Composer Michael Giacchino provided the score for the latest Star Trek film, and he did a terrific job. On a personal note, seeing Giacchino attached to such a high-profile film pleases me, as I was an early fan upon hearing his score for his first Medal of Honor video game. I’ve followed his musical career closely as he has developed with additional video game scores, TV scores, and now film scores. His music has evolved over his several projects in his thus-short career, and when he’s needed, Giacchino doesn’t disappoint and that goes for his latest score, Star Trek.
I concede, though, I was at first slightly disappointed with Giacchino’s Star Trek score. Prior to purchasing his score, I had been repeatedly listening to James Horner’s fantastic score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Horner’s Trek score is easily one of his best, with its high-octane, seafaring-esque attitude. Then I listened to Giacchino’s score for the first time, and not having a stirring, captivating main title composition was disappointing. The main title composition unleashes the main theme and sets the mood for the remainder of the score. Jerry Goldsmith did this wonderfully with his Star Trek: The Motion Picture score, as did Horner with his Trek 2 score. Added to the absence of the hit-you-over-the-head main title music in Giacchino’s score on first-listen was that his Trek theme didn’t really get started until track 4, “Hella Bar Talk,” where the theme is in a more muted, reflective mood. I recall during my first listening thinking, “Where’s the theme?” But then I arrived at “Enterprising Young Men” where the theme is unleashed in all its glory. Once I heard the theme in this track, I was satisfied (and hit repeat on this track), and the disappointment of not having a strong main title cue subsided (little did I know at the time that this track doubles as the film’s title music). “Enterprising Young Men”:
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Giacchino’s Trek theme is unlike Goldsmith’s and Horner’s, but not in an unfortunate or unsatisfactory way. Instead of a major-key, brass fanfare, we’re treated to a more introspective-yet-powerful theme, heard as a beautiful horn solo in the first track “Star Trek” and in other renditions and orchestrations throughout the remainder of the score, including the aforementioned “Enterprising Young Men” cue with its exciting brass rendition. For any listener, the success of this score may depend on whether or not you enjoy his Trek theme because of its generous use throughout the score. “Star Trek”:
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Doubling as Kirk’s theme, Giacchino’s Trek theme gets a healthy and musically pleasing workout throughout the score. In between the various renditions, though, are a full library of other themes, motifs, and set pieces. Spock gets a theme, which is a light, other-worldly theme performed by what may be an erhu. Spock’s Theme:
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The bad guys get a bad-bad-brass-heavy motif that’s as propulsive as it’s thudding. Giacchino also ensures his action music is always tight and never boring, with the track “Nero Fiddles, Narada Burns” a standout:
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And “Nero Death Experience”:
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What I find most impressive about the album is the “End Credits” track, where Giacchino assembles a nine-minute montage of the film’s themes and motifs mixed with an exciting rendition of the Alexander Courage Star Trek theme:
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Modern film scores and films have lost the art of creating a separate and original composition for the end credits. Most films these days simply mix preexisting cues together to form an end credits suite. Gone are the days of John Williams’s Star Wars scores where he exceptionally weaved together his themes in custom-composed end-credit compositions. Giacchino has thankfully brought this practice back, not only with his Star Trek end credits composition, but with compositions for the end credits of The Incredibles and Ratatouille. In addition, the Star Trek “End Credits” track features an awesome few seconds that use Courage’s Trek theme as counterpoint to Giacchino’s Trek theme:
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What I find least impressive about the album is the length: about 44 minutes. The film is just over two hours, so clearly there is missing music, including the exciting fight scene on the drill platform and the terrific musical moment with the USS Enterprise rising above the clouds on Titan. I have no doubt an expanded album is up someone’s sleeve somewhere. And I’ll be happy to purchase it.
With his Star Trek score, Giacchino finally finding his own musical voice is evident. In a handful of cues on the album, a few seconds of the music sound like it could either be from one of his Lost or Medal of Honor scores. This doesn’t mean he is merely copying himself, but rather he has developed specific musical styles and textures. Hearing these textures in multiple scores signifies Giacchino’s personal development as a composer in his own right. In many of his earlier scores, though, he sounded like another composer: John Williams in the original Medal of Honor score, John Barry in The Incredibles, Ron Goodwin in Secret Weapons Over Normandy, etc. Not until his later Medal of Honor scores and his work for Lost did Michael Giacchino start wholeheartedly sounding like Michael Giacchino and not another composer (both situations are a testament to his skills: on one hand the ability to incorporate other composers’ sounds; on the other his development as his own composer).
Michael Giacchino’s Star Trek score is Michael Giacchino’s Star Trek score and no other composer’s. As a result, I can see diehard fans of the Star Trek scores of past, particularly Goldsmith’s The Motion Picture and Horner’s The Wrath of Khan scores, being disappointed with this score. Giacchino’s score, though, aptly fits this more character-driven film. Giacchino has created his own world of Star Trek music, a world I am delighted to boldly go through with each repeated listen. Bravo, Michael!
