Music editors on TOS were unsung heroes

[Talos IV]

We talk a lot about Trek music composers on here, and rightly so: they consistently did an outstanding job. (Even "Spock's Brain" has a top-notch Fred Steiner score ...)

But what about the music editors? The hard-working guys who had to take existing music and weave it into other episodes. Looks like there were just three such guys on the original series (Robert H. Raff, Jim Henrikson, Richard Lapham). In my opinion, they worked wonders.

Just finished watching "Balance of Terror" for the zillionth time. Now we all know how great Steiner's "Romulan theme" is, and it absolutely enhances what's already a superb episode. But there are many scenes that use music from other episodes. That lovely Enterprise fly-by music we hear as the episode title appears on the screen? It's from "The Conscience of the King." That dramatic music at the end of Act II when Kirk and McCoy exit the briefing room? It's Joe-Tormolen-Goes-Berserk music from "The Naked Time." The beautiful cue at the end of the episode when Kirk exits the chapel? From "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

I wonder if the music editors had free rein to use whatever cues they deemed appropriate. Or if the composers stayed involved to "track" their original music into various other episodes.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I wonder if the music editors had free rein to use whatever cues they deemed appropriate. Or if the composers stayed involved to "track" their original music into various other episodes.

The composers were not involved in subsequent tracking decisions, that I ever heard of.

The AFM union rule was that the editors could use any music that had been recorded for that season of the series. [At Fox, multiple shows were pooling their music libraries, and dipping into Fox movie music besides, but Star Trek wasn't in that position.]

When Star Trek wanted to re-use music from a prior season, the rule was that it had to be re-recorded as new library cues. But if they did that, i.e. spent the money as required, then nobody stopped them from re-using the original prior-year tapes if preferred. Which they often did.

 

[Talos IV]

The composers were not involved in subsequent tracking decisions, that I ever heard of. The AFM union rule was that the editors could use any music that had been recorded for that season of the series.

^^ Great info.

"Balance of Terror" has the end credit of "Theme Music by Alexander Courage" on top, with "Music Composed and Conducted by Fred Steiner" below that. I assumed that was because so much of Courage's previous music was tracked into this episode ... until I realized that episodes like "Shore Leave" and "The Conscience of the King" also give Courage top billing, even though other composers wrote full scores for those.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

^^ Great info.

"Balance of Terror" has the end credit of "Theme Music by Alexander Courage" on top, with "Music Composed and Conducted by Fred Steiner" below that. I assumed that was because so much of Courage's previous music was tracked into this episode ... until I realized that episodes like "Shore Leave" and "The Conscience of the King" also give Courage top billing, even though other composers wrote full scores for those.

Courage would always get the "Theme Music by" credit, unless he was getting the whole "Music Composed and Conducted by" card for that episode, as in WNMHGB.

Fred Steiner once explained that tracked episodes with no original music would get the Theme credit for Courage, and then the "Additional Music by" credit would go to whoever had composed the bulk of the tracked cues. The card for "The Immunity Syndrome" reads:

THEME MUSIC BY ALEXANDER COURAGE

ADDITIONAL MUSIC BY SOL KAPLAN AND FRED STEINER

That bit you mentioned from the end of "Balance of Terror," where Kirk has upbeat music, was so perfect for the moment that I never consciously connected it to WNMHGB. It's better in the reuse than it was in its original score. It just sparkles in BoT.

 

[UssGlenn]

Whenever the subject comes up I always point people to the last 4 episodes of David W. Collins' "The Soundtrack Show". It's an excellent in depth analysis of the music of The Original Series.

The Soundtrack Show

 

[Talos IV]

That bit you mentioned from the end of "Balance of Terror," where Kirk has upbeat music, was so perfect for the moment that I never consciously connected it to WNMHGB. It's better in the reuse than it was in its original score. It just sparkles in BoT.

Yes. It's funny how the reuse is sometimes better. I always think of that end-of-Act-3 music cue in the atrocious "And the Children Shall Lead," when Chekov grumbles to Kirk, "Do not force me to kill you, sir. I will if I have to" (ugh). When that same music was reused at the Act I finish of "All Our Yesterdays" -- where the woman looks menacingly at Kirk and says "Witch! Witch! They'll burn ya." -- it's absolutely perfect.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Back in the day, sometimes some composers got a "Music Supervisor" role and were involved in the tracking on what cues, from what episode/what other series. A good example is Morton Stevens, and good examples of where he did this:

"Wild Wild West"
You can hear tracked material of his from other TV shows he scored, including from two episodes of "Hawaii Five-O" ("Caccoon" and "Samurai") and "Gunsmoke".

"Cimarron Strip"
Once again, you can hear score tracked from "Gunsmoke" ("Major Glory"), in multiple episodes. I noted this with a "composer: stock music" credit on each episode on IMDb, and I think I sometimes noted scenes and what score was tracked where (Trivia page on each episode).

Not to say a composer didn't have any involvement with the music editor's decisions, but not to also say they did. Back then, you never know, plus time constraints with scoring multiple TV series.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Just finished watching "Balance of Terror" for the zillionth time. Now we all know how great Steiner's "Romulan theme" is, and it absolutely enhances what's already a superb episode. But there are many scenes that use music from other episodes. That lovely Enterprise fly-by music we hear as the episode title appears on the screen? It's from "The Conscience of the King." That dramatic music at the end of Act II when Kirk and McCoy exit the briefing room? It's Joe-Tormolen-Goes-Berserk music from "The Naked Time." The beautiful cue at the end of the episode when Kirk exits the chapel? From "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

I wonder if the music editors had free rein to use whatever cues they deemed appropriate. Or if the composers stayed involved to "track" their original music into various other episodes.

For episodes like that, the editors worked damned hard. The battle music at 33:52 was a patchwork of cues and edits. I have recreated one or two episode scores and it took forever to hunt around my digital files and edit them into place - and honestly, it's a rotten listening experience without the sound effects covering edits. But even the effort I went through was still easier than the editors splicing actual tapes.

 

[scotpens]

Because of the longer-than-usual credits for "The Menagerie" parts 1 and 2, the closing theme music had to be stretched out with a couple of very noticeable and awkward edits.

That bit you mentioned from the end of "Balance of Terror," where Kirk has upbeat music, was so perfect for the moment that I never consciously connected it to WNMHGB. It's better in the reuse than it was in its original score. It just sparkles in BoT.

The theme written for Ruth in "Shore Leave" also worked much better in "This Side of Paradise."

 

[ZapBrannigan]

For episodes like that, the editors worked damned hard. The battle music at 33:52 was a patchwork of cues and edits. I have recreated one or two episode scores and it took forever to hunt around my digital files and edit them into place - and honestly, it's a rotten listening experience without the sound effects covering edits. But even the effort I went through was still easier than the editors splicing actual tapes.

Music editing in the pre-digital era involved frickin' savant skills that must be nearing extinction now. And it wasn't just scores. Pop songs took a lot more work to physically edit, and you had to do a lot more work in your head to keep it all straight.

A famous example was the song "Frankenstein." It was an editorial creation that got its name when the group was looking around the studio at the lengths of cut tape that were draped all over the place. They realized they were putting together a monster.

 

[johnnybear]

The season 1 fight or confrontation music was replaced in season 2 with the Amok Time Kali-fee theme but was back in season 3 as Plasus (Jeff Corey) attacked Kirk in the caves with the mortay weaponry. Or is it spelled Mortee?
JB

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Or mortar?

 

[Ssosmcin]

The season 1 fight or confrontation music was replaced in season 2 with the Amok Time Kali-fee theme but was back in season 3 as Plasus (Jeff Corey) attacked Kirk in the caves with the mortay weaponry. Or is it spelled Mortee?
JB

Ruk Protect - yeah that was all over the first season and then came back a few times in the third - The Tholian Web for example, when Loskene fires on the Enterprise.

The season 1 fight or confrontation music was replaced in season 2 with the Amok Time Kali-fee theme but was back in season 3 as Plasus (Jeff Corey) attacked Kirk in the caves with the mortay weaponry. Or is it spelled Mortee?
JB

Or mortar?

Seems like "mortae" but i don't have an original script.

 

[Qonundrum]

After rewatching a few season 1 eps, I could finally tell where, in some cases, tacking on disparate bits of music to create something "whole" if not "different" was used*. That sort of editing, along with mixing to ensure the music doesn't get louder than the spoken words, really does showcase a lot of unsung talent.

* The style of editing is something akin, reminiscent of, completely tangential to, or as an analogue precursor of the procedural/algorithmically generated music for the 1985 video game "Ballblazer", a game of some significance and behind forward-thinking in use of both music, antialiased tiles, and other attributes, but I digress, something you know I'm really good at, as Ballblazer used a series of prerecorded notes but arranged in a stochastic array and the game holds up really well despite the "dated graphics", but I digress again...​

 

[johnnybear]

Ruk Protect - yeah that was all over the first season and then came back a few times in the third - The Tholian Web for example, when Loskene fires on the Enterprise.



Seems like "mortae" but i don't have an original script.

Yes I should have remembered it was mortae!
JB

 

[Phaser Two]

Or mortar?

"Both will kill!"

 

[tharpdevenport]

For episodes like that, the editors worked damned hard. The battle music at 33:52 was a patchwork of cues and edits. I have recreated one or two episode scores and it took forever to hunt around my digital files and edit them into place - and honestly, it's a rotten listening experience without the sound effects covering edits. But even the effort I went through was still easier than the editors splicing actual tapes.

Man, that's nothing. In an episode of one-season live Quinn Martin Productions TV series "Most Wanted", the music editor took edited parts of three cues, and laid them ontop of each other, for one like ten or so second cue -- insane!

 

[Maurice]

* The style of editing is something akin, reminiscent of, completely tangential to, or as an analogue precursor of the procedural/algorithmically generated music for the 1985 video game "Ballblazer", a game of some significance and behind forward-thinking in use of both music, antialiased tiles, and other attributes, but I digress, something you know I'm really good at, as Ballblazer used a series of prerecorded notes but arranged in a stochastic array and the game holds up really well despite the "dated graphics", but I digress again...

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The music in Ballblazer is pretty groundbreaking for its time (you just have to get past the POKEY sound chip's limitations if you're not used to it). Instead of a looping track or tracks, it used something they called “riffology,” where short prewritten riffs were stitched together and varied on the fly. That meant the soundtrack kept evolving as you played, kind of like an endless, improvisational jazz session. You could boot the game and just sit at the title screen and it was never exactly the same. The video is a random half-hour of it, and includes diagrams explaining how it works. I was blown away by it back in the day. One of the earliest examples of generative music in a video game.