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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Stargate SG-1 (Various)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on the 2001 GNP Crescendo and 2018 Dragon's Domain albums
if you desire a satisfyingly comprehensive selection of original music
from the first season of the show.
Avoid it... on either the 1997 Milan or 2017 Intrada albums, the former a repetitive rearrangement of material from David Arnold's original film score and the latter a sparsely rendered shell of what this concept's music once was.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Stargate SG-1: (Joel Goldsmith/Richard
Band/Various) 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 several successful television
spin-offs have resulted from that source material is, frankly, somewhat
curious. The concept's core, an ancient Egyptian-inspired stargate that
can be used as a portal to visit far away worlds, allowed for a wealth
of scripting ease for the ten years of "Stargate SG-1" and the
made-for-television movies and other series that spun off from it. One
of the 1994 film's most redeeming elements, though, was its romantically
epic 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, especially in the age prior
to foolproof instrumental sampling. Such scores also, in many cases,
fail to use the popular themes from the original film and often neglect
to establish strong themes of their own. The producers of "Stargate
SG-1" mandated that its composers not only make use of Arnold's themes
for the film but do so liberally. Over the first two seasons of the
show, this meant a significant amount of adaptation work by Joel
Goldsmith and Richard Band, who frequently alternated duties. Over the
years, Kevin Kiner and Dennis McCarthy joined as regular contributors.
Several albums have been released with music from those first few years
of the show, with a particular emphasis on the Goldsmith and Band
compositions. When the first album of music from "Stargate SG-1" debuted
in 1997, it surprised the film score's enthusiasts not familiar with the
television show. The integration of the original music by Goldsmith, son
of the legendary Jerry Goldsmith, and that of Arnold was overwhelming in
the pilot episode featured on that product. A second album of episodic
"Stargate SG-1" music was released four years after the first, providing
a comprehensive survey of music from the show's musically successful
first season. In 2017, Intrada Records offered music from four episodes
scored by Band in the first two seasons, and, in 2018, Dragon's Domain
Records provided Goldsmith's reconstruction of his partially rejected
score for the pilot.
The original 1997 album for "Stargate SG-1" from Milan Entertainment was a curiosity because of MGM's decision after Goldsmith's score for "Children of the Gods" was recorded to replace much of it with excerpts from Arnold's music for the film. Of the 50 minutes of music on the show's original album, as many as twenty minutes of Arnold's original cues for the feature film were directly inserted into the episode's mix. Some fans of the concept loved the usage while others loathed it, but the decision was soundly denounced by both Goldsmith and Arnold, both of whom preferred not to take any credit for the end result. What editors had done at that early time in the show's history was take the most memorable 20 minutes or so from the film, if not more, and place them in and around Goldsmith's own orchestral material, much of which referenced Arnold's themes anyway. So prolific was the incorporation of Arnold's music into the show from that point forward that Goldsmith became a sort of negotiator and arranger of that transferred music, writing just enough material in between references to Arnold's work to make the whole soundtrack sound consistent. Sometimes, the transfers from Goldsmith's music to Arnold's are plainly evident for those with the tested ears of Arnold collectors, and some awkwardly abrupt moments throughout the album exist where Goldsmith's interludes could not smooth out the segue. Other transitions are very adept, and in the heated action sequences, the mass of everyday fans is certainly not going to notice many of the edits. Working in Goldsmith's favor is the fact that Arnold's orchestral recording and his own were comparably mixed so that the sound quality did not vastly change during these transitions. Notable tracks from the original Arnold score for Stargate that were mixed wholesale into "Children of the Gods" include "Stargate Overture," "Giza, 1928," "The Stargate Opens," "Entering the Stargate," and "The Other Side." The only exceedingly poor transition on the 1997 album comes at 2:15 into the "Apophis" cue. Goldsmith's music in between these Arnold cues is painfully loyal in theme and style to the film's score. The opening titles are a great compilation of the original Stargate themes; though exceedingly hasty, the composer managed to fit all three of Stargate's primary melodic ideas into a single one-minute cue. Most of the choral cues on the 1997 "Stargate SG-1" album belong to Arnold's recording, but Goldsmith adds some very stirring action sequences dominated by grandiose brass performances. His softer melodies are also effective at their task. Goldsmith's material for "Stargate SG-1" works so well that it could serve as a Stargate sequel product on album, and fans of both Arnold and the show were impressed enough by Goldsmith's music to make the 1997 product a strong seller. For what is essentially an imitation job by Goldsmith, he adds many new attractive percussive styles to the equation. While the depth of the ensemble sounds noticeably less, he compensates by carefully selecting instruments throughout the soundscape to maintain interest. The problem with that 1997 Milan album for "Stargate SG-1" in retrospect, however, is that its fragmented nature is not only a nagging detriment but the presentation fails to exhibit the mass of good music for the show that existed outside of the edits with Arnold's recordings. Obviously, with several dozen minutes of music required for each and every episode, there was a lot more of the original material absent from that album. Some fans of the show went so far as to make a mockery of the product 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 they 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 hit the shelves. The 2001 follow-up from GNP Crescendo corrects all of the errors from the 1997 Milan album, and it presents the music from "Stargate SG-1" as it was meant to be heard as a standalone work. Along with the occasional references to Arnold's film 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 at the time, and Kiner had 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 wasn't responsible for much of the best episodic music early in the show's run. The material by Kiner, Band, and McCarthy is by far the most diverse, encompassing both the more exciting and sensitive emotions on a broader spectrum. That said, Goldsmith's material is still extremely functional, and it is still impressive outside the context of Arnold's mixes, even if it does not match the prowess of his recordings for the pilot episode that initially got the axe from the studio. The highlights of the 2001 GNP Crescendo album are the first two suites, "The Enemy Within" and "Cold Lazarus," with Kiner's two other suites not far behind. The former, McCarthy and Kiner suite features superior sound quality compared to all of the other suites, and Band's latter, delicate piece provides interesting variations on Arnold's themes despite clearly diminished sound quality in its sparsely synthetic rendering. The opening and closing credits performed by the Seattle Studio Symphony Orchestra are adequate once again, but one might wonder why Goldsmith's original theme for the show's end credits isn't used more often within the episodic scores themselves. The diminishing ensemble size compared to early recordings for the show began to wear on the quality as the seasons moved along. In 2017, Intrada Records unexpectedly released a 2-CD set of music from four Band-composed episodic scores from the first two seasons of "Stargate SG-1," and this product didn't take off like the others, eventually suffering a slow death as it slid towards going out of print in 2020. Band's music on this product betrays the budget of the production more than the rest, sounding frightfully synthetic throughout, especially in the action sequences. Sampled orchestral instruments being what they were at the time, the music here sounds like a demo recording in every cue when heard so many years separated from its creation. Band continues to reference Arnold's themes, but only occasionally, the composer seemingly more content to write recurring motifs for individual episodes as he went. This approach is especially evident in the character material in the expanded "Cold Lazarus" episodic presentation. Of the Arnold themes he does reference, the military theme is the most frequent, and here the fake snare and brass really do expose the cheap price tag on the recording. The main theme is an infrequent application, unfortunately, though he strives for some of the glamour of the source material at the end of the "Singularity" episode. At times, Band strays a bit too close to the temp track, including Alan Silvestri's Predator in "Pushing Back Through Gate to Hospital" (from "Cold Lazarus") and Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek V: The Final Frontier in "Finale - Daniel And Then Others Visit" (from "In the Line of Duty"). Understanding the budgetary constraints that Band was facing, the rather unrefined rendering of the music is excusable, but the concept does suffer as a result. The entire point of Arnold's original score and Goldsmith's aping of it in the series premiere was to capture the lush and romantic scale of the fantasy involved, and these later episodic scores do nothing to recapture that scope. Ultimately, the 2017 Intrada album of Band music for "Stargate SG-1" will only appeal to the most ardent enthusiasts of the show and should be skipped by those seeking Arnold extensions. The biggest treat for franchise fans arrived a year later, when Dragon's Domain Records released a full 74 minutes of music Goldsmith wrote for the "Children of the Gods" pilot. Series creator Brad Wright had never been satisfied with that episode, and in 2009 he released a re-edited version of "Children of the Gods" in what he called "The Final Cut." He received the blessing of the studio to remove Arnold's score, among other alterations, including the excising of controversial nudity in the show. This meant that Goldsmith's original recording was restored into the episode, though due to changes to scene pacing, the composer was asked to rearrange his material to fit the new version. The resulting match of his music with the episode is far superior than the prior edit, and it marked a moment of great satisfaction for Goldsmith, who passed away not long after. The 2018 Dragon's Domain album is immensely satisfying, its mix wet and outstanding general sound quality expressing the orchestrations of the show with crystal clear attention. The irony of Goldsmith's work for "Children of the Gods" is that he adapts Arnold's material all over his work, often in superior extensions and explorations. There are absolutely lovely adaptations of Arnold's main theme sprinkled throughout in softer incarnations, often on woodwinds. Since the pilot is essentially a straight extension of the character arc from the film, Goldsmith also applied the Arnold themes in all the appropriate places to continue that narrative musically. The villain theme for the Goa'uld is entertainingly propulsive. Fans of Jerry Goldsmith will hear a touch of his style in "Daniel and Jack." The only technical detriment of that 2018 product is a very awkward opening edit to "Return Message." Otherwise, it's a really engaging presentation, even at times when it attempts to match the instrumental and choral power of Arnold. Overall, "Stargate SG-1" enthusiasts most will appreciate the 2001 and 2018 albums, both products serving as better companion pieces to Arnold's film score than the largely redundant mash-up pilot score featured on the 1997 album. If you already own the film's score and wish to purchase a single album of "Stargate SG-1" music as an addendum, then select the 2018 Dragon's Domain album. Devoted enthusiasts will find merit in the 2001 product as well, and Goldsmith also released two albums of music for related spin-offs that may be worth exploring. Despite Goldsmith's great (and finally restored) work for the pilot episode, it remains hard not to return to Arnold's original feature work for that dose of epic scope that these televisions scores strive to equal.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1997 Milan Album:
Total Time: 50:13
2001 GNP Crescendo Album: Total Time: 68:52
2017 Intrada Album: Total Time: 106:45
2018 Dragon's Domain Album: Total Time: 73:43
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1997 album includes no extra information about the score or show. By
contrast, the 2001, 2017, and 2018 albums contain details about each suite or score and the
episodes for which they were written.
Copyright ©
1997-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Stargate SG-1 are Copyright © 1997, 2001, 2017, 2018, Milan Entertainment, GNP Crescendo Records, Intrada Records, Dragon's Domain Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 12/26/97 and last updated 8/23/22. |
