The World of James Horner Tribute Blu-Ray

Last year movie score composer James Horner died in a plane crash. For Star Trek fans he is most known for his score to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and possible for Search for Spock. I think his very best music was the score for Glory (which is not available for digital purchase that I can find). However, most may know him for his '90s and '00s work which includes Braveheart, Avatar, Titanic, Apollo 13, and A Beautiful Mind. Other scores I recommend include Search for Bobby Fischer, Field of Dreams, Bicentennial Man, and Casper. His last work will be for The Magnificent Seven coming out in a few weeks.

If you are a fan, you might be interested in the new Blu-ray "Hollywood in Vienna: The World of James Horner". Recorded in 2013 as part of the concert series in a tribute to the works of James Horner. Conducted by David Newman, it includes music from many of the recommendations above but also from Willow, Aliens, The Mask of Zorro, The Rocketeer, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, and more including a long interview with the composer about his work. Full details at Amazon, trailer below.


From TrekMovie about composing Wrath of Khan:

Tabbed by Nicholas Meyer to write the score to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the then 27-year old composer only had seven previous credits to his name at that point. Dreaming of becoming a classical composer, Horner actually looked down on a career in film scoring; all of which changed with Wrath of Khan. Meyer wanted to distance this new film from the previous Star Trek: The Most Picture, which also meant not reusing any of Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic music from the movie.

“The film needed a powerful score,” Horner explained to Starlog Magazine’s Tom Sciacca in 1982. “The score is designed to help create a feeling of tremendous speed and power for the Enterprise.”

“Spock never had a theme before, and I wanted to give him a theme to tie the whole of Genesis and Spock by the end of the film,” Horner added, “so that it would all mean something. The theme for Spock, incidentally, is actually heard at the Leaving Drydock sequence.”

Star Trek Beyond Soundtrack Teases Film Plot

I guess consider this your spoiler warning as technically the track titles (below) for the Star Trek Beyond Soundtrack could be spoilers for the film. I think it is worth the risk considering composer Michael Giacchino and company were clearly having fun when they came up with the pun filled titles. You can pre-order the soundtrack from Amazon now for release on July 29.

Track List:
1. Logo And Prosper (1:47)
2. Thank Your Lucky Star Date (2:15)
3. Night On The Yorktown (5:36)
4. The Dance Of The Nebula (2:22)
5. A Swarm Reception (2:30)
6. Hitting The Saucer A Little Hard (6:10)
7. Jaylah Damage (2:50)
8. In Artifacts As In Life (1:51)
9. Franklin, My Dear (2:50)
10. A Lesson In Vulcan Mineralogy (5:17)
11. MotorCycles Of Relief (3:17)
12. Mocking Jaylah (3:26)
13. Crash Decisions (3:16)
14. Krall-y Krall-y Oxen Free (4:23)
15. Shutdown Happens (4:35)
16. Cater-Krall In Zero G (2:17)
17. Par-tay For The Course (2:46)
18. Star Trek Main Theme (3:45)

Pine, Boutella and Giacchino Comment on Star Trek Beyond

Britain Sci-fi and fantasy magazine SPX's next cover story is about Star Trek Beyond. The issue doesn't come out until June 22 but TrekMovie.com has posted a few quotes they received. Below are the two key ones. In addition, Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino discusses the differences in score tone between the first two films and the third one.

Chris Pine on Star Trek today:

“You can’t make a cerebral Star Trek in 2016. It just wouldn’t work in today’s marketplace. You can hide things in there – Star Trek Into Darkness has crazy, really demanding questions and themes, but you have to hide it under the guise of wham-bam explosions and planets blowing up. It’s very, very tricky. The question that our movie poses is “Does the Federation mean anything?” And in a world where everybody’s trying to kill one another all of the time, that’s an important thing. Is working together important? Should we all go our separate ways? Does being united against something mean anything?”

Sofia Boutella about Jaylah:

“Jaylah is a survivor, and she is someone who thinks outside of the box. She’s an alien warrior, but her look is relatable to humans; her alien appearance in the film is not extreme. She has more in common with Kirk than anyone else in the film; they’re both very independent, and they’re both very honest and direct in their approach. She makes her own weapons.”

Michael Giacchino on Trek scores:

Star Trek 50th Anniversary Concert Tour Announced

If you are a fan of Star Trek and its music, you want want to check out Star Trek Ultimate Voyage Tour that will visit 100 North American cities. The tour starts January 17 in West Palm Beach. As the trailer shows, and is normal for programs like these, a live symphony orchestra plays the greatest musicals scores as film and TV footage is shown on a screen. Below is the official description and trailer. To learn more, get tour dates and buy tickets head over toe StarTrekUltimateVoyage.com.

Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage brings 50 years of Star Trek to concert halls for the first time ever. The live concert tour launches in Florida in January 2016 and plays in more than 100 North American cities through April 2016.

This lavish production includes an impressive live symphony orchestra and international special solo instruments. Experience the franchise’s groundbreaking and wildly popular musical achievements while the most iconic Star Trek film and TV footage is simultaneously beamed in high definition to a 40-foot wide screen.

The concert will feature some of the greatest music written for the franchise including favorites from Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek: Insurrection, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and much more. This live event is perfect for music lovers, filmgoers, fans and those looking for a unique concert experience.

Giacchino Returns for Star Trek 3

It seems that director Justin Lin went with the "if it isn't broken..." rule when choosing his composer for Star Trek Beyond as Star Trek 1 and 2 composer Michael Giacchino confirmed via twitter that is scoring the third film. In his tweet he wrote "So thrilled to be working with Justin Lin and the rest of the Enterprise crew on Star Trek Beyond! Let's boldly go!" I have had my share of complaints about the previous two movies but the music wasn't one of them.

Star Trek II Composer James Horner Dies in Plane Crash

Oscar winner and decades long composer James Horner died Monday when his plane crashed near Santa Barbara. The composer, probably most famous for the score to Titanic, was 61. He probably wasn't world famous but should have been for his music was some of the greatest created in the modern era. His scores include Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (whose queues continued to be use for decades after), Avatar, Aliens, A Beautiful Mind, An American Tail, Fields of Dreams, Apollo 13, The Rocketeer, and many more. Some of my favorite music includes his scores including Searching for Bobby Fischer, Glory, Bicentennial Man, and Braveheart. He really was one of Hollywood's great composers and a loss to music in general. Even without you knowing it he probably helped play a strong part into why you enjoyed some of your favorite movies as his beautiful music accompanied a favorite scene. Condolences to his family.

Abrams's Star Trek Score Live Performance Schedule

If you are a fan of Michael Giacchino's score for Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness, you may like the news that a limited tour is planned for select locations. The tour will play music from both movies, I assume with related scenes or montages from the two JJ Abrams movies. No indication is the composer will be involved but probably not. Below is the list of locations, I guess you will have to hit up each location to find out how to get tickets.

May 24: Star Trek Into Darkness, KKL Luzerne (Lucerne)
May 25: Star Trek, KKL Luzerne (Lucerne)
May 29-31: Star Trek, Royal Albert Hall (London)
May 30-31: Star Trek Into Darkness, Royal Albert Hall (London)
July 18: Star Trek, Jones Hall (Houston)
July 19: Star Trek Into Darkness, Jones Hall (Houston)
July 26: Star Trek, Embarcadero Marina Park South (San Diego)
July 31: Star Trek Into Darkness, The Mann Center (Philadelphia)
March 21, 2015: Star Trek, Sony Centre (Toronto)

Star Trek: Nemesis Deluxe Soundtrack, Vulcan Harp App Released

A little bit of musical news from Star Trek with the release of Star Trek: Nemesis Deluxe Soundtrack and a new iOS Vulcan Harp App. As composed by the late great Jerry Goldsmith, the 2-disc Nemesis score includes all the music from the movie including alternate mixes and more. To pre-order for the January 6th release and see the full track list, head over to Varese Sarabande.

The Star Trek Vulcan Harp app for iPad costs $1.99 and lets you play Spock's harp. It re-creates the instrument first introduced in The Original Series (I forget which episode) with 15 strings and various adjustments for scale and and distortion. For more details click here. (via TrekMovie)

Into The Music of Star Trek Into Darkness

Below is a very short video about the score of Star Trek Into Darkness as composer Michael Giacchino discusses the differences in approach between this film and the previous one.

Star Trek Into Darkness Score Tease

From AICN, here is about a 70 second listen to some of the music from Star Trek Into Darkness score which will be released on May 28th. You can pre-order it now at Amazon and iTunes.

Star Trek Into Darkness Score List, Release Date

Michael Giacchino has revealed the track list for the Star Trek Into Darkness score that will be released on May 14th and already available for pre-order on Amazon. If you head to his official site, you can click each track title to listen to a short sample of each. Below is the track list which is pretty much spoiler free unless you have some how managed to avoid all trailers and TV spots.

1) Logos - Pranking The Natives (3:01)
2) Spock Drops, Kirk Jumps (1:43)
3) Sub Prime Directive (2:23)
4) London Calling (2:09)
5) Meld-merized (2:40)
6) The Kronos Wartet (5:25)
7) Brigadoom (3:41)
8) Ship To Ship (2:50)
9) Earthbound And Down (2:37)
10) Warp Core Values (2:56)
11) Buying The Space Farm (3:17)
12) The San Fran Hustle (5:00)
13) Kirk Enterprises (3:00)
14) Star Trek Main Theme (3:25)
Total time: 44:07

Star Trek: Live to Projection Concert Clips

On Friday night in Switzerland's KKL Luzem Concert Hall, Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino was on hand as conductor Ludwig Wicki and the 21st Century Symphony performed the score to 2009's Star Trek as the movie played behind them. This is a kind of thing done for The Lord of the Rings movies among others but a first for Star Trek. Below are clips from the performance thanks to Kai Engelbrecht on behalf of TrekMovie and Giacchino himself. The clips include some of the best music cues from the film while to last is from the upcoming film. If interested in reading more about Giacchino's take on scoring both Trek films, click here to read a bunch more.

Four Star Trek Into Darkness Soundtrack Clips

Star Trek Into Darkness composer Michael Giacchino was in the recording studio with his orchestra, chorus and JJ Abrams recording the soundtrack for Star Trek Into Darkness. While doing that, he live tweeted video clips and images from as the end credits were being recorded. I imagine he wasn't allowed to provide visuals of previous recordings as often they are done along with particular scenes of the movie playing to make sure things get synced correctly. With the end credits, it an issue of length, not timing for particular moments so no visuals needed. Any case if many of the music cues sound familiar it is because many of them are modified versions of those developed for Star Trek (2009) along with more of Alexander Courage's them for Star Trek: The Original Series. I can't help but wonder if he uses some of the music cues created for the first 8 Trek movies. Any case, take a moment and enjoy the beautiful music below (I am such a sucker for music with a large chorus working in harmony). The four music vids are below.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Soundtrack Collection

Available now from La-La Land Records is the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Limited Edition 4-CD Set that collects most of the music from the 7 year series. Personally I found the DS9 music to be the most majestic of all the Trek series but then again I am partial as it is also my favorite. The set is limited to 3000 units with a retail price of $49.98. To order click here.

La-La Land Records proudly announces its forthcoming release of STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE COLLECTION, a limited edition 4-CD soundtrack set that showcases musical highlights from episode scores as heard in all seven original seasons of the beloved sci-fi television series STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE (1993-1999). This special collection of music features more than five hours of incredible score, selected from some of the most acclaimed episodes of this enormously successful NEXT GENERATION spin-off.

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE SOUNDTRACK COLLECTION is licensed by CBS Consumer Products.

Produced by Ford A. Thaxton, James Nelson, Mark Banning and Lukas Kendall, and mastered by James Nelson, this deluxe, limited-edition release of 3000 units chronicles its music on four CDs – The first disc features the music of composer Dennis McCarthy; the second disc features the music of composer Jay Chattaway; the third disc showcases music from “the new recruits,” composers John Debney, David Bell, Richard Bellis, Gregory Smith and Paul Baillargeon; and the fourth disc, entitled “The Lost Album,” contains an album assembly of material that was prepped by music producers and the composers for a soundtrack compilation that was never released. The set is complemented by a 36-page booklet that includes exclusive, in-depth liner notes from film music writer and Trek historian Jeff Bond.

TRACK LISTING:

Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection Released

Starting today, Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack collection is officially released. The 15 disc set is divided into 5 CDs per season containing all the music created for the season, some never heard before. The collection is limited to 6000 units with a retail price of $224.98.

STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES SOUNDTRACK COLLECTION: LIMITED EDITION (15-CD BOX SET) LLLCD 1701
Music by Various Composers
Limited Edition of 6000 Units

STARTS SHIPPING DEC 4th
RETAIL PRICE: $224.98

ORDER “STAR TREK TOS SOUNDTRCK COLLECTION: LIMITED EDITION (15-CD BOX SET)” starting Dec 4th at 1pm PST at www.lalalandrecords.com

Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Priced

La-La Land Records has officially priced the Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack 15-disc collection that I posted about before. The price is $224.98, aiming for a late November 2012 release date and limited to only 6000 sets. If interested you can learn more about the set here.

Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection Announced

La-La-Land Records have announced the ultimate score collection for Star Trek fans with the 15 disc Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack collection. La-La-Land previously released complete soundtracks from the Trek movies. This huge set will include every piece of music recorded for the series - both aired and unaired so lots of new music for fans.

“For 45 years, those like me who love this music could only dream about having it all,” album producer Lukas Kendall said. “This is the major, historical piece of sci-fi music, television music and pop culture music that we have always wanted to release in a definitive form for the collector.” Added executive album producer and La-La Land Records president MV Gerhard, “A majority of the music featured in this set has never been released. Of that unreleased music, there is a fairly large percentage that no one has ever heard because it was written and recorded for the show, but never featured in the episodes.”

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Score Released

Just a few weeks ago the Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Complete Score was announced. As of today, the limited run of 10,000 copies is now available for $34.98 at La La Land Records. The 3CD set includes fully restored and remastered music conducted and composed by Jerry Goldsmith for the movie. Disc 1 and part of 2 is the music used in the film whiel rest of 2 and 3 include alternate music cues that presents a kind of a behinds the scenes look at developing what would become iconic Trek music. More details can be found at TrekMovie.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Score Announced

StarTrek.com has announced that Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Complete Score will be released on June 5th, 2012 by La-La Land Records. Composed by Jerry Goldsmith, this score is where many of the classic sounds and music we associated with Star Trek oringated from. I assume it will be sold at Amazon and other retailers. No price yet either. An screening of the movie is also planned in Hollywood for the release, details here.

The Complete Score will be a full-throttle affair, spread across three CDs. Disc one and part of disc two will include Goldsmith’s score, along with unused Goldsmith cues. Disc three will include additional alternate takes and such bonus material as a disco version of Goldsmith’s theme, a Shaun Cassidy-sung love theme entitled “A Star Beyond Time,” synthesizer excerpts, Craig Huxley’s “blaster beam” and more. And it all comes in a clamshell package, accompanied by a 40-page booklet written by Jeff Bond and Mike Matessino, the latter of whom co-produced the reissue.

Star Trek: First Contact Complete Score

GNP Crescendo Records has announced the limited edition release of Star Trek: First Contact Complete Motion Picture Score for $19.98. The score was composed by the late, great Jerry Goldsmith. First Contact is considered the best of The Next Generation movies as the crew confronts the Borg in the past for the future of humanity. The score has 26 tracks, three alternate bonus tracks and a 16 page booklet. My favorite is the Main Title sequence in part because it was so atypical of a typical Trek opening. I like it enough that I ended up removing the "Locutus" portion to stand on its own. The full details can be found at TrekMovie. Click here to purchase.