To Boldly Go…Through Star Trek TV Themes

In honor of the new Star Trek movie coming out this weekend and while I’m procrastinating on my review of The Great Gatsby soundtrack, I thought I’d revisit Star Trek in its original form – television.

Through the years, we’ve had the pleasure of experiencing Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (ehhh), Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. Some lovely person on YouTube happens to have already compiled the themes in one video here (there are 2 themes each for TNG and DS9, then 3 for Enterprise, because they changed slightly):

I like to think of the themes as siblings (to make it simpler, let’s have them all be brothers) in a single Star Trek TV family.

Star Trek: TOS – The eldest brother, and the hippie of the family. He’s constantly going on about how, like, space is so tubular and, like, deep and stuff. He likes to invite you over to hang out and talk about philosophy. His sound also gets stuck in your head easily. Ahh ahhh, aaaaahhh aaaahhh…

Star Trek: The Next Generation – The second oldest brother is a little more grounded, but also has a lot of pomp and energy. (Listen to those trumpets!) He kind of had a hyper phase when he was younger (Season 1), but then he mellowed out a little and gained some more awesome points by slowing down.   His theme is all about hopping to the Enterprise’s continuing mission, and it’s exciting, people! He’s one of my favorite theme brothers.

Deep Space Nine – He’s the third brother, and is chilled out like the first brother, but in that “plays you nice music to wake up to in the morning” kind of way. He’s got some style, it’s true, but he’s not too dynamic in comparison with the others. Unlike the second brother, he had to put some pep in his step as he got older (Season 4) because his music was putting the other brothers back to sleep in the morning. His theme also makes me think of Mount Olympus for some reason.

Voyager – The fourth brother, and my top favorite. This dude’s got class. I mean, seriously, he’s got those gorgeous French horns on his side, and the music he plays is like the audio version of what it would be like to travel through space, accurately capturing the wonder and almost regal feel of exploration. He’s complex and interesting, with some nice drums, cymbals and strings thrown in along with many variating melodies in his theme. Yeah…the other brothers are probably a little jealous of how boss he sounds.  Think “The Most Interesting Man in the World” of Star Trek themes. “Stay curious, my friends…and boldly go where no one has gone before…75,000 light years away from Earth. *clinks glass*”

Enterprise – The youngest brother in the Star Trek theme family, and…he went acoustic. He’s the sit-on-a-corner-and-play-guitar-for-his-art brother. His sound is very pretty, but he may be trying a little too hard to be more modern than his brothers by nixing the instrumentals. This brother is definitely all about the power ballad and the feels included therein. As he got older though, he tried to go retro or…something, and it just…didn’t work. (Season 3, whaaat?) Then there was a point where I think he got tired of his brothers haranguing him about the lack of instrumental music in his repertoire, but it led into his dark “episode,” and they let him go back to the power ballads afterward. They don’t like to talk about it.

I find it funny that TNG‘s theme was slowed down, whereas DS9‘s was sped up. If you listen to them though, the first TNG theme is pretty “OMGHI-IAMSTARTREKTNGHIHIHIHIEXPLORESPACETRUMPETSOMGTRUMPETSSSOKAYBYE!!!” while the first DS9 theme is a bit “*yaaaaaaawn* Mmm…oh right. Space…station…time.”

In case you were wondering, Alexander Courage composed the original Star Trek theme, Jerry Goldsmith did the themes for TNG and Voyager, Dennis McCarthy penned DS9‘s music, and Diane Warren was the mind behind Enterprise‘s intro.

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane…No, It’s Hans Zimmer!

You all knew this was coming.  I just made my first post about Howard Shore’s music to throw you all off. Mwa ha ha haaaaa. (“So that’s…coming along. I’ve been working with a vocal coach.”)

As some of you may know, Hans Zimmer has scored yet another superhero franchise, this time penning music for the mild-mannered man of steel instead of the Caped Crusader.  And funnily enough, it’s called Man of Steel. “Hey…” you may be thinking, “that movie isn’t even out yet, much less the soundtrack!” Ah, yes, that is true.  However, the sample clips of the soundtrack are out. Ha ha!  If you’d like to hear them, here they are:

Usually, I don’t focus much on sample clips of soundtracks because it’s like reaching into a salad and just plucking random parts of it out.  You may grab a tomato, a few pieces of lettuce, some onion, perhaps.  But what if that salad had some glorious avocado in it, and you missed it entirely?  Could you judge the salad accurately simply based on what you pulled out?  Heck no. (Yeah, that analogy just happened.  Let me warn you: weird analogies live in my brain.) That’s how I feel about sample clips – it doesn’t give you the entire picture.  I mean, if someone had listened to the sample clip of “The Steward of Gondor” from the Return of the King soundtrack, they may have dismissed it as just a nice orchestral piece without hearing Billy Boyd’s fantastic singing during a very emotional moment for Peregrin Took  that may or may not cause me to swoon every time I listen to it .

However, these samples intrigue me.  I was a little worried, since Zimmer seemed to just jump from Batman to Superman fairly quickly, and I wasn’t too impressed by his score for Batman Begins.  It was good, yes, but it got a bit flat and repetitive, and I knew Zimmer was capable of so much more than that soundtrack.  He proved it by kicking out better and better soundtracks as the trilogy went on.  I find that’s how it goes sometimes with his music if he scores a set of films together (example: the Pirates of the Caribbean movies – the first soundtrack was awesome, but with all the BAH BAH BAH BAH BAH of the horns, some tracks seemed to blend together and overshadow some of the subtler tracks, like “Fog Bound” or “Underwater March.”  “Barbossa is Hungry” is my favorite of the bombastic tracks because it’s just bursting with swag personality).  The clips from Man of Steel give me hope though, because they sound like the score from Gladiator meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets Star Trek-ish space music.  Critics and fans have been bashing on this film ever since it was announced, but I want so much for it to be the Superman version of Batman Begins. (But then again, Snyder recently gave us Sucker Punch, so…) There’s an ethereal/Western start to the soundtrack, which is cool.

Though, okay, the original reason behind this post was the second track, titled “Oil Rig.” The sample (starting at :30) is nothing special if you factor in complexity; it’s just a constant banging of drums.  But humor me for a second and listen carefully to those drums.  Doesn’t it sound like those drums are oil barrels?  And what is the track’s title? Uh huh. Genius.

I’ve also seen people complaining online about how the music sounds nothing like the original Superman theme.  This is what I have to say to those people: Seriously? First of all, the Superman theme was composed by (the amazing) John Williams.  If Zimmer borrowed from that score, it would just be lazy composing.  He may not have wanted to do that in the first place, because I don’t know if composers have a sacred “Do not pilfer thy colleagues’ work” oath or not, but you just don’t do that unless it’s sanctioned inside a franchise (like other composers scoring Harry Potter movies #4-7, or James Horner scoring Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan after Jerry Goldsmith scored the first film).  Second, it would be like expecting the “Na na na na na na na na…BATMAN!” theme in Nolan’s Batman films.  (Although, I would have laughed if Zimmer had put that in somewhere!)

As with all Hans Zimmer soundtracks, I look forward to this one with great anticipation.  Expect a second post once the full soundtrack is out and I’ve seen the movie.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I  have some Pirates music to revisit. “Yo ho, haul together, hoist the colors high.  Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die!“

My Nerd Cards, Let Me Show You Them

Hi. I thought I’d kick off my first “official” post by talking about the track that inspired my blog title.  (Trust me, you don’t want to know about the terrible music puns I considered before I decided on this one.)  “Concerning Hobbits” is the second track in the score for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which was composed by the brilliant Howard Shore.  If you’ve never heard it (GASP. You poor soul!) or need to refresh your memory, here it is for your listening/Shire-viewing pleasure:

This track is one of my favorite score pieces from a film, and the main reason is that Shore uses it to bring the Shire to life so incredibly vividly that listening to the track alone can give you the character of the place.  The flute (though Wikipedia says tin whistle?) at the beginning is simple and beautiful with drawn out notes, which instantly tells you that the Shire is a peaceful place.  With all the crud going down throughout Middle Earth (rampaging Orcs, Saruman burninating the countryside to build his army, the Nazgul horror violin-ing everywhere they go in search of the Ring, Gondor trying frantically to hold back the eeevil coming from the Black Gate and the EYE), Hobbiton is this oasis of happiness amidst a lot of ‘do not want.’  Hobbits don’t have it easy having to farm and make their living out of the dirt and hillsides, but darn it if they don’t have a great time doing it.  They read, garden, throw parties, sit on their porches smoking Old Toby (best pipeweed in the Southfarthing!), and eat.  Man, do they eat.

I love how the violins take on a playful nature in the song as the hobbits prepare for Bilbo’s party, but also stretch out into elegance and hop into adventure at different points too.  The song’s tone points to the Shire being a pocket of innocence and contentment not yet touched by the evils of Sauron (that is, until Gandalf comes rolling in…oops) – about thirty seconds in when the song’s tempo speeds up, it sounds like a waltz (waltz-ish?) or a kind of formal hobbit folk dance.  I interpret that beat as a relaxed order to hobbit life, and once the song slows down again, it sounds a little melancholy (even foreboding).  The idea of the calm before the storm makes sense since the next track, “The Shadow of the Past,” features some of the lovely Mordor BWAH NAH, BWAH NAH NAH NAAAAHHH with Creepy Choir vocals.  “Concerning Hobbits” is the most joyous and serene pocket of good that appears during the first film’s score, making it all the more beautiful and cherished after that happy bubble gets popped by darkness coming to Hobbiton (I’m looking at you, The Nine).  The Shire theme pops back up in The Hobbit with a delightful adventurous twist during the track “The Adventure Begins,” but that’s likely to be a post all its own.

(But gosh, when Bilbo was running pell-mell across Hobbiton, the contract trailing behind him as the music swelled and he shouted, “I’M GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!” in the happiest tone we’d heard from him thus far, I wanted to give Howard Shore and Peter Jackson the biggest hugs.  My heart was full of music and LotR-induced glee.)

I think what differentiates a good soundtrack from a great one is the intention behind it.  You can tell when you listen to Shore’s score for the Lord of the Rings films that he (and the other people involved) put so much love and care into making it.  There’s a behind the scenes video he did on making music for The Hobbit films where he talks about having the story open as he composes, and I think that’s incredibly important.  He wanted to get the heartbeat of the story into the music, and in my opinion, he definitely succeeded.  Shore has breathed such musical life into Tolkien’s work that has the tone dead on.  Alright, I’d better stop gushing before I write pages of this thing.

Lastly, as a related note, I saw a production of “The Scottish Play” last night, and the musician who did the pre-show had an electric violin with one of those cool looper recorder pedal things.  After he played one song, he introduced the next by saying that it was a “cover from an independent film that you’ve probably never heard of.  It’s called The Hobbit.” Ha. Then he started playing “Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold” and threw in the Fellowship theme a little later.  It hit me right square in the feels.  So good!

Do, a Deer, a Female Deer…

This shall be a blog where I can rant or rave about movie (and sometimes TV) scores and soundtracks to my heart’s content.  There will probably be blatant Hans Zimmer gushing, and I’m okay with that.  No, I’m not a professional.  I don’t even play an instrument, unless you count a few songs on the piano plus mediocre harmonica skills (I know “Happy Birthday” and “Alouette”).  I am, however, a connoisseur of soundtracks.  I probably possess three times the scores/soundtracks than the average Joe or Jane.  So, you may think of this blog as soundtracks from the ears of the avid listener.

All that to say: here we are.  I love film (and television, and theater…) soundtracks.  If you do too, (or even if you don’t, or don’t know where to start listening), I think you and I will have a grand time here.  Let the soundtracking begin!