Soundtracks

Another fifteen picoseconds of fame! An appearance in an SF Signal Mind Meld!

In the Beginning was the Word

My first encounters with soundtracks was on a grainy black-and-white television in the early 1960's. I can still recall being creeped out by the music and the sound track (the sound effects) of such Outer Limits episodes as Demon with a Glass Hand, Soldier, and more. Outer Limits was not only some of the earliest science fiction that I remember, but my first encounters with how music and sound effects can work together to make a story better. Forbidden Planet featured "electronic tonalities" with a completely synthetic soundtrack. In here the noise of the ship, the sound of the weapons, the scream of the Monster from the Id, all combined as one. You can't dance to it, you can't hum it, but it was one of the best aural environments in the film that I experienced.

A few years later came Star Trek. Again, an interesting mix of found music and sound environment. The music, especially in the space scenes (oh, that Doomsday Machine was a real thriller!), was stirring but can you imagine life on the Enterprise without the sounds of the computers, the turbo-lift, the engines, the transporter?

The sound track that affected me the most, and which is still a favorite to this day, was the music for 2001: A Space Odyssey. While there was an original music score done for the film (by Alexa North, which was released as a soundtrack on its own several years ago), seeing the movie on the big screen (during its first release) not only confirmed me as a lover of classical music, but introduced me to the wild edges of orchestral works (and probably led me to all sorts of "experimental stuff" or "electronic stuff" that I still listen to today). Whether it is the marrying of Also Sprach Zarathustra (Strauss) to several key scenes (such as the triumphant tossing of a bone into the air), or Ligeti's music on the approach to Jupiter and the journey Beyond the Infinite, this soundtrack was the key for years.

After 2001: A Space Odyssey, I can think of several soundtracks that in whole, or in part, remain favorites. The Planet of the Apes, with Jerry Goldsmith's occasionally odd-sounding score affected me but, alas, I did not have the actual record (later CD) for years after seeing the film (once!) on the big screen. Silent Running, with a mixture of both a orchestral score and a more poppy collaboration between Peter Shickle and Joan Baez remains one of the few scores where I think either a rock or folk approach works with science fiction.

It All Started With a Big Bang!

I'm sure that other contributors to this installment will talk about Star Wars. So, while a favorite (actually, I like the soundtrack to The Empire Strikes Back better), I'll talk about the post Star Wars soundtracks instead.

Star Wars was both a blessing and a curse. It opened the floodgates to many more SF/F productions, but that meant we were seeing a lot more dross along with the gold (Adventures of Stella Star, anyone?) The same went with the music: everybody and their brother and sister were doing big special effects productions with bigger and bigger orchestral numbers. I'm sure that the studios would have been happy if they had been able to clone John Williams, but it lead to a certain sameness (and dullness) in the soundtracks.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Alien, both born in the post Star Wars-glut managed to avoid this for the most part. Both scores were courtesy of Jerry Goldsmith and featured the non-standard orchestration that attracted me to Planet of the Apes. While I might find some sequences of Star Trek: The Motion Picture tedious, I've never found the music to be tedious. Alien manages to creep me out, with or without the film as a back drop.

Another effort that stands out for originality was the Vangelis score for Blade Runner. Marrying sound effects, visuals, and a sweeping electronic score made a lasting impact on me. I cannot see a clip or still without thinking of the music or vice versa.

Along the cyberpunk end was the soundtrack to the animated film Ghost in the Shell and the soundtrack to the series of the same name. The film's score is odd and atonal, the series features a lot of rock and jazz. Both have been permanently loaded on my iPod since I first bought it. The first Matrix movie (are there any others?) mixed both orchestral and rock to a good effect (I love watching the DVD with the music-only option, great pacing all the way through!).

I could mention many more: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Battlestar Galactica (the reboot), Star Gate (any version) and more, but those are my key listens.