The Music of Darkness

There are some aspects of Star Trek Into Darkness that I was disappointed by, but as I said in my original review of it, the score by Michael Giacchino is nothing but excellent. I recently picked up the soundtrack album, and I'm pleased (and unsurprised) to report that the music holds up just as well on its own, outside of the film.

Giacchino had already laid an excellent foundation with the prior film, composing a new theme for Star Trek which was alternately mournful and triumphant. He also incorporated the Alexander Courage theme from the original series -- not just the opening fanfare, as nearly all past Trek composers have done, but the main melody too. Into Darkness continues to make liberal use of the theme, playing with it in myriad ways. Among the most effective is in the track "Warp Core Values," the backing for Kirk's heroic actions that set up the climax of the film.

But Into Darkness wouldn't be as good a score as it is if Giacchino merely relied on remixing his melodies from the first time around, and fortunately he does no such thing. He creates wonderfully effective music for Benedict Cumberbatch's character, highlighted during the brig sequence, which he playfully titled "Brigadoom." He also sets up the character's first appearance on screen with a wonderful piano melody for the two-minute post-title montage without dialogue, "London Calling," opening as a sonata before expanding to the entire orchestra.

Of course, Giacchino has always excelled at action queues, and Into Darkness is no exception. He serves up high power music for the opening ("Pranking the Natives") and the finale ("The San Fran Hustle") and several sequences in between. I'm most impressed by his track "The Kronos Wartet," which covers the attempt to escape the Klingon sentry ship, and the subsequent battle with the Klingons on the planet surface. Giacchino becomes the latest in a long line of composers to take a swing at Klingon music, and he manages to honor much of what's come before while being very inventive. Using much of the same percussion sound palette, he abandons the traditional fifth tonal intervals, and the march time signature. In its place is an absolutely frenetic rhythm in a wildly unsettling time signature, supported by a full choir screaming Klingon phrases. It's an utter cacophony that still manages to hold together.

There are just one or two tracks, written for the film's extremely rare contemplative moments, which don't quite stand up to listening on their own, but otherwise the soundtrack is marvelous. My only real disappointment is that it's not the complete score -- but that's par for the course for initial Star Trek soundtrack releases. It's always up to a company like La-La Land Records to come along a few years later to do the job right. This incarnation of the album, I give an A-.