The music on Star Trek Discovery
- Thread starter Scotty
- Start date
I never thought of that. Interesting. It's actually kind of odd he isn't contributing. Maybe he has other things scheduled I guess.
I'm not opposed to Broughton handling every episode, but I was hoping -- since Seth is mainly paying tribute to Star Trek -- that like every single Trek series, he'd use multiple composers.
My short list of "The Orville" composers:
* Bruce Broughton (already picked)
* Joel McNeely (already picked)
* Ron Jones (such a big dug pick)
* Water Murphy (because he's yet to do an outer space science fiction score)
* John Debney (just listen to his work on "SeaQuest")
* Don Davis (again, fantastic work on "SeaQuest", and that one episode of TNG he scored, "The Face of the enemy")
* Velton Ray Bunch (another Trek composer, but a good one)
* David Newman (all I think I need to say is "Galaxy Quest")
* David Bell (again, great Trek work, and maybe with this some more freedom; plus he did a terrific, though sadly unreleased, score to a mini series called "Dead Man's Walk")
* Why not go old school, and hire Stu Phillips -- sure, he's retired, but I think he could be talked about of it for one episode. He did "Battlestar Galactica" for goodness sakes. He also posts, on some rare occasions, at a film score board I posted at. Nice guy.
* Gerald Fried. The only living composer from the original Trek series. He's scored two short films as of late, coming out of retirement a little, and a few months ago he recorded his score to the film "Unbelievable!!!!!" (not released in theaters yet) -- his first film score since the 1980's. Very nice guy -- interviewed him and communicated a little via e-mail.
Other Potential Composers
The Following haven't done, as I recall, any outer space science fiction scores, but have potential in my opinion:
* Nan Schwartz (also a talented orchestrator)
* Gabriel Yared (just listen to his massive old school [rejected] orchestral score to "Troy". Imagine something like that for an action episode.
* Larry Blank. Obscure, but another orchestrator who's done a little scoring.
* Dynamic Music Partners (Lolita Ritmanis, Michael McCuistion, and Kristopher Carter)
* Peter Tomashek, who did one of the best episode scores of "Batman: The Animated Series" -- "Robin's Reckoning: Part II". Example:
Yes, I know -- that horrible ending the video maker made, but that's the only clip of it I could find.
My short list of "The Orville" composers:
* Bruce Broughton (already picked)
* Joel McNeely (already picked)
* Ron Jones (such a big dug pick)
* Water Murphy (because he's yet to do an outer space science fiction score)
* John Debney (just listen to his work on "SeaQuest")
* Don Davis (again, fantastic work on "SeaQuest", and that one episode of TNG he scored, "The Face of the enemy")
* Velton Ray Bunch (another Trek composer, but a good one)
* David Newman (all I think I need to say is "Galaxy Quest")
* David Bell (again, great Trek work, and maybe with this some more freedom; plus he did a terrific, though sadly unreleased, score to a mini series called "Dead Man's Walk")
* Why not go old school, and hire Stu Phillips -- sure, he's retired, but I think he could be talked about of it for one episode. He did "Battlestar Galactica" for goodness sakes. He also posts, on some rare occasions, at a film score board I posted at. Nice guy.
* Gerald Fried. The only living composer from the original Trek series. He's scored two short films as of late, coming out of retirement a little, and a few months ago he recorded his score to the film "Unbelievable!!!!!" (not released in theaters yet) -- his first film score since the 1980's. Very nice guy -- interviewed him and communicated a little via e-mail.
Other Potential Composers
The Following haven't done, as I recall, any outer space science fiction scores, but have potential in my opinion:
* Nan Schwartz (also a talented orchestrator)
* Gabriel Yared (just listen to his massive old school [rejected] orchestral score to "Troy". Imagine something like that for an action episode.
* Larry Blank. Obscure, but another orchestrator who's done a little scoring.
* Dynamic Music Partners (Lolita Ritmanis, Michael McCuistion, and Kristopher Carter)
* Peter Tomashek, who did one of the best episode scores of "Batman: The Animated Series" -- "Robin's Reckoning: Part II". Example:
Yes, I know -- that horrible ending the video maker made, but that's the only clip of it I could find.
Bear has done "strings and brass and bombast" too - his excellent score to the first season of Human Target can attest.
I just hope that whoever it is has the chance to do a real main titles arrangement.
And the composer is Jeff Russo, because apparently not even Star Trek can resist the clutches of most modern TV series using only one composer. Breaking with tradition of every single Trek series prior using multiple people.
I don't see the problem with that.
I think this is an interesting choice. Russo has done really impressive experimental music on Legion, while also managing very different sounds on Lucifer and Time After Time (those three are the only current/recent shows of his I'm familiar with). He seems versatile enough that it's hard to predict what we'll get.
As for the number of composers, given that the season is a single 15-part serial, it kind of makes sense to give it a unified musical sound. Besides, much of the reason why previous Trek shows alternated composers was because 26 scores per season was too much for one composer. This season is just over half that length, so it's not too much for one person.
Having a consistent musical style is a good thing, and one of the reasons why so many shows these days have excellent soundtracks. Given that "every single Trek series" had musical wallpaper after the firing of Ron Jones, this is probably the best tradition they're ignoring.
Russo did great work on Fargo for three seasons so I'm down with this.
Yep. Sweet, isn't it!?!
Jazz?
People forget how much popular music was in TOS. The original theme was very much in the popular (albeit pre-rock) song style of the day, a pastiche of "Beyond the Blue Horizon" with a bossa nova beat. Similarly early '60s-style dance music was heard as source cues in party scenes in episodes like "Mudd's Women" and "The Conscience of the King." And of course there was "Beyond Antares," and the space-hippie songs in "The Way to Eden." Sure, it went for classic orchestral scoring for the most part, but it didn't eschew a contemporary sound from time to time. Not to mention, of course, that Ron Jones did a lot of experimentation with contemporary electronic music in TNG, and Jay Chattaway's scores often had New Age elements to them. So even within ST's traditional orchestral idiom, there's room for innovation.
Given how wildly imaginative Russo's Legion scores are, I'd prefer it if he were free to take whatever approach he wanted and to experiment with the music, rather than being constrained to work within a stylistic box. We don't want another Trek series with wallpaper music.
I don't ever remember a shows music being so horribly distracting it kept me from watching the show or movie. Which isn't to say that ENT's theme song wasn't horribly distracting, because it was, but it didn't keep me from watching the show. I don't even remember what the "background music" sounded like on ENT it's been so long since I've seen it, but I don't remember it as being bad. This is just a nit with me. Rock and roll songs adapted for Star Trek always bugged me, but never kept me from watching. Other than that fairly boring sample Serveaux posted, I knew nothing of Russo so I had to go to youtube to find some examples. I'd say he's probably above average, but he's no Jerry Goldsmith or Dennis McCarthy or even close.
Do people even say "rock and roll" anymore?
Do we know that it will actually be just one person? For example, Blake Neely is the only credited composer for his six Berlanti shows, but there are three other composers working with him. (I believe they're credited in the liner notes to the soundtrack albums, just not on-screen.)
Yes.
Quasi-Sex (Theme From Star Trek, jazz version; Courage/Roddenberry, arr. Mullendore)
Oh! I should've realized, given how many shows he works on. Also surprising to read that the majority of the Arrowverse scores are primarily electronic with the occasional soloist. I guess synths/samplers have gotten better at sounding like orchestras.