RIP Fred Steiner

[EnsignHarper]

Fred Steiner, long time Hollywood composer, arranger and historian, passed away yesterday at the age of 88. As we all know, Steiner's role in Trek history is as important as anyone's, having composed so many scores for TOS, including the iconic music for The Corbomite Maneuver.

Steiner also composed the theme of Perry Mason, The Bullwinkle Show, and also was instrumental in helping out Jerry Goldsmith on ST:TMP, and did some of the score for Return of the Jedi.

All Hail Fred Steiner!

Personally, I love the two CDs he did of his arrangement of Trek scores - which are very hard to find these days...

 

[Harvey]

Steiner wrote many of the best scores for the original series. He was also the only TOS composer to contribute work for TNG (alas, Roddenberry didn't hire him back for further scoring assignments).

RIP.

 

[Christopher]

Sad news indeed. He was TOS's most prolific composer, and responsible for many of its iconic cues -- including the Balok/Fesarius theme, the Romulan/Mirror Universe theme, and many of the show's lush romantic themes. He was also the only TOS composer to work on TNG, and the only one other than Alexander Courage to make musical contributions to any of the movies (he did some orchestration and cue timing for TMP, though he denied actually ghostwriting any of the cues, according to a post on this BBS from Indysolo several years ago).

Steiner's Trek scores included:

"The Corbomite Maneuver" (only 6-7 minutes, the rest stock from the pilots and other, earlier-aired episodes)
"Mudd's Women"
"Charlie X"
"Balance of Terror"
"What Are Little Girls Made Of?"
"The City on the Edge of Forever" (partial score, mostly built around the song "Goodnight, Sweetheart")
"Who Mourns for Adonais?"
"Mirror, Mirror"
"By Any Other Name"
"Elaan of Troyius"
"Spock's Brain"
TNG: "Code of Honor"

It's also possible that he did the "Star-Spangled Banner" arrangement in "The Omega Glory" and the music for the songs in "The Way to Eden," but I can't verify those.

He also conducted new performances of several TOS scores in two of the earliest Trek soundtrack album releases, from Varese Sarabande in the '80s. These included his own "Corbomite," "Mudd," "Charlie," "Mirror," and "By Any...," as well as George Duning's "The Empath."

And of course he did so much beyond Trek -- not just the Perry Mason and Bullwinkle themes (talk about eclectic), but a number of notable Twilight Zone scores, episodes of Gunsmoke and Hogan's Heroes and plenty of other '60s and '70s shows, and more recently, several episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures.

 

[xortex]

Wow, talk about dying a happy man. He went to Star Trek heaven. Besides the awsomely powerful cues and themes and motifs he had were his enormously comfortable background music, the low bassoons and horns, etc. that gave the bridge that warm cozy feeling that sank in and resonated in the Human heart. It just gave every second meaning and import. Just the heroic cue of Kirk walking on to the bridge or the incredibly appropriately creepy Spock theme in 'Mirror. Mirror'. Not the contemplative theme that we identify with Spock, which he probably wrote too, but a much more manacing one. This is sad news indeed. He made Star Trek, Star Trek. It could never be recreated. It just made so much sense. A gestalt.

 

[Christopher]

Not the contemplative theme that we identify with Spock, which he probably wrote too...

No, Gerald Fried's "Amok Time" score is the source of the theme most commonly identified with Spock. George Duning's scores such as "Return to Tomorrow," "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" and "The Empath" develop a Spock theme of their own, but it's actually a quote of another passage from the "Amok Time" score.

 

[DWF]

What a terrible loss but at least he lived a long life, some of his themes were among the most iconic of Star Trek The music during the fight scene in Amok Time is one of his best known themes.

 

[xortex]

Not the contemplative theme that we identify with Spock, which he probably wrote too...

No, Gerald Fried's "Amok Time" score is the source of the theme most commonly identified with Spock. George Duning's scores such as "Return to Tomorrow," "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" and "The Empath" develop a Spock theme of their own, but it's actually a quote of another passage from the "Amok Time" score.

Actually I was just thinking about a cue when the evil Spock walks on to the bridge and realizes the Hulkans have not been destroyed yet. Steiner had and edgy style. The completive Spock theme does seem more like Fried, who thank God is still alive and active, but didn't Fried write the Amok Time fight scene - the famous one in 5/4 time?

 

[Gary7]

So sorry to hear of this... the inevitable passing of Star Trek legends like this. The musical score brings so much to the presentation. Without it, the imagery would be rather lifeless. Fred did a wonderful job of coming up with themes that worked so well with the subject matter, and his coordination with others helped maintain a certain "feel" to all of the soundtracks. RIP, Fred.

 

[Christopher]

The completive Spock theme does seem more like Fried, who thank God is still alive and active, but didn't Fried write the Amok Time fight scene - the famous one in 5/4 time?

Yes, I already said that Fried scored "Amok Time." And some of the score from "Amok Time" was recycled in "Mirror, Mirror," particularly during Mirror Spock's mindmeld with McCoy. M,M was one of many TOS episodes that featured a mix of brand-new music composed for the episode and stock music tracked in from earlier episodes. So most of its score was new Steiner and some was recycled Fried. Any particular "Spock theme" you might've heard in M,M is almost certainly stock music from Fried's "Amok Time." Steiner's thematic material in that episode was built mostly around his "Balance of Terror" Romulan theme, which he repurposed and elaborated on for the Terran Empire theme, and also reworked into Marlena's theme. He also included one or two melodies or motifs that he used repeatedly in his TOS scores; for instance, when the landing party is starting to beam up from Halka and we see the Enterprise in orbit, he uses his standard Enterprise motif (a melody of 3 notes then 5 notes that resembles the Courage fanfare), and then when the image "flips" to the Mirror Enterprise, he throws in an inverted and tensely accelerated version of the motif.

 

[xortex]

I like the way they developed Courage's fanfare of fourths over the couse of the series. I often play it in the minor key to be ominious or augmented to be eerie like at the end of WNMHGB - a fouth followed by a aumented fourth suspension to give it a dissonant longing quality but music is my field, Chris, like science is you're interest. They are similar. Archemides and sine waves and dissonant harmonic overtone series and fractals and such.

I would like to make a piano reduction of Steiner's scores and Courages and the rest for future sci-fi and Star Trek composers to research and reference as there was some crazy stuff going on in there harmonically. Think of 'Spock's Brain'. Ruggedly American dissonant atonality, unapoligetically so, and syncopated rythms and shifting time signatures. The Roddenberry estate should compile and preserve his original manuscripts and Courages in the sci-fi hall of fame or in the archives of the approprate university institution like Calstate to protect them and make them available to the public.

I used to know a guy who could play the music form Star Trek on the piano by ear, including the whole score from 'The Empath' and even the piano bar music from 'Spectre of the Gun'.

Was the scene where Spock walks on to the bridge and notices that the Halkans had not been destroyed yet, not Steiner? Ii was not a major cue, but just a small segue sequence connector, but it was creepy - probably a basson descending line in tritones or something, or was it Fried, Chris? I don't know who composed what from what for the Beatles or Star Trek. Not yet any way. Haven't read Jeff Bond's book.

 

[Saxman1]

One of the greats, for sure. As a musician, I really appreciate his various Trek scores. Just another sad reminder of how lame the music for a lot of the TNG-ENT era Treks is.

 

[xortex]

It was short sighted sonic wall paper designed to milk the cow for all that it was worth. If there was ever a show in a position to take risks, it was Trek, but Berman played it close to the vest to make it last as long as possible by making mediocre tepid crap, er sausages. The words stingy comes to mind. Minimize product, maximize profit. Suits are not cheap. Remember what he told Robert Picardo. Buy the expenisive flooring for your remodeled kitchen. and what he told the altruistic Gerrold when he called, in a mafia like fashion, plain and simply, 'What do you want?' meaning how do we buy you off.



You know it bugs me when people say that RB wasn't the showrunner ex facto on Trek for eighteen years. Here you have the least creative guy making all the big decision and in fact every decision, from details on up. Braga said he had to fight to get Hoshi an ear piece in ENT. The suit's mentality won. They finally got a team player in Abrams. Roll out the crap. The novels have the same shit going on to. It's too easy to get corrupted and cornered by the mediorcre. Integrity has no chance against money. Got rid of RB? Huh, and got something worse. a little kid with an ice cream cone. Pass the torch, er, the money. The house always wins. You know I could go on forever.

 

[Gary7]

Reading "Inside Star Trek", you got this feeling that in the beginning, there was an energy about the show. People working on it knew this was a really different kind of show, something never before seen. Many people who worked on it gave it their all. Walter "Matt" Jefferies worked tirelessly to find the right designs that would pull off this ambitious production. And I wouldn't doubt it if the musical composers, having seen the production values and stories projected before them, realized that this was something important to leave their mark upon.

When you look back on shows made in those days, the musical scores weren't quite as sophisticated and moving as those created for Star Trek. I do feel they made some very good scores for TNG, but very often the music slips so far into the background, you don't feel much. For the rest of the franchise, it was pretty much hit or miss by episode. Voyager had some great scores from time to time.

 

[Christopher]

When you look back on shows made in those days, the musical scores weren't quite as sophisticated and moving as those created for Star Trek.

I think there were plenty of great scores in the period, often by the same composers. ST's sister show Mission: Impossible had a lot of fantastic music (probably performed by a lot of the same musicians who did TOS's music), and Gerald Fried's scores for it were mostly on a par with his Trek work, allowing for the fact that M:I's focus was usually more on plot and events than characters and emotions. And there was a lot of great music on The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, even sitcoms like Gilligan's Island (Fried again) and My Favorite Martian.

 

[number6]

It was short sighted sonic wall paper designed to milk the cow for all that it was worth. If there was ever a show in a position to take risks, it was Trek, but Berman played it close to the vest to make it last as long as possible by making mediocre tepid crap, er sausages. The words stingy comes to mind. Minimize product, maximize profit. Suits are not cheap. Remember what he told Robert Picardo. Buy the expenisive flooring for your remodeled kitchen. and what he told the altruistic Gerrold when he called, in a mafia like fashion, plain and simply, 'What do you want?' meaning how do we buy you off.



You know it bugs me when people say that RB wasn't the showrunner ex facto on Trek for eighteen years. Here you have the least creative guy making all the big decision and in fact every decision, from details on up. Braga said he had to fight to get Hoshi an ear piece in ENT. The suit's mentality won. They finally got a team player in Abrams. Roll out the crap. The novels have the same shit going on to. It's too easy to get corrupted and cornered by the mediorcre. Integrity has no chance against money. Got rid of RB? Huh, and got something worse. a little kid with an ice cream cone. Pass the torch, er, the money. The house always wins. You know I could go on forever.

None of which has anything to do with the passing of Fred Steiner.

 

[Keith1701]

Steiner wrote many of the best scores for the original series. He was also the only TOS composer to contribute work for TNG (alas, Roddenberry didn't hire him back for further scoring assignments).

RIP.

RIP Fred...

 

[Esteban]

Tonight, in Fred's honor, I will cue up "Charlie X", "Who Mourns For Adonais?", and "Mirror, Mirror". Although I will probably fall asleep pretty early on, it WILL be to the tunes of his fine and irreplaceable contributions to Star Trek.

 

[Esteban]

And, because I went Fred, I listened to "Elaan of Troyius", which was his favorite--a total score--and the not-so-bad "By Any Other Name", which has an absolutely beautiful end, all Fred Steiner.

 

[Christopher]

^I wasn't aware the "Elaan" soundtrack had ever been released.

 

[Esteban]

^I stream the videos to my iPad and often just listen.