Let's talk about Discovery's music

[MakeshiftPython]

While I agree music on TNG definitely took a downward spiral, and indeed much of the franchise is really lacking in the episodic music department. In Voyager's last few seasons they did get some pretty decent music in their action scenes, though admittedly this suffered a bit from overuse. Enterprise, while not exactly memorable, its music did tend to be somewhat livelier than the single bland note that characterized much of the episodic music during Berman's reign.

When McCarthy and Chattaway were the only regular composers working TNG/DS9 simultaneously you could feel their work being stretched thin. The music really got noticeably better once Berman started hiring more composers like David Bell, Paul Baillargeon, and Kevin Kiner in the rotation, which had a really positive impact on McCarthy and Chattway's work post-TNG. Makes me wonder why Berman didn't just do more of that during the TNG years. More composers brought more variety.

 

[pst]

Makes me wonder why Berman didn't just do more of that during the TNG years. More composers brought more variety.

i don't think berman was interested in variety.

that's not a knock, but it's clear he had very conservative tastes when it came to music, direction, editing.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

That is until he didn't! After TNG ended something seemed to have snapped that at least convinced him to let the shows have a looser feel than the latter years of TNG. That same snap seemed to have convinced him to hire Goldsmith for the rest of the TNG films after McCarthy's one shot on GENERATIONS (which I do think is his best of all his TNG works).

 

[gblews]

The fact I don't get distracted by it is a good sign.

Interesting. It's just the opposite for me. When music does stand out for me it is usually because I find it really good.

 

[Steve Roby]

I'll take Russo's Discovery music over Murray Gold's Doctor Who music any day. Subtlety is a good thing.

 

[ATimson]

I'll take Russo's Discovery music over Murray Gold's Doctor Who music any day. Subtlety is a good thing.

It’s possible to take it too far. I’ve got all of Murray’s DW soundtracks, and even the “sonic wallpaper” era Trek soundtracks that La-La Land has put out. But asides from a handful of Courage fanfares, I’m hard pressed to recall any scene with music from Discovery.

 

[SPCTRE]

Yes, Rick, we know.

I just want to take a moment to appreciate this reference, months later

 

[pst]

been listening to christopher lennertz's score for the new lost in space lately and thinking how much more melodic, varied, and grand it all sounds compared to discovery.

i'm not saying discovery should sound just like it, but it's doing a lot of things right that discovery didn't in a similar franchise. the use of john williams' old lost in space theme is particularly of note, a good model for how russo could've handled both themes from trek's past and his own new discovery themes. there's also just a lot more heart here than in discovery.

 

[Lord Garth]

I think as soon as Discovery discovered all the territory the Klingons seized, they should've played this song ("No Easy Way Out" from Rocky IV). Complete with a montage of what happened during the nine-month skip. Including the death of Captain Killy. Then flashbacks to how the crew of the Discovery got to this point.

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[skip bittman]

Not enough theremin. Every time Jason Isaacs would do some of his eyebrow acting or campy foreshadowing, they could've squealed OOooOoOOOOOooooOooOOoOoo and really underlined how spooky everything was. OOOOOOoOoooOOoOOoo.

I mean, I suppose you could stuffily explain it was a knowing homage to Forbidden Planet, but mostly it would just be to incorporate more oOoOOoooooOooOo.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I've been listening to the second part of the soundtrack and the music is much better.

 

[XCV330]

James Horner's "Shit's about to go down" part of the TWOK theme remains my favorite bit of trek scoring but i liked Disco's opening soundtrack. At first I found the scoring too understated. I dont know if it dveloped better over time or if I just got accustomed to it by the end, but I really do like the soundtrack.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I am just profoundly annoyed that they packed the Discovery soundtrack with lame and forgettable ambiance tracks and left out pretty much every bit of music that I is even slightly memorable. I'm thinking a producer somewhere was looking at Berman's old memos about subdued music and went with the "sonic wallpaper" approach while deliberately leaving out either the track where Discovery recovers Burnham's shuttle, or the "battle theme" where they saved the colony (which was also used when they blew up the Charon). I would have literally bought the entire album just for those two songs and they're the only ones missing.