soundtrack

[Yeoman Randi]

OMG yes! That whole scene is perfect. PERFECT! I love how the scared Romulan son of Wesley Crusher says, "Captain i've picked up another ship!" And the Enterprise flies in. i got GOOSEBUMPS at that part.

Fixed.

Ack! did i spell scar (past tense) wrong? I didn't mean scared....is scarred wrong for the Rommie with scars?

Off to dig up a dictionary...

*Edit: amazingly, i did spell it correctly. SCARRED meaning the Rommie with the scars (on his face).
And, unfortunately, instead of getting my butt of this chair to get the dictionary, i looked it up online and was treated with the most disgusting pictures of SCARS!!!!!!!! OH THE PAIN!!!!!

Thanks Aragorn for trying to help me. Stick around, i'll be making spelling errors shortly, im sure!

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I have listened to the soundtrack many times and while I love it ALL and I think the main theme is well worth overuse.. the tracks are just so short. It makes for very jumpy listening.

 

[Jeri]

These guys may well be trained in music theory but, speaking as one who has been so trained as well, I didn't hear anything which got much deeper than them saying that they could hear the classical tradition in the music of Goldsmith, Horner, et al, but that in Giacchino's score they heard instead Big Hollywood music (or words to that effect.)

I've only had piano lessons and high school madrigals (I understood your explanation of chords -- concise, very nice, thank you); but I thought the same thing about these guys.

Regarding Giacchino, it was mostly a brief subjective discussion akin in kind to fan comments you'd find around here on any given topic. I did enjoy the earlier general Star Trek music discussion and think the clip is worthwhile listening for any Trek fan; so, thanks to Gep.

I really enjoyed the music while I was watching the film (all 13 times)...and listening to it in my car on the way to work just about every day, which is great because I can visualize what's going on in the movie. The scene where the Enterprise pops out of warp to save Spock in the Jellyfish is awesome and the music only makes it more so - imo.

OMG yes! That whole scene is perfect. PERFECT! I love how the scarred Rommie says, "Captain i've picked up another ship!" And the Enterprise flies in. i got GOOSEBUMPS at that part.

Hell, I've got goosebumps right now, and all you did was describe it! J.

My husband is a Wars fan first, but he volunteered that this is the absolute best use of the Enterprise in the whole movie. He said it's nice to see the showcases of her standing still, but nothing's as exciting at seeing her in action.

 

[Gepard]

What about the more exotic music for Spock and Vulcan we heard was that based on western music only using the instruments from the east, or did they use the style of the east as well?

Which music are you talking about, specifically? (Provide links to examples, if possible.)

I think he's referring to the Vulcan theme, which only made it onto the soundtrack for the first minute-and-some of "That New Car Smell."

 

[barnaclelapse]

Yeah, what the hell?

 

[QuasarVM]

I don't like the fact that Alexander Courage's fanfare was only used in the closing credits, and not at the beginning. I liked the main theme, but Courage's fanfare should have played during the reveal of the title ("STAR TREK").

And the main melody has been terribly over-used.

"Hella bar talk," "Enterprising young men" and "To Boldly Go/End credits" were awesome tracks. The rest was mostly mediocre.

I agree.

 

[Worf2DS9]

I enjoyed the music in the movie, but on its own there weren't many tracks that really grabbed my attention enough to get the whole CD. I did end up buying off iTunes "Labor of Love," "That New Car Smell" & "End Credits". Maybe once it comes out on DVD and I've watched it a dozen times, the music may grow on me, but for now it's a bit underwhelming overall.

 

[JarodRussell]

The soundtrack might be the best thing about the movie. Though compared to Horner's, Goldsmith's and Eidelmann's scores, it's not really good.

 

[cooleddie74]

I loved or at least sufficiently liked all 15 tracks on the soundtrack album. My favorites? "Labor of Love," "Hella Bar Talk," "Enterprising Young Men," "End Credits."

But I also really liked "That New Car Smell," the poignant-sounding music that plays over the meeting of Quinto Spock and Spock Prime near the end of the film and carries over into Kirk receiving his medal and becoming the official, commissioned captain of the Enterprise.

 

[startrekrcks]

what do you think about the End Credits

 

[cooleddie74]

^

I listed them in my top 4 on the album.

Sweeping and epic on most levels. Not my all-time favorite TREK movie end score(TMP and TFF still hold those titles)but so impressive I must have already listened to it no fewer than fifty times by now...ever since the very first sound clips were leaked onto YouTube back in the spring before the movie came out.

 

[M'Sharak]

Well, without getting overly technical, most harmonies in the Western European (classical) musical tradition is tertial (based on intervals of a third); for any key, the basic root chord is made up of the first, third and fifth (do re sol) degrees of the seven-note (do mi re fa sol la ti) scale, and the rest of the chords in that key are constructed similarly upon the other notes of the scale. The TOS fanfare uses a mixture of this and quartal (based on fourths) harmony, giving it a different harmonic character. Quintal is related to quartal (one is the harmonic inversion of the other) but again, it has its own distinct character or personality -- it just doesn't sound like your ordinary classical harmony, and can be useful to a composer because of that difference.

Spot on, but I think you mixed up 're' and 'mi.'

Gah, you're right. :facepalm: That's what I get for trying to post intelligently when my brain is asleep. It should be "do re mi fa..." and "do mi sol".

Back to the solfege mines for me.

What about the more exotic music for Spock and Vulcan we heard was that based on western music only using the instruments from the east, or did they use the style of the east as well?

Which music are you talking about, specifically? (Provide links to examples, if possible.)

I think he's referring to the Vulcan theme, which only made it onto the soundtrack for the first minute-and-some of "That New Car Smell."

Okay, up until about 1:48, where the main thematic motif for the movie enters, it does seem to be very tonal and in keeping with traditional Western European harmony. The use of the erhu and the very spacious orchestration and relatively static arrangement for the other instruments gives an ethereal and exotic quality to the music. I don't think anything but the melodic line are played by non-standard orchestral instruments. The technique used on the erhu may be derived in part from traditional Chinese techniques -- I'm not really qualified to say on that, one way or the other -- but the music itself (not to mention the added reverb or digital delay) doesn't seem to draw from eastern music at all.

 

[OneBuckFilms]

Much of the score is underrepresented in the soundtrack, and some unreleased music deserves to be released...

Where can people hear the unreleased music?

Unfortunately, in the movie. I know some have managed to extract some re-recorded unreleased material from Star Trek D-A-C, and there have been attempts by some to extract and edit as much of the music as possible from the 5.1 surround mix from the DVD with varying success, but the movie is really the only source for listening to unreleased material, along with the dialogue and sound effects of the movie.

 

[Kpnuts]

OMG yes! That whole scene is perfect. PERFECT! I love how the scarred Rommie says, "Captain i've picked up another ship!" And the Enterprise flies in. i got GOOSEBUMPS at that part.

Me, too! That's absolutely the way I felt every time I saw that scene in the film.

Incredible scene. I was literally shaking afterwards.

The nuTrek theme of Enterprising Young Men is amazing, can't wait to hear it again in Trek XII

 

[GhostFaceSaint]

What about the more exotic music for Spock and Vulcan we heard was that based on western music only using the instruments from the east, or did they use the style of the east as well?

Which music are you talking about, specifically? (Provide links to examples, if possible.)

Here is the music I am talking about.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNgcm6xjZo0[/yt]

 

[M'Sharak]

^ That's the same track Gep thought you meant, and he posted a link. See my attempt at an answer to your question in the second part of my previous post, four up from this one.

 

[Bones2]

The soundtrack isn't really that special, at least in my view (and I am something of a musician). Enterprising Young Men is nice enough, and I quite like the mix of the Courage theme and this film's main theme in the end credits, but it's certainly nowhere near as good as a Goldsmith.

 

[cooleddie74]

I agree about the Goldsmith scores being superior in most respects if not all. TMP and TFF remain my two favorite soundtracks of the entire movie franchise to date, but Giacchino's score is easily the best one since FIRST CONTACT if not earlier...possibly dating back to TUC.

 

[Bones2]

I wouldn't say it was better than Nemesis or Insurrection, and it's nowhere near First Contact in my opinion. Not as good as Generations, even. Going further back, TUC and TFF are both superior.

It's much better than TVH though. Much better.

 

[Voyagerian]

I know that a number of fans feel the main theme is overused, but, for me, I like the whole package-particularly 'Enterprising Young Men', and yes, we get that quite a bit, too, but it works for me. Like many, I grew up on A. Courage's timeless TOS theme, and revere it as well, and I have the GNP Crescendo cassettes released of the TOS music, 'Doomsday', and 'Mirror' on the respective albums, and find the late Jerry Goldsmith a terrific composer, especially for ST:TMP-and my beloved Voyager. Gotta throw in the legend John Williams, if outside Trekdom...but I think Michael has added anew and fine layer to this musical stratum....