Jerry Goldsmith fundamentally shaped the Star Trek sound.
On January 8, music lovers and moviegoers worldwide celebrated composer John Williams on his 90th birthday. But Williams isn’t the only great Hollywood film composer who was born in the second week of February. The late Jerry Goldsmith, who died in 2004, would have turned 93 today, February 10.
John Williams hasn’t scored any Star Trek productions—yet. With Star Trek’s production schedule ramping up and Williams’ schedule showing no signs of slowing, hope remains!
But John Williams did make an indirect contribution to Star Trek. His triumphant Star Wars score in 1977 paved the way for the classical, symphonic scores heard in the Star Trek movies, starting with Jerry Goldsmith’s Academy Award– and Golden Globe-nominated score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).
In their liner notes for La-La-Land Records’ limited edition of the TMP soundtrack, Jeff Bond and Mike Matessino write:
"Essentially a modernist throughout the first half of his career, Goldsmith made a shift into romanticism with Star Trek. John Williams’ success on Star Wars, emphasizing the familiarity rather than the strangeness of outer space (postmodernism, rather than modernism), had changed the culture [of film music]."
Bond and Matessino go on to quote Goldsmith as saying he treated all the Star Trek films he scored “in a more musically romantic way rather than being very avant-garde.”
Decades later, it’s hard to imagine Star Trek without the grand, epic, romantic melodies Jerry Goldsmith created for it. His rousing TMP Main Title theme, joined with Alexander Courage’s original series fanfare, became the theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994). Goldsmith used it in each of the four subsequent Trek movies he scored:
- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
- Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
- Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
- Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
And Jerry Goldsmith won an Emmy Award for composing the theme for Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001).
Given all the beautiful and stirring music Jerry Goldsmith composed for Star Trek, picking the best pieces is a daunting task.
But let’s listen again to three musical moments from Maestro Goldsmith that forever formed how we fans hear the final frontier.
“Klingon Battle” (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 1979)
Viewers of TMP have already been treated to several minutes of Goldsmith’s music by the time TMP really gets going. His lovely theme for Ilia serve as the movie’s overture (TMP was one of the last Hollywood releases to have one). And the opening credits have rolled to the sound of Goldsmith’s brisk, martial march.
But then, as three dauntless but doomed Klingon cruisers attack Vejur, we are treated to a fabulous five-minute piece of music that not only enhances the onscreen action but also helped shape Klingon culture for the entire franchise.
The cue is full of percussive snaps and “clacks” against the orchestra’s pulsing string section, punctuated by a brash brass “hunting call” motif. It’s perfect music for a noble warrior culture. It’s so perfect, it would become the dominant Klingon theme for years. Goldsmith resurrected it for Captain Klaa in Star Trek V, and would feature it as a theme for Worf in the TNG movies he scored. And regular, early TNG composer Ron Jones all but quoted it note for note in his score for the show’s first Klingon-centered episode, “Heart of Glory.”
Amidst the drama and dread of the Klingon music, note how Goldsmith effortlessly transitions to a calmer, more ethereal style of music upon our first sight of Epsilon IX (00:02:43 in the clip above). The music reinforces the visuals’ notice that we are now dealing with the more serene and civilized Federation.
But as we see the Amar’s transmission on the Epsilon IX screens (00:03:29), the Klingon music returns. It’s briefly more subdued, but after a barrage of sound from the blaster beam gives voice to Vejur’s wrath, it returns full force, never letting up until the Klingons have met their doom.
Star Trek fans will often point to Goldsmith’s cue “The Enterprise” as TMP’s musical high point. And while the score accompanying Kirk and Scotty’s leisurely cruise around the Enterprise is exquisite, it can’t beat “Klingon Attack” for excitement, variety, and dramatic impact.
“First Contact” (Star Trek: First Contact, 1996)
Jerry Goldsmith scored humanity’s first meeting with an alien species with a cue that ranges from nearly religious awe to heartfelt, Aaron Copland-esque sentiment in a matter of minutes.
As the glowing Vulcan scoutship descends through the clouds (more modestly than but not altogether unlike the “mothership” in the John Williams-scored Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Goldsmith gives us numinous strings beneath hesitant variations on phrases from the film’s main theme in the brass.
When Earth’s Vulcan visitor first appears in the scoutship’s open hatch, a cymbal crash accompanies bolder brass. Like Zefram Cochrane, Lily Sloane, and their fellow post-apocalyptic humans, we sense we are in a truly otherworldly presence. Not until Cochrane walks forward to meet the Vulcan does the movie’s main theme re-emerge, from the French horns, fully formed—humanity embracing its destiny.
In their liner notes for GNP Crescendo’s 2012 issue of the movie’s complete score, Jeff Bond and John Takis say this of Goldsmith’s “first contact” theme:
"After its introduction during the main title, the composer holds this theme in reserve for moments of special significance, where it anchors the story’s lofty ideals. Its placid motion and warm harmonics suggest the grand moment in human history depicted at the film’s conclusion."
Another crash of brass and cymbal punctuate the Vulcan throwing back his hood, but the score doesn’t stay with dramatic grandeur for long. It returns into simpler, humbler lines as Cochrane, unable to return the Vulcan salute, offers a humble but genuine handshake.
Like his TMP score, Goldsmith’s First Contact score is full of memorable moments. But this music at its finish never fails to give me thrills.
Main Theme from Star Trek: Voyager (1995)
Even without the spectacular visuals accompanying it—surely the most beautiful opening sequence of any Star Trek series, with the possible exception of Star Trek: Prodigy—the theme Jerry Goldsmith composed for Star Trek: Voyager would stand as one of the franchise’s most breathtaking musical pieces.
Goldsmith begins by achieving the seemingly impossible feat of evoking Alexander Courage’s original series fanfare without repeating it. He then, on the other side of some sturdy tympani work, moves into the flowing long lines of the main melody. As befits a journey the characters expect will take decades to complete, this theme is in no hurry. It moves forward without ever sounding rushed. It’s preparing for us a long trek indeed.
The theme’s “B” section introduces notes of longing and urgency into the theme. When the “A” section returns, as Voyager passes over a planet’s icy rings, it sounds more determined and forceful, without losing the tranquility it possessed when we heard it first.
Writing for Tor.com, Alasdair Stuart says Goldsmith’s Voyager theme “is haunting . . . . It achieves the same emotional heft as the other shows’ themes, but in a very different, and far more poignant way.”
Goldsmith’s Voyager theme also seems poised to have as long an afterlife in the franchise as some of the maestro’s other contributions to it. Unless I need to have my hearing checked, I’m fairly confident Prodigy composer Nami Melumad has been quoting the Voyager theme at key points in the new, animated aventures of Hologram Janeway and Admiral Janeway!
What is your favorite Star Trek music by Jerry Goldsmith? Tell us in the comments below!