BG Season 2 CD Release Show Highlights
Last Sunday June 11th marked the first live concert performance of my score for the new Battlestar Galatica.
The event took place at The Mint in Los Angeles and featured 3 sets of live music, exclusive video footage and a CD signing with the entire musical ensemble. The evening was hosted by veteran Galactica star Richard Hatch (Capt. Apollo – original Galactica, Tom Zarek – new Galactica). I was honored especially that original Galactica composer Stu Phillips was in attendance as well as Galactica writer / producers Bradley Thompson and David Weddle and Galactica sound designer Daniel Colman.
Richard Hatch introduces the first video presentation.
The ensemble on stage consisted of the very same amazing musicians who bring my music to life every week, including Oingo Boingo alums Steve Bartek, John Avila and Johnny “Vatos” Hernandez. Also on hand were Paul Cartwright (electric fiddle), Chris Bleth (ethnic woodwinds), M.B. Gordy (percussion), Bt4 (vocals and guitar) and special guest Raya Yarbrough (vocals). I also got to leave the studio for a few hours and play keyboards and conduct!
Set list for the concert:
8:00 – Bt4
– BG Behind the Scores Documentary Part I –
9:30 – BG Band First Set
- Baltar’s Dream (from Valley of Darkness)
- Pegasus (from Pegasus)
- Roslin and Adama (from Resurrection Ship Parts One and Two)
- The Cylon Prisoner (from Pegasus)
- Lords of Kobol (from Pegasus)
– BG Behind the Scores Documentary Part II –
10:30 – BG Band Second Set
- Standing in the Mud (from Black Market)
- Something Dark is Coming (from Lay Down Your Burdens Part One)
- A Mess of Me (music by Raya Yarbrough, featuring “Roslin and Adama”)
- Gina Escapes (from Resurrection Ship Part Two)
- Black Market (from Black Market)
- Wander My Friends (from Hand of God)
– CD Signing –
The evening opened with a set from Bt4, a pop/rock band I play keyboards and sing with. The lead singer / songwriter, Bt4, is a frequent vocalist on Battlestar Galactica, though this set featured a considerably more pop-friendly vibe. He said that, in honor of the occasion, he changed the name of his song “My Apologies” to “My Apollo… Geez!” No one laughed. I thought it was really funny. I’m sure that when you guys got home and it had a minute to sink in, you all cracked up.
Bt4 performing “Up with the Sun.”
And then we went straight into Galactica-territory, performing over an hour of score. We crammed nine musicians onto The Mint’s cozy little stage. Chris Bleth (duduks / bansuris), Paul Cartwright (electric fiddle) and M.B. Gordy (taikos / percussion) made up the front row…
The band. Vatos is behind the big taiko drum… somewhere.
… while Bt4, Steve Bartek, John Avila and Vatos lined up in the back. My keyboard rig was off to the far side, perched in just the right spot where everybody in the band could see me conducting and watch for cues.
Steve Bartek performing “Roslin and Adama”
Between Steve Bartek and Bt4 there were 5 guitars crammed on the stage: 2 electrics, 2 acoustics and a dobro (for The Cylon Prisoner).
Chris Bleth plays duduk while Paul Cartwright fiddles away in the background
Chris Bleth brought his usual assortment of ethnic winds, including the duduk (pictured), bansuri and chinese flutes. He also played alto and concert flute.
Raya Yarbrough sings “Lords of Kobol” in Sinhalese
Raya Yarbrough lent her unique vocal talents to two songs, including “Lords of Kobol” from Pegasus. She was a frequent vocalist on Season One as well, performing ambient vocals on the US Main Title Theme. Despite being featured on many score cues, Lords was the first piece with lyrics she sang for Galactica.
Sound engineer Steve Kaplan checks the frequently changing levels from behind the board.
Steve is my co-producer / engineer / mixer / recordist for Galactica. Every piece of music you’ve ever heard on the show goes through him after it leaves my brain, and the live show was no exception. He was on hand making sure the delicate balance between the soft duduk and thrashing rock band elements was maintained (as best as it could be!).
Bear and Richard discuss last minute details before the show.
Richard was a great addition to the show’s line-up and gave a hilarious speech detailing the links between the original Captain Apollo and Tom Zarek.
Paul Cartwright (left) and M.B. Gordy (right) performing “Gina Escapes”
M.B. Gordy could only fit a single taiko on The Mint’s stage, but it was more than enough to fill the room with pounding-drummy-goodness. He also brought Middle Eastern frame drums, a dumbek and a barrage of cool little percussion toys. One of these days I want to show all you guys the full arsenal of drums this guy uses on the recording sessions.
From L – R: Bt4, James Hopkins, Bear McCreary and John Avila
I had many friends and family in attendance, including Jim Hopkins, my teacher and mentor from college. This guy taught me everything I know about orchestration and walked me through my first orchestral composition many years ago.
Vatos, still smilin’ at the end of a long night.
I owe a big thanks to everybody who helped bring this show together, but especially the crew of The Mint, Richard Hatch, Matthew Gilna (who produced the DVD documentary material we screened), John Murphy (who donated orchestral footage for said documentary) and Steve Kaplan.
At some point in the future I’ll be putting excerpts from our Documentary material online. I might even put some video and/or audio from the concert up here. Keep your eyes out…
Extra special thanks to Patrick Crowley, Gary Griffith and Raya Yarbrough for the photos!
So Say We All,
-Bear
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12 Responses to “BG Season 2 CD Release Show Highlights”
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I know this is an old post, but it seemed like the best place to ask.
I was so excited to see that your music is on iTunes and then nearly immediately distraught. Kara’s father’s music from Valley of Darkness isn’t on the season 2 soundtrack? I don’t understand that. It’s a scene built entirely around the music and the piece isn’t on the soundtrack?
I admit I haven’t read through your entire blog, but it seems that everything goes fairly sequentially through the series. Has no one ever asked this before? Why isn’t it? Will it ever be available? what’s up?
I am a huge fan of your work, on Battlestar and Sarah Connor, and am just a bit lost that I can’t find one of my very favorite pieces…
That piece actually isn’t one of Bear’s. Look up Phillip Glass’s Metamorphosis.
Glass isn’t one of my favorites, but whenever I hear this, I can only think of this episode.
ah. well that makes sense then. I feel like a bit of an idiot but glad to know. Thanks for the info!
Please release A Mess of Me song, it would mean a lot to us bsg fans!
Kenthos… “Please release A Mess of Me song, it would mean a lot to us bsg fans!”
Hey, a comment on an ancient entry! Did you have to dust cobwebs off the screen to post it? I mentioned this to Raya and we’re hoping to get a version of the song that can be released. Maybe as part of a potential future BSG misc. tracks collection?
-Bear
Great. I wanted that when I heard about it, but then forget about it over the years
I’m a very recent BSG fan. Saw my first episode not quite three months ago, became addicted, bought a thumb ring, started downloading episodes because the DVDs weren’t getting to me fast enough, started obsessively reading everything I could find without spoilering myself, about a month ago got to the end of the series, had my heart broken, moped, continued to obsessively search the net for BSG stuff to try and console myself about how I felt about the ending, and eventually made my way to Bear’s blog. And read the whole darn thing. I do feel a little bit better about the ending now, and I’m getting ready to watch the whole series again for the third time, this time to focus on the music.
Somewhere in the middle of my obsession, I found the sheet music to Metamorphosis, and decided to teach myself to play piano with it. Over the last couple weeks since I found Bear’s blog I’ve been trying to sound out the bits of score posted, and I’m even starting on Battlestar Sonatica (perhaps not the smartest thing for someone still at the hunt-and-peck stage of piano playing, but it’s providing the motivation to learn, so I’m going with it).
I have been curious about the music for the scene in Kara’s apartment ever since I realized that there was someone else doing all the music for the series except that scene. (I’ve never paid attention to a TV soundtrack in my life until this blog, had no idea how they were put together, or even really that someone scored music just for an episode, it wasn’t all edited samples!)
I know I only fell in love with Metamorphosis I because I fell in love with that apartment scene watching it over and over and over again. I think that was where enjoying the series a lot crystalized into feeling intimately connected with it. And now that I know it was a case of temp love (I’m pretty sure I heard that on a podcast), I’m really wondering what music Bear had in mind originally. Did you ever score this scene? Was it solo piano? Did that music end up re-used somewhere else? Or did you know from the beginning that the producers were going with Glass, and just worked around it?
Since I would have fallen in love with anything that scored that scene, should my nascent piano-playing be grateful that it was something super simple and accessible by Philip Glass, instead of the Dreilide Thrace Sonata?
I posted this comment here because AnnieLJackson asked about Metamorphosis too, and I didn’t see anywhere else useful to put it, since it’s a question about music from a season before you started blogging. I know you get notifications, so I hope sometime you’ll get a chance to respond Bear.
BTW, that piano sheet music you’ve said might be available someday… add one more fangirl waiting to fork over cash the moment it’s out. Some sort of piano version of Violence and Variations (I adore strings, but I only have a piano) would make this Lee and Kara Love Theme lover die happy.
Thank you for a wonderful blog, and add another lifelong patron to your list.
KarasBrokenHeart…
Well, you’re right, I do get notifications. I haven’t seen this ancient blog entry in a long time. :)
You’ve asked a really interesting question. The “temp love” the producers felt in this episode resulted in one of the only times a composition of mine was not used in the final episode. I had written a piano piece that then sat on the cutting room floor for years. 3.5 seasons later, that idea was the foundation of “Elegy,” the opening montage of “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
I’m planning on releasing sheet music later this year for “Dreilide Thrace Sonata No. 1″ and “Elegy” among others. So, keep practicing! :)
-Bear
Hi Bear,
Quick question: would the quatre mains of Kara and her dad also be one of the sheet music pieces you would consider releasing?
Elin
Hi Bear,
This is more of a fan letter than a blog comment, but I figured here was as good a place to post it as any, using logic along the lines of karasbrokenheart. Here goes:
I first became aware of you when I checked the credits of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” to see who did the music, if it was the same as the original film. I hadn’t actually watched the original film, mind you, until the show came along (and I still haven’t seen T2), but the sound of the opening credits seemed so iconic, I figured it must be quoting the original. Until I checked, and wondered “who’s this Bear McCreary guy, and what the hell kind of name is that, anyway?”). I liked the show pretty well–gotta like anything with an alum of “Firefly” in it, although now I’ll watch anything with Garret Dillahunt in it–but I loved the music.
Not having cable, I didn’t watch Battlestar Galactica in a timely fashion either–I was looking forward to it, but never got around to it until the Snowpocalypse here in DC last winter gave me a solid block of time–and the appropriate hushed, claustrophobic, yet dramatic atmosphere–in which to race through the miniseries & Season 1, which a friend had lent me. Every element of the show is just so…perfect. And it all works together so well; blending together disparate familiar, classic even, elements with just enough of the innovative, unusual or unexpected to create new meanings. That includes your music, both in and of itself, and along with what it’s accompanying onscreen. Suffice it to say, I’m a huge fan of the show now. (And, like a friend of mine mentioned to me, I just realized when I was watching another Universal release on DVD that when I see that logo come up, I expect the next thing Ihear to be the BSG opening music). I’m taking my time getting through the series, since I know I’ll be really sad when it’s over and there are no more to watch.
So in the meantime, when “The Cape” came on, I decided to give it a try (Summer Glau again), even though it looked like it might be a toss-up between great fun, and terribly cheesy. Turns out it was kinda both–it was such a hot mess (if you’ll excuse my saying so) I started obsessing over it, a little. The visual style of the show is fantastic, but the writing and acting…not so much (at least not consistently). By FAR the best thing about it was the music. So much so, that when it started, I immediately thought, “Wow, that sounds GREAT. That music sounds really…expensive. Does NBC know what it’s doing dumping that much money into this show?”. And then this time around when your name came up in the credits, I thought , “Oh, no wonder it sounds so good, that’s the guy who did BSG.” It was while obsessing over The Cape on some message board (probably the AV Club, or maybe Television Without Pity), that I became aware of your blog, and I must say, despite not knowing a whole lot about music, I’m finding it fascinating, and I’m a huge fan of yours, now, too. So, just a couple of things, to keep (hopefully) from completely wasting your and your readers’ time with my fanwankery:
1) Your use of big percussion in both BSG and T:SCC reminds me of Eliot Goldenthal’s score for “Titus” for some reason–does this make any sense (I believe all of the above use taiko drums, at least)?
2) A wee criticism: the use of electric guitars in I think it was “Pegasus” (season 2) seemed kind of out of character (from what I’ve seen & heard so far; that’s as far as I’ve gotten)–what was the thinking there?
3) Along those lines, what’s with the pennywhistle/celtic music? I think I kind of get it, in that it evokes a certain nostalgia, along with maybe a bit of a militaristic feeling of a trusty band fighting an overwhelming foe, and it’s really pretty, but still. The mind leaps a little too easily to Lord of the Rings (which is a lot…lusher, in many ways), I think, not to mention other, lesser movies.
4) Overall, though, frakkin’ genius (on all 3 shows I’ve seen, not just BSG). I was blown away while reading the boards for “The Cape” to discover that you wrote “The Dinner Party” (not to mention that your devoted fans had recognized it, although I’m sure I’ll be at that level soon)–I had assumed it was just some classical piece with which I was unfamiliar (of which there are many). I applaud your commitment to using real orchestras & musicians in your scoring work. And I haven’t even seen/heard the other shows & movies that you’ve done, except for an episode of “Human Target” here or there–although there the music didn’t immediately make me sit up & take notice. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I liked what you had to say (somewhere in the vicinity of this blog) about music working with the other elements of a show, and not just underscoring the whole thing, and the most interesting thing about music being how it begins (again, the opening to the minseries…genius). And you need space in a show for that. (No pun intended!)
5) Does it ever get frustrating just writing cues (if I’m using that correctly)–even though some of them are quite long, like “Passacglia” (which definitely is’t jsut a cue, and is beautiful)–do you ever get the urge to expand/rework them into, like, a symphony, with movements ‘n’ stuff? (Or have you done this? while trying to figure out where to post this, I came across the words “Battlestar Galactica Symphony”–haven’t read the whole blog…yet. Don’t want to spoil myself.) And if so, when will this be coming to a venue near me (any more BSG live concerts coming up)?
6) Thanks for all your hard work! On the music, and keeping up with your fans. We appreciate it. And good luck with your future endeavours, not that you’ll need it (although you might want to slow down a little; I can’t imagine how you do it all).
So say we all.
Hey poptop…
Thanks for the lengthy observations! Good to know that people are still out there discovering T:TSCC, BSG and my music. :)
Cheers!
-Bear