Composer Alexander Courage has passed away according to the news feed on Locus. The award-winning musician had a career creating music for films, stage and television stretching right back to leaving the army air corps after the war, taking in such diverse projects as Wagon Train, National Velvet and Hello Dolly! But its probably fair to say that Courage is best known to a vast audience for one particular piece of music, a few notes which have become immortal: the original theme to Star Trek. Originally composed for the pilot episodes (remarkably the original show had two pilots, all but unheard of) in 1965, that theme has been repeatedly reinterpreted and referenced by pretty much every Star Trek show and movie across the last four decades and countless homage scenes and sketches.
Even today I get a little thrill of excitement when it creeps in towards the end of the teaser trailer for the new Trek movie, its almost hardwired into fans. And not just fans – when the original test vehicle for the Space Shuttle programme was rolled out to meet the press in the 1970s the band launched into that Trek theme and the crowd cheered, it had become iconic, embedded in the culture (the test ship launched from the back of a 747 was also called Enterprise). Courage passed away at the age of 88 after a few years of declining health; the Film Music Society has an obituary.
Fri, May 30, 2008
Film, TV and radio