Just before this Passover week began, a new Shatner CD called “Exodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts” hit the stores. The recording is from a live performance of Shatner, accompanied by The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, dramatically reading the story of the Hebrew Exodus both from the Haggadah (text used on Passover) and the bible.
Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino was the guest speaker at a recent ‘Zocalo Lecture’ at the LA County Museum of Art, where he talked of his path from a kid creating his own soundtracks to working with Spielberg on video game scores. Giacchino said that it was JJ Abrams who took him from games to TV and movies. He also talked a bit out how daunting it is for him to be taking on the Trek score.
Leonard Rosenman, the composer for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, died today at the age of 83. Rosenman, a two-time Oscar and Emmy winner, died of a heart attack at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. His score for Star Trek IV received an Oscar nomination; the only other Trek music to be nominated was Goldsmith’s TMP score.
Actors often have to sing for their supper, yet Star Trek actors have a tendency go above and beyond that. There is something about being on Trek that brings their inner Dion and Sinatra. While easy to mock these actors for "trying" to be singers, many have extensive singing and Broadway musical experiences. The latest effort is a new album, Dreamland, from TNG’s Brent Spiner. This has inspired this special Sunday edition of ‘The Collective,’ where we take a listen to some of the more memorable efforts offered from the Trek stars turned singers.
Star Trek (2008) composer and long-time JJ Abrams collaborator Michael Giacchino is having a very good weekend. On Friday he picked up his second ‘Annie‘ award for his Ratatouille score and tonight he nabbed a Grammy award for the same. These will sit nicely alongside his Emmy and other awards on his growing trophy shelf, and in two weeks he may have to make room for an Oscar. Giacchino joins James Horner, the only other previous Trek composer who has won a Grammy.
Michael Giacchino is currently at work on the score for the new Speed Racer movie, but he is already thinking ahead to how he will approach scoring JJ Abrams’ Star Trek. The 2008 Oscar and Grammy nominee talked to the LA Times about how scores for both Racer and Trek will have connections to the original sources, but also stand on their own.
Today Michael Giacchino, the composer of the JJ Abrams Star Trek, has been nominated for an Academy Award for his score of the Disney animated film Ratatouille. The composer has already picked up an Emmy, but this is his first Oscar nomination. He may be following in the footsteps of previous Trek composers Leonard Rosenman, James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith who all have won Oscars.
It looks the like nods to Original Series in the new Star Trek film will also extend to the music. In an interview with SciFi Wire, the longtime Abrams collaborator and Star Trek composer Michael Giacchino states he will be incorporating the original Alexander Courage Original Series theme into his score: I think that the thing to do would be to hold on to the only thing that does speak—that says Star Trek—universally, which is the [opening theme from the original series]…To me, that fanfare, boom, that says it all right there. And this film is about everything that came before that. So, yes, I want to keep that.
On his 2000 album "Blindsight," filk musician Blake Hodgetts has a song titled "Star Trek Next Gen Episode Guide" which is just that. Now someone called ‘the mentalist’ has put it to video…enjoy
The stories of Leonard Nimoy’s feuds with Paramount are legendary, but on Sunday night America’s favorite Vulcan put Mr. Spock, beer bottles and Hollywood accounting behind and turned out to host "The Big Picture: The Films of Paramount Pictures" – a music tribute at the legendary Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA. Despite the sweltering weather, Nimoy was classy as always and surprisingly avuncular as he introduced a litany of classic scores (and accompanying film clips) to some of Paramount’s greatest films including A Place In The Sun, Forest Gump, Chinatown, The Godfather Trilogy, Titanic, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and many more.
The latest Lost video podcast centers on composer Michael Giacchino, who also happens to be Abrams choice for Star Trek XI. He shows off his orchestra including Emil Richards, a percussionist and veteran of ST: TMP. Giacchino tells Richards that he will be working on Trek XI too (seems likely other musicians in the video are destined for Trek as well)
Among the many facets to JJ Abrams is his love of music. He plays a number of instruments and even composed the themes for both Alias and Felicity. In a new interview with Helio magazine, the Trek XI producer/director talks music and how he grew up listening to movie scores. He lists John Williams, Tom Twyker, John Barry and even Tangerine Dream among the composers he admires. Regarding his choice for composer for Star Trek XI, Abrams had this to say… Michael Giacchino, is a genius in terms of current working composers. I’m biased, but I think he’s as good as it gets, with contemporary composers.
Although the new CGI effects get most of the attention for Trek Remastered, CBS also gave the show’s opening music new life. The classic theme written by Alexander Courage was re-recorded in digital stereo and most agree that it is pitch perfect. That is thanks to the people involved, starting with the man tasked with the job Greg Smith. Smith is a Trek music veteran who began working on Trek back in the early 90s . He worked on DS9, VOY and ENT as an orchestrator for composer Jay Chattaway and even composed a few episodes himself. "I tried to remember how many Trek music sessions I worked on and I lost count," Smith tells TrekMovie. Star Trek up until Enterprise was one of the few shows that still used full orchestral scores. "For music, Trek always had the highest production values," says Smith, and Trek Remastered wasn’t going to be the exception.
TMR got a tip that was so outlandish yet so detailed that we had to follow it up. We were told that a San Antonio modern rock band called ‘Electric Crush‘ were signed on to provide music for Star Trek XI, and specifically that they would be recording a Star Trek XI music video in L.A. on September 30th. This seemed like a joke and of course Trek XI composer Mike Giacchino has said he wont start working on the score for quite some time, but the tip’s specificity was curious. TMR contacted the band’s manager Keith Chester just for the hell of it and got a big shock when he asked “how did you find out?”. He went on to say, “yeah it’s for the new movie called ‘Of Gods and Men’”…and then it all made sense. Of Gods And Men is the much anticipated new independent (unlicensed) Star Trek movie with a cast and crew that includes a number of former Trek stars and writers. The Trek Report has confirmed the story with Sky Conway the producer and co-writer of the new fan film. Electric Crush will be filming a music video of their song ‘Taking Away’ on the set of ‘Of Gods and Men’ in late September. The song will also appear in at least one of the webisodes and any possible ‘behind the scenes’ DVDs. The first of three Of Gods and Men webisodes will be available in December at an internet near you.