Encounter at Farpoint expanded soundtrack, and some other Trek-music bits

GNP Crescendo have announced their latest Star Trek soundtrack, their second expanded TNG TV release (following from The Best of Both Worlds last year), sees a more complete release of the Encounter at Farpoint soundtrack (fifteen tracks of which were released in 1988), plus tracks from The Arsenal of Freedom, as well as several unused pieces of music. Here's how GNP Crescendo describe the release:

Fans of Star Trek TM were thrilled in 1987 to welcome the launch of a new series expanding the Trek universe: Star Trek: The Next Generation. Soon after, GNP Crescendo Records was equally excited to release Dennis McCarthy’s score for the opening two-hour pilot episode, “Encounter at Farpoint.” Now, GNP Crescendo is releasing an Expanded Collector’s Edition of that same pioneering score, including even more of McCarthy’s dramatic music, newly mixed and mastered from the original multi-track elements under the supervision of the composer.

McCarthy—who has written more music for the franchise than any other composer—wrote over 40 minutes of brash and colorful music for “Encounter at Farpoint,” establishing the bright, dynamic style he would maintain throughout the show’s first season. He made frequent use of Alexander Courage’s iconic Star Trek fanfare, as well as a new, heroic theme for the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, Jean-Luc Picard. Typical of early Next Generation scores, the music manifests a post-Star Wars sound, symphonic and often reflective of the hammering rhythms and surging chords of Holst’s “Mars, the Bringer of War” from The Planets in its treatment of action and space battles.

As a bonus, this new CD also includes the world premiere release of McCarthy’s score to “The Arsenal of Freedom,” an action-packed episode from late in the first season. The CD concludes with several bonus and alternate cues from “Encounter at Farpoint”—including McCarthy’s unused main title theme (which was replaced with Jerry Goldsmith’s theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture for the series). This latest release in GNP Crescendo’s continuing commitment to preserving the musical legacy of Star Trek includes a 16-page booklet with informative notes by Jeff Bond, author of The Music of Star Trek—incorporating comments from the composer.

Continue after the jump for a full track list, plus a couple of behind the scenes videos for Star Trek music fans:

Here's the track list. Titles in bold are new or expanded tracks (as reported by TrekCore, who also released the higher res version of the cover above):

• 1. 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' Main Title - 1st Season (1:45) 

Encounter at Farpoint

• 2. Stardate (1:42)
• 3. Troi Senses / First Freeze (2:15)
• 4. Stalled / Picard's Plan / First Chase (4:48)
• 5. Detaching / Saucer Separation (2:38)
• 6. Shaken / Court Time / Freeze Out / Fair Trial / Out of Order (2:57)
• 7. There Goes Da Judge / U.S.S. Hood / Magic Apples / Magic Apples (alternate) / Dialog-osity / Shopping Twitch (2:25)
• 8. Hovering / On Manual (3:19)
• 9. First Look / Admiral (1:04)
• 10. Orbiting / Personal Log (0:53)
• 11. Old Lovers (1:14)
• 12. Sensing / Tasty / The Woods (1:39)
• 13. Splashing / Planet Surface / Underground / Caverns (2:25)
• 14. Memories / Unknown (2:27)
• 15. Scanned / Big Guns / Typical (2:42)
• 16. Inside / Q Returns (2:35)
• 17. Revealed / Reaching Out (4:11)
• 18. Departure (1:09)

The Arsenal of Freedom

• 19. Minos / Promo (2:18)
• 20. Surface Jaunt / Image / Encased (4:05)
• 21. Circling / Beaming / Second Wave / Shields Up (2:00)
• 22. Cloaking / Tossed / Near Miss (4:17)
• 23. Hit or Miss / Global / Separation / Sales Pitch / Bad News (4:33)
• 24. Earned the Right / Ralph Williams (5:02)
• 25. 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' End Title - 1st Season, Long Version (1:02)

Encounter at Farpoint bonus tracks

• 26. Picard's Theme (0:22)
• 27. MFX53 - Synth Drone (0:24)
• 28. M15 - Unused Sting / M16 - Unused Source (0:16)
• 29. M25A / M25B / M25B-2 - Unused Source (0:48)
• 30. M52A / M52B - Unused Stings (0:21)
• 31. 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' Main Title - 1st Season (1:44)

The Expanded Collector's Edition of Encounter at Farpoint and The Arsenal of Freedom will be released by GNP Crescendo later this month.

Meanwhile, Star Trek music fans might also enjoy these videos I've come across recently. The first one takes a look behind the scenes of the scoring of Chad Seiter's music for Star Trek: The Video Game. It's actually a promo video for MOTU Digital Performer, the software Seiter used to create the music for the game, but it gives a general overview of Seiter's work for the game too:



I've mentioned it before, but, while there has been no soundtrack release from the game, Seiter has released several tracks online. So you can enjoy those:



Finally, here's a little music history with a Star Trek twist, which the nice people at CBC Music put together: