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A Series on the Edge: Social Tension in Star Trek's Title Cue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2015

JESSICA L. GETMAN
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Abstract

The original series of Star Trek (1966–69) documents the social tensions of the late 1960s, responding positively, on the one hand, to the progressive political and social movements of the Civil Rights era by supporting racial and gender equality, but resisting its own efforts on the other, remaining faithful to conservative power structures. As the representative musical statement of the series, Star Trek's title cue embodies and expresses this paradox. Using audio-visual analysis, as well as sketch scores, interviews, and correspondence from the archives of the series’ composers and producers, this article analyzes the cue's compositional history, its musical codes, its narrative structure, and its use as framing, referential, and leitmotivic material within the series’ underscore in order to demonstrate the ways in which it communicates Star Trek's conflicting ideologies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , August 2015 , pp. 293 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2015 

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References

References

At the time of publication of the article by Getman in the August 2015 issue of Journal of the Society for American Music permission to use notation for the theme from “Star Trek” was not included in the legends to the Examples. The captions for Examples 1, 2, and 4 should carry the following credit:

Theme from “Star Trek(R),” words by Gene Roddenberry, music by Alexander Courage. © 1966, 1970 Bruin Music Company. Copyright renewed. This arrangement © 2015 Bruin Music Company. All Rights Administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 424 Church Street, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37219. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.

Reprinted also by Permission of CBS.

We apologize to the Hal Leonard Corporation, CBS, and to the author and readersfor this oversight.

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Fred Steiner Papers, 1975–1981.MSS 2193. L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library. Brigham Young University, Orem, UT.Google Scholar
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Burlingame, Jon. TV's Biggest Hits: The Story of Television Themes from Dragnet to Friends. New York: Schirmer, 1996.Google Scholar
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Complete Star Trek Theme Music: Themes from All TV Shows & Movies. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 1996.Google Scholar
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Gould, Jack. “How Does Your Favorite Rate? Maybe Higher Than You Think.” New York Times, 16 October 1966.Google Scholar
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Monelle, Raymond. The Sense of Music: Semiotic Essays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
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Orff, Carl. Carmina Burana: Cantiones Profanae. Mainz: B. Schott's Söhne, 1967.Google Scholar
Rodman, Ronald W. “‘Coperettas,’ ‘Detecterns,’ and Space Operas: Music and Genre Hybridization in American Television.” In Music in Television: Channels of Listening, ed. Deaville, James, 35–56. New York: Routledge, 2011.Google Scholar
Rodman, Ronald W. Tuning in: American Narrative Television Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Steiner, Fred. “Keeping Score of the Scores: Music for Star Trek.” Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 40/1 (1983): 4–15.Google Scholar
Steiner, Fred. “Music for Star Trek: Scoring a Television Show in the Sixties.” In Wonderful Inventions: Motion Pictures, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound at the Library of Congress, ed. Newsom, Iris, 287–310. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1985.Google Scholar
Summers, Tim. “Star Trek and the Musical Depiction of the Alien Other.” Music, Sound, and the Moving Image 7/1 (Summer 2013): 19–52.Google Scholar
Tagg, Philip, and Clarida, Robert. Ten Little Title Tunes: Towards a Musicology of the Mass Media. New York: Mass Media Music Scholars’ Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Tarr, Edward H. “Fanfare.” Grove Music Online. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.Google Scholar
“The Numbers Game, Part One.” Broadcasting, 19 September 1966.Google Scholar
“TV's Vast Grey Belt.” Television Magazine, August 1967.Google Scholar
Vera, Hernan, and Gordon, Andrew. “The Beautiful American: Sincere Fictions of the White Messiah in Hollywood Movies.” In White Out: The Continuing Significance of Racism, ed. Doane, Ashley W. and Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo, 113–28. New York: Routledge, 2003.Google Scholar
“What Young Adults Are Viewing This Year.” Television Magazine, January 1967.Google Scholar
Whitfield, Stephen E., and Roddenberry, Gene. The Making of Star Trek. New York: Ballantine Books, 1968.Google Scholar
Wierzbicki, James Eugene. Film Music: A History. New York: Routledge, 2009.Google Scholar
American Federation of Musicians. “‘Personal Service Contracts,’ Star Trek, 1966– 69.” Author's personal library, acquired digitally from Jeff Bond.Google Scholar
Desilu Music Department. “Star Trek, Music Cue Sheets for Filmed Programs: Season One,” 1966–67. Author's personal library, acquired digitally from Jeff Bond.Google Scholar
Courage, Alexander. Interview by Jon Burlingame. Video. 8 February 2000. Archive of American Television. http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/alexander-courage.Google Scholar
Roddenberry, Gene. Star Trek. Paramount. 22 DVDs. 2004.Google Scholar
Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection. La-La Land Records LLLCD-1701. 15 CDs. 2012.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Ella. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book. Verve MG V-4001–2. CD. 1997.Google Scholar
Olsen, George. Beyond the Blue Horizon. Victor 22530-A. LP. 1930.Google Scholar
Sinatra, Frank. The Best of the Columbia Years: 1943–1952. Legacy C4K-64681. 4 CDs. 1995.Google Scholar
Whiteman, Paul and His Orchestra. Jubilee Medley. Victor 23175-B. LP. 1935.Google Scholar
Alexander Courage Collection. SC 1995.10. Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, Sibley Music Library. Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY.Google Scholar
Sol Kaplan Papers, 1948–1994. MSS 09853. American Heritage Center. University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY.Google Scholar
Gene Roddenberry Star Trek Television Series Collection, 1966–1969. Collection 62. Performing Arts Special Collections. University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Fred Steiner Papers, 1975–1981.MSS 2193. L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library. Brigham Young University, Orem, UT.Google Scholar
Agawu, V. Kofi. Playing With Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Almén, Byron. “The Sacrificed Hero: Creative Mythopoesis in Mahler's Wunderhorn Symphonies.” In Approaches to Meaning in Music, ed. Almén, Byron and Pearsall, Edward, 135–69. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Bernardi, Daniel Leonard. Star Trek and History: Race-ing Toward a White Future. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Best, Steven, and Kellner, Douglas. Postmodern Theory: Critical Interrogations. New York: Guilford Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Bond, Jeff. The Music of Star Trek. Los Angeles: Lone Eagle, 1998.Google Scholar
Brimhall, John. The TV Book. Today's Easy Adult Piano. Miami, FL: Columbia Pictures Publications, 1987.Google Scholar
Burlingame, Jon. TV's Biggest Hits: The Story of Television Themes from Dragnet to Friends. New York: Schirmer, 1996.Google Scholar
Chion, Michel. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. Translated by Claudia Gorbman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Complete Star Trek Theme Music: Themes from All TV Shows & Movies. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 1996.Google Scholar
De Lauretis, Teresa. Alice Doesn’t: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desroches, Monique. “Martinique.” Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 2—South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, ed. Olsen, Dale and Sheehy, Daniel H.. New York: Routledge, 1998. http://glnd.alexanderstreet.com.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel, and Gordon, Colin. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980.Google Scholar
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Furia, Philip, and Lasser, Michael L.. America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley. New York: Routledge, 2006.Google Scholar
Getman, Jessica. “Music, Race, and Gender in the original series of Star Trek (1966–1969).” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2015.Google Scholar
Gould, Jack. “How Does Your Favorite Rate? Maybe Higher Than You Think.” New York Times, 16 October 1966.Google Scholar
Hayward, Philip. “Sci-Fidelity: Music, Sound and Genre History.” In Off the Planet: Music, Sound and Science Fiction Cinema, ed. Hayward, Philip, 1–29. London: John Libbey, 2004.Google Scholar
Heuger, Markus, and Reuter, Christopher. “Zukunftsmusik? Science Fiction-Soundtracks und die Vorstellungen vom Zukünftigen Musikleben: Das Beispiel Star Trek.” In Musik im virtuellen Raum: KlangArt-Kongreβ, ed. Enders, Bernd. Osnabrück, Germany: Universitätsverlag Rasch, 2000.Google Scholar
Johnson, Allan G. The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Kassabian, Anahid. Hearing Film: Tracking Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music. New York: Routledge, 2001.Google Scholar
Lerner, Neil. “Copland's Music of Wide Open Spaces: Surveying the Pastoral Trope in Hollywood.” Musical Quarterly 85/3 (Fall 2001): 477–515.Google Scholar
Lerner, Neil. “Hearing the Boldly Goings: Tracking the Title Themes of the Star Trek Television Franchise, 1966–2005.” In Music in Science Fiction Television: Tuned to the Future, ed. Hayward, Philip and Donnelly, K. J., 52–71. New York: Routledge, 2013.Google Scholar
Leydon, Rebecca. “‘Ces Nymphes, Je Les Veux Perpétuer’: The Post-War Pastoral in Space-Age Bachelor-Pad Music.” Popular Music 22/2 (May 2003): 159–72.Google Scholar
Mahler, Gustav. Symphony no. 1. London: Boosey and Hawkes, 1943.Google Scholar
Monelle, Raymond. The Sense of Music: Semiotic Essays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Nattiez, Jean Jacques. Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Orff, Carl. Carmina Burana: Cantiones Profanae. Mainz: B. Schott's Söhne, 1967.Google Scholar
Rodman, Ronald W. “‘Coperettas,’ ‘Detecterns,’ and Space Operas: Music and Genre Hybridization in American Television.” In Music in Television: Channels of Listening, ed. Deaville, James, 35–56. New York: Routledge, 2011.Google Scholar
Rodman, Ronald W. Tuning in: American Narrative Television Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Steiner, Fred. “Keeping Score of the Scores: Music for Star Trek.” Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 40/1 (1983): 4–15.Google Scholar
Steiner, Fred. “Music for Star Trek: Scoring a Television Show in the Sixties.” In Wonderful Inventions: Motion Pictures, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound at the Library of Congress, ed. Newsom, Iris, 287–310. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1985.Google Scholar
Summers, Tim. “Star Trek and the Musical Depiction of the Alien Other.” Music, Sound, and the Moving Image 7/1 (Summer 2013): 19–52.Google Scholar
Tagg, Philip, and Clarida, Robert. Ten Little Title Tunes: Towards a Musicology of the Mass Media. New York: Mass Media Music Scholars’ Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Tarr, Edward H. “Fanfare.” Grove Music Online. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.Google Scholar
“The Numbers Game, Part One.” Broadcasting, 19 September 1966.Google Scholar
“TV's Vast Grey Belt.” Television Magazine, August 1967.Google Scholar
Vera, Hernan, and Gordon, Andrew. “The Beautiful American: Sincere Fictions of the White Messiah in Hollywood Movies.” In White Out: The Continuing Significance of Racism, ed. Doane, Ashley W. and Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo, 113–28. New York: Routledge, 2003.Google Scholar
“What Young Adults Are Viewing This Year.” Television Magazine, January 1967.Google Scholar
Whitfield, Stephen E., and Roddenberry, Gene. The Making of Star Trek. New York: Ballantine Books, 1968.Google Scholar
Wierzbicki, James Eugene. Film Music: A History. New York: Routledge, 2009.Google Scholar
American Federation of Musicians. “‘Personal Service Contracts,’ Star Trek, 1966– 69.” Author's personal library, acquired digitally from Jeff Bond.Google Scholar
Desilu Music Department. “Star Trek, Music Cue Sheets for Filmed Programs: Season One,” 1966–67. Author's personal library, acquired digitally from Jeff Bond.Google Scholar
Courage, Alexander. Interview by Jon Burlingame. Video. 8 February 2000. Archive of American Television. http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/alexander-courage.Google Scholar
Roddenberry, Gene. Star Trek. Paramount. 22 DVDs. 2004.Google Scholar
Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection. La-La Land Records LLLCD-1701. 15 CDs. 2012.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Ella. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book. Verve MG V-4001–2. CD. 1997.Google Scholar
Olsen, George. Beyond the Blue Horizon. Victor 22530-A. LP. 1930.Google Scholar
Sinatra, Frank. The Best of the Columbia Years: 1943–1952. Legacy C4K-64681. 4 CDs. 1995.Google Scholar
Whiteman, Paul and His Orchestra. Jubilee Medley. Victor 23175-B. LP. 1935.Google Scholar