Theme from Star Trek
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"Theme from Star Trek" (originally scored under the title "Where No Man Has Gone Before")[1] is an instrumental musical piece written by Alexander Courage for Star Trek, the science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry and originally aired between September 8, 1966 and September 2, 1969.
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[edit] History
The tune was played over both the opening and closing credits of the original series. The opening credits begin with the now-famous "Space: the final frontier" monologue recited by series star William Shatner, accompanied by an opening fanfare. The main theme begins, punctuated at several points by the Enterprise flying toward and past the camera with a "whoosh" sound for dramatic effect, created vocally by Courage himself.[2] A slightly longer version of the theme, minus the fanfare, was played over the closing credits, which were overlaid on a series of stills from various episodes.
Courage has said his inspiration for the main part of the theme was the Richard Whiting song "Beyond the Blue Horizon", giving him the idea for a song which was a "long thing that... keeps going out into space... over a fast moving accompaniment."[3] The opening resembles two elements of symphonies by Gustav Mahler; the very beginning echoes the first notes of Mahler's First Symphony, while the first three notes of the leitmotif fanfare, as well as some of the harmonic structure and orchestration that Courage used, are similar to phrases in the first movement of his Seventh Symphony.
The first season's initial ten episodes used Courage's original mix of a wordless rendition of the melody line sung by soprano Loulie Jean Norman combined with flute and organ, over an orchestral arrangement. Courage said "the whole idea was to mix it in so that it would be a 'what is that that I'm hearing?' sound".[4] This theme was last heard on "The Corbomite Maneuver". After this, the mix was changed to bring up the female vocal. The end titles of all these episodes used an orchestral-only version, save for the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", which used the same vocal version for the end titles, and also did not have the familiar opening narration. The unbroadcast pilot "The Cage" used a slightly different version which has both a human soprano voice, electronic underpinnings as well as symphonic support.[citation needed]
In 2006, CBS began syndicating a "remastered" version of the series with numerous changes, including a re-recording of the theme music. Elin Carlson, a professional singer and lifetime Star Trek fan, re-recorded Norman's wordless vocals.[5]
Over time, the show's theme tune has become immediately recognizable, even by many people who have never seen the program. Portions of the original theme music have been used in subsequent Star Trek series' and motion pictures. Jerry Goldsmith quoted the theme in 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, where it softly accompanies the "captain's log" scenes. Dennis McCarthy reused the original theme's fanfare when he reworked Goldsmith's main theme for use as Star Trek: The Next Generations theme music, where the fanfare precedes Goldsmith's theme. Most of the subsequent Star Trek films' main title music starts with the fanfare before seguéing into music composed specially for the given film. 2009's Star Trek breaks with this tradition; instead, composer Michael Giacchino uses the opening notes sparingly in the movie, but features the entire theme in the film's end credits. Almost all the Star Trek feature films to date (with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country being the only exception) use the fanfare at some point within the film.
[edit] Lyrics
Without Courage's knowledge, Roddenberry wrote lyrics to the theme—not in the expectation that they would ever be sung, but in order to claim a 50% share of the music's performance royalties. Although there was never any litigation, Courage later commented that he believed Roddenberry's conduct was unethical. Roddenberry was quoted as responding, "Hey, I have to get some money somewhere. I'm sure not going to get it out of the profits of Star Trek".[6]
[edit] Other recordings and uses
In the 1970s, Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Uhura on the original series, recorded a disco version of the song with lyrics different from Roddenberry's.
Van McCoy released an instrumental disco version of the song on his 1976 album The Real McCoy.
Jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson recorded a fusion version of the tune with his big band, first released on his Conquistador album in January 1977. This recording was later used as the opening theme for The Larry King Show on the Mutual Radio Network, and was so popular that King would occasionally play the entire song at the end of the show.
In 1992, Austrian dance act Edelweiss had a hit with the number "Starship Edelweiss", which used the theme as its melodic base.
In the movie Wayne's World, Garth is heard whistling the Star Trek theme while lying on top of the hood of an AMC Pacer. While looking at the stars, he says, "Sometimes I wish I could boldly go where no one's gone before".
At the 2005 Emmys, Shatner and operatic singer Frederica von Stade performed a live version of the theme, with Shatner reciting the opening monologue and von Stade singing the wordless melody line.
In the 2006 film RV, Jeff Daniels' character has an RV with a horn that uses a snippet of the theme.
In 2007, some TV ads for the Hummer H3 featured the theme recording used in the second and third seasons.
In 2009, the theme was used as the wake-up call for the crew of mission STS-125 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis.
[edit] References
- ^ Tim Grant Engle (editor, writer), Bob Klein (producer).. Malibu Celebration of Film Presents Music Takes Courage: A Tribute to Alexander Courage (part 1). [video]. Event occurs at 0:39. http://youtube.com/watch?v=vH0aSwFKacw. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
- ^ Tim Grant Engle (editor, writer), Bob Klein (producer).. Malibu Celebration of Film Presents Music Takes Courage: A Tribute to Alexander Courage (part 4). [video]. Event occurs at 2:39. http://youtube.com/watch?v=9oppn9BT6XM. Retrieved on 2007-05-20. "So I went out on the stage and watched the screen, and as it went by, there was the microphone. I just went "whooosh", and that's what they used."
- ^ Star Trek Stories - Alexander Courage on writing the theme song. [video]. Archive of American Television. Event occurs at 0:24. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvftpMe97_0. Retrieved on 2009-05-25.
- ^ Tim Grant Engle (editor, writer), Bob Klein (producer).. Malibu Celebration of Film Presents Music Takes Courage: A Tribute to Alexander Courage (part 4). [video]. Event occurs at 2:06. http://youtube.com/watch?v=9oppn9BT6XM. Retrieved on 2008-07-20.
- ^ Elin Carlson. "The Re-recording of the Original Star Trek Theme". http://elincarlson.com/startrek.html. Retrieved on 2008-07-20.
- ^ "Unthemely Behavior". Urban Legends Reference Pages. March 10, 1999. http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/trek1.htm. Retrieved on 2007-05-20.
[edit] External links
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