Rank the film scores.
- Thread starter Amasov
- Start date
1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
2. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
3. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
4. Star Trek: Generations
5. Star Trek: The Search for Spock
6. Star Trek: First Contact
7. Star Trek (2009)
8. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Not too familiar with the others to vote right now.
2. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
3. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
4. Star Trek: Generations
5. Star Trek: The Search for Spock
6. Star Trek: First Contact
7. Star Trek (2009)
8. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Not too familiar with the others to vote right now.
I would have ranked Rosenman's STIV score in my top block, were it not for one thing: Rosenman's score to The Lord of the Rings (1978). I love Rosenman's LOTR score a lot, but to me it seems like his STIV score is too much of a chip off that block for it to be ranked in the highest category of Star Trek scores.
Well, I for one love the score to Star Trek IV, or at least the closing credits music. To those that dislike it, is it because it often sounds unlike a Trek score?
I Also love Kahn's music in Trek 2, and the recurring Klingon theme music from Trek 3, 5, and First Contact.
First Contact in general has nice music, from the opening theme to the dark Borg theme.
I just rewatched Insurrection a few nights ago, and I think the opening theme music, as we watch the daily lives of the Baku, is quite beautiful.
Generations, however, has the dullest, blandest, most forgettable music of the whole series. Even while I'm watching it, I can't remember any music from it. I've heard that through much of TNG's run, Berman insisted that the music be completely unmemorable and never draw the slightest attention to itself. I don't normally like to jump on the bash-Berman bandwagon, but that seems to be one area where the bashers appear to have a point, and I guess it carried over into the first TNG movie.
I Also love Kahn's music in Trek 2, and the recurring Klingon theme music from Trek 3, 5, and First Contact.
First Contact in general has nice music, from the opening theme to the dark Borg theme.
I just rewatched Insurrection a few nights ago, and I think the opening theme music, as we watch the daily lives of the Baku, is quite beautiful.
Generations, however, has the dullest, blandest, most forgettable music of the whole series. Even while I'm watching it, I can't remember any music from it. I've heard that through much of TNG's run, Berman insisted that the music be completely unmemorable and never draw the slightest attention to itself. I don't normally like to jump on the bash-Berman bandwagon, but that seems to be one area where the bashers appear to have a point, and I guess it carried over into the first TNG movie.
Rosenman's score for TVH is very similar to what he did here:
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o8vsU0Dw-4[/yt]
For what IV was about and the theme of the movie, the soundtrack was fitting in my opinion. It was joyful, it was hopeful, and it was lighthearted.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct5-__9VTAY[/yt]
It has a opening that's screams " Finally, the heroes are back. Here's our fanfare as we finally made it home " with the trumpets and horns before settling in with the strings. Then the trumpets and chimes is like a ringing bell announcing their arrival home. Swooping strings, gallant horns, and then settles into a bittersweet melody that there will be trouble, uncertainty before rising to it's fanfare again. It's sentimental, its sweet, and sets the tone for the movie. I love the hell out of it.
While, on the flip side, TWOK's music is rebirth and life.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sofU3EMa4xc[/yt]
Coming into the unknown then sudden you're propelled into chaos. There's a journey... there's to be an adventure... there's rediscovery... but then there's also loss. The main theme completely sets the tone for ST with the swooping strings, the crescendos of the horns, and then the clashes of the symbols in the percussion. As the main theme ends... it becomes like a call... The horns, then the trumpets, then the clarinets, and finally the flutes before dying off into an eerie silence.
Each theme compliments the movie itself and tells the story of the movie through its music.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct5-__9VTAY[/yt]
It has a opening that's screams " Finally, the heroes are back. Here's our fanfare as we finally made it home " with the trumpets and horns before settling in with the strings. Then the trumpets and chimes is like a ringing bell announcing their arrival home. Swooping strings, gallant horns, and then settles into a bittersweet melody that there will be trouble, uncertainty before rising to it's fanfare again. It's sentimental, its sweet, and sets the tone for the movie. I love the hell out of it.
While, on the flip side, TWOK's music is rebirth and life.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sofU3EMa4xc[/yt]
Coming into the unknown then sudden you're propelled into chaos. There's a journey... there's to be an adventure... there's rediscovery... but then there's also loss. The main theme completely sets the tone for ST with the swooping strings, the crescendos of the horns, and then the clashes of the symbols in the percussion. As the main theme ends... it becomes like a call... The horns, then the trumpets, then the clarinets, and finally the flutes before dying off into an eerie silence.
Each theme compliments the movie itself and tells the story of the movie through its music.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek: Generations
Exactly!
I don't hate Rosenman's score to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. It's derivative of earlier work the composer did, but it properly captures the tone of the movie. I just wish James Horner had been available, in order to provide the Genesis trilogy with a little more continuity, but I realize the idea of the three films as a "trilogy" is bit of a retroactive grouping.
Hey, now, I never said I hated the STIV score; I said it nearly goes in my top tier for goodness sake! Yes, it does capture the tone of the movie, and it reminds me of Christmas time, which is about the time when the film was released. It's just that critics must be fair!
Rosenman's music for TVH was anathema to me in the theater in November 1986 (it was a Thanksgiving, not Christmas, release) and ever since. It doesn't hold a candle to his Marcus Welby, M.D. music, to take one well-known example of his earlier work.
I wish I could include musical notation here. One example I'd want to pick apart is the downward sequence that constitutes the second section of the main title, where the melody is "daaa . . . . da-da-da-/daaa . . . " etc.; this is, I think, the section that someone above called "Christmasy" in its instrumentation - it's both compositionally lazy and anachronistic (not in a positive sense). I have read that Rosenman and Nimoy were friends and that this is the reason he got the job - but his sensibilities were all wrong for the movie.
(I have a Bachelor of Music degree in composition and am also a Master of Music, according to pieces of paper that I've got stashed in a box in the basement, issued by two different American public universities.)
I wish I could include musical notation here. One example I'd want to pick apart is the downward sequence that constitutes the second section of the main title, where the melody is "daaa . . . . da-da-da-/daaa . . . " etc.; this is, I think, the section that someone above called "Christmasy" in its instrumentation - it's both compositionally lazy and anachronistic (not in a positive sense). I have read that Rosenman and Nimoy were friends and that this is the reason he got the job - but his sensibilities were all wrong for the movie.
(I have a Bachelor of Music degree in composition and am also a Master of Music, according to pieces of paper that I've got stashed in a box in the basement, issued by two different American public universities.)
Didn't mean to say that you did--just that I didn't! I had previously said it was one of my three least favorite Trek film scores, after all.
Didn't mean to say that you did--just that I didn't! I had previously said it was one of my three least favorite Trek film scores, after all.
Not at all sure which part you mean.
However, for one thing it's all of the bells that makes it sound like holiday season to me. No doubt watching the movie in the theater at Christmas time, during its first run, helped to underscore my association with Christmas, beyond only any musical allusions.
You can always link to images that you have hosted somewhere.
Exactly my feelings. It's not the music per se that's bad - it's more the break in style within a trilogy that's bothering me.
My ranking (just judging from the themes now):
TWOK + TSS
FC
TUC
INS
ST 2009
STTMP
TFF
NEM
TVH
GEN
