Sol Kaplan

[Pellaeon 593]

I have really been digging his scores for “The Enemy Within” and “The Doomsday Machine” from Star Trek. I love his use of piccolo. Do any of you have any other scores by him?

[A24 4,325]

Sol Kaplan? Never heard of him but it's a great name for a sci-fi hero.

[Faleel 5,326]

He scored Titanic.









The 1953 version

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I only know him as a composer for Star Trek TOS, music I've never listened to outside of the episodes.

[Yavar Moradi 2,576]

The Carbomite Maneuver was Fred Steiner I’m pretty sure...did you mean The Doomsday Machine?

 

 

 

Sol Kaplan was a SUPERB composer right from the beginning. He’s another guy given a career break by Alfred Newman at Fox and he did a lot of great scores there. Then in the mid-50s he got blacklisted because of HUAC, which almost ended his career. Luckily in the early 60s he started getting work again and turned out some amazing scores like Judith (complete version released by Intrada who’ve put out more of his work than any other label, re-recorded suite on Tadlow’s Exodus) and of course his two efforts for Trek, some of the best music ever written for the show or TV in general (The Doomsday Machine in particular is easily my favorite TV Trek score).

 

Go explore sound clips!

http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/sc.13/category.34806/.f

 

The only score of his I really found disappointing was Destination Gobi. For Kaplan completists only IMO.

 

The latest score of his to be released was Way of a Gaucho earlier this year on Counterpoint and it is one of his very best IMO:

http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/35374/WAY-OF-A-GAUCHO/

 

Yavar

[Pellaeon 593]

Yes, I meant “Doomsday.” Sloppy! Thanks for the info.

[karelm 2,901]

The underscore music of TOS is fantastic.  I personally think TV music was at it's peak during the 1960's especially in the sci-fi genre with Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Lost in Space, Star Trek, etc.  They thought big!  For example, most Twilight Zone episodes were scored for 6 to 10 piece ensemble yet sound orchestral.  With Star Trek, they might have reached 30 piece but sounded like 60 so well executed were these scores.  They were dramatic, imaginative, and extremely concise.  Vintage TOS composer Fred Steiner scored one of TNG episodes and it sounded horrible.  This was a first season episode where pretty much everything sucked but it is interesting how I love everything from Fred Steiner except his contribution to TNG.  One of my happiest moments came to me when I heard Gerald Fried heard an early symphonic poem of mine and said he enjoyed it.  He is the composer of the famous Vulcan fight music:

 

[Yavar Moradi 2,576]

I really like Steiner’s TNG episode a lot — at least on its own as music on the LLL set. Watching that episode is horrible on multiple levels.

 

Yavar

[Faleel 5,326]

Fried's music is probably my favorite of the bunch, big and colorful.

[Pellaeon 593]

For me it’s

 

1. Fred Steiner

2. Sol Kaplan

3. Alexander Courage

4. Gerald Fried

5. Joseph Mullendore

 

Kaplan’s two scores are incredible, but Steiner is great too, and he did the most episodes and is the voice of TOS.

 

By and large I do enjoy the Fried scores more than the Courage scores, but even considering “Amok Time,” Fried doesn’t top the greatness and importance of “The Cage.”

 

 

I don’t have strong opinions on anyone else other than Mullendore, whose work (library music and one episode) stands out for me.

[Quintus 5,399]

Kaplan? George Kaplan?