) I have a general trek question: Is there any music written on earth after the 20th century?
In Star Trek, we know that Spock plays a 24th century harp like instrument, but his the only music he is seen to play seems to be related to the 1960's. In the next generation, Riker plays trombone, but only 20th century jazz. In the one Next Generation episode where the Enterprise picks up the people frozen in the 20th century, we find out that there is not even a single guitar on the entire ship (the computer has to replicate one).
Did people just quit writing music sometime in the 21st century?
Humans did apparently (we did see some "Bajoran music' on DS9). I alwasy found that kind of dumb. Like the apparent death of sci-fi/fantasy as a genre. I mean, i suppose stories about spaceships can lose their power when you're actually ON a starship travelling the galaxy, but what about fantasy? Can we truly be expected to believe that all these Shakespere lovers in Starfleet have NEVER heard of J.R.R. Tolkien?
Perhaps TPTB limited music to as far as the 20th century to keep a more contemporary feel to the series.'Sides who knows what music will sound like in the 24th century?
Perhaps the future episodes will showcase today's current music. Personally, I reckon they'll all be listening to the Cheeky Girls in the 24th century. They started small on "Popstars: The Rivals", yes... but in the future they'll become a global superpower! Sure, they may be wiped out by the 2050s nuclear war, but their music WILL LIVE ON... FOR EVER!!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAAAAAA!!!!
Sorry. Got a little carried away there.
You're fired, S.V.R. (But thanks for the "sterling work".)
If you ask me (in case you haven't), the problem with making up far-in-the-future music is that it isn't really future music at all. It's present-day music trying to imagine how the future music will sound. I mean, imagine a film set in the mid-22nd Century that uses an original song supposedly written in that period by one of the characters. Who is to say that that song was or was not in fact stolen from an early-21st Century film depicting that era?
Then again, perhaps the future really is retro and musicians really have run out of ideas.
In other words, we don't hear music from the bulk of the 21st Century in Star Trek because we don't know how it goes. But as I say, maybe the retro sound and fashion really is the way to go. (One could say that there was a sort-of 1960s revival during the mid-23rd Century on Earth, then in the mid to late 24th Century, fashions and styles went all 2150s-era... I mean 1990s! )
This was in ASK THE CHIEF for 4/25/97
Brian S. Wozny, Parma, Ohio: Was the original Star Trek Theme actually ripped off from Mahler's First Symphony (Titan)? I was browsing the cheap classical CD's at Best Buy yesterday when I saw a two CD set of Mahler's First and Fifth Symphonies. For the amazing price of $1.49. A bargain for three hours worth of tear jerking Germanic angstmusik. Anyhow, I popped it in the car CD on the way to work this morn (I live in Cleveland, and the sun was out, so I needed something dark, brooding, and heavy to balance my mood), and thought I had bought the theme music from the TV show for about 30 seconds.
All they did for Star Trek was change about two notes. I did a net search and found at least one contributor also attributed the theme to Mahler (a different work). Quite possible Mahler wrote so much stuff he sort of forgot having written this theme once before.
Anyhow, I can't believe I'm the only Trekker that listens to classical music that includes Mahler. Well, if you have $1.49 and a Best Buy near you, go out and see for yourself!
Phil: Well, rats! I was going to go buy these CDs this week and take a listen and I just plain ran out of time! Sorry. Anybody out there want to comment?
Well, I listened to various sections of recordings they had on YouTube and I didn't hear anything that sounded all that much like the TOS theme! Bits of it sounded like some of the movie theme music, but not that much. Exactly what parts was Brian hearing?
And what's he been doing for the past ten years? Is he still around? 