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| Horner |
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: (James Horner)
After the belatedly popular "Star Trek" television series of the 1960's
was finally brought to big screen in 1979 to limited critical and
popular acclaim, young director Nicholas Meyer would take the series in
an entirely new direction three years later. Whereas
Star Trek: The
Motion Picture had wowed audiences with all the majestic fantasy
elements that a $45 million budget could buy, many of which overextended
into lengthy sequences to accentuate their mere brilliance of color and
sound, Meyer's approach to
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was
strictly a plot-driven one (and a necessary move because his budget was
limited to roughly $11 million for the sequel). With the elements of
brutal power, surprise attacks, character development, emotional
turmoil, and, most of all, primal revenge all driving the basis of the
sequel, there was finally appealing substance to go with the franchise's
impressive special effects. The wild success of
Star Trek II in
providing a personal cat and mouse thriller of old, high seas tradition
in space solidified the franchise for at least another nine films,
earning respect despite considerable competition from the concurrent
Star Wars trilogy (and fans angry with the death of the beloved
Vulcan, Spock). The story introduced the concept of a villain
challenging the intellectual and technological capabilities of the
Enterprise crew while also making a crucial link back to an episode of
the original television show. The resulting picture is arguably the one
of the two best of the series, and it also established a new, dramatic
standard for its musical scores. Jerry Goldsmith had adapted his friend
Alexander Courage's television theme into the first film's score and had
composed an elegant, orchestrally sweeping theme for the heroic crew
that was destined to become the franchise's fanfare identity throughout
the 1990's. Despite receiving an Oscar nomination for that work,
Goldsmith was not considered for
Star Trek II mostly due to
financial reasons; music was one of the areas in which the production
had to be curtailed.
Additionally, Meyer wanted an increasingly edgy sound for
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, one that could actively
accompany the film's emphasis on intense action while intentionally
dropping all of Goldsmith's identities from the first film. Encouraged
by upstart James Horner's highly innovative science-fiction sound (on a
low budget) for
Battle Beyond the Stars, Meyer handed the scoring
assignment to the then almost completely unknown composer. Fresh out of
college and working on trashy B-rate science fiction projects, Horner
was given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Like Cliff Eidelman nearly
ten years later for
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,
Horner would jump at the challenge and write the score of his career.
This happened despite the composer's confession that he wasn't a
significant fan of the concept, though due to his controversial
involvement with Goldsmith's daughter a few years earlier, he had
attended a few recording sessions for
Star Trek. Reported
friction between the two composers is likely overplayed, though
Goldsmith would eventually say in 1998, "I think he is a bit eclectic.
But then again, at times we've all helped ourselves to the work of
others." Fortunately for Horner, the outstanding recognition achieved
from
Star Trek II would lead to an extremely productive and
lucrative career in Hollywood, something which Eidelman struggled
unsuccessfully to obtain. In the many years since
Star Trek II,
Horner has also become one of the most artistically controversial
composers in the industry. Known for constantly borrowing material from
his previous scores, among routine classical sources, Horner collectors
can often point back to
Star Trek II as being the origin for many
of the composer's trademark, career-defining motifs. Thus, even if you
believe in the perpetual theories of Horner's self-borrowing techniques,
you must admit that
Star Trek II is still a fantastic score for
debuting all of these ideas at once. In general, for comparative
purposes, Horner's approach to the "Star Trek" universe was entirely
different from Goldsmith's. Instead of winning over audiences with the
graceful spectacle of space travel, Horner treats space no differently
than he would the savage, yet exhilarating era of high seas adventures
back on Earth.
Horner wrote four major themes for
Star Trek II,
two intermingling ideas representing Captain Kirk and the Enterprise,
one for Spock that would later become an identity for the Vulcan race,
and a ripping rhythmic representation for this film's colorful villain.
The opening title explodes with its swelling themes for Kirk (first,
positioned as the primary theme in fanfare format) and the Enterprise
(in the bridge placement in between Kirk's theme), tipping the hat
immediately to Courage's theme. Horner chose not to explore any of the
underscores for the original television series despite the direct
connections in storyline, but he did avail himself of Courage's theme
extensively in this score (referencing the theme in no less than six
cues). Horner's use of the Kirk and Enterprise themes often overlaps,
causing the two to become somewhat indistinguishable to casual ears. He
does, though, apply the complimentary ideas in highly specific places to
reference the tightening relationship between the two as Kirk takes
command of the ship. The ship's theme is almost exclusively conveyed
(along with subtle hints of Spock and Kirk's theme after about a minute)
in Horner's personal favorite scene and cue, "Enterprise Clears
Moorings." The swashbuckling aspect of this idea is prominent as the
Enterprise seemingly unfurls its sails and heads out to rough seas. The
broad, orchestral theme takes you back to the adventures scored by Erich
Wolfgang Korngold, with masted ships in close combat and displaying the
brilliance of their own colors and sails. Such an interpretation by
Horner makes perfect sense, given the parallels between space fleets and
those of the sea. Meyer's film follows the sea battle mode until Spock
and Kirk defeat the evil Khan (Ricardo Montalban and his controversial
chest, both fan favorites) by reminding the audience that space is three
dimensional, the key to winning the battle between the stolen Reliant
and the Enterprise. The continuation of the Kirk and Enterprise themes
in the battle sequences, ranging from "Kirk Takes Command" to "Genesis
Countdown," infuses a sense of excitement and optimism that accompanies
Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future without remotely approaching the
realm of trite character, a problem that later dealt a fatal blow to
Leonard Rosenman's comparatively inappropriate
Star Trek IV: The
Voyage Home.
Complimenting the nautical themes for Kirk and the ship is
the fledgling idea for Spock and his Vulcan culture, introduced
prominently in a handful of cues in
Star Trek II before
significant expansion in
Star Trek III and slight alterations by
Eidelman for
Star Trek VI. Unable to obtain a desired ondes
martenot for the theme, Horner instead used slightly out of pitch
panpipes and recorder to produce the necessary other-worldly effect in
"Spock" and "Spock (Dies)" (a technique emulated by both Eidelman and
later Michael Giacchino for the 2009 reboot score). The ethereal nature
of Spock's meditation and death scenes in
Star Trek II is well
served by Horner's material, and the connection between the second and
third films and their scores would be crucial in these regards. The most
important incarnation of this theme was developed at the last minute by
Horner. As executives (and even Leonard Nimoy, who was the one who
wanted out of the franchise and therefore his character's death) pushed
Meyer to film a scene of the dead Vulcan's coffin on the Genesis planet
at the end of the picture, thus leaving the door open for his
resurrection in the franchise, Horner was credited with making the scene
an emotional powerhouse by offering a ponderous and beautiful string
rendition of the Spock theme. The final and arguably most engaging theme
in
Star Trek II represents maniacal Khan in his quest for
revenge, and it is this material that seems to have inspired most of the
composer's other similar works of the 1980's. During the two major
battle sequences and the escape from the Genesis explosion that ends the
film, Horner unleashes a primordial and powerful sense of rhythmic
inevitability from his orchestral ensemble that perfectly resembles the
unrefined, torn edges to Khan's brilliance. A relentless, slapping
percussive rhythm is accompanied by a precursor of Horner's eventually
famous four-note motif of danger representing evil in general and heard
best at the start of "Surprise Attack;" the idea would follow him
through decades of scoring. French horns pound out the key, with
mechanized thumps down a note, while wildly fluttering movements on
strings and brass (and even blasting flutes on occasion) signal a theme
of sorts over the top that is so blustery that it impressively mimics
the villain's unpredictable thought process.
The explosive energy generated by the orchestra during the
action sequences of
Star Trek II is magnificent, and, with the
employment of menacing lower brass performances, parallels similar cues
offered in the composer's raw music for
Brainstorm. The tapping
and snorting of this rhythmic device, including a generous amount of
cymbal strikes and metallic clanging, doesn't cease until the beautiful
explosion of the Genesis torpedo at the film's climax. Clicking
percussive effects and subtle metallic devices join single-minded piano
strikes to create an almost medieval environment of battle that
foreshadowed Horner's clanging, feast-appropriate Klingon material for
the following film. No better a musical representation of Khan's
single-minded character could be made than with this extremely focused
environment of forceful movement. The composer, after being instructed
to avoid any thematic references to Goldsmith's work, did reportedly
sneak in vague references to music from episodic scores for the original
television show. More obvious is Horner's basic tribute to the previous
Star Trek score by using a Blaster Beam effect (well
reconstituted by its original performer, who would reprise his
performing role in the first four sequel scores) to add power to some of
his bass whole notes, a technique also used by Goldsmith, in the battle
scenes, and especially those involving the Mutara Nebula near the end of
the story. Oddly, this effect can't be heard as well on most of the
score's albums as in the film, where it serves as obvious backing for
Horner's harsh brass tones, producing the more familiar "dooing" sounds
with the resonance of the preceding score. It's hard to imagine how
Horner could accomplish this overwhelmingly engaging sound with 90
musicians when you compare his score to something like Dennis McCarthy's
Star Trek: Generations, which featured more players and
accomplished nothing close to exhibiting the same power. A charged
performance by Horner's musicians is likely the reason for the
disparity, overcoming the archival sound quality that is destined to
plague this score. The work concludes in the "End Title" with the format
of accelerating progressions that Horner later employed in scores
ranging from
The Rocketeer to
The Legend of Zorro, a
familiar but effective method of closing many of his most exuberant
scores.
The two primary themes for
Star Trek II remain
the score's greatest asset, though when looking back upon Horner's
contribution for the franchise, it's hard not to return more frequently
to the battle music in both works, and especially "Surprise Attack" in
this one. This preference may be due to simple overexposure of the
primary themes due to their concert arrangement and consequently
frequent performances. But, most importantly, it proves that Horner's
work for the concept is at least well rounded. For many years, Horner's
two
Star Trek scores had been badly neglected on album, a couple
of antiquated GNP Crescendo products transferring the music from the
original LP arrangement in the early 1990's. With only about 65 minutes
of music heard in the final cut of the picture (and 75 recorded), the
45-minute GNP Crescendo product did contain the necessary highlights to
satisfy the mainstream. Two notable missing cues that fans sought
extensively included "Kirk in Space Shuttle" and "Kirk Takes Command,"
both extending his theme into more exuberant variations. (Interestingly,
Horner had prepared album versions for these cues.) Also in surprising
demand was the bagpipe and orchestra arrangement of "Amazing Grace"
heard during Spock's funeral scene, a cue Horner fought strongly
against, calling the bagpipes "bleating goats" despite falling in love
with the general regional sound later in his career. While the awkward
use of "Amazing Grace" will remain always irksome for some listeners as
well, one of the beauties of
Star Trek II was Meyer's intelligent
employment of music, sometimes leaving sequences to only sound effects,
dialogue, or silence. In fact, a significant portion of the film's first
twenty minutes contains no music at all. Thus, Horner's effort was well
represented, even on the out-of-print GNP product. Nevertheless, a 2009
remastering and complete presentation of the score by Film Score
Monthly's Retrograde Records in non-limited form was greeted with an
overwhelmingly positive fan response. The generous treatment of the
score not only offered the entirety of the film recording, including
Craig Huxley's "Genesis Project" source music, but the sound quality is
generally improved and the packaging outstanding. Still, the source for
this product was the same tapes from which the GNP album had been
derived, so listeners should not expect to hear a very significant
difference between the two.
The recordings of Horner's two scores in the franchise
have always sounded somewhat archival, matching
Brainstorm in
flatness during some of the similar, explosive brass sequences, and even
after the remastering for the 2009 album, there remains some
constriction in the soundscape. Both albums feature Leonard Nimoy's
vocal performance of the standard "Star Trek" epilogue over the
beginning of the "End Titles," a tasteful finale to a classic score; the
FSM album seemingly cranks up the reverb on his vocals. A limited 2016
set from La-La Land Records, the "Star Trek 50th Anniversary
Collection," contains this cue without the narration as its only
representation of this score. That label returned to
Star Trek II
in 2021 for a definitive 2-CD set of 10,000 copies that suffered from
early availability issues due to a manufacturing problem. The primary
driver of this product was the discovery of better tapes of the original
recording, allowing for a new remastering that offers more clarity to
the score but not necessarily any less archival tone generally. The
soundscape remains as raw as ever on this set. The first CD of the two
contains the full film version of the score, minus Huxley's incongruent
Genesis source music. It negates the need for the one track from the
2016 set, as the finale is lacking the Nimoy voiceover. The second CD
begins with the album presentation, which does differ on some cues, and
appends the Huxley track and a variety of alternate takes. The
alternates are perhaps the highlight of the set for those not concerned
about sound quality, including two variants of "Amazing Grace," but
Horner's own album arrangements of three other cues are the most
interesting revelations. The "Wild Orchestra" insert sequence is also a
long-sought inclusion, though that demand has always been surprising
considering the unpleasantness of that recording's atmospherics. The
2021 album is the definitive representation of the score and features
distinct thematic analysis in its booklet. Overall, enthusiasts of the
"Star Trek" franchise agree that this score is superior to the
marginally creative but watered down
Star Trek III: The Search for
Spock, though debate continues about the merit of
Star Trek
II when compared to the first Goldsmith score and Eidelman's single
entry. At any rate, it would inspire great Horner music in
Brainstorm,
Krull,
Willow, and
The
Rocketeer, and it remains a fine example of a surprisingly
impressive breakout effort for a young composer.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: *****
- Music as Heard on the 1991 GNP Crescendo Album: ****
- Music as Heard on the 2009 Film Score Monthly Album: *****
- Music as Heard on the 2016/2021 La-La Land Albums: *****
- Overall: *****
| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 108 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 203,515 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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