Soundtracks for Trek Lit??

[Dayton Ward]

If we're specifying staples...

I'll play, too. Some of my favorite scores to play while writing are:

Black Hawk Down - Hanz Zimmer
Crimson Tide - Hanz Zimmer
Gladiator - Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard
The Incredibles - Michael Giacchino
Pirates Of The Caribbean - Klaus Badelt & Hans Zimmer
Raiders of the Lost Ark - John Williams
Rambo: First Blood Part II - Jerry Goldsmith (one of his underated gems, IMHO)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Jerry Goldsmith
Superman: The Movie - John Williams

Though I don't always listen to Trek music when writing Trek, with stuff like Vanguard or other TOS-related stories, I usually gravitate toward music from the series.

 

[Blamo]

There's a dance remix version of Adagio for Strings which goes very well with ominious scenes (like a Borg cube attacking). Sure the original would do the job just as well, it's just the techno involved makes it feel more fitting for sci-fi. It's quickly become a fave of mine, which is strange being that I usually can't stand dance music.

"Better Days" is pretty good for anything that's optimistic and Federation related.

"The Wards" from the Mass Effect game soundtrack rather suites the Caeliar's utopia like world.

A part of me want's to say "Bat Out of Hell" for any Klingon action scene, even though it's a weird choice. It doesn't help that I can see the Klingons as a bunch of space bikers.

 

[Rush Limborg]

Here are my staples:

Pirates of the Caribbean--Hanz Zimmer & Klaus Badelt

Batman Begins & The Dark Knight--Hanz Zimmer & James Newton Howard

Lord of the Rings--Howard Shore

Some bits and pieces from various other soundtracks, but these, basically, are the essentials for moi.

 

[Fireflywyo300]

THE CALLING
(July 2009)

A man who can sometimes hear when others pray for help is summoned to rescue a kidnapped little girl. His search quickly lands him in the middle of a deadly conspiracy involving Russian mobsters and corrupt New York City cops — and makes him aware of his true role in an ancient, ongoing struggle between the forces of Good and Evil.

Wow. That's sounds excellent. I'll definitely put that on my reading list.

 

[Fireflywyo300]

I enjoy reading to Lorena McKennitt. Here a few others.. "Band of Brothers" (from the HBO series) "Pearl Harbor" Vaneglis' "Voices" and "Mythodea: Music for the Nasa Mission" "Gods and Generals" "Kingdom of Heaven" Also, I noticed that Mr. Mack enjoys foreign voices. If you ever get the chance, take look at Azam Ali. She did the female vocals on "300". Two of her best songs are "Endless Reverie" and "Spring Arrives"

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

I can only listen to classical when I'm reading. Anything else distracts me. Anything with words, in particular. I can't focus on both at the same time.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Apologies for reviving a thread...but something came up on my Winamp that I wanted to share. When I first read Gulliver's Fugitive, I also happened to be listening to Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to The Rabbit-Proof Fence and wow...it really fits the atmosphere of that book. It's hard to explain other than that I get a very strong sense of both the void of the Rampartians' minds, and the sweeping landscapes of myth Troi encounters. Just...trust me!

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

OK...I know I'm reviving this thread again--but I stumbled upon something that I think really fits Fearful Symmetry. I found this to be a rather chilling combination...

Song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHzV68DnJkA

Lyrics here: http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/561/ (These are about as close as you can get to correct lyrics. And there are a LOT of wrong Radiohead lyrics out there.)

Intended narrator and scenario should be obvious.

 

[Thor Damar]

Mostly the excellent music of NuBSG by Bear McCreary. Although I do not often listen to music when reading Treklit.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Interesting...I tend to use that more with my fanfic than with Treklit.

 

[Thor Damar]

Interesting...I tend to use that more with my fanfic than with Treklit.

I use it when reading 'good' fanfic. For example for the recent parts of the thirteenth Order I would have 'prelude to War' on in the back ground. And at some point I want to play the 'Colonial anthem' as Macet and co kick some Dominion arse!

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

That's interesting! I do have "Prelude to War" planned for a scene I'm writing elsewhere in the story. Obviously I can't discuss the content of what I'm writing both for legal reasons (we're not in the fanfic forum) and spoiler reasons ( ), but that song will eventually factor in.

 

[JoeP]

I can't listen to anything when I'm reading. I have to have it completely silent, otherwise I'm distracted.

*Oooh! shiney!*

 

[Thor Damar]

I can't listen to anything when I'm reading. I have to have it completely silent, otherwise I'm distracted.

*Oooh! shiney!*

^

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Just saw this old thread while looking for something else.

The climax of The Wounded Sky, when K't'lk and the TOS crew jump-start a stalled-at-birth universe, has always, always, brought the last 3 minutes or so of Stravinsky's Firebird to my mind.

 

[Tarheel]

I'm glad this thread was revived, as it gave me a few ideas for new music to check out.

I used to listen to my Rock/Pop favorites while reading, but I eventually stopped that because my memory would often permanently link the combo. For example, I still think about Metamorphosis by Jean Lorrah whenever I hear REM's Out Of Time, simply because I consumed both at the same time back in 1991. The same goes for Radiohead's Kid A and the Early Voyages series from Marvel, which I read in one shot back in 2000.

Now I only listen to soundtracks and I have two primary playlists. The first is my iTunes library full of Star Trek soundtracks, both TV and movies. The second is a playlist I put together on Spotify with non-Trek soundtracks. It includes TV material like Lost and Fringe, as well as a lot of recent movies like Man Of Steel, X-Men, Captain America, Transformers.

If it's not Trek, then I try to stay away from any scores that easily identifiable, such as Star Wars or almost anything else by John Williams.

 

[Sci]

Several sequences in Star Trek: Destiny make me associate them with musical pieces. The scenes where the Borg are laying waste to Federation worlds often make me think of Murray Gold's "The Dark and Endless Dalek Night" leitmoff from Doctor Who (perhaps most memorably used recently in "The Day of the Doctor," during the scenes where the invading Dalek hordes are exterminating the city of Arcadia on Gallifrey).

The finale with Erika Hernandez and her redemption, always makes me think of "The Song of Purple Summer," from Duncan Sheik's musical Spring Awakening, particularly its original opening verse (heard on the original Broadway cast recording but revised for the production itself later on). Full lyrics of the original version below:

And all shall fade:
The flowers of spring,
The World,
And all the sorrow
At the heart of everything

But still it stays
The butterfly sings
And opens purple summer
With a flutter of its wings

The Earth will wave with corn
The gray-fly choir will mourn
And mares will neigh
With stallions that they mate:
Foals they've borne

And all shall know
The wonder
Of purple summer.

And yet, I wait
The swallow brings
A song to hard to follow
That no one else can sing

The fences sway
The porches swing
The clouds begin to thunder
Crickets wander, murmuring

The Earth will wave with corn
The gray-fly choir will mourn
And mares will neigh
With stallions that they mate:
Foals they've borne

And all shall know
The wonder
I will sing
The song of purple summer!

And all shall know
The wonder!
I will sing
The song of purple summer!

All shall know
The wonder
Of purple summer.

 

[David Mack]

For some time I've wanted to put together a "Music of Destiny" podcast similar to the "Music of Vanguard" show that TrekRadio.net helped me produce a couple of years ago.

I can't recall exactly which pieces of music I was listening to for inspiration during the Borg attacks on various planets, but I know that the finale sequence with Erika Hernandez was choreographed in my head to the track "Evey Reborn" from Dario Marianelli's soundtrack of V for Vendetta. The atmospheric beginning I associate with Erika's farewell message to Picard and Riker; as it swells near the 1:40 mark, she surrenders to the Borg; her epiphany and reversal of the assimilation happens at 2:00; then she begins transforming them at 2:30; after that, I think it's easy to track the progress of transformation through the end of the sequence, if one imagines it as a cinematic montage.

It's actually one of my favorite pieces of movie music of all time.

For even more fun, compare it with "The Shawshank Redemption," Thomas Newman's track for Dufresne's escape from prison in the movie of the same name. That track was my beat-by-beat inspiration for Erika's transformation in book two, Mere Mortals. Note how eerily similar they are, but also the subtle differences that helped inform each scene, such as the bittersweet coda on "The Shawshank Redemption," versus the triumphal ending of "Evey Reborn."

 

[Sci]

For some time I've wanted to put together a "Music of Destiny" podcast similar to the "Music of Vanguard" show that TrekRadio.net helped me produce a couple of years ago.

I can't recall exactly which pieces of music I was listening to for inspiration during the Borg attacks on various planets, but I know that the finale sequence with Erika Hernandez was choreographed in my head to the track "Evey Reborn" from Dario Marianelli's soundtrack of V for Vendetta. The atmospheric beginning I associate with Erika's farewell message to Picard and Riker; as it swells near the 1:40 mark, she surrenders to the Borg; her epiphany and reversal of the assimilation happens at 2:00; then she begins transforming them at 2:30; after that, I think it's easy to track the progress of transformation through the end of the sequence, if one imagines it as a cinematic montage.

It's actually one of my favorite pieces of movie music of all time.

Fascinating! There's a sense of danger and brutality to "Evey Reborn" from the 1:40-2:00 mark; it nicely captures the feel of the Borg and their violence.

For those interested, here is a link to the original Broadway cast recording version of "The Song of Purple Summer" I referenced above, and here is a piano cover of the song without any lyrics.