Composers and TNG Music

[Smiley]

Of the regular composers, Ron Jones is my favorite. I could always recognize which episodes he scored even before the end credits because he made the music truly interesting.

Jay Chattaway is in the middle. He did some nice work, but not all of it was particularly exciting.

I respect Dennis McCarthy, but I think he did too good a job in following the directive to make the music like wallpaper. I can't remember one episode that he scored that had great, distinctive music.

What do you think of the composers, and which episodes have the best music?

 

[Corbyn]

Definitely Ron Jones.

I know Dennis McCarthy takes some heat for "wallpaper music", but in all fairness, he did a really nice job scoring STAR TREK GENERATIONS.

 

[jimbtnp2]

Corbyn said:
Definitely Ron Jones.

I know Dennis McCarthy takes some heat for "wallpaper music", but in all fairness, he did a really nice job scoring STAR TREK GENERATIONS.

Generations music is forgetable, but that's a B&B directive until Nemesis

TMP
TWOK
TSFS
TFF
TUC

all good stuff 1-3 were superb

 

[Praetorian]

A topic I like!

Certanly Jones was the best composer on Modern Trek. I loved him even before I knew who he was...while watching Ducktales, lol. That he was fired due to his music beeing "too noticeable" was quite a tragedy in my eyes.

Chattaway? On TNG I hardly liked him. He did some nice first scores (Tin Man, Remember Me), and some others in the middle (Power Play, Descent) but most of the time is music was too dissonant, too non-"classic", at least to my ears. Of course it's not his fault. He would do some better scores in the other series.

McCarthy...he started good, his scores in the First Season are quite melodical and emotional, and he certanly did some memorable scores, just watch Yesterday's Enterprise for one of his best. The third seaons also had Hollow Pursuits and The Survivors had some nice action music.
Also watch Encounter at Farpoint and notice how "strong" the music was, it was almost TOS-like, lol. Though I will agree with you that his scores aren't as memorable/catchy as the ones of Jones, but if you really listen to it, you will see that the music is nice.
This includes Generations. I didn't like the score particularly, but after listening to it I found out it had some very nice stuff.
Of course, eventualy he was neutered around the 4th Season and his music became very dissonant and "non-classic" though he recovered in the Sixth Season I would say (perhaps due to scoring DS9) and this is when I would rather have McCarthy scoring than Chattway. Something which never changed btw, even if Chattaway got much better latter so did McCarthy..

And please, don't blame this on "B&B", if anything it was Berman and Peter Lauritson. At least that's my understanding of it based on what I saw and read.
Braga? I even think he likes more bombastic stuff. And certanly Voyager (specially post Season 3, when he's in charge) and Enterprise had much better music than TNG after Jones left.

Oh I forgot, there were 4 guest composers in TNG:

Fred Steiner did "Code of Honor". Let's just say it fit the episode well, even if I loved the man back in TOS.
George Romanis on "Too Short a Season". The same..meh.
Don Davis did "Face of the Enemy" and it was great. Same with John Debney in "The Pegasus".

Oh, and I wouldn't call First Contact's and Insurrection's scores bland, certanly not more than Nemesis's, and Goldsmith is God anyway..lol

 

[Kegek]

^
Yes, Goldsmith's was a genius, but his post-TMP film scores for Star Trek became progressively less original. NEM boils down to a note-by-note rehash of TMP standards, plus some lousy rock-like music thrown in. INS is a good deal better, as it had quite a nice title theme - it's probably got the best music of the TNG films. I don't think there's been an all around good score since Cliff Eidelmann's TUC, however, something I hope will change with Michael Giacchino's score for the new film.

To return to the topic, I'd put Jay Chattaway at top for "Tin Man" alone, though I also believe he did the Ressikian flute theme in "The Inner Light."

Next up would yes, be Ron Jones, mainly for the Borg theme from "The Best of Both Worlds." McCarthy was generally bland and generic, but I did kind of like his weird synth score for "Encounter at Farpoint."

 

[GalaxyX]

I liked almost all the synth music in TNG.

Later Seasons (6 and 7 mostly so) it seems to be the typical string section playing constant suspended chords and the same progressions over and over (with no real melodies, just harmonies)

 

[tharpdevenport]

Well, as a music producer who's been to some of the score recordings has said, he's seen first hand what Berman did to the scores, so yes -- some blame can be placed on him. Especially what he did to "Silent Enemy" (Enterprise).



Ron Jones definately tops my list, followed second by Dennis McCarthy -- espcially for his "Yesterday's Enterprise" score, which, to me, cue-for-cue is one of the best (if not thee best) TV episode scores of any TV series I have seen.

Yes, Don Davis did a good job on "Face of the Enemy", too bad there was no CD release.

Jay Chattaway -- side from the often quoted "Inner Light" flute theme, did some other nice work, including "Tin Man", as mentioned, and the episode I can't recall the name of, where in the last scene the guy evolves into a glowing being and after bidding farewell, leaves the Enterprise as a ball of light -- with absolutely beautiful music playing.


Don Davis, Dennis McCarthy, John Debney, Ron Jones -- all worked with each other, at some point, as composers on cartoons (which tended to have multiple composers for each episode), and I'm surprised other cartoon composers who were working with them didn't get a shot, like Mark Snow and Bruce Broughton.



They say McCarthy got his shot on TNG because the producers liked his work on "V", but I got a different theory:


Goldsmith was asked to score the TOS pilot, but was busy.
McCarthy used to work on scores by the late Alex North.
Goldsmith was firends with Alex North.
When TNG came around, Goldsmith was probably asked again, but was likely too busy scoring movies and probably said, "Hey, there's this terrific guy working for a buddy of mine...".