Why did the music change so much
- Thread starter Phily B
- Start date
In fact, the whole reason Berman was against using recurring themes was that, to his mind, it made it sound like stock cues were being recycled. Which is odd, because the music he favored instead was so interchangeable that most of the time you couldn't tell if it was new or recycled.
Actually the musicians' union rules at the time (and ever since, through to the present) required every US-produced show to have a complete original score in every episode, regardless of whether it was performed by an orchestra or a synthesizer. From the '80s to today, the only shows you hear recycled stock music on anymore are ones produced in Canada (like Stargate) or overseas (like Farscape or Power Rangers).
And since it's the result of union negotiations, the concern isn't whether it sounds distinctive in each episode, but whether the composers/musicians get steady work.
^ Well, that makes sense, but it still seems unlikely that if Berman were unconcerned about the quality of the music that he would have approved the expense of having a live orchestra week after week. The fact that he did allow Trek to stick with a live orchestra, at a time when many shows were cutting expenses by using a synthesizer, lends further credence, in my mind, to the idea that he did want quality music but just had a different taste than many of us here.
Yes, exactly. He wanted it to have quality, but in a way that served as a background element rather than a foreground element. Just like he wanted, say, the sound effects or the console graphics to be of high quality without distracting from the actors and the story. It's well-known that Berman was a meticulous, very hands-on executive producer, actively participating in just about every aspect of the production and working with the staff to make it all as perfect as possible. But still, the goal is for most of it to be more or less invisible, to fit smoothly into the whole experience and not stick out distractingly. You might never even notice the text on a console display or the greenery on an alien planet set, but the producers and staff would still put a lot of care into its quality because they know that you would notice it if it were done badly.
I was under the impression that Stargate and Farscape had original scores for every episode.
24, weirdly enough, often used tracked music, although it's quite possible they had to re-record those cues due to union rules.
^No, at least in its early seasons, Stargate SG-1 recycled a lot of stock music. Indeed, in the first season or so, it relied heavily on reused cues from David Arnold's score to the original film, interspersed with new music by Joel Goldsmith and others. They phased that out over time, but they still recycled a lot of their episode cues, at least in the Showtime seasons.
And Farscape's first season or two used some library music, or maybe its music was recycled as library music on other Australian productions. There's a certain music cue that I've heard in Farscape, Power Rangers, and at least one other show.
And Farscape's first season or two used some library music, or maybe its music was recycled as library music on other Australian productions. There's a certain music cue that I've heard in Farscape, Power Rangers, and at least one other show.
doubleohfive
Fleet Admiral
I wrote up an explanation of the music composing and editing process for scripted television series based on my own experience in the industry over the last few years that might shed some light on the process for those unfamiliar with it.
I have no idea if this is how Berman ran things on any of his Treks, but it's been more or less common on all the shows I've been on so far.
I have no idea if this is how Berman ran things on any of his Treks, but it's been more or less common on all the shows I've been on so far.
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