Which background music? (Synthesiser or full orchestra?)

[DizzyMan]

I've personally always hated the incidental music from the first couple of seasons. It was mostly very light, spacey synthesiser music and gave no sense of drama. When the big, full, orchestral music kicked in (around season 3) the show suddenly seemed to be a lot more dramatic and exciting. For me, it gave the show so much more energy and passion and turned TNG into a different show.

But I've recently heard the opposite opinion from a forum member: that the latter orchestral music was all too generic (like bland wallpaper), and the early seasons at least had very original music, and more variety.

I was wondering what people's opinions were on this? Which do you prefer?

Also, if they remastered TNG, would people be in favour of scrapping the incidental music from the first couple of seasons and replacing it with musical cues from the latter seasons, to make the series more consistent? I certainly would.

I don't know much about the composers, either. Was there a distinct change in the composers after season 3, or was it just a change in budget/production?

 

[Kegek]

My opinion is a tad nuanced. I think TNG's best musical work came in the first three seasons, both in the two years, but climaxing in the third season, with excellent orchestral scores like in 'Tin Man' and 'The Best of Both World.'

It's in the fourth season, when Rick Berman begins to tighten the reigns and insist on bland, uninspired scores, most of Trek's music just goes 'blecch.' Occasionally some good music could slip by, especially when the reigns were relaxed a little bit, but mainly the music is so-so.

 

[DostoyevskyClone]

I also *firmly* believe that the music in the first couple of seasons was WAY better than the bland stuff they used later on. My opinion is probably biased though - I tend to love synthesizers in general. Still, if they were to do a remastered Trek, I think a lot of seasons 4-7 could benefit from a sythesizer track. There are a couple of episodes that spring to mind (like "Lower Decks") where the music was powerful, but that didn't happen very often.

I remember going back watching seasons one and two again and thinking "Damn - why couldn't they keep this music?" There was just *so* much more mood and atmosphere to those early episodes and if they had kept the music for later seasons, I think it would have been brilliant.

I think the time period might also have something to do with it - the first few seasons were still being produced in the 80's.

 

[AJBryant]

Orchestral. Synthesizers are cheesy and cheap.

 

[tharpdevenport]

The orchestra stuff, though yes -- there was some good stuff early one; mainly from Ron Jones, who adapted to the regular orchestra very well (since that's waht he was accustomed to before Trek).

I wouldn't say later season scores were bland per se, they were in a different vien.

 

[WalkinMan]

If one combined the greater creativity of the earlier seasons' musical scores, with the enhanced orchestral effects of later on...

...one thing you could say about the TNG films, half of them may have stank, but the music was generally pretty good.

 

[Kegek]

I wouldn't say later season scores were bland per se, they were in a different vien.

The vein being wallpaper music. The Berman philosophy is that music should never call attention to itself, it should only underscore the dramatic effect of a scene and thus should come across kind of subconsciously. I've never agreed with that approach - I can understand not using music, and I can understand using it as a key dramatic tool, but demoting it is an unfair compromise.

I think Berman, like many before him, somewhat resented the dramatic power of music. For better or worse it can overpower any scene - well-acted material can be ruined by cheesy music, poorly-written material can be elevated by a lofty score. Accordingly, he didn't want it calling attention to itself, which is why 'Tin Man' was Jay Chattaway's freshman scoring... and almost everything he did after that point in incidental music was forgettable.

 

[DizzyMan]

Wow, I'm really suprised how much support there is for the early seasons' music. I'd always thought of them as something of an embarassment.

Maybe I'm going to have to go back and listen again and be a bit more open-minded?

DostoyevskyClone said:
My opinion is probably biased though - I tend to love synthesizers in general.

No, I absolutely love synthesisers too. I'm a massive fan of all electronic music. All my favourite music is synthesiser stuff, and I'm a big fan of 80s music. Actually, some of my favourite music ever is videogame music, all done on synthesisers (how sad am I?)

I just felt the stuff from seasons 1 and 2 was too weak and light and not 'grand' enough for a show about big, fast powerful spaceships with such a bombastic opening theme.

The synthesised Babylon 5 music was a lot better in terms of being big and dramatic and exciting (Although that was pretty generic itself a lot of the time.)

Then again, I did love the opening music for season 2's premier, 'The Child'. It really made you think "wow, it's all new and exciting". But that was an orchestral piece!

Probably my favourite love-to-hate piece of music was in 'Encounter at Farpoint' when they play the standard 8-note Trek theme really fast with the most cheesy brass synth you've ever heard. It makes me laugh. I also find it funny when they played the main TNG theme mid-episode to "celebrate" the saucer separation.

I guess with so much split opinion on the music, they'd never remove the original series 1–2 incidental scores on a remastered version. (I just assumed everyone hated it!)

 

[KJM]

IMO, Encounter at Farpoint is the best example of background music excess. They even played the main theme during the saucer separation!

 

[Kegek]

Well, I'd like to say this about seasons one and two: Yes, they could make terrible mistakes with their cues and totally overplay things - like that soapish, tinkly piano number in McCoy's scene in 'Encounter at Farpoint'.

But they were using music in a boldly dramatic way, and when it worked, it worked pretty well - I love the use of chimes in 'The Battle' during the scene Bok mentions 'The Battle... of Maxia' and they kick in mysteriously, for example.

The pinnacle of series composition was season 3, during which there was an orchestra, but also more freedom than in seasons 4-7.

 

[DostoyevskyClone]

Yeah, I didn't say much about season three, but it was very, very good too. I remember the music in the scene from "Booby Trap" very, very well as Picard realizes their predicament and makes the comment "Is it possible...?" - it's a great example of music being used in a bold way as people have described.

 

[A beaker full of death]

The early music was much better, but should have been scored for an orchestra.

The later music was just awful, and sadly, deliberately so.

 

[Nick086]

I like the music in season one's opening credits.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Which is the music they used for all 7 seasons (just reperformed once or twice for later seasons).

 

[Hermiod]

I prefer the later seasons.

I'm not one to find the "Berman era" music bland at all. Star Trek under Rick Berman had some great scores - "The Inner Light", "The Best of Both Worlds", "Pegasus", "A Call to Arms", "Scorpion", "Favo(u)r the Bold", "Sacrifice of Angels", "Canamar", "Azati Prime", "Countdown" etc.

 

[Kegek]

^
Most of those are exceptions that prove the rule. Some I'd still consider bland. "The Inner Light" is a pretty good example - a piece of music has to be made a major plot point before it's allowed to be inspiring.

 

[DostoyevskyClone]

I think I'm going to take some season one or two music and place it in a season six or seven episode - I'll post it on YouTube and let you guys know when I do. It should be interesting to see how it turns out.

 

[Christopher]

The title question draws a false dichotomy. Ron Jones's TNG scores always used a blend of full orchestra and synthesizer. The synth was just another voice in the orchestra, a way of broadening its range. Jerry Goldsmith used synth that way in a lot of his orchestral scores. And Dennis McCarthy used some synth as part of the orchestra in his early TNG scores, though not as heavily as Jones did.

Jones himself has done superb work with traditional orchestration (his scores for Disney's Duck Tales, contemporaneous with his TNG work, were some of the best animation music I've ever heard), but for TNG, he chose to experiment with more exotic sounds.

I generally prefer orchestral to electronic music, but I feel Ron Jones did very well at both. His use of electronic sounds was more distinctive and interesting than most electronic music I've heard. However, I did enjoy his work better when it made more use of conventional orchestral instruments.

The only Trek TV series that's ever used exclusively electronic scores was Enterprise in most of its fourth season (and maybe some of its third). But instead of exploring the range of novel sounds that electronics make possible, those scores strove to imitate a conventional orchestral sound. The decision to drop orchestra for synth was made for purely budgetary reasons.

I don't know much about the composers, either. Was there a distinct change in the composers after season 3, or was it just a change in budget/production?

Dennis McCarthy was the Trek franchise's leading composer from "Encounter at Farpoint" through "These Are the Voyages," the one constant presence for 18 years. He alternated with Ron Jones for the first three seasons of TNG and most of the fourth, but then Jones left (due to the more restrictive music policies imposed by the producers) and was replaced by Jay Chattaway, who also stayed with the franchise to the end. In the DS9 years, McCarthy and Chattaway were joined in the rotation by David Bell, and later by Paul Baillargeon. VGR and ENT used these four composers in rotation, though ENT had a couple of other composers as well, including Velton Ray Bunch (who had worked with Bakula on his previous shows) and Brian Tyler. ENT thus had the largest number of distinct composers of any Trek series since TOS. There were also various composers who did one or two Trek scores apiece, including John Debney and Don Davis. Fred Steiner, the most prolific composer for TOS, did one early TNG episode, "Code of Honor," making him the only composer to work on original Trek, modern Trek, and the movies (he did uncredited orchestration work on TMP).

 

[DizzyMan]

Wow, thanks for all that info, Christopher!

Very interesting.

Believe it or not, I still haven't seen ENT seasons 3 or 4 yet as they haven't shown them here in the UK yet (at least on terrestrial TV).

I heard it improved somewhat!

 

[AviTrek]

I just hope if TNG is redone the music isn't changed. The music can be rerecorded to have a higher quality digital version, but the score itself should not change. The episodes should reflect the music they had when originally aired.