Incidental music.

[Mirren Audax]

One of the great things about TOS is the fantastic incidental music! Would the series have not been as good if the music was of a poorer standard?

For example, the fight theme from 'Amok Time' is instantly recognisable, but can the same be said for the subsequent series?

 

[number6]

No, but that's a different era of television. That's like comparing Vaudeville to Reality TV.

 

[Hambone]

For a couple of years now, I've been transcribing the music from TOS. Most of it was originally recorded using a small "studio orchestra" of about 33-35 musicians. I don't think they did any overdubbing, although they did employ a few tricks such as speeding up or slowing down traditional instruments for a "spacy" sound. For example, I believe the "glissando" sounds heard in "The Trouble with Tribbles" were achieved by having trombones play the glissando slowly, then speeding up the recording many times over.

This is by no means a comprehensive project and I don't mean for it to be. This is strictly a hobby project. I started out transcribing the main theme, then I thought it would be fun to transcribe a couple of the various "Enterprise Fanfares". Next I did the fight music from "Amok Time" and the space war music from "The Doomsday Machine". Right now I'm working on the music from "The Tholian Web" that was played when they rescued Kirk at the end of the episode.

It's time-consuming but fun. I use a music notation software program called "Sibelius" which allows me to play back the music and adjust it any way I want; different instruments, tempi, etc. Maybe someday I'll do something with it, but since the music is copyrighted I can't sell or share it.

 

[Maurice]

Hambone: Do you have Jeff Bond's book The Music of Star Trek?

 

[Chrisisall]

One of the great things about TOS is the fantastic incidental music! Would the series have not been as good if the music was of a poorer standard?

The series would have been, just not the music.

But yeah, it was great, better than anything except maybe Goldsmith's stuff.
Back in those days, it was mainly John(ny) Williams doing Lost In Space, Jerry Goldsmith doing the theme for The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Trek.

 

[Hambone]

Hambone: Do you have Jeff Bond's book The Music of Star Trek?

No I don't. I had a fan-produced (mimeo) book years ago called "The Star Trek Songbook" but it was strictly the "pop" tunes: "Beyond Antares", the harpsichord music from "The Squire of Gothos" and "Requiem for Methuselah", and all the tunes from "The Way to Eden", among others.

 

[Chrisisall]

Yea, Brother!

 

[Christopher]

Back in those days, it was mainly John(ny) Williams doing Lost In Space, Jerry Goldsmith doing the theme for The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Trek.

Oh, there were plenty of other fine composers working in TV back then. For instance, check out Mission: Impossible, Trek's sister series from Desilu. At least in its first two seasons, it had the same music supervisor (Desilu's Wilbur Hatch), and the music was probably performed by many of the same musicians and instruments, recorded in the same studio, etc. as ST's music. There were some overlaps, scores by Trek composers like Gerald Fried and Jerry Fielding, but there was excellent work by other composers like Lalo Schifrin and Walter Scharf (the guy who wrote the National Geographic theme).

And Williams didn't do that much work on Lost in Space, really. All the music in the first season came from the first seven episodes and from three recycled Bernard Herrmann film scores, and only four of those episodes were scored by Williams, the other three being by Herman Stein (with assists from two other composers in episode 2). Various other composers worked on LiS and other Irwin Allen series, including ST's Alexander Courage and Fred Steiner.

 

[Maurice]

Hambone: Do you have Jeff Bond's book The Music of Star Trek?

No I don't. I had a fan-produced (mimeo) book years ago called "The Star Trek Songbook" but it was strictly the "pop" tunes: "Beyond Antares", the harpsichord music from "The Squire of Gothos" and "Requiem for Methuselah", and all the tunes from "The Way to Eden", among others.

I'd recommend the book. It discusses a lot about the orchestration and what the various cues are. I think you'd find it enlightening and a useful reference.