of a piece with his pilot and first-season work. There are moments where the treatment of the Romulan Commander's love theme strongly evokes Vina's theme from "The Cage," and the edgy, off-balance music in the first half of the episode often shares similarities in orchestration and approach to the "Man Trap" and "Naked Time" scores. "Plato's" sounds more distinct from those first-season scores to me, but its similarities to the "Incident" score are strong (I note that they both were orchestrated for essentially the same ensemble, save for "Plato's" having one more woodwind performer -- though the specific musicians weren't all the same people in both cases).

    There are moments in both of these scores I quite like, but I'd say "Plato's Stepchildren" is my favorite of the two. The powerful treatment of "Captain's Theme" at the end of "Dancing Spock" is one of my favorite moments, but the final cue of the episode, "The Little Visitor," is one of the finest closing fanfares in the entire series.

    Nice to hear the Orion dance from "Whom Gods Destroy" again, because it filled my mind with pleasant memories of Yvonne Craig. I wish she'd been the one in the accompanying picture instead of Steve Ihnat.

    And oh, man, those "Way to Eden" songs. Those... are... just... so... very... sixties. But in their own way, they work. I feel the episode itself was a hamfisted and rather clueless treatment of the counterculture movement (it was never really clear what they were protesting or whether they had legitimate criticisms of the 23rd-century world, and they were all just dupes for a terrorist and their Edenic goal turned out to be a fool's dream), but the songs come closer to capturing the feel of '60s protest songs and counterculture ideals, or at least it seems so to me. And "Hey, Out There" has kind of a nice message that isn't too bizarrely conveyed.

    Although I still don't think "Eat all the fruit and throw away the rind" is a line that works particularly well. Feels like Napier and his collaborators were kind of flailing around for a rhyme there.

    Oh, speaking of songs, "Maiden Wine" is one hell of a cynical one, isn't it? "Watch out, girls, 'cause all men are sexual predators who'll take advantage of you." Also, I'm disappointed we didn't get Alexander's "Brek-kek-kek-kek, ko-ax" at the end of "The Frog." I mean, that's what it's named for -- that was what the chorus of Frogs sung in Aristophanes's comedy The Frogs. So presumably that was supposed to be part of the song.
     
  19. BoredShipCapt'n

    BoredShipCapt'n Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The tune don't have to be clever,
    And it don't matter if you put a couple extra syllables into a line.
    It sounds more ethnic if it ain't good English,
    And it don't even gotta rhyme.

    Excuse me: "rhyne."

    - Tom Lehrer, "The Folk Song Army" (1965)
     
  20. JimZipCode

    JimZipCode Commander Red Shirt

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    And yet I love that "Headin' Out To Eden" song. Also thrilled to have that 24sec "instrumental tag" of it (played at the death of Adam), and to have all the questions about the episode's music answered.

    Deborah Downey has a super voice. Her little harmonizing line on "he had to dooo-ooooo-ooooo-oooo-ooo-oooo-oooo" is quite good.

    Far Out Jam!