"Out there... thataway."

[swashbuckler332]

Upon his death in 2004, I embarked on creating an eight-disc tribute set of Jerry Goldsmith's work. Among the albums included was a two disc set of his music from the Star Trek projects that he had composed. While this was one of the easiest of the discs in that set to be put together, the end result was never satisfying to me, not so much

Comments

[heybishop]

I'm just on my way out to a meeting, but I'd like you to know I've copied this track list onto my MP3 player for the trip there and back.

Though, my playlist isn't as complete as yours, as I'm lacking the session tracks from The Motion Picture, and the Nemesis tracks not contained on the album release (though I think I did have them at one time).
I always thought these session tracks from TMP were rumours to exist. Count me as envious.

[duemoko]

Sounds like an interesting album, TFF has a lot of music in it that I quite like and was always disappointed with the CD release.

[swashbuckler332]

I agree. Unfortunately, the official soundtrack album is all that seems to be available except for a DVD rip with sound effects, which I hate. This is a shame as there are plenty of interesting cues that never made it to the record, including Sybok's theme, which is a major omission considering that it dominates the first half of the film.

[heybishop]

I also meant to mention my thoughts of Flight of the Phoenix. At the time of Goldsmith's death, I didn't know that it was Joel who did this cue, nor did I have an MP3 of it. But it was the first thing I needed to hear when I read the news that very difficult day.

I cued up my DVD to watch and listen to this scene. I re-watched it a few times. I tend to think of this cue as being "all things Star Trek". Perhaps it is the context of the scene itself that influences me feeling this way. Whatever the reason, it is a great piece. One of my favourites from the Next Gen series. And it certainly belongs in this compilation, as it certainly is "Goldsmith".

[swashbuckler332]

I debated whether or not to include it as it wasn't composed by Jerry, but in the end I felt that the piece of music reflected enough of Jerry's work, but with an different enough spin that it took the finale of the album into an interesting direction.

I love his arrangements of the title march, more exciting here than any of other the presentations of it in First Contact... or Star Trek V, for that matter.

[glenniebun]

I know I'm rather late to this particular party, but I've been arranging and listening to a lot of your compilations while reorganizing my mp3 collection, and this one caught my ear more than most...you do very good work. The way some of the secondary themes weave through different movies (mainly the Klingon theme recurring in "A Busy Man," "Life is a Dream" and "Red Alert") emphasizes the unity of Goldsmith's work over the years very well. I'm particularly struck also by how well the Nemesis cues fit into the feel of the rest of the album as you've selected/placed them, as that's not a score I've paid a great deal of attention to.

Incidentally, have you ever done anything with the Star Trek television music, aside from the type of thing you did here with the Voyager theme? Certainly there isn't as much engaging or thematically-rich material, especially among the "modern-era" shows, but I'd think even a TOS-only compilation would be entertaining.

[swashbuckler332]

The way some of the secondary themes weave through different movies emphasizes the unity of Goldsmith's work over the years very well.

This is one of the best compliments I've ever gotten. That was exactly my intention. The idea here was to create an interesting album in and of itself - as opposed to fully representing each score, or getting all "the really good parts" (which is impossible, as that accounts for just about every cue in Star Trek: The Motion PictureWhile you can get an idea as to what some of these mixes sound like, I actually often do a lot of editing in the tracks and blend one into the other. This one wasn't particularly edit-heavy, although there is one short suite ("A Tall Ship") and a few moments where the entire cue is not used ("The Mountain," for example, comes in after the conclusion of the title march). The biggest issue with this one for me, however, is the opening of the main title, the album version of which has the bass drums while the (theatrical) film version has the snare drums instead, which I

[glenniebun]

While you can get an idea as to what some of these mixes sound like, I actually often do a lot of editing in the tracks and blend one into the other.

I did notice that in your write-ups, but I figured the tracks should flow well enough on the strength of the order-of-presentation that I could skirt around that.

I would definitely be interested in hearing the discs! (Particularly the Star Trek, Star Wars and Omen mixes, all of which I've made compilations for before, but not with as much editing and smoothing-over that you seem to do to yours.) I'll send you an email momentarily.

I figure I could also squeeze some selections from Generations on there as well, as it is the only Star Trek film thus far not to fall under the covered categories.

Generations would definitely fit in with the spinoff music. Whatever ideas McCarthy didn't continue from his previous TV scores were integrated into the ones he did later on--the action music from "Way of the Warrior" on The Best of Star Trek 2, for instance, is virtually a re-recording of the

[swashbuckler332]

I did notice that in your write-ups, but I figured the tracks should flow well enough on the strength of the order-of-presentation that I could skirt around that.

For the most part, yes. As I said, the Star Trek mixes aren't terribly edit heavy (neither, for that matter, is The Omen); the Star Wars mixes, on the other hand... well, you'll hear. :)

I'll send you an email momentarily.

I received the e-mail. I shall make the requested discs and send them off to you shortly.

Well, there are four Next Generation discs, one for each of the other shows consisting of the pilot and two "Best of" discs, which will be employed; I also have a recording of Tasha Yar's funeral on a Silva compilation, and the two Brian Tyler Enterprise scores that were never released (I try as best as possible to avoid using compressed sources for my mixes, but I know of no other alternative for this material). So there's plenty to fill a disc, although there is plenty more music composed for the series that would have been nice to have