Review
When the show first premiered, “Battlestar Galactica” strived
to ‘reinvent’ the sci-fi genre. It’s
debatable whether or not they've succeeded, but what can't
be doubted is they’ve brought more viewers to the
genera than any other recent show.
In keeping with this revision, the producers basically
threw out close to 50 years of traditional science fiction
scoring. There are no big, bombastic John Williams orchestrations.
There is no sweeping, majestic theme. For the most part,
all the above has been tossed out for an ethnic, new-age
feel.
Bear McCreary was assigned to “Battlestar” Galactica
in a roundabout way. McCreary, a protégé of
the late Elmer Bernstein, was Richard Gibbs' assistant
when he scored the original miniseries back in 2003. Due
to time constraints, McCreary was handed all of the action
cues while Gibbs took all of the dramatic cues. The results
did not set the world on fire. In fact, I don't believe
I've seen a web site that gave the miniseries album more
than a two star review, and I can't say I blame them.
The miniseries showed another way of scoring space opera
that they broke one cardinal rule: the result was absolutely
boring. The soundtrack was so dry and minimalist that tracks
rolled into one another. Another rule they broke was the
lack of a strong main theme. If you don't want to use a
traditional orchestra, that's fine, but you need to have
a strong, identifiable main theme. It doesn't have to be
a triumphant march, but it has to be there.
When Richard Gibbs was unable to score the first season
of “Galactica” due to his movie career, Bear
McCreary stepped in and started to make this method work.
Learning from their mistakes, the producers allowed McCreary
more of a free hand in developing the music. As it progressed,
additional layers were introduced into the music along
with more instruments other than taiko drums, duduks, and
wailing chant. By the end of the season, even a semblance
of an actual orchestra appeared. True, the small string
orchestra was used in a more minimalist fashion, owing
more to John Adams than John Williams, but somehow everything
coalesced together.
For the second season, McCreary's talents really got a
chance to shine. Through out the season, there's more of
a variety in the music instead of endless drumming and
moaning. McCreary's musical 'voice' started to appear.
Sure, there are a couple tracks like "Scar" and "Baltar's
Dream" that are reminiscent of the miniseries/early
Season One style. The string segments used towards the
end of the first season have become a staple of the series,
adding to the musical tapestry. In tracks like "Escape
From the Farm" and "Allegro," the strings
provide the foundation for all the various percussion bits
to branch from, giving the tracks a more unified feel.
In probably the most surprising bit of the soundtrack,
McCreary adds a brass section to a couple of tracks. The
last half of the "Martial Law" track adds a solo
French Horn to the proceedings, giving it a mournful sound
as Colonel Tigh announces martial law to the entire fleet
into martial law. The lead off track, "Colonial Anthem," displays
a proud retelling of the Stu Phillips' original "Battlestar
Galactica." It's a great blending of traditional orchestral
scoring and the established sound. I wish the series would
do this a bit more often as it works so well. I understand
why they don't in the same way why the use of choir is
rationed out in film scores. If you start using this all
the time, it stops being special. It just becomes another
music cue which is the wrong direction for the series,
and it costs quite a bit of money.
Among other instruments added to the fold are guitars
and drums sets in tracks like "Pegasus" and "Something
Dark Is Coming,” two standout tracks on the album.
For some reason, it just seems to work with the musical
soundscape of the show. I know when I first saw heard it
in the series, I was completely taken by surprise, but
a good composer is able to take ordinary things we hear
every day and turn it around to smack you right in the
face.
For me, it's the string section that steals this entire
album. The before mentioned "Allegro" is a nice
piece set in the same style as "Passacaglia" and "The
Shape of Things To Come" from the Season One soundtrack.
We even get themes this time around. In "Roslin and
Adama," McCreary introduces a delicate theme for the
two characters on solo violin reminiscent of "Black
Hawk Down." "Reuniting the Fleet" signals
the Gaelic sounding family theme presented last year in "Wander
My Friends" and "The Lighter."
In the greatest track of the album, "Prelude To War" is
an 8:25 symphonic extravaganza. Several months before release,
McCreary had the first two minutes released on his website.
I listened to it enough times to drive most people mad.
When I finally got this soundtrack, I though it would be
old hat. However, for this release, the track it also combines
elements from "Resurrection Ship Part I" and "Part
II." The tracks starts out coving the last two minutes
of "Pegasus," followed by the first five minutes
of "Resurrection Ship Part I" and the entire
Cylon battle in "Part II." Even if you know the
first two minutes down to the sheet music, the remainder
holds your interest and builds from that point.
It's easily one of the best tracks that I've heard in
the last several years, and it's from a TV show! This isn't
the way it's supposed to happen. TV music is suppose to
be bland, 'mickey mousie,' and provided just enough boost
to the action, but not be 'interesting' or 'memorable.'
McCreary is actually writing music that rivals some of
the best film composers of today. The album builds to a
close with "Worthy of Survival." In it, almost
every single element introduced in the album combines to
bring the season to a close.
In such a great soundtrack, there are a few missteps.
The "Battlestar Galactica Main Title" is a leftover
from the first Season. It does serve as a reminder of how
much the music has progressed in the series, but it just
takes up space on the album better used for another track
from this year. Hopefully, McCreary will get a chance to
compose a new theme for Season 3. "Lords of Kobol" stumbles
out of the gate with more Middle Eastern chant mixed way
to high and overpowers the underlying music. It levels
out towards the end, but odds are you'll have already skipped
to the next track by then.
For some reason, the album ends with "Black Market," which
La-La-Land Records makes a big deal of having several members
of the band "Oingo Boingo" adding their talents
to the piece. While the band did give film music Danny
Elfman, Richard Gibbs, and Orchestrator Steve Bartek, it
hasn't done much else to warrant the attention. It's not
a bad track, but why is it at the end of the album? After "Roslin
Confesses," "One Year Later," and "Worthy
of Survival," the album builds to a momentous point
and just peeters out. If it was placed earlier in the album,
there wouldn't be much to complain about, but at the end,
it just lets all the air out of the bag.
A problem all modern soundtracks deal with is the limitation
of the CD format. A CD can only hold 80 minutes of music,
assuming there isn't any CD-ROM data on the disc. Most
of the time, producers put way too much music on CD, but
watching the series, several tracks I hoped would be on
the soundtrack didn't make it due to length reasons. I
hoped the percussive battle music from "Scattered" and "The
Captain's Hand" would make the CD, but there's no
trace of music from either episode except for the main
title. I know from experience if you're going to criticize
something, you better have an idea on how to correct it.
With only 80 minutes, I can't think of what to cut out
to fit an additional sixteen minutes of music.
If anything, I hope in La-La-Land Records will release
an additional album of what was left off from the first
two seasons. I know of several instances when recording
labels will release additional albums. "Braveheart, "Gladiator,
and "Titanic" received such attention and from
the sounds of things, "Battlestar Galactica" has
been a high seller for La-La-Land Records. It's a feasible
plan, at least. At any rate, I’ll be there with a
pre-order when that's announced.
I know through the brief history of my reviews, I've rambled
on and on about a composer's individual voice. For “X-Men:
The Last Stand,” John Powell abandoned the style
he's developed over the years in favor of a more traditional
approach. I know from listening to his previous albums,
John Ottman's voice varies on what temp track is in the
film. For “Battlestar Galactica,” all of these
tracks are unmistakably written, recorded, and produced
by Bear McCreary. In writing two seasons of music, he has
developed a voice unlike any composer working today. I
know there's been recent talks of "Battlestar" getting
Emmy nominations in the creative areas, but anything short
of an award is a slap in the face.
I hope one day he moves on to bigger and better things,
filling the void that Elmer Bernstein left after his untimely
demise. For now, I can definitely be content with these "year-end" soundtracks,
and I'm actually more excited about the Season 3 soundtrack
than I am for Season 3 itself. Here's hoping Bear McCreary's
future is a bright one.
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Battlestar
Galactica: Season 2