Finally… Finally… Finally!
I’ve been teasing you loyal blog readers about a big announcement for weeks, and here it is: NBC Universal and Apple have finally worked out their issues and, at long last, my scores for Battlestar Galactica are available on iTunes.
This has been an annoyingly arduous process for me. Seeing the episodes in the top downloads on iTunes every week for years while my scores were relegated to physicals discs was a drag. So, this is a big step. But we’re still only halfway there. There’s a bunch of material that’s supposed to be there still missing (like Season 1 for example!). The Eureka soundtrack will also be on iTunes soon.
Best of all, there is (and will be even more) exclusive iTunes content available. First up, the world premiere music video and single of “Apocalypse (Theme from ‘The Plan’)” performed live by the Battlestar Galactica Orchestra in concert are now on iTunes.
Raya Yarbrough sings the Gayatri Mantra in the “Apocalypse” video.
This video captures all the energy and intensity of our live performances this summer. If you missed the shows, this is the next best thing. And if you were there, you can relive it again, any time you want. Directed and edited by Matthew Gilna and mixed by Steve Kaplan, this video is the culmination of many months of work by my incredible orchestra and production team. I’m thrilled to be working with these incredible artists and to finally have the chance to share this with all of you! What do you guys think of it? Does it rock or what?
Tina Guo shreds an electric cello solo that has to be seen to be believed!
In all fairness, I have to warn you that the audio on the clip is currently mono for some maddening reason and iTunes is making me crazy trying to get them to fix it. We delivered amazing stereo and 5.1 mixes of the track, so this is frakkin’ annoying for an audiophile like myself. As soon as they fix this, I’ll let you guys know. I’m really torn because I want you all to experience this video, but it’s probably worth waiting a few more days to see if the problem gets fixed by next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Still, even in mono, this video kicks ass. And there’s also an audio single of this song available as well, making it the first soundtrack music from “The Plan” available anywhere. However, iTunes frakked up the artist name and accidentally listed video director Matthew Gilna as the artist for the single! This will be fixed in the next couple days, and correctly listed as “Bear McCreary and the BSG Orchestra” but for now, you can download an mp3 of “Apocalypse” apparently performed by Matthew Gilna and the BSG Orchestra. :)
The percussion section rocks!
Chris Bleth switches his duduks in the foreground, while Brendan and Raya sing in the background.
At the end of the song, Brendan raises his guitar up to the Rock Gods of Kobol. I thought he was just being theatrical. It turns out his guitar strap broke literally seconds before the end of the song (you can see it happen in the video) and he decided to make lemonade out of the situation. What a performer!
And this is just the beginning. My team and I are sitting on footage and recordings of 25+ songs from our various Battlestar concerts. But I need to convince the powers-that-be that there are enough fans out there who want this material to justify finishing it. We could do a series of iTunes videos, a full concert DVD, a live album… anything is possible! I want this stuff to get out there and you want to experience it. So, help me send a message to NBC and iTunes that BSG fans want to see and hear more of the BSG Orchestra! If enough people download this first video and single, I know we’ll be able to deliver more.
So Say We All!
-Bear
I just changed the iTunes answer in my FAQ. Wow, that felt good. I want to crack open some champagne or something, because that question has been on my FAQ since the dawn of the blog!
Left by Bear McCreary on November 7th, 2009