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StreamingSoundtracks.com - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - Leonard Rosenman, The Yellowjackets
| Album Information |
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Album
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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home |
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Artist
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Leonard Rosenman, The Yellowjackets |
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Year
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1986 |
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Genre
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Soundtrack |
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Rating
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ASIN
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B006V3V8IS |
Hint: Hover over buttons and album/artist name next to the cover for more info.
| Reviewers Rating |
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1 review done for this album. |
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| Leonard Rosenman's The Voyage Home |
| By: |
Jim_A |
| Date: |
28 Feb 2012 |
| Rating: |
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In addition to composing music for two James Dean films, East of Eden, and Rebel Without a Cause, Leonard Rosenman had done a large volume of work in film and television before meeting with Leonard Nimoy in 1985 to discuss scoring the fourth Star Trek film. According to Rosenman, the two of them talked for hours. And mostly about the character of the music matching the character of the film.
At that juncture, the writers were about halfway through writing the screenplay, and Nimoy knew even then that this entry into the Star Trek franchise would be a warmer, more uplifting film, emphasizing the human element of the characters, their mission, and the universe around those characters. To put it simply: a change of pace. And a warmer family film, that would also subsist as a comedy.
Rosenman had by this time composed for a few Science-Fiction films and TV shows before. To name a handful: Fantastic Voyage, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, an episode of the original Twilight Zone, titled, "And When the Sky was Opened," and animator Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings film. But Rosenman had never scored what he termed a "hardware film" before. And regardless of Nimoy's assurances that this was definitely not going to be a hardware film, Rosenman initially wasn't sure if he was the right choice.
He was also concerned about his own use of the Alexander Courage music -- that famous fanfare for the original TV show, which fans would be expecting to hear. Said Rosenman, "The idea of trying to create, as Jerry (Goldsmith) did, and I think even Jamie (Horner) tried to do it, a new Star Trek theme is shoveling sand against the waves. My original idea, and as a matter of fact even the script, called for Sandy (Alexander) Courage’s theme at the beginning. I thought, 'Well, if I have to do it, I’ll make a fantastic arrangement of it, the kind they’ve never heard before.' I took it a bit slower and very sweeping, and then for the rest of the film I had my own music. As a matter of fact, this time I utilized motifs for the various characters, which has never been done in STAR TREK before. There is a main Star Trek motif, which I repeated throughout the entire film, and also in the end title credits. Well, suddenly Leonard Nimoy ran the film, and he put the end credits music against the main title, and thought that it had so much energy and was so much better that he said, 'Let’s forget Sandy’s theme, let’s use your own.' So, except for the fanfare, which is Sandy’s, the rest is all mine."
For the main score, Rosenman utilized an instrumentation arrangement of 98 musicians from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And for the jazz sections, he employed electronic synthesizers and a group known as The Yellowjackets. He had chosen to focus on the influence of Korngold, instead of Wagner, and design the thematic structure of the score as, "A straight eight-bar phase -- very memorable and repeatable." And by pairing this with some unexpected, occasional tracks composed entirely of contemporary jazz, he created something rather unique in the Star Trek universe. A quiet, soft score for a major Science-Fiction film. Less music than most S/F films, which traditionally are wall to wall with music.
And it's a score which actually co-exists with the mojo of the movie so well, that it only enhances the audience's understanding of the filmmaker's desired tone. And while this is always the implied purpose of a motion picture score, many composers and filmmakers will be happy to tell you, that this type of remarkable accomplishment is unfortunately the exception, rather than the norm. In fact, Rosenman, who was known for "relationship scores," was surprised to discover that the music would function better in this case, if it punctuated the characters relationships with one another, as opposed to intruding on them. i.e. not while the characters are speaking, but rather after.
Said Rosenman, "And it’s a kind of a thing that I use in very much the same way that I would use it in a much more intimate film. There’s a scene where the girl, in a disconsolate way, runs to a truck, sits down and thinks for a while of what she wants to do. And I have this theme suddenly come in, and you know she’s thinking of going to see Captain Kirk. I mean, you simply know it. The theme reads her mind, which is a kind of thing I would do in a much more intimate film."
Rosenman would go on to score only one other big budget Science-Fiction film, Robocop 2. A shame really, given what he had to offer, if properly cast with the right film. He passed away on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008, from a heart attack. He was 83 years old. But his wonderful score for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, will live forever.
Jim_A
*(this review was written with assistance from a 1987 issue of Cinemascore magazine, Leonard Rosenman's own page on imdb.com, and an article in a 1987 issue of Cinefantastique magazine.)
... thank you for reading.
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