"The Empath" music is heard in nearly every episode produced afterward

[gottacook]

I finally went through every episode that came after "The Empath" in production order, and have confirmed that nearly every single one (14 out of 16) has at least a bit of George Duning's "Empath" score. The two exceptions are "Plato's Stepchildren" (which was the last episode to have original music written for it, by Courage), and "Wink of an Eye" (which does, however, use a fragment of Duning's "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" music, which was performed and recorded on the same day as the music for "The Empath" and has some points of similarity).

As noted elsewhere, three episodes that feature "Empath" music were broadcast before "The Empath" itself was ("Day of the Dove," "For the World Is Hollow," and "Tholian Web").

Perhaps there are original episode scores that approach or even equal this total - 14 plus one, "The Empath" itself. I'd guess Steiner's "Spock's Brain" score and Courage's "Enterprise Incident" score would be candidates.

 

[Phaser Two]

Nice research! I have not seen EMP in a while and don't really remember the music much, but it sounds like the S3 PTB liked it.

 

[Grant]

I think the fact that 11 of the first 13 episodes in production Order each had a completely new score is subconsciously what makes me at least have such an affection for those early episodes. Because I do watch them in production order. They seem more distinctive perhaps in my mind when I'm watching them. The music cues perhaps are more exact for each bit of drama or action.
Obviously the same goes for season 2 and 3 where many of the early-season episodes have completely new scores.
In season 1 episodes 1 through 10 had completely original scores along with conscience of the king and Shore leave and City on the edge of forever had a partial new score with many cues from earlier episodes.
Season 2 head completely new scores for catspaw through Doomsday Machine -- the first six episodes -- then Mirror Mirror, I Mudd, By Any Other Name, Return of to tomorrow and patterns of force and Omega Glory had partially new scores.
And amazingly the first eight episodes of season 3 all had completely new scores Spectre of the Gun through the empath and as we stated earlier Plato's stepchildren was the last episode to have a completely new score.
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one interested in the scores for the original series. Probably many people are but they just don't come up too much in forums

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Hmm. As I recall, The Cage, Where No Man Has Gone Before, and The Corbomite Maneuver all managed to show up a lot, too.

And of course, a certain theme that originated with The Cage has shown up in every succeeding episode up to ST:TMP (with the probable exception of the unaired cut of Where No Man Has Gone Before). A theme for which Roddenberry insisted upon a wordless soprano being included in most orchestrations, and for which he wrote virtually unsingable lyrics.

Of course, I'm not complaining about any of these episodes' scores coming up frequently; it speaks to the quality of these scores (and indeed of ST scores in general).

 

[PCz911]

I think I’m one of the few who actually likes the empath episode

 

[johnnybear]

The Empath does have a Cage/Menagerie vibe!
JB

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Spock's Brain's 'No Mind' is used on every episode after, apart from Is There In Truth and Empath (which have their own scores), and I believe Wink Of An Eye, Whom Gods, Cloud Minders and Savage Curtain. Its used many times as a generic 3rd season 'tense' cue, and pops into my head instantly

 

[Methuselah Flint]

I think I’m one of the few who actually likes the empath episode

I like it a lot, but it's intense emotional music and long dialogue-free moments, means I watch it infrequently, but savour it when I do.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

My favorite re-use of "The Empath" occurs in "Requiem for Methuselah." It's a medley of third season love themes they assembled for Kirk finding Rayna in the lab. I've identified the cues in the medley, as named in La La Land's 15-CD box set (Season, Disc, Track):

S3 D2 T15 "Goodbye, Elaan" (Elaan of Troyius)
S3 D2 T07 "Magic Tears" (Elaan of Troyius)
S3 D4 T15 "Time Grows Short" (later in cue) (The Empath)
S3 D2 T15 "Goodbye, Elaan" (early in cue) (Elaan of Troyius)
S3 D4 T15 "Time Grows Short" (early in cue) (The Empath)

Sadly, I'm not much of a music editor, so I play it as a DVD sound clip when I'm not listening to full scores. It's so frickin' gorgeous. Can you imagine if TV still had music like that? I guess it wouldn't fit with the constant-motion, shaky-cam style of shows that try to look edgy (which began with NYPD Blue), but some dramas could pull it off.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Snap! Requiem has a special place in my heart, especially that gorgeous music mix. I will try and edit it together and send you!

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Snap! Requiem has a special place in my heart, especially that gorgeous music mix. I will try and edit it together and send you!

That would be amazing! Let me know if the DVD sound clip would help.

 

[Captain Dunsel 19]

George Durning was one of the most prolific composers in the history of Hollywood. The music of TOS was so key to telling the story, the third season music was amazing but, often rather somber and quite sad some times. Great discussion folks!

 

[gottacook]

My favorite re-use of "The Empath" occurs in "Requiem for Methuselah."

Mine too, but in a different scene: the last one. It's timed by the music editors such that the distant gong (followed by the descending melody in the strings at that point) can be heard just before Spock says "Forget."

Regarding "shaky cam" dramatic TV, I would say that NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street preceded NYPD Blue in that respect, premiering in spring 1993. That series didn't have any original music other than the opening titles, but used a lot of interesting preexisting tracks from various artists (although generally not in dialogue scenes). NYPD Blue had original music but only in short segments, generally during scene transitions only.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The music of TOS was so key to telling the story, the third season music was amazing but, often rather somber and quite sad some times.

Some of the best love themes frame love against a backdrop of sadness or a tragic, underlying awareness in the story. But the third season also has a full serving of exciting fights and battle music. And there are moments of pure joy (The Paradise Syndrome "Forest Montage") and exquisite comedy (Spock's Brain "Spock's Fugue"), just to take two examples.

If you like sweeping, melodic film scores, TOS is dripping with diamonds.

 

[plynch]

Were there certain keys composers were urdged to write in, so their stuff could be intercut, or montaged easily? I've never taken the time to puzzle that out?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Were there certain keys composers were urdged to write in, so their stuff could be intercut, or montaged easily? I've never taken the time to puzzle that out?

I know that Fred Steiner made efforts to compose with re-useability in mind, while Gerald Fried disliked having his cues tracked into new episodes, and he tried to be as "specific" as possible in scoring Star Trek, to make his stuff less amenable to being folded into a new story. Two opposite approaches.

But overall, I think the show's music editors just had an amazing ability to pick out what would go with what in their tape library of prior scores.

 

[Grant]

I also think there's a tendency in episodes that are really in the viewer's mind "quality" episodes you're engaged in the story so you don't notice that a reused cue is being thrown at you. It just Blends in perfectly. On the other hand I think if you're watching a terrible episode your mind is starting to wander and then you're going -- "oh, that's the cue from that other episode" or "that's the fight scene cue from that episode" and "oh, that's the 'mysterious' theme from that other episode."
For example there's a lot of music cues from conscience of the king that are reused in city on the edge of forever and they blend in so well that I really don't consciously think back to that other episode. Even though conscience of the king is one of my top 10 episodes. Where as sometimes I'll just hear a music cue and think to myself -- oh, they using that here again?

 

[Ssosmcin]

Yeah, it's funny how some music cues - when heard on their own - remind me of a totally different episode than than what they were composed for. Also, even though they weren't permitted to track music from earlier season, they did it anyway. So a lot of music from "By Any Other Name" was used so often in the third season, I don't associate it with the second year. "More Blocks" always reminds me of "The Tholian Web" or "The Mark of GIdeon." Unlike other scores, that cue doesn't have that "second season vibe." Each season had its own feel, music wise, and that cue is very stark and cold. Or maybe it's just the over familiarity with the music for stark and cold scenes of the third season. "Ruk Protect" from "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" always brings to mind "Arena" while "Mace FIght" from "Catspaw" brings me right to the opeing chase in "A Private Little War."

Good lord, the quality of the music in this series is insane. How they managed to sound like such a large orchestra, when many other contemporary shows felt so thin. Gerald Fried was scoring a lot of "Man from UNCLE" episodes at about the same time and they always sounded like 4 guys in a garage.

 

[Grant]

So true. Amazing music. We were so lucky that the series we all love so much has such fantastic iconic music.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

Yes, not only is By Any Other Name a very third season episode in itself, it's very late into season two, and like you say, moments such as when Uhura etc are miniaturised, are used many times, and perhaps more appropriately in the third season. Indeed, when I was a boy, I thought that the aforementioned cue was a third season specific cue, belonging probably from Spock's Brain. It was only much later when I was able to watch By Any Other Name, that I realised it was a season two cue!