Composer Michael Giacchino has a lot to celebrate as last night he was nominated for four Grammy Awards by The Recording Academy, including one for his Star Trek soundtrack. The other three nominations were for his work on the Disney/Pixar movie Up. This is the first time a Star Trek production has been nominated for a Grammy. See below for details.
Giacchino’s nominations
Here are the three categories Giacchino was nominated in
Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media
- The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (Alexandre Desplat) [Concord Records]
- Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince (Nicholas Hooper) [New Line Records]
- Milk (Danny Elfman) [Decca]
- Star Trek (Michael Giacchino) [Varèse Sarabande]
- Up (Michael Giacchino) [Walt Disney Records]
Best Instrumental Composition
- “Borat In Syracuse” from “Jazz-Clazz” (Paquito D’Rivera) (Paquito D’Rivera Quintet) [Timba Records]
- “Counting To Infinity” from “Dialmentia” (Tim Davies) (Tim Davies Big Band) [Origin Records]
- “Fluffy” from “Legendary” (Bob Florence) (Bob Florence Limited Edition) [MAMA Records]
- “Ice-Nine” from “Lab 2009″ (Steve Wiest) (University Of North Texas One O’Clock Lab Band) [North Texas Jazz]
- “Married Life” from Up (Michael Giacchino) [Walt Disney Records]
Best Instrumental Arrangement
- “Emmanuel” from “In Boston” (Jeremy Lubbock) (Chris Botti & Lucia Micarelli) [Columbia]
- “Hope” from “Revolutions” (Vince Mendoza) (Jim Beard With Vince Mendoza & The Metropole Orchestra) [Sunny Side Records]
- “Slings And Arrows” from “The Comet’s Tail: Performing The Compositions Of Michael Brecker (Vince Mendoza) (Chuck Owen & The Jazz Surge) [MAMA Records]
- “Up With End Credits” from Up (Michael Giacchino) [Walt Disney Records]
- “West Side Story Medley” from “Resonance Big Band Plays Tribute To Oscar Peterson” (Bill Cunliffe) (Resonance Big Band) [Resonance Records]
Winners in 109 Grammy categories, voted on by members of the Recording Academy, will be announced Jan. 31. CBS will telecast the ceremony from L.A.’s Staples Center.
Full list of nominees at grammy.com
Giacchino has been nominated twice before for Grammy’s, winning in in 2008 for his Ratatouille score. The composer has also won an ASCAP award, and an Emmy. Earlier this year he was nominated by the World Soundtrack Academy for Composer of the year, but lost out to Alexandre Desplat (Curious Case of Benjamin Button).
Giacchino with director JJ Abrams
(ScoringSession.com)
Giacchino Live!
Here is a video of Michael Giacchino conducting “Enterprising Young Men” in Spain over the Summer at V Festival Internacional de Música de Cine “Ciudad de Úbeda”.
Giacchino’s Star Trek Soundtrack is available on CD and MP3 download at Amazon. You can also visit the Michael Giacchino Store at Amazon.
Congradulations. Up was a funny and emotional film that the music complimented beautifully. Star Trek was a great action/ character film with fresh music and yet subtle nods to the original.
Yay! Go Michael.
Oh, yeah. First, the Grammys, tomorrow… the world! Mwa-ha-ha! :)
Much desereved.
I hope he wins, congrats on the nomination and good luck!
Up was the worst film of the year. another Pixar crap fest
Has a Trek movie’s soundtrack ever gotten this nomination before?
Well done Michael…absolutely wonderful…totally deserved…roll on Oscars
He should win for Up.
Congratulations to Michael Giacchino on his nomination. I purchased the Star Trek XI soundtrack and have listened to it over and over.
I don’t think Trek soundtracks have every been nominated for a Grammy before. Emmies for TV themes, and Oscars for film soundtracks, I always thought.
I’m mixed on MG’s “Trek09” soundtrack, though I hope he brings one home for the team in any case. The man is prolific and many-faceted, for sure.
The more I watch the movie, the more I love the score. Very well done as far as I’m concerned, congrats!
Best of luck to him. I thought the music for Trek really delivered when it most needed to. It truly helped ratchet-up the emotion.
I just wish there were more tracks from the soundtrack available. The Vulcan theme was awesome, a nice call back to the original series. Enterprising Young Men was another great theme from the movie as well.
Still no Goldsmith. I’ll wait until he *wins* an Oscar–then I’ll start drooling over the score.
Great soundtrack! Only STTMP is better.
#7- Yes- TMP. ActuallyAnd Goldsmith should have WON.
Congrats to MG- he rightfully deserves it!
I am glad Giacchino got the grammy nom, but Jerry Goldsmith deserves a post-mortem lifetime achievement award.
If there is any justice, he will get one!
I still maintain that Giacchino’s score is good, but it’s simply not in the same class as Horner and Goldsmith–the over-repetition of the main theme and rather standard bad-guy music are what killed much of it for me. That said, “Enterprising Young Men” is a pretty good cue and it still fits well with the movie–it just doesn’t hold its own as a soundtrack.
I think his nominations are well deserved, though i wish more music from Star Trek made it onto the disc.
otherwise, i loved the score and liked how it took the Casino Royale/Batman Begins approach and waited until the end to play the theme which had to be ‘earned’ in a way. but that’s just me…
Way to go! It really is a good score. “UP” was also really good, totally different from Star Trek which nicely shows off the composers range. If MG wins it will most likely be for UP. Either way I’d be happy for the talented film scorer.
The Trek score was really, really good. But the score for UP was something special. It was his better work in my opinion.
Not the best soundtrack in a trek film.
#1 Very well said- I agree wholeheartedly!
#6 Your wrong- period.
Congratulations Michael! Loved the scores for both movies- your very talented!
It took some time, but I have warmed up to the Trek score. I particularly like what was essentially Spock’s theme.
I will say that I think using a voice chorus is getting kinda overused these days. But that’s not too big a deal for me.
Still cold on the new 1701 look. The sweeping neck and sliced off secondary hull still bother me when I see it.
Oh well. Gotta take the good with the bad.
@15
Jerry Goldsmith is dead and yes his trek soundtracks where the best! But I do think Michal Giachinno’s soundtrack pays homage to all past trek composers so for that I believe he diserves the award! His UP soundtrack was also very well done so if he wins that one instead I still won’t get too upset about it. Star Trek is awesome but it’s music allways needs to be more awesome!
I was disappointed with Up (a first for Pixar). But his score on that film was pretty good. Same story goes for his Land of the Lost score, the movie sucked, but the score (and little else, maybe the animated titles at the end) were the only good things to come out of it.
As for the Star Trek score, I feel it’s probably one of the best in the series. Definitely better than the Goldsmith scores of the last few TNG films – don’t get me wrong, Goldsmith was great in the earlier films he scored, but the Insurrection and Nemesis scores weren’t all that special.
Now, hopefully this means Mr. Giacchino will get his much deserved Oscar this year, for either film. He should have got one for The Incredibles, and I feel the only reason they didn’t give it to him was because it was his first big film score, then he was nominated for Ratatouille, but didn’t win unfortunately, but now seems to be his year.
Actually this is the first Star Trek production nominated for a grammy, i added that to the intro
Goldsmith was nomimated for the 1980 Grammys but it was for his other 1979 movie, Alien
Nice one Mr. Giacchino !!! Congrats !!!
The other day I watched Star Trek, then later that day Up and the pilot of Lost.
It wasn’t until Giacchino’s named popped up for the second time on Lost that it hit me that he had scored everything I had been watching that day. The mind blowing thing about him isn’t that he is so good, it is that he is so good at so much.
That said, his Trek score is ok. I was hoping for something more down the line of his The Incredibles score, which was more like a classic Bond score than any Bonds movie since the 60s. But the extras on the DVD explain quite well that he thought the themes had to be earned, so the Courage theme doesn’t appear till the very end.
God, I hope he gets to score at least one more Trek movie. Now that he can play with all the toys in the arsenal it could be truly epic. And to think that the Klingons might be up for the next one… One of many reasons to become excited about the next movie.
Honestly I find it pretty bad that this is the first Star Trek movie to get a Grammy nomination. Nothing against this movie and soundtrack, but looking back I’d say all of Goldsmith and Horner’s movies deserved it more. I think this movie had a solid soundtrack and the title was maybe even exceptional but I don’t think it is up to par with the Star Trek works of the other two. Just my opinion. Still hope it wins.
More exposure for Trek; however, I thought the soundtrack was way too repetative – the same cues over and over again.
More exposure for Trek; however, I thought the soundtrack was way too repetative – the same cues over and over again.
A re-sounding accomplishment (pun intended).
Congrats’ Michael.
I’m happy for the Grammy nomination but the fact that he has two nominations does not bode well for him. As you all know, usually dual nominations in the same category have a way of cancelling each other out. Perhaps this will not happen.
Its too bad Goldsmith’s score did not win its Grammy or Oscar nomination either but who is to say that the Academy has ever gotten things right?
Posts #32 and 33 make me laugh in their delightful irony.
35:
Goldsmith was nominated for an Oscar for TMP, and I think he got an Emmy nomination for VOY’s opening theme.
One of Giacchino’s weakest efforts that got buried beneath sound effects and explosions.
Hearing the musical score when Kirk and McCoy see the Enterprise from the shuttle (‘Enterprising Young Men’) gives me goosebumps every time! Congrats!
Talented guy. Apparently he had to keep the score for ST09 very ‘reined in’ as it was a prequel (of sorts!)
Looking forward to his next Trek score! Love his work on many other movies and TV shows!
Good luck to him!
his work is fantastic and varied. The first 10 minutes of UP are selent but for his score…and it makes me cry everytime. Many of his LOST scores have the same effect.
I usually do not say much here, but I have to give props to the Mike the man! He did a good score. I was expecting something more outstanding as far the movie soundtrack goes. However, I beleive that the music fit the tone of this film perfectly. It did not stick out to carry the pace of the film like Horner did in “Kahn”, or Goldsmith in” The Motion Picture”. When I see the film it blends with the visuals and the audio effects. I love it there. When I listen the CD it is pleasant, but it does not resonate as much.It is O.K. because it compliments the film. I hope the next time he does Trek (and he should) it will be memorable, jubilant, fun, and catchy on its own .
Congrats to Mike! The score was fantastic; I still get kinda emotional whenever I listen to Labour of Love, and Enterprising Young Men just gets my chest tight. When music does that to me, I NEED it.
I’d love to see him win for either “Star Trek” or “Up”, but I must say, I loved the score of “Harry Potter”. So any of those would be fabulous.
Giacchino finale!
Here’s hoping he gets it for Trek, in a sense taking it ‘for the team’. There’s no doubt that Trek 2012 needs to be sent to him, because he shows great promise. That his couple primary themes still echo in our heads is great. He’s earned the right now to utilize Courage’s original themes, and Goldsmith’s grand TMP music. I can’t wait to hear Giacchino’s take on the TMP Klingon themes….
I just hope he makes the Orci-like effort to watch the first season of TOS, and pick up some of the original series background music.
What musically made TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT suck was the constant more-of-the-same non-orchestral background music. Who remembers any of it, compared to the background music in TOS?
I give great credit to Giacchino. While I love many of Trek’s past composers like Horner and Goldsmith, Giacchino really manages something unique every single time. I’ll bet his next Trek score sounds completely different from this one. Goldsmith, on the other hand, had a tendency to recycle his TMP score for every subsequent involvement, and Horner managed to recycle his Trek work into multiple films.
One of Trek’s best composers was Ron Jones, and he got sacked for making his music too interesting! Go figure.
Ron Jones?! I have to disagree with that – unless you like elevator background noise. Same with Dennis McCarthy. Save for the Goldsmith opening fanfare, Next Gen era was a low point for Star Trek music IMO.
I think Giacchino’s score supports the movie very well. That’s what it’s supposed to do. However I feel the fact this was nominated for a Grammy, and none of the other Star Trek music of the past 40 years has been, reinforces the belief that popularity and “success” as much as quality influences awards nominations. The 2009 movie is seen as the first mainstream or not-for-nerds incarnation of Star Trek. Fine. Goldsmith’s TMP score is better. Certainly, from the standpoint of listening to music, what the Grammys are about, it stands on its own better than most movie scores, thanks to “2001”-like pacing of TMP that gave Goldsmith long sections of quiet to fill.
Regarding Goldsmith’s later Trek work, it was his Star Trek V score rather than TMP that I noticed being repeated. His TMP “Enterprise” theme was logically carried forward, since it was used as TNG’s theme on TV, but to hear other themes from TFF, developed for that story and those characters, being shoehorned into films such as Nemesis, that was pushing it.
I’ve listened to both his work in UP and Star Trek and Star Trek wins hands down. Enterprising Young Men, Labor of Love and Hella Bar Talk is awesome, can listen to that over and over, Go get em MG!
It’s an insult to Goldsmith, Horner, et al. that Giacchino’s third-rate effort for Trek is being compared to their work in this comment thread, let alone being nominated for anything. What’s even more frustrating is that the guy seems to be capable of writing really awesome stuff — he just decided not to for this particular movie.