Scoring Star Trek 8A: Sol Kaplan - Season One
Вставка
- Опубліковано 18 вер 2021
- We examine the composer whose music for TOS Episode 5 was some of the most sophisticated and most re-tracked of the season. This is a look into the life, background, and music of the brilliant Sol Kaplan, composer of The Enemy Within.
The music of TOS was very unique and very, very special! The music of Sol Kaplan in particular will forever be a part of my life. As it has been for decades. Whenever I am facing what would appear to be any kind of seemingly insurmountable obstacle that I apparently can't conquer or overcome I have always thought of his music from The Doomsday Machine!! For that score and his others also he will always be remembered!!
Agreed. These themes have been almost ever present companions in even the most insignificant tasks - mowing the lawn, working out, etc..
I have been a fan of star trek for years i used to watch the series on tv in the uk also have all the episodes on dvd
Amen,,,brother
Now that you pointed out that tri tone Porto-doomsday machine theme back in enemy within I can’t unhear it. That’s pretty cool
Right? Blew me away!
Illuminating! Sadly, as big of a trekkie that I am, I cannot differentiate between Kaplan, Fried and Courage as they have been pasted together in the episodes. It's all TOS music and I love it. Thanks for the information.🖖
Once again, bravo! 👍👍
As someone who knows next to nothing about musical theory (it once took three tries for someone to get me to understand the idea behind modal jazz, and I’ve still managed to forget it), I found this fascinating indeed. Subscribed.
(And I had no idea about Kaplan’s travails before HUAC. A dreadful period in our history, and I fear we’re about to go through much worse.)
Enjoyed your comment. Thanks! And I hope, as I'm sure you do, that your fears are wrong!
I'd like to see more dramas dealing with the period of the communist witch hunts and House Un-American Activities Committee. My thought is that any kind of reform: civil rights, women's rights, labor rights, single-payer health insurance in post-war America were all labeled communist to postpone or stop them.
I love the David Page page!
Aww. Thanks for checking it out!
Funny twist on Mr. Furnier.
Ha - thanks. Vince has no idea I did that ..
Fascinating as ever. Sol Kaplan, I've always enjoyed his music on Star Trek - so much so that when I recently found out that he did the music for a film I have on DVD but hadn't seen, namely Niagara (I bought my late mother the Marilyn Monroe box set many years ago), I knew I had to watch it. I think this must be a first, a heterosexual male wanting to watch a Marilyn Monroe film simply because of who composed the music for it! And I did listen intently, and recognised Kaplan's fingerprints from The Enemy Within.
I said on your vid for The Doomsday Machine that I still can't believe he only did two episodes, and I've found myself wondering what episode from season 3 would have been good for Kaplan to score, based on the music he provided for the two episodes he did. I'm going to suggest, out of the episodes that didn't get original scores, Day Of The Dove and The Tholian Web - indeed, if the latter had been in season 2 it would have definitely had some Doomsday Machine music in it, and if the former had been in season 1 it would equally certainly have reused music from The Enemy Within.
Actually, there was one brief moment of Kaplan's music in season 3, right at the end of the very last episode, Turnabout Intruder, a cue from The Doomsday Machine resurfaces!
Great stuff. Thanks for checking it out!
This is great, can't wait to check it out.
Sorry to be that guy, but your thumbnail isn't of Kaplan but science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon.
Well I do agree it's an amazing likeness. I hadn't seen images of Sturgeon until you pointed it out. All the same, I am confident the thumbnail image is in fact Sol Kaplan. This image is also referenced in Jeff Bond's book "The Music Of Star Trek..." on page 82, and on the LaLa Land collector set. I did erroneously use an image of Gerald Fried in this video thinking it was Kaplan. Just a rookie mistake on my part. I found only one other image of Kaplan, and that was on the back cover of the recording "The Victors". I hope you enjoy the video anyway!
So, Alexander Courage gave us the Enterprise fanfare, and Sol Kaplan enriched this with what I had thought was a glissando on the xylophone. A generations-old mystery solved! Thank you.
I deeply admire you for bringing us these. I deeply love music; chiefly, the classical symphony, and motion picture scores in the classical style; this for my lack of facility with musical instruments I manifest through a wide vocal range, and especially, a robust baritone-bass.
I cannot read musical notation, so when you tell us about perfect fifths and a polyrhythmic counter-motive, it rather eludes me. You explain it all quite well, however, and I anticipate that over years of diligent learning with the patient tutelage of a fellow star traveller, I anticipate that I could learn, enough to know what all those terms actually mean. I actually can whistle perfect fifths. I especially enjoy them on the French horn.
I have seen presentations similar to yours explaining the emotional impact of music, and how this applies to film scoring. I have felt it! John Barry's main theme to "Frances" (1982, Universal, Graeme Clifford) for a time had made me sob heavily in profound empathy with France's suffering, evoking my mother's similar, brief trial.
By contrast, John Williams's Star Wars Fanfare veritably stirs me to an exultant battle readiness against villainy! Howard Shore's Elven music fills me with a serene ecstacy! These psychological impacts upon our hearts and souls, and even our physical brains, immensely intrigue me!
After you have finished the original Star Trek, I would like to see and hear your insights of Howard Shore's lustrously aethereal score of Peter Jackson's two excursions through Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Extended Edition) (2005, Warner Bros) and The Hobbit trilogy (2015, Warner Bros). One of my greatest joys is to sing along with the Elven music (though I cannot speak Quenya, Noldorin, Sindarin, etc.).
The next would be John Williams's extraordinary body of work. A thorough treatise of all these, interactively linked with one another where appropriate, might require as many years to analyse as it took to make them! My guess would be that you, serving as Executive Editor (I am just brainstorming here) would sort through his body of film work, segment them into manageable portions, and delegate these parts to your colleagues. As they each had finished with their part, you would synthesise them together into a cohesive analysis.
Next for me would be the late John Barry (Prendergast). Distinctly different from Mr. Williams, his music is as delicate and poignant as it is evocative.
Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner also gave us Star Trek fans a generous portion of lovely material. I personally felt that Mr. Roddenberry, Paramount, et al., ought to have remained with Messrs Courage and Kaplan, as well as Fred Steiner ("Mirror, Mirror", Marlena's Theme"), Jerry Fielding ("Shore Leave", "Ruth's Theme") and the others, each rearranging his earlier compositions to a full orchestra, and setting cues to magnetic tape (or would it be digital media?). But the two film composers ably acquitted themselves.
At some point, I would like to see a comprehensive encyclopaedia of motion picture scores in the classical style. Erich Korngold, Bernard Hermann, Alfred Newman, Max Steiner--these are little more than n
First, an archive of each one, all listed under their respective composer, and cross-referenced according to genre.
Second would be a scholarly exposition discussing each, quite as you do here in your videos.
I cannot recall for certain, but I think the conductor Leonard Slatkin of the St. Louis Symphony some years past had showed keen interest in the topic. If ever you embark upon a venture as I suggest herein, he might serve as a good place to start.
You win! Wow - this is by far the longest comment I have seen! Great thoughts and commentary. Thank you. Interesting project you've proposed for sure, yet for the foreseeable future I don't see anything else beyond exploring TOS and its great composers.
If any music schools or online classes are available I would by all means encourage you to deepen your study of music. I can only begin to express the satisfaction of having some understanding or, as you say "facility", in its various facets. When I was in high school (mid-'70s) I excelled in music but fell flat in mathematics. Had I then appreciated the mathematical component of music, I bet I would have done better in math!
Music is good for the brain, the body, the spirit and emotions. Check out the third movement of Brahms' Piano Concerto #2, with the solo cello opening, and try not to weep. All these great composers you've mentioned understood this and were expert in its practice. It's a miracle.
I'm glad you're enjoying the videos! Thanks for checking it out.
@@davidpage9355 , yes, my super project would require comprehensive funding for payroll, workspace, archiving, etc. I do not have the money for attendance at university, or the logistical difficulties.
Joe McCarthy wasn't on the House Un-American Activities Committee. He was a senator.
Did Kaplan also write the variations of that fanfare at the beginning? At times it was truncated, others there was more music appended to it, if memory serves.
Yes he did. The collectors set liner notes describes "whirling piccolo glittering around Courage's Enterprise fanfare", and this was one of the most used cues for exterior "fly-by" shots. He rescored this for season 2 with his Doomsday Machine work. There were a couple of variations, I believe.
Your transcriptions...... in Finale or Sibelius? also the idea of orchestras programing soundtracks and playing them live while the film (video) is displayed to the concert audience is pretty popular. Are any of these scores available for such a presentation? If not.... could you.... "Make it So".....?
Well, I'm pretty cheap - Although my Dad used Finale years ago, and I had some exposure to it, I've been using MuseScore and been pretty happy with it. Far as producing scores for live presentation, I'm just not in a place to devote that much time and attention to get it right. I do like the concept though! Years ago I saw "Bugs Bunny on Broadway" tour at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil. Incredible, especially when Chuck Jones came out at the end and told some great stories!
Even Romulan ale makes me tipsy. Saurian brandy is out of the question.