Wow. Are my search skills that bad or has nobody posted this one?
From Mr. K. his own self:
"Jerry Goldsmith's magnificent score to Star Trek: The Motion Picture has been released on CD and LP by La-La Land Records, and the full orchestrations published as a beautiful bound book by Omni Music Publishing. The post-production to ST:TMP was so rushed and chaotic that Goldsmith composed four pieces of music that were never recorded by the orchestra in 1979—but the orchestrations have been included in Omni's book. One of them, Goldsmith's first attempt at scoring the climactic "Body Meld," was rejected on the scoring stage by Bob Wise as being "too romantic," as it featured the film's love theme ("Ilia's Theme") rather than the more cosmic, powerful progressions of Goldsmith's final version. Now, composer Joe Kraemer (Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation, Jack Reacher) has created a synthesized "mock-up" of Goldsmith's original attempt so that fans can appreciate Goldsmith's intention."
That final shot of Vejur exploding and then the Enterprise appearing along with Goldsmith's music is one of the most sublime image / music combinations in a film chock full of sublime image / music combinations.
That was pretty epic--I can kind of see what Wise was saying about Ilia's theme being too romantic. It feels a bit awkward during the shots of Kirk and crew but it works very nicely during the shots of Decker, Ilia, and V'ger. I always felt like that theme should have been used more. It really is one of his best.
I love the film version of "The Meld", but I feel this original version has better music continuity with the rest of the score -- the Ilya theme is only hinted at from time to time in various scenes, but is allowed to flourish here. It also nicely "bookends" the film, as the "Overture" music is a self-contained setting of Ilya's theme.
What a fascinating insight into the creative process!
I completely understand why Goldsmith went in this direction (surely either guided that way by Wise or at least approved by him at some point earlier). But I also think Wise was wise to realize it was the wrong approach. This music is not telling the film's story.
While there's a bit of romance between Decker and Ilia – something they might have at one point felt would be a larger element of the film – it is ultimately a fairly small part of the story. The grand statement of Ilia's Theme (for all intents and purposes, a love theme) suggests an emotional resolution to a romance that's not on any viewer's mind. At this point, the audience is much more concerned with the Enterprise and V'ger and Earth, and Decker and Ilia are merely the means to resolving that problem, not the end unto themselves.
Even the great pros often find themselves making decisions by trial and error, and that seems to be what happened here. Amazing to hear this after all these years!
It MAY have been discussed recently. There was a thread talking about an un-recorded cue for a Trek film, but my mind seems to think it was "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan".
It MAY have been discussed recently. There was a thread talking about an un-recorded cue for a Trek film, but my mind seems to think it was "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan".
There is an unrecorded Star Trek II cue, a very short cue called "The Reliant" (M21) which I think is for the fly-by early in the film, when we first see the ship.
This TMP YouTube clip is meant to tie-in to a piece I wrote for Trekmovie.com on the Omni book, which will soon run. You guys found it first!!!
I completely understand why Goldsmith went in this direction (surely either guided that way by Wise or at least approved by him at some point earlier). But I also think Wise was wise to realize it was the wrong approach. This music is not telling the film's story.
I agree, Schiffy. For me, this cue sort of points out the schism of the film in a nutshell.
However, the existence of this is stunning... Joel Kraemer, if you're reading: thank you for spending the time to do this. A fresh-to-our-ears example of a Goldsmith musical orgasm is always welcome – especially now.
First off, major hats off to Mr. Kraemer. The mockup he did was not an easy one to do and he clearly did this out of love and admiration for the music. I had the chance to see him live for a piece he wrote for the Dallas Chamber Symphony and what a warm and humble man he was!
That aside, I had mixed feelings watching this. Ultimately, Robert Wise is right. I wouldn’t say it was too romantic, but the first pass at The Meld was far too heavy handed and weighed down the picture. On one hand it does something that the score lacked: wrapped up Ilia’s Theme and brought it to a proper conclusion within the body of the score. But the scene isn’t about Ilia (who is long dead by this point in the picture), and thus its use is not appropriate cinematically. The pass at The Meld used in the film gets right the scene is about V’Ger (for whom Ilia is an avatar) and its humanization. It thus should be and ultimately was the moment when Goldsmith gets to focus on taking V’ger’s theme, suspenseful and mysterious, and make it human and emotive.
Thank you again to Joe for doing this for us. It was sure fascinating. And Lukas, can’t wait to read your write-up!
Very cool! But its just basically "Ilia's Theme", with some additional transitional music near the end. Thank gawd this film had a seasoned well respected director who wasn't afraid to actually "direct" a seasoned well respected composer. I don't think the score would've been nearly as good without Wise's influence. A lessor director would've been to afraid to speak up, or perhaps Goldsmith would've been offended by another directors input.
While I agree with Wise about having this part of the score come off as too romantic, I don't think it would have killed the cosmic tone if there was at least one mention of Ilia's theme during the whole sequence. I would have used the portion at 2:00 for example, to really tie the bow on the whole Ilia theme leading up to the grand explosion!
Very cool! But its just basically "Ilia's Theme", with some additional transitional music near the end. Thank gawd this film had a seasoned well respected director who wasn't afraid to actually "direct" a seasoned well respected composer. I don't think the score would've been nearly as good without Wise's influence. A lessor director would've been to afraid to speak up, or perhaps Goldsmith would've been offended by another directors input.
Solium, I can't echo this point enough. Not just with The Meld, but earlier Wise also had a pair of (censored)s for bringing Goldsmith to a halt at the September '79 sessions. Obviously the movie was in no place for Goldsmith to latch onto thematic ideas, but his first pass at the Enterprise theme, just like the first pass of The Meld, overwhelmed the visuals and took you out of the picture. And in many respects, the cues written for the September sessions not featuring the Enterprise theme (Floating Office/Malfunction come to mind) feature string work that could arguably be called far more romantic than what would be written later (you notice the tone shift in the score however brief it is). Definitely good on Robert Wise for standing up to Goldsmith and doing what the picture needed by telling him to dial it back and redo the Enterprise music. It was far better for it. If only measured directors like Wise still were around today.
Now just to hear the first pass at "Total Logic" in the manuscript...
I agree with the general consensus that the re-score is the more fitting piece but this is still an amazing bit of writing. To those saying that it's too reliant on Illia's theme I would counter that V'ger's them IS Illia's theme. They are the same notes but expressed in different colors for the two entities. Maybe Goldsmith was thinking that at this moment V'ger was no longer a mysterious, ominous threat but was becoming something glorious and human.
