Star Trek Through the Years

By Calvin Custer

Custer's arrangement sticks fairly closely to the TV and screen versions, but he does change some harmonies in the TOS theme and greatly alters the bass line. The ST:DS9 theme omits the first section and some horn harmonies, lowers and simplifies higher string pedal figures, and ignores a...

lot of percussion. The ST:NG Inner Light excerpt omits the tin whistle presentation of the melody that is its heart. The ST:Generations theme is a waste, more sound and fury than memorable. The noble Voyager theme gets off to a weak start due to unnecessary octave shifts in the 'cellos and violas, and there are repeated articulation and note errors in the theme. The ST:TMP theme contains some unnecessary and confusingly printed melody simplifications for the upper winds and strings. The ending is overwrought, not knowing when to stop. This is not a bad arrangement, but it is certainly not a definitive arrangement.

Excellent arrangements for most of the pieces, especially the Original Series and The Motion Picture / Next Generation themes. Sadly the trumpet & timpani duet which opens the beautiful Voyager theme is missing, though it's pretty easy to transcribe and add in. The ending is slightly artificial, as is common with...

these types of arrangements. One slight problem is that except for The Inner Light and the original series tune, all the music is of the same 'fanfare' genre. It would have been nice to have included the oboe solo from Star Trek: Insurrection as a nice piece of contrast.