The Music of Ben-Hur

Here is an interesting feature that talks about the entire score of Ben-Hur by Miklos Rozsa. As far as epic scores go, this is one of my personal favorites. Unfortunately, the composer (to my knowledge) did not film many interviews, so we have to rely on interviews with other composers to learn about how the score was put together.

Deja vu II: Another look at Star Trek II and Aliens

The late James Horner was well-known (and criticized) for heavily borrowing from previous work when he was making new film scores. The first Deja vu post looked at one melody that is shared between Horner's two films Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Aliens. Not surprisingly, this was not the only melody in common between the two films and this post will look at a second one now.

In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the titular villain is introduced after Commander Chekhov and Captain Terrell beam down to the planet that Khan and his followers were marooned upon (in the events of the original season one episode "Space Seed"). The reveal of Khan's identity is slow, with tension building in the music with strings and woodwinds. At last though, the mysterious character unveils his face and a terrified Chekhov whispers "Khan..."

Listen to the melody beginning at 0:34

When I watched this movie as a teenager, I originally thought that this exotic melody was an homage to Khan's theme in the original "Space Seed" episode. However, when I went back and watched "Space Seed," the music sounded nothing like the theme in the film. It wasn't until I began to watch the movie Aliens that I made the connection as to where I had heard this theme (however briefly) before (originally I had seen Aliens first). In the film Aliens, Ripley is talked into travelling back to the asteroid where the xenomorph was originally found because Earth has lost contact with a colony established there. As the ship approaches land, a large object looms out of the mist: the atmospheric processing station. As they circle, you can hear the theme from Wrath of Khan once more at the beginning of the clip.



Many critics liked to disparage Horner's reusing of themes by calling it "unoriginal." But I don't agree with them. I feel that if a composer creates a theme for one film, and then feels that it would also work in a later project, then they should go ahead and use it.

"Overture" from Ben-Hur by Miklos Rozsa

One thing that must be understood about "classic" Hollywood films (usually anything made before 1960) is that in those days, the large epic films were constructed very much like an opera or a play would be. By this I mean, they would have separate screens labelled "overture" (as Ben-Hur does above), "Intermission" and also "Exit Music" (music that would play while the audience left the theatre). This overture was composed by the Hungarian Miklos Rozsa for the 1959 epic Ben-Hur. He won the Academy Award for Best Score and many cite it as being one of the greatest film scores of all time. The image is an extreme close-up of the figures of Adam and God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Above is the first eight measures from the beginning of the overture (from the original score)

Jerry Goldsmith Archive Interview

In a nearly two hour long interview, Jerry Goldsmith tells his life story for the Archive of American Television project. This is a great resource for anyone wishing to learn more about the life of the composer.

James Horner talks about Star Trek II

It is always invaluable to hear a composer speak about why he created a film score in a certain way. Just imagine if it had been possible to videotape Beethoven or Mozart speaking about THEIR works. Resources like this become all the more valuable (and poignant) when the composer passes away suddenly. While many of the greats (including James Horner) have passed on, at least we have a portion of their thoughts set down and recorded.

Jerry Goldsmith talks about Alien

A look inside Goldsmith's thought process when he created the score for the ever-terrifying Alien (for a sense of contrast, keep in mind that he composed Alien in the same year as Star Trek: The Motion Picture!!) In fact, if you listen closely, some say that you can hear some of the same minor themes in both films. Primarily listen to the music early in Alien when the camera is panning through the empty corridors of the Nostromo and compare to the music in the scene where Spock is stealing a thruster suit rather late in the film.

A Tale of Two Spocks

Whenever a film franchise is fortunate enough to grow into a large series, it is very rare that each of the films can be scored by the same composer (Star Wars being a happy exception). Because most film franchises (i.e. James Bond, Mission Impossible, Star Trek) change film composers frequently, it is common for themes to differ from one film to the next. For example, if you listen to the themes of Mission Impossible and Mission Impossible 2, you would notice a huge difference in terms of style.

Occasionally though, themes created by different composers for the same character can sound very similar. In this case, I draw your attention to a set of themes, each created for the character of Spock from the original Star Trek series. The first theme was created by James Horner for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in 1982. The music begins with a soft glass-edged melody that gently drops down into the secondary theme (plucked out by the harp). This melody is a perfect characterization of Spock: he is Kirk's rock, the perfect voice of reason.

The second theme was composed by Cliff Eidelman for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. I apologize if the quality of sound isn't as good, I'm still looking for an audio-only clip of this theme and when I find it I will post it here. At any rate, listen to the theme below and note how similar it is to Horner's theme (I find both to be exceptionally beautiful).

"Overture" from The Magnificent Seven by Elmer Bernstein

Many consider this 1960 film to be the greatest Western ever made. Adapted from The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, The Magnificent Seven tells the story of 7 gunfighters who join forces to protect a poor Mexican village from a gang of bandits. Elmer Bernstein's overture to the film has been praised for defining not only this film, but the Western genre as a whole. I posted this theme in particular because a remake of this film is due out next year (with a posthumous score by the late James Horner) and it will be interesting to see how the music has changed from 1960 to 2016. Until the remake comes out, enjoy a classic piece of film music!

From left to right: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and James Coburn.

Deja vu: Hearing the same melody in different films- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Aliens

It's probably happened to you more than once. You're sitting in the movie theatre, munching on popcorn, when suddenly, it happens. A particular melody begins playing and your ears tell you that you've heard it before, which is strange because you're seeing this movie for the very first time, so how can you have heard the music already?

It's more common than you might think. Film composers have been reusing music from one film to the next since the beginning of the film industry. It usually happens when a composer is up against a deadline and doesn't have the time to write wholly new themes. The late James Horner was particularly known for reusing melodies from one film to the next. For me, one of the most well-known instances of this comes in two films, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, released in 1982 and Aliens, released in 1986.

The primary melody that is shared between the two films was originally associated with the villain Khan (brought to life by Ricardo Montalban). The music was written to evoke a sense of Khan's warlike (and increasingly unstable) nature. In the theme "Surprise Attack," Khan's theme begins at 0:20 and repeats at various intervals.




Keeping that melody in mind, fast forward to 1986 and James Cameron's Aliens. Horner, pressed for time, decided to reuse this melody, only now it is used to represent Ripley racing in to rescue the surviving Marines fleeing the Alien nest. The melody begins at 0:05.




It's fascinating how James Horner turned a theme originally intended for a villain into a theme that now represents the heroine.

"The Imperial March" by John Williams

The famous Imperial March a.k.a Darth Vader's theme. This music never fails to send a chill down my spine. What's interesting is the contrast between the main "Imperial March" that everyone knows and the softer "B" melody, that's played in the middle. The woodwinds create an unbelievable sense of tension that sets the listener up for the return of the primary "A" melody which quickly modulates into a different key.

The theme is first heard in The Empire Strikes Back when we cut away from the Rebel base to get our first look at the Imperial fleet, but it is also notably used to herald Vader's arrival in the ruins of Hoth base, and as the remaining heroes rush for the Millennium Falcon, the camera repeatedly comes back to Vader striding through the ice caverns.

Later on in the film, during the climactic lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader on Cloud City, the theme comes back rather menacingly as Vader begins to use the Force to hurl objects at Luke to distract him.

Though there are other instances after this one, I would like to highlight one final time we hear the Imperial March and that is, ironically enough, at the end of Vader's death scene at the end of Return of the Jedi. Just after Vader/Anakin dies, listen very carefully to the music in the background. Right there on the harp, is the last iteration of the melody, so soft you can barely hear it, and nothing like the strident march first heard in The Empire Strikes Back. Fitting for a villain who was successfully brought back to the side of good.

"Main Theme" from Star Trek First Contact by Jerry Goldsmith

This haunting theme is the main title from Star Trek: First Contact. This 1996 film is a continuation of a story begun in "The Best of Both Worlds Parts One and Two", the third season finale and season four opener to Star Trek: The Next Generation. In those episodes, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) was kidnapped by the Borg and forcibly turned into a cyborg himself. Now, six years later, the Borg have returned and Picard must confront his greatest enemy once and for all. I always found this theme to be incredibly beautiful. In fact, composer Jerry Goldsmith originally wrote this theme for the earlier film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In that earlier film, this theme represented "friendship," namely the friendship that existed between Kirk, Spock and McCoy, who would literally do anything to help each other. To hear the theme in that movie, watch the opening scene when Kirk is climbing El Capitan, and you can hear a brief echo of the theme, which returns later in the campfire scene.

I hope you enjoy it.

Above is a simplified arrangement of the opening measures of the First Contact theme

"Ba'Ku Village" by Jerry Goldsmith

A beautiful piece from the opening of Star Trek: Insurrection by the late Jerry Goldsmith. Composed only two years after First Contact, Goldsmtih did a complete 180 degree turn in the feel of this score, opting for music that was more lyrical and Romantic in style (though still possessing plenty of action cues in the appropriate moments). This piece plays during the opening credits of the film (notably the last Star Trek film to do this) while the camera pans around the idyllic village of the Ba'Ku people. As the primary melody ends, the music turns sinister, as it is revealed that the village is being secretly observed by Starfleet and their allies, the So'Nah (who have a secret connection to the Ba'Ku).

 Feel free to share thoughts in the comments as well. If you like the music, check out the video below to see the opening credits of the movie (they built the set near Mammoth Lakes in California).

"Ride of the Firemares" by James Horner

Krull is one of the first films to feature a score by James Horner and is personally one of my favorite pieces of film music period. The movie was a combination of science-fiction and high fantasy and attempted to cash in on the popularity of sci-fi after the debut of Star Wars in 1977. The plot centers on Prince Colwyn gathering allies to rescue his betrothed, Princess Lyssa, from the clutches of the extraterrestrial Beast, who wants to marry her himself. "Ride of the Firemares" is set in the latter part of the film when the heroes are riding to the rescue of the princess on "firemares"; horses that can travel incredibly fast and leave trails of fire in their wake. They have to arrive quickly because the fortress Lyssa is being held in changes location every 24 hours, and firemares are the only way to reach the fortress's location in time.

The heroes on firemares

In truth the "firemares" were large draft horses with fake fur attached to their legs, but the scene is enjoyable nonetheless. I especially enjoy the little detail where the horses move so fast that they can actually run on the air (essentially they can fly). If you like quirky science-fiction/fantasy from the early 1980s, this is definitely the movie for you. Is the plot perfect? No. It's blatantly obvious in some points that the film is borrowing from Star Wars, but if you take the film as it is, it's very enjoyable.

Colwyn and Lyssa

"Enterprise Clears Moorings" from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

This is one of my favorite pieces from James Horner's score for the second Star Trek motion picture. In this scene, Admiral Kirk has boarded the Enterprise as it is about to leave for what is supposed to be "a minor training cruise" with some cadets from Starfleet Academy. Right before they depart however, Captain Spock decides that Cadet Saavik should be the one to pilot the Enterprise out of space dock (even though she has never done so before).

McCoy: "Would you like a tranquilizer?"

The best part (in my opinion) begins at approximately 1:36 on the first recording as that is the moment when the ship begins to move out of space dock. The way Horner builds and swells the music, it reminds me always of an actual sailing ship moving out into the open water.


Enjoy!

To hear the music in context, check out the clip below (music begins at 0:43)