Old or New Music for the new Trek film
- Thread starter Duane
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I voted for mostly new. I don't mind the odd musical homage, but look at say, the past four films: The last three were increasingly stale and recycled Jerry Goldsmith themes. Bring back Courage, Kaplan et al isn't going to rectify matters.
With Michael Giacchino onboard, if he's given carte blanche to do with the score as he pleases - and I suspect he has - we could be getting the best Star Trek score since Cliff Eidelmann's TUC.
With Michael Giacchino onboard, if he's given carte blanche to do with the score as he pleases - and I suspect he has - we could be getting the best Star Trek score since Cliff Eidelmann's TUC.
It's extremely naive to think they'll even consider only using the old music. Giacchino has a job to do and reusing other people's work can be expensive. Best case scenario, he'll add in a few old music motifs at key moments in the film. Much like he did with Mission: Impossible III and Ottman with Superman Returns by sprinkling bits of John Williams' original score.
If he doesn't add anything from TOS, I wouldn't be surprised. But I will say this...I'll be disappointed if we don't hear at least some version of the TOS theme song.
If he doesn't add anything from TOS, I wouldn't be surprised. But I will say this...I'll be disappointed if we don't hear at least some version of the TOS theme song.
Giacchino is a great choice for this, because he's very good at capturing the style of '60s TV/film music while bringing something fresh and new to it. So "old vs. new" is a false distinction here. It's likely that he'll create something new and rich and gorgeous which is also a good stylistic fit with, and a loving homage to, the classic music of TOS. I'm really looking forward to his score.
I want to see a new, orchestral work which borrows liberally, not so much from Courage's stuff but from Steiner's and Kaplan's stuff for thematics.
I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to hear the "Kirk's Command" fanfare (The OTHER fanfare that starts high, then steps down a couple of steps, then back up... see Charlie X for an example).
That theme is far more an indication of "Star Trek" than Courage's music ever has been, at least to me.
I truly hope we don't hear a HINT of Goldsmith's music (though I LOVE Goldsmith's work, it is totally unrelated to TOS).
Give me new music based upon classic TOS motifs and themes, and that'll take me 1/2-way to buying that this is "the same show."
Music is every bit as important as acting or set-dressing to making a show "connect" with the audience.
I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to hear the "Kirk's Command" fanfare (The OTHER fanfare that starts high, then steps down a couple of steps, then back up... see Charlie X for an example).
That theme is far more an indication of "Star Trek" than Courage's music ever has been, at least to me.
I truly hope we don't hear a HINT of Goldsmith's music (though I LOVE Goldsmith's work, it is totally unrelated to TOS).
Give me new music based upon classic TOS motifs and themes, and that'll take me 1/2-way to buying that this is "the same show."
Music is every bit as important as acting or set-dressing to making a show "connect" with the audience.
I would prefer if they're making new music, but in the style of the old films (and TOS). I hope they will go back to orchestral music, not like in ENT with this song (which I liked, but I think it matches better to Star Trek if you have some kind of orchestral music.
I started this thread. I never meant to suggest that there was any possibility that only old music would be used, but my original post was not that clear.
For those of us who grew up on TOS, and especially for those fans that always loved the music, the use of only old music would be a wonderful tribute.
I still get chills up my spine when I watch the TOS-Remastered video clips on the trekmoviereport and hear that music. I suppose it happens because I don't like to re-watch the episodes more than once every few years, so it brings back a ton of memories.
For those of us who grew up on TOS, and especially for those fans that always loved the music, the use of only old music would be a wonderful tribute.
I still get chills up my spine when I watch the TOS-Remastered video clips on the trekmoviereport and hear that music. I suppose it happens because I don't like to re-watch the episodes more than once every few years, so it brings back a ton of memories.
It's ironic when people say that it's wrong for a Trek show to have a popular song as its theme, because the TOS theme was very much in the style of a 1960s pop song (well, what would've been pop for adults as opposed to youth), a "Beyond the Blue Horizon" pastiche with a vaguely bossa nova rhythm line added.
Christopher, that's an interesting comment that the TOS theme was in the style of a 1960's pop song. That had not occurred to me, and I'm not sure I quite get it. Can you site an example of a song from the 60's which reminds you of the TOS theme? Maybe the Mammas and the Pappas(?), if that is the correct name of that group. Thanks.
Mostly new with the old stuff linked in much the same way that John Williams did with the SW prequels. He managed to bring in the musical cues and snippets of the earlier music while still creating something that fit within the overall style.
The fanfare. Definitely the fanfare. Beyond that, I don't care if everything's new. Just nothing pretentious. I've always been a fan of Horner's TWOK theme over Goldsmith's STMP one, for example. The opening from TWOK: BEST USE OF THE FANFARE, EVER!
Oh, and the fight music from "Amok Time". That must be worked in somewhere. If I hear it's not, I'm boycotting the film.
Oh, and the fight music from "Amok Time". That must be worked in somewhere. If I hear it's not, I'm boycotting the film.
I already specified the song that Alexander Courage was directly emulating when he wrote the theme, "Beyond the Blue Horizon." It also has a very similar chord progression to "(You Came to Me from) Out of Nowhere," which was part of why Dennis McCarthy used that song as underscoring for the first holodeck scene in TNG's "The Big Goodbye," as sort of a musical inside joke.
As I said, I'm not talking about the sort of thing we think of today as '60s pop music, rock and the like, because that was the popular music of the youth culture. I'm talking more about mainstream song styles, the standards, the respectable stuff rather than the counterculture stuff. The sort of thing that would've been considered pop music by people who were already in their 40s in 1964. (Alexander Courage was born in 1919, Gene Roddenberry in 1921.) In the same way that "Faith of the Heart" is in a style of popular music that's mainstream and acceptable, even somewhat dated and unhip, by today's standards.
Anyway, the TOS theme is literally a song. In one of its arrangements, the main melodic line was in fact sung, by soprano Loulie Jean Norman. Roddenberry wrote lyrics to it, which mercifully were never used onscreen.
Mostly new with some old.
I'm guessing they'll do a kind of casino Royal ting, the film will end with Kirk's "space the final frontier thing, then the familiar Star Trek theme of old.
What I'm REALLY hoping they do, is have stills during the end credits like the old episodes, but of encounters that we've never seen damatized
I'm guessing they'll do a kind of casino Royal ting, the film will end with Kirk's "space the final frontier thing, then the familiar Star Trek theme of old.
What I'm REALLY hoping they do, is have stills during the end credits like the old episodes, but of encounters that we've never seen damatized
I couldn't vote because none of your choices worked for me.
I want to hear a new score with new themes, of course, but I want lots and lots of classic musical touchstones... that "descending into the bridge" music, the fanfare, the fight music (yes, the fight music!)... lots of nostaligia moments where appropriate.
I want to hear a new score with new themes, of course, but I want lots and lots of classic musical touchstones... that "descending into the bridge" music, the fanfare, the fight music (yes, the fight music!)... lots of nostaligia moments where appropriate.
Those lyrics were never intended for actual performance. Roddenberry wrote them to secure 50% of the royalties, since he would be the lyricist.
A gesture Alexander Courage was not too happy about. At All.
^^True, of course, but their existence demonstrates that the theme was structured in the manner of a song, so that lyrics could be easily and naturally written to it (although Roddenberry's lyrics weren't adapted to it very skillfully). If GR had asked Courage to put lyrics to it instead, then Courage could've easily done so. In fact, he's said on the record that he would've been happy to help Roddenberry refine his lyrics to fit the tune better and be less awkward. He had no problem with the idea of sharing credit with Roddenberry, just with the insincere and self-serving way that Roddenberry went about it, writing shoddy lyrics just as a way of making money rather than doing the work to create something artistically valid.
As long as they don't use the TMP/TNG theme again. I was really getting sick of hearing that in the last few movies.
Actually I've been listening again to all the old scores, and probably my FAVORITE is the music for TSFS. It's so rich and atmospheric and majestic, and really captures the spirit of TOS better than any of the others, IMO.
I really hope the new music captures that same kind of feeling.
Actually I've been listening again to all the old scores, and probably my FAVORITE is the music for TSFS. It's so rich and atmospheric and majestic, and really captures the spirit of TOS better than any of the others, IMO.
I really hope the new music captures that same kind of feeling.
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