November 24, 200619 yr We had a topic a while back, discussing the origins of the underscoring styles for Star Trek. Several people, myself included, had located some origins in Copland's "Americana" timbre. I'd like to amend that - I was listening to Holst. He MATCHES the sound almost perfectly in The Planets, especially in the Jupiter movement, though throughout the movements, he displays many of the similar timbral aspects that Jerry Goldsmith and his followers used. Copland's influence is probably there too, especially in the themes for Deep Space 9 and Voyager, but throughout the Star Trek episodes and films, Holst's neo-Wagnerian sound of The Planets is much more prevalent. In the track "Klingon Battle" from the first Star Trek film uses a technique that Holst uses in "Mars" - staccato and pizzicato strings with a brass solo. "The Wrath of Khan" uses "Jupiterian" sounds throughout the main and closing titles. "Mysterious" underscoring often uses similar techniques to the "Neptune" movement, marked especially in "The Final Frontier" and "The Search for Spock." The other movements tend to be more like previous composers (Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in "Uranus"), but those particular three are almost indistinguishable from sci-fi underscoring music.
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