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La-La Land Records to release 4-disc DS9 soundtrack set!

I've written about the music composing process for weekly television dramas here before but I don't have time to go searching for it, but usually, if you've got a showrunner who is hands-on with the music of the series, he or she will invariably direct what gets used and what an individual episode's overall "sound" will be.

From previous conversations I've had with Jay Chattaway back when Voyager and Enterprise were still airing, I seem to recall him saying Peter Lauritson was the hands on guy with the music 99 percent of the time. He would be the executive producer at the majority of the sessions that would be calling the shots. The others (Berman and others) would only come by for the "bigger" episodes.
 
I've written about the music composing process for weekly television dramas here before but I don't have time to go searching for it, but usually, if you've got a showrunner who is hands-on with the music of the series, he or she will invariably direct what gets used and what an individual episode's overall "sound" will be.

From previous conversations I've had with Jay Chattaway back when Voyager and Enterprise were still airing, I seem to recall him saying Peter Lauritson was the hands on guy with the music 99 percent of the time. He would be the executive producer at all the episodes that would be calling the shots. The others (Berman and others) would only come by for the "bigger" episodes.

There you go then. Lauritson, much like Bob Justman, was the guy in those music spotting sessions I described then, at least during Voyager and Enterprise.
 
I'm not getting why it's such a big deal that McCarthy, who wrote music for Trek for 18 years, quoted himself in some of his work.

Speaking for myself -- it's not a big deal. Like I said, I was just curious about the process, that's all. Thanks for the info.
 
I have to say I ordered this and I cannot wait to listen through, especially since I am rereading the DS9-R for Literary Treks and doing The Orb! Perfect timing. The music for DS9 was always wonderful.
 
And it's not like McCarthy is the first composer to do this. Listen to James Horner's scores, he does it all the time too. Battle Beyond the Stars and Aliens sound just like Wrath of Khan in places. Titanic and Avatar are eerily similar. Hans Zimmer's music all sounds the same.

I'm not getting why it's such a big deal that McCarthy, who wrote music for Trek for 18 years, quoted himself in some of his work.

Heck, listening to the TOS box set, it's evident how much Fred Steiner reused his own motifs. He recycled his Romulan theme as the "Blackship Theme" for "Mirror, Mirror" (and George Duning then used it for Henoch's theme), he reused his leitmotifs for Mudd's women and Andrea in "By Any Other Name," his "Who Mourns for Adonais" score is largely a rehash of themes from "Charlie X" and "The Corbomite Maneuver," etc.

Steiner's and McCarthy's reuses don't bother me much because they're reusing material within the same series or franchise. I don't recall McCarthy doing much reuse across franchises, such as melodies from V or MacGyver showing up in TNG, though there were a couple of close approximations. I think the reason it's more annoying when James Horner does it is because he does cross franchises rather indiscriminately, like reusing TWOK music in Cocoon or Aliens.
 
Indeed. Growing up, I'd pass through the family room while my siblings would watch DuckTales, myself usually drawn in because I couldn't for the life of me understand why I was hearing TNG from the other room. Lo and behold, Ron Jones' music for DuckTales sounds a hell of a lot like some of his music for TNG! :lol:
 
Indeed. Growing up, I'd pass through the family room while my siblings would watch DuckTales, myself usually drawn in because I couldn't for the life of me understand why I was hearing TNG from the other room. Lo and behold, Ron Jones' music for DuckTales sounds a hell of a lot like some of his music for TNG! :lol:

I know Ron Jones didn't write the theme song, but now I can't get it out of my head. THANKS A LOT double oh! :p

I'm sharing my pain and hoping to gain strength from the sharing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMU2NwaaXEA
 
Does anyone know if the Bar Fight music from Trials and Tribbelations? will be included in the set?

Yes, it's there, on the last disk.

I got mine in the mail yesterday, which was a surprise, considering that I ordered it last Tuesday afternoon. I figured I had at least another week wait ahead of me, considering how long it took for them to send the TOS set.

Not that I'm complaining of course.:bolian:
 
Does anyone know if the Bar Fight music from Trials and Tribbelations? will be included in the set?

Yes, it's there, on the last disk.

I got mine in the mail yesterday, which was a surprise, considering that I ordered it last Tuesday afternoon. I figured I had at least another week wait ahead of me, considering how long it took for them to send the TOS set.

Not that I'm complaining of course.:bolian:

YES! thanks. I'm excited to get it now.
 
Bell was a great addition to both DS9 and Voyager but he was by far the most repetitive composer. Take for example the cue in Sacrifice of the Angels when Kira and Rom get in the fire fight in the cargo bay it is almost exactly the same as the opening phaser fight in the Voyager episode Unity. Not to say his scores did not enchance the episodes he did but they had a tendancy to sound like the same score over and over.

David Bell and Jay Chattaway were my favorite Star Trek composers but yes Bell was the most repetitive! I could usually tell within a minute or two that it was him scoring the episode. That being said I loved the more dark and sober edge his music brought...particularly to DS9.
 
I don't recall McCarthy doing much reuse across franchises, such as melodies from V or MacGyver showing up in TNG, though there were a couple of close approximations.

The one big V reuse I remember McCarthy doing on TNG was in Encounter at Farpoint. The fanfare he used for Q's entrance as the judge was also his fanfare for The Leader in the final episode of V. Other than that, he mostly only used his military snare thing on TNG sometimes.
 
David Bell and Jay Chattaway were my favorite Star Trek composers but yes Bell was the most repetitive! I could usually tell within a minute or two that it was him scoring the episode.

Gee, I could usually tell within a couple of bars which composer it was. The orchestrations and rhythms that McCarthy, Chattaway, and Bell used were very distinctive. Bell was particularly easy since he routinely did his Trek scores in waltz time. I think he also used more French horns than the others. McCarthy was big on brass and strings and used pretty steady 4/4 time. Chattaway also used a lot of brass, but less solo trumpet, and less cello and bass than McCarthy; he also tended to make more use of long sustained notes and varying or syncopated rhythms, without the same kind of driving ostinati that the other two used.


The one big V reuse I remember McCarthy doing on TNG was in Encounter at Farpoint. The fanfare he used for Q's entrance as the judge was also his fanfare for The Leader in the final episode of V. Other than that, he mostly only used his military snare thing on TNG sometimes.

Oh yeah, I discovered that recently, but had forgotten.
 
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