While I’m undoubtedly more excited about the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery TV series, as Star Trek has demonstrated a proclivity to shining in its textured continuity of interlocking teleplays, a good Star Trek movie is an excellent thing, and as the Star Trek cinematic universe has one of the best batting averages compared to other nerd franchises, I’ve taken it as a given that this Star Trek Beyond would capture my imagination for weeks.
Michael Giacchino‘s Star Trek Beyond soundtrack was released digitally on Friday, and it is an epic of narrative storytelling in its own right. Conventional soundtrack wisdom says the piece of music should not tell the story, but mirror it, and do that reflecting as inobtrusively as possible so as not to make the audience, in their reverie, aware of the music as something separate from the moving picture. And Giacchino fulfills this preconception by making his music an organic whole, so that while I haven’t seen the movie yet, I can imagine that events are flitting by to which the commentary of the music is integral.
And yet, just as a soundtrack isn’t necessary to the communion between the film and its viewer, so also this soundtrack is sufficient to itself and moves the listener, like the work of some of the better soundtrack composers, e.g. Murray Gold or Joe Hisaishi.
I mention specifically these composers as there were times I heard some borrowed motifs and methods from them, such as the choral work in “Night on the Yorktown,” which reminds me of some of Murray Gold’s work in Doctor Who, and the piano contribution in “Par-tay for the Course,” which has heavy overtones from Joe Hisaishi’s work for Studio Ghibli.
There’s also a strong influence of the incidental music from Star Trek: The Original Series’ action scenes, such as in “Jaylah Damage,” which begins with ominous deep notes, and moves from there into a rapid repartee between quivering strings, eerie horn and a number of different percussion instruments, like drums, bells, bongoes, and tambourines, so that you can imagine any of the 1966-69 Kirk’s iconic hand to hand battles being set to it.
Tying all this together of course is Giacchino’s now legendary theme, which is heard in snippets throughout the whole, and then has its best expression in the “Star Trek Main Theme,” in which it runs over a minute longer to great effect, adding grandeur, eloquence, and articulate pathos. In the original, at the 1:17-1:32 mark there’s a Coplandesque bit that is a bit too Spaghetti-Western for Star Trek, and it then segues into a forty second section in which the theme coils around and around, only to sputter out, but the Star Trek Beyond iteration builds suspense through this section with march-like percussion, so that the theme always seems to be making forward movement.
While I can think of no praise that is more meaningful to me than that this soundtrack has moved into the selection of albums that I play when writing, in the interest of providing a less idiosyncratic and more universal recommendation, you should add the Star Trek Beyond soundtrack to your collection because it not only has that je ne sais quoi of Trek, and it not only makes you feel something, but you should also find it vigorously moving, so that if you are not careful you might start humming it and find it the soundtrack of your life. There’s music that helps you sink into lassitude, and there’s music that you kill Klingons to, and Giacchino’s Star Trek Beyond soundtrack is definitely the latter.
Michael Giacchino’s Star Trek Beyond original soundtrack is available now on iTunes and other digital storefronts, and the CD comes out on Friday in stores.
