Music on TOS

[Michael]

Just recently I listened to all of my TOS original soundtrack recordings and was wondering why they can't release more of these -- or even all. As I'm new to this forum I'm not quite sure if it was discussed before, but is it so difficult to get the fantastic work of the likes of George Dunning, Samuel Matlovsky or Jerry Fielding all on CD? Not to speak of the not completely released music by Sol Kaplan, Fred Steiner and the wonderful Gerald Fried. After all there aren't THAT many TOS episodes with original music. Often it was tracked from ohter episodes. And to make it clear, I don't want no "newly recorded" stuff -- I want the originals.

Is there someone else who thinks, TOS had the most talented composers on it? (The spin-offs most memorable scores came from Ron Jones and occasionally Jay Chattaway I think.) Or am I the only one interested in the music of Trek?

 

[Professor Moriarty]

It's not necessarily that the classic series had the most talented composers, but (imo) that the modern-era spinoffs deliberately toned down the use of incidental music, starting around the fourth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Rick Berman wanted music to be muted background wallpaper, which hamstrung talented composers from creating the sweeping, memorable types of soundtracks we enjoyed in classic Trek.

 

[Michael]

Yes, of course you're right. So what I really meant was that the music (not the composer himself) on TOS was IMO by far stronger than that of the later series. It had more punch somehow and didn't strive away from being recognizable. But then again that may be because of another mentality towards TV scores in the sixties (versus today).

 

[A beaker full of death]

It's important to remember that several other series from the 60s and 70s also had excellent scores (including some by the same composers who worked on Trek).

As for Berman's edict, he's an idiot.

 

[UnknownSample]

"As for Berman's edict, he's an idiot." Yes. Imagine wanting the viewers to feel less. I just LOLed at myself for imagining the later Next Gen soundtrack to be literal Muzak. "Girl From Ipanema" with sugary strings plays while a space battle is going on....

The music from original Trek is near the top of the list of amazing things about the original show. It sounds odd, but the music was so integral and necessary to me that I was baffled at first as to how they could have given up that music for the first film. (I'd expect them to re-record it, but some of the same compositions... at least) It's so good that it just doesn't matter how often the same passages are repeated.

They made a point of all new music for each episode in the 24C shows, yet it all sounds the same anyway. It was disposable music. If you have to write a whole score every week, you're not going to be as inspired as when you can give it more time... and where's the motivation to write great music, if you know for a fact that it's never going to be used again?

 

[Noname Given]

UnknownSample said:
They made a point of all new music for each episode in the 24C shows, yet it all sounds the same anyway. It was disposable music. If you have to write a whole score every week, you're not going to be as inspired as when you can give it more time... and where's the motivation to write great music, if you know for a fact that it's never going to be used again?

I agree with you entirely, but I also just wanted to point out that the reason TV show episodes no longer re-use/rebrand exact musical passages from earlier nepisodes is that the TV production landscape has changed greatly since the 1960ies, and that type of practice (which allowed producers to save money) is no longer allowed due to current hollywood union contracts.

If modern producers could get away with it now, I'm sure they'd reuse/rebrand background music.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

Yeah, those new contracts are murder. I remember in the '60s shows reused music like a certain theme for Spock or another one for Klingons. Kinda like Batman having different themes for the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, or the Catwoman whenever they were on the show. There was a constant "at-home" familiarity to a show that modern shows no longer have.

 

[Christopher]

It's certainly possible to reuse themes without actually recycling stock music tracks. Composers do it all the time. Nelson Riddle did have distinct themes for the Joker, Penguin, and the others, but he did plenty of different original scores that reused the same themes.

Indeed, many of the TNG/DS9/VGR scores that were performed new for each episode reused the same melodies (such as they were) over and over again. This is particularly true of David Bell's VGR scores from the last 4 seasons or so -- virtually every score he did was built around the same 8- or 9-note motif. Meanwhile, Dennis McCarthy was known for reusing whole sections of his earlier scores, only slightly modified (for instance, a fair portion of the action music from Generations showed up in "The Die is Cast" on DS9); he said he did this deliberately to see if anyone was paying attention. But it was a whole new performance, not a stock track.

In the time of TOS, the union rules actually only allowed you to reuse music tracks from within the current season. When you hear 1st-season music in the 2nd or 3rd seasons, or 2nd-season music in the 3rd, it's actually a new performance of the same cues.

 

[Green Shirt]

Christopher said:

In the time of TOS, the union rules actually only allowed you to reuse music tracks from within the current season. When you hear 1st-season music in the 2nd or 3rd seasons, or 2nd-season music in the 3rd, it's actually a new performance of the same cues.

Those rules also applied to opening and closing theme music. I first read about this on a "Bonanza" fan site. Although the theme for that show changed drastically in its later seasons, union rules required that the theme be re-recorded at the beginning of each season. So for instance, on TOS, the change from season to season wasn't simply for change sake but was mandated by regulation. On many shows the changes were so minor, they weren't very noticable.

 

[Ronald Held]

isn't the reuse of those melodies used different then the TOS usage?

 

[tharpdevenport]

Paramount is a tough cookie to get to release old stuff. I recall reading is was tough work and mainly Neil Norman who got what little we did get, from them.


Also remember reading a couple years back or so that they found better tapes for "Amok Time", and that would make better sound for a remastered CD release.



Since Paramount clamed up so tightly, I've had to get all my expanded/unreleased movie/TV scores on unofficial CD-Rs.
So have other people.

I recall one person, perhaps it was posted here, who said he got Voyager's "Scorpion" from Jay Chattaway himself, but it got crushed in a moving process. NEVER would happen if I had gotten it. The horror ... THE HORROR!!!

 

[GeorgeKirk]

It's sad that there's so much great Original Series music that'll never be released. Heck, I'd even settle for re-recorded stuff. Just makes the material we do have all the more precious, I suppose.

 

[Therin of Andor]

GeorgeKirk said:
It's sad that there's so much great Original Series music that'll never be released. Heck, I'd even settle for re-recorded stuff. Just makes the material we do have all the more precious, I suppose.

Actually, TOS is well represented. Seven albums' worth, plus tracks on "Best of" compilations. More than any other ST series.

 

[tharpdevenport]

One or two of those Cds are re-recordings, though.

Though TNG is on 6 CDs (maybe seven).

 

[AC84]

I think the new BSG reuses music tracks, especially for certain scenes like that nice Irish Father/Son diddy. For the first season, you would occasionally hear different versions of the wonderfully haunting theme song (which I still think is better than the new one). And at the end of season finales, you can also hear that awesome "shape of things to come" score. I love reoccurring music motifs and it's sad modern Trek didn't care much for them.

 

[Christopher]

^^As I mentioned before, reusing a motif or melody isn't the same as reusing a previously-recorded music track. (A musical composition for a film is a cue; a track is a segment of an audio recording.) What's required by union rules these days is that every episode of a show have newly performed music rather than just remixing pre-existing tracks. But there's no reason that music can't reprise the same melodies and arrangements used in earlier episodes; it just has to be a new performance so that the musicians get paid for every episode.

 

[tharpdevenport]

But as Paramount owns hte music, they can reuse cues. or even pay for cues from other TV/movies. Trek, Simpsons -- both used previously recorded cues by a British composer.

"Kingdom of heaven" ended up with several of the cues from the temp track, being left in the film (Jerry Goldsmith, Graeme Revell, etc.).

While i'm sure BSG odesn't reuse it's own cues, but does a new take on it, it's not out of the realm of possiblity they could do so, but highly doubtful. Everytime "The X-Files" used "Scully's Theme", it was a new recording.

 

[Christopher]

Tharpdevenport said:
But as Paramount owns hte music, they can reuse cues. or even pay for cues from other TV/movies. Trek, Simpsons -- both used previously recorded cues by a British composer.

That's all beside the point I'm making. Yes, sometimes stock cues can be reused, or source music can be licensed (like the pop songs that dominate the soundtracks of many modern shows). But my point is simply that just because you hear the same melody reused, that doesn't automatically mean it's just a reuse of the same recording. I'm not saying it's always a new recording, just that you can't assume it is.

And what cues and composer are you specifically referring to here?

"Kingdom of heaven" ended up with several of the cues from the temp track, being left in the film (Jerry Goldsmith, Graeme Revell, etc.).

That's a one-shot movie score, and I fail to see how it's at all relevant to the question of the reuse of cues in multiple television episodes.

While i'm sure BSG odesn't reuse it's own cues, but does a new take on it, it's not out of the realm of possiblity they could do so, but highly doubtful.

Actually Canadian productions apparently aren't subject to the same American union rules that require new performances in every episode. You still hear lots of stock music tracks in Canadian shows like Stargate, at least in the earlier seasons. And the same goes for overseas productions like those made in Australia. Lots of Farscape's early music by Subvision was recycled in many episodes, and some of it has even been recycled on totally different shows, including Power Rangers (now produced Down Under) and the live-action The Tick.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Christopher said:

In the time of TOS, the union rules actually only allowed you to reuse music tracks from within the current season. When you hear 1st-season music in the 2nd or 3rd seasons, or 2nd-season music in the 3rd, it's actually a new performance of the same cues.

I've read that, but it doesn't hold together. While some themes were rerecorded (like for Mirror, Mirror, Wolf in the Fold and Adonais), other episodes took the exact same cues from other seasons. Lights of Zetar took heavily from WNMHGB and the performances are exact. Some stinger cues from Adonais were used in the thrid season more than once. Heck, Zetar in the third season opens with music from Doomsday Machine. And, really, a good ear can spot the difference between the original cues and a rerecording.

And that's just Star Trek. Over at Fox, Irwin Allen not only reused music for all the seasons of each show, he used music from his other shows and jumbled them around. Plus the Fox movie score library was at his disposal. Now was the union a "musicians union" for everyone, or was it on a studio by studio basis?

 

[Michael]

I agree with you entirely, but I also just wanted to point out that the reason TV show episodes no longer re-use/rebrand exact musical passages from earlier nepisodes is that the TV production landscape has changed greatly since the 1960ies, and that type of practice (which allowed producers to save money) is no longer allowed due to current hollywood union contracts.

If modern producers could get away with it now, I'm sure they'd reuse/rebrand background music.

I never heard, that they couldn't use some track from one season for another, though.