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Star Trek reboot: the soundtrack (or, why it didn't sound quite right)
I saw Star Trek for the second time today and loved it just as much as I loved it the first time.
I still feel that while the soundtrack was good, it was not particularly Star Trekkian, and as I napped this afternoon I became conflicted about whether that made the composer faily, or the screenwriters a little bit clueless.
You see, here's the thing.
The theme to Star Trek, all Star Treks with the exception of Enterprise, is quartal. What that means is that it uses fourths as the main interval of its melodic and harmonic structure.
The typical interval of non-contemporary classical music - and indeed even current popular music - is the third. Chords are made of thirds, and by moving from chord to chord, it means that the underlying harmonic structure is made of thirds (even if they move in fourths, which is common). This means there is an inherent power structure in music (because there are Major ('happy') and minor ('sad') thirds), strong and weak chords that do everything from create tension to show you a path home. It is this power structure that creates that indefinable sense of longing or sadness or heroicism. It is this structure that makes emotion possible in music. There are other things, of course, rhythm and timbre and orchestration, and sometimes they are the main thrust behind an emotion (or movement - rhythm is excellent at depicting the sea - and that lecture (about the difference between and yet brilliance of the soundtracks to Pirates of the Caribbean and Master and Commander) is for another time), but mostly, it's the internal chord structure that drives our emotion in soundtrack music.
Now, knowing that, what quartal music does is fight that structure. Quartal music is about freedom and equality (because fourths and fifths are Perfect, not Major or minor), about open spaces and discovery. It's about going where no one has gone before. Let me start with another composer of quartal music - Aaron Copland. The famous Copland pieces, the ones that really say 'this is American music' are quartal. They are about that sense of freedom and adventure. Billy the Kid, Rodeo, Appalachian Spring - most especially Fanfare for the Common Man. These pieces conjure up the American frontier, the sense of going into the unknown to see what's there.
Now, with RaceFail 2.0 ongoing, I have to add a caveat here that the sense of discovery and adventure inherent in Copland's Americana is totally missing the pain and frustration of the people who already lived in that 'virgin land' that they thought they were the first to go to. I'm not saying the act of expansion was right or good. I am saying, however, that a certain attitude, one that is often considered valiant and heroic, is what Copland's music captured brilliantly. It may have been that Copland did not understand how that sense of adventure and discovery came with such a high human cost. I doubt that he was aware (as so many of us were ignorant of the connection between the lauded frontierspeople and the native people that they killed or displaced).
That said, the sense of discovery and adventure was what Copland captured beautifully. And I'm absolutely 100% certain that both Gene Roddenberry and the composer of the original Star Trek theme (Alexander Courage) knew about Copland's music and emulated it for the emotions it conveyed. The quartal opening conveys awe and wonder at the spoken words space - the final frontier. The opening 'tinkly' notes are quartal, the first interval being a downward fourth. It's not all fourths (that's not necessarily what makes something quartal anyway) but the fourth is the dominant interval and the opening clearly conveys the sense of openness, freedom, adventure, and discovery that's the main mission of this ship. The horn theme is the most obvious quartal part of the theme, two fourths in close succession, moving on to a totally quartal fanfare theme. This is the part of the theme that we so recognize.
That's the part of the theme that Jerry Goldsmith copies note for note in the Next Generation theme. Goldsmith's theme is more technically quartal once it gets past the fanfare (Courage's theme is slightly less quartal once it gets to the wordless vocals, though it still has some sense of openness within the more linear structure), in that it uses more fourths, but it's not truly quartal - it's still tertiary, but with the fourths more prominent in the structure.
Deep Space Nine's theme (by Dennis McCarthy and Jay Chattaway) doesn't include that famous quartal fanfare, but it does open with a quartal line in the horns, clearly reminiscent of the Star Trek themes that came before it, and remains definitively quartal throughout - a first for the Star Trek franchise. It is broad and wide - it uses a huge range, keeping the quartal harmonies intact by using the distance inherent in leaping fourths. Quartal music suits brass quite well, and this theme is entirely a brass fanfare.
The theme to Voyager by Jay Chattaway does more than reminisce about the original Star Trek quartal fanfare - it inverts the theme. Not exactly, but in shape (and if I had time to analyze more closely, I'm betting in interval too, though I'm going on my rusty ear here). The Voyager theme is interesting in that it too is entirely quartal - but a very different kind of quartal than DS9. This type of quartal harmony takes a series of fourths (which if played in order, would be several octaves) and puts the notes next to each other, supported by a quartal chord structure underneath. What this does is remove the space and openness - keeping a sense of the unusual harmonies of the fourths, but allowing more linear melodies. This means that you lose a bit of that openness but gain more emotion - the condensed structure works more like a tertiary harmonic structure.
Okay, that's a history of quartal music within the Star Trek franchise.
Quartal harmonic structure - any semblance of it - is what's missing from the most recent Star Trek movie soundtrack. There is no openness, no awe, no wonder, no sense that they are discovering anything or going boldly where no one has gone before.
At first, I thought it was a failing of the composer (Michael Giacchino). That while he wrote an exceptionally beautiful score, and one that enhanced the movie wonderfully, he missed one of the main philosophical points of Star Trek theme music.
Now, I don't think it was his failing at all. Indeed, since the movie itself was an AU, there's the sense that this movie is entirely new, so perhaps ignoring quartal music was a conscious decision. I disagree if that was Giacchino's reasoning. The movie still owes its entire existence to TOS, so the music shouldn't have shunned it entirely.
However, as far as I can tell, the movie in no way espoused that particular philosophy. There was no frontier-exploring. There was no adventure, there was no sense that they were going where no one had gone before. Indeed, they didn't go where no one had gone before. If that's the reason Giacchino left out quartal music... then I think he may be a genius.
This is not a criticism of the movie. I liked it - it had adventure and character building and drama and shiny digital effects and all kinds of things that I enjoyed immensely. It didn't, however, give me a sense of wonder or awe at the concept of the federation, the kernel that was (as far as I know - and I'm not really a Star Trek fan, so if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me) the basis of the show's idealogical premise. I don't think the movie was lacking for it - much - but the fact that the composer understood that and mirrored it in the soundtrack? Genius.
I still feel that while the soundtrack was good, it was not particularly Star Trekkian, and as I napped this afternoon I became conflicted about whether that made the composer faily, or the screenwriters a little bit clueless.
You see, here's the thing.
The theme to Star Trek, all Star Treks with the exception of Enterprise, is quartal. What that means is that it uses fourths as the main interval of its melodic and harmonic structure.
The typical interval of non-contemporary classical music - and indeed even current popular music - is the third. Chords are made of thirds, and by moving from chord to chord, it means that the underlying harmonic structure is made of thirds (even if they move in fourths, which is common). This means there is an inherent power structure in music (because there are Major ('happy') and minor ('sad') thirds), strong and weak chords that do everything from create tension to show you a path home. It is this power structure that creates that indefinable sense of longing or sadness or heroicism. It is this structure that makes emotion possible in music. There are other things, of course, rhythm and timbre and orchestration, and sometimes they are the main thrust behind an emotion (or movement - rhythm is excellent at depicting the sea - and that lecture (about the difference between and yet brilliance of the soundtracks to Pirates of the Caribbean and Master and Commander) is for another time), but mostly, it's the internal chord structure that drives our emotion in soundtrack music.
Now, knowing that, what quartal music does is fight that structure. Quartal music is about freedom and equality (because fourths and fifths are Perfect, not Major or minor), about open spaces and discovery. It's about going where no one has gone before. Let me start with another composer of quartal music - Aaron Copland. The famous Copland pieces, the ones that really say 'this is American music' are quartal. They are about that sense of freedom and adventure. Billy the Kid, Rodeo, Appalachian Spring - most especially Fanfare for the Common Man. These pieces conjure up the American frontier, the sense of going into the unknown to see what's there.
Now, with RaceFail 2.0 ongoing, I have to add a caveat here that the sense of discovery and adventure inherent in Copland's Americana is totally missing the pain and frustration of the people who already lived in that 'virgin land' that they thought they were the first to go to. I'm not saying the act of expansion was right or good. I am saying, however, that a certain attitude, one that is often considered valiant and heroic, is what Copland's music captured brilliantly. It may have been that Copland did not understand how that sense of adventure and discovery came with such a high human cost. I doubt that he was aware (as so many of us were ignorant of the connection between the lauded frontierspeople and the native people that they killed or displaced).
That said, the sense of discovery and adventure was what Copland captured beautifully. And I'm absolutely 100% certain that both Gene Roddenberry and the composer of the original Star Trek theme (Alexander Courage) knew about Copland's music and emulated it for the emotions it conveyed. The quartal opening conveys awe and wonder at the spoken words space - the final frontier. The opening 'tinkly' notes are quartal, the first interval being a downward fourth. It's not all fourths (that's not necessarily what makes something quartal anyway) but the fourth is the dominant interval and the opening clearly conveys the sense of openness, freedom, adventure, and discovery that's the main mission of this ship. The horn theme is the most obvious quartal part of the theme, two fourths in close succession, moving on to a totally quartal fanfare theme. This is the part of the theme that we so recognize.
That's the part of the theme that Jerry Goldsmith copies note for note in the Next Generation theme. Goldsmith's theme is more technically quartal once it gets past the fanfare (Courage's theme is slightly less quartal once it gets to the wordless vocals, though it still has some sense of openness within the more linear structure), in that it uses more fourths, but it's not truly quartal - it's still tertiary, but with the fourths more prominent in the structure.
Deep Space Nine's theme (by Dennis McCarthy and Jay Chattaway) doesn't include that famous quartal fanfare, but it does open with a quartal line in the horns, clearly reminiscent of the Star Trek themes that came before it, and remains definitively quartal throughout - a first for the Star Trek franchise. It is broad and wide - it uses a huge range, keeping the quartal harmonies intact by using the distance inherent in leaping fourths. Quartal music suits brass quite well, and this theme is entirely a brass fanfare.
The theme to Voyager by Jay Chattaway does more than reminisce about the original Star Trek quartal fanfare - it inverts the theme. Not exactly, but in shape (and if I had time to analyze more closely, I'm betting in interval too, though I'm going on my rusty ear here). The Voyager theme is interesting in that it too is entirely quartal - but a very different kind of quartal than DS9. This type of quartal harmony takes a series of fourths (which if played in order, would be several octaves) and puts the notes next to each other, supported by a quartal chord structure underneath. What this does is remove the space and openness - keeping a sense of the unusual harmonies of the fourths, but allowing more linear melodies. This means that you lose a bit of that openness but gain more emotion - the condensed structure works more like a tertiary harmonic structure.
Okay, that's a history of quartal music within the Star Trek franchise.
Quartal harmonic structure - any semblance of it - is what's missing from the most recent Star Trek movie soundtrack. There is no openness, no awe, no wonder, no sense that they are discovering anything or going boldly where no one has gone before.
At first, I thought it was a failing of the composer (Michael Giacchino). That while he wrote an exceptionally beautiful score, and one that enhanced the movie wonderfully, he missed one of the main philosophical points of Star Trek theme music.
Now, I don't think it was his failing at all. Indeed, since the movie itself was an AU, there's the sense that this movie is entirely new, so perhaps ignoring quartal music was a conscious decision. I disagree if that was Giacchino's reasoning. The movie still owes its entire existence to TOS, so the music shouldn't have shunned it entirely.
However, as far as I can tell, the movie in no way espoused that particular philosophy. There was no frontier-exploring. There was no adventure, there was no sense that they were going where no one had gone before. Indeed, they didn't go where no one had gone before. If that's the reason Giacchino left out quartal music... then I think he may be a genius.
This is not a criticism of the movie. I liked it - it had adventure and character building and drama and shiny digital effects and all kinds of things that I enjoyed immensely. It didn't, however, give me a sense of wonder or awe at the concept of the federation, the kernel that was (as far as I know - and I'm not really a Star Trek fan, so if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me) the basis of the show's idealogical premise. I don't think the movie was lacking for it - much - but the fact that the composer understood that and mirrored it in the soundtrack? Genius.
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I think I'm on for tomorrow - where are you guys meeting up? (
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