Buy it... on the 2001 GNP Crescendo album if you desire a comprehensive selection of original music from the first season of the show.

Avoid it... on the 1997 Milan album if you're expecting to hear much more than a repetitive rearrangement of material from David Arnold's original film score.

Arnold

Stargate SG-1: (Joel Goldsmith, David Arnold, Kevin Kiner, Richard Band, and Dennis McCarthy) While visually entertaining, the 1994 science fiction film Stargate by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin had its fair share of negative attributes. The fact that two successful television spin-offs have resulted from it is, frankly, somewhat curious (but understandable from the standpoint of scripting ease). One of the film's redeeming elements, though, has been its score by newcomer David Arnold, who seized upon the opportunity to develop a mainstream career. It's easy to be skeptical whenever a television series follows a popular film, and especially when that film has a score that has risen to the status of "cult classic" in the years since its composer has become famous. Typical television scores, due to budgetary restrictions, usually offer a much poorer quality of performance when compared to the original. Such scores also, in many cases, fail to use the popular themes from the original film; nor do they often establish strong themes of their own. When the first album of music from "Stargate SG-1" debuted, it was a surprise to many people who had enjoyed the film score but were not familiar with the television show. The episodic scores for "Stargate SG-1" not only made use of Arnold's themes for the film, but heavily so, and the integration of the original music by Joel Goldsmith (son of the legendary Jerry Goldsmith) and that of Arnold was overwhelming. With the popularity of the show persisting through the years, a second album of "Stargate SG-1" music was released three years after the first, providing a comprehensive blanket of music from the show's musically successful first season. The original album from Milan Entertainment was a curiosity. Some fans of the concept loved it, while others loathed it. Of the 50 minutes of music on that album, as many as twenty minutes of Arnold's original cues for the feature film were directly inserted into the episode's mix. What Goldsmith had done at that early time in the show's history was take the most memorable 20 minutes or so from the film (at least… This is just on the album, and more may have been used in the show) and place them in and around his own material.

So prolific was the incorporation of Arnold's music into the show that Goldsmith became a sort of negotiator and arranger of that transferred music, writing just enough material in between edits of Arnold's work to make the whole item sound consistent. Sometimes, the transfers from Goldsmith's music to Arnold's is plainly evident for those of with tested ears (especially when it comes to Arnold collectors), with some awkwardly abrupt moments throughout the album where Goldsmith's interludes could not smooth out the switch. Other transitions are very good, and in the heated action sequences, the mass of everyday fans are certainly not going to notice many of the edits. Working in Goldsmith's favor is the fact that Arnold's orchestra and his own were comparably mixed so that the sound quality did not vastly change during these transitions. Notable tracks from the original 1994 album for Arnold's Stargate that are mixed into the 1997 "Stargate SG-1" soundtrack include tracks "Stargate Overture," "Giza, 1928," "The Stargate Opens," "Entering the Stargate," and "The Other Side." The only exceedingly poor transition comes at 2:15 into the "Apophis" on the 1997 album. Goldsmith's music in between these Arnold cues is very loyal in theme and style, and he thankfully makes them difficult to tell them apart. The opening titles are a great compilation of the original Stargate themes; though hasty, he managed to fit all three of Stargate's primary ideas into a single one-minute cue. Most of the choral cues on the 1997 album belong to Arnold's original recording, but Goldsmith adds some very stirring action sequences dominated by grandiose brass performances. His softer themes are also effective. For what is essentially an imitation job by Goldsmith, he adds many new percussion styles to the equation. Goldsmith's material works so well that it could serve as a Stargate sequel CD, and fans of both Arnold and the show were impressed enough by Goldsmith's music to make the 1997 product a strong seller. The problem with that album now, however, is still that it is not only a fragmented piece, but it fails to exhibit the mass of good music for the show that exists outside of the edits with Arnold's material. Obviously, with several dozen minutes of music required for each and every episode, there was a lot of great material absent from that original album.

	Learn about supporting Filmtracks

Some fans of the show went so far as to make a mockery of the 1997 album, and its over-reliance on Arnold's inserted material. Generally, the average fan of the show didn't care about the choppy edits on the album. But fans of the original film and collectors of film music noticed the heavy edits immediately, and reacted with both disgust and ambivalence to that product. In the end, though, it's hard to argue with its strong sales figures, and it was only a matter of time before another "Stargate SG-1" album would hit the shelves. The 2001 follow-up from GNP Crescendo corrects all of the errors from the 1997 Milan album, and presents the music from "Stargate SG-1" as it was meant to be heard. Along with the occasional references to Arnold's themes (with no direct lifting of material from the film this time), the 2001 album contains lengthy suites of music from episodes scored by Goldsmith, Kevin Kiner, Richard Band, and Dennis McCarthy. All of these men were accomplished in the television scoring genre, and Kiner worked with the interpolation of Arnold's themes for the trashy sci-fi film Wing Commander a few years earlier. The most interesting aspect of the 2001 album is the revelation that Goldsmith actually isn't responsible for the best episodic music for the show. The material by Kiner, Band, and McCarthy is by far the most diverse, encompassing both the more exciting and sensitive emotions on the whole spectrum. Goldsmith's material is extremely functional, and it is still impressive outside the context of Arnold's mixes. But the highlights of the album are the first two suites, "The Enemy Within" and "Cold Lazarus," with Kiner's two other suites not far behind. The former, McCarthy/Kiner suite features superior sound quality to all of the other suites, and Band's latter, delicate piece provides a interesting variations on Arnold's themes. The opening and closing credits performed by the Seattle Studio Symphony Orchestra are adequate once again, but one could wonder why Goldsmith's original theme for the show's end credits isn't used more often in the episodic scores. Overall, the suites on the 2001 album are very impressive (as are the extensive notes on the attractive packaging for the product), and offer an even better companion piece to Arnold's original film score. If you already own the film score and wish to purchase an album of the television show's music, then the 1997 product has been made completely obsolete by the lengthier, more creative 2001 alternative.   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

1997 Milan Album: ***
2001 GNP Crescendo Album: ****
Overall: ****

Bias Check:

For David Arnold reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33 (in 15 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.33 (in 42,389 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.