New Intrada: Battlestar Galactica Volume 4 (Stu Phillips)

[Jay 37,293]

INTRADA

Announces:

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - VOLUME 4

Composed and Conducted by STU PHILLIPS

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 222

For the concluding volume in Intrada's series of Battlestar Galactica soundtracks, the focus is on the epic two-parters The Living Legend and War of the Gods. In The Living Legend, Captain Apollo (Richard Hatch) and Lieutenant Starbuck ( Dirk Benedict) discover the lost battlestar Pegasus—long thought destroyed, but saved thanks to the military genius of Commander Cain (Lloyd Bridges). But Cain quickly finds himself at loggerheads with Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) over the Cylon threat: Adama only seeks to hijack enough fuel to move the fleet to safety, while Cain wants to use their combined forces to attack the nearby vassal world of Gamoray.

Composer Stu Philips uses two principal ideas to characterize Cain. The first is a jaunty military motif that emphasizes the commander’s never-say-die attitude. The second is a melody based around ascending lines for Cain’s romantic history with Cassiopeia (Laurette Spang), who is now entangled with Starbuck and working as a medic aboard the Galactica. For the two-parter’s exciting action sequences, Phillips incorporates several of his space battle themes from the pilot, as well as the iconic Battlestar Galactica main fanfare and theme.

Phillips wrote a complete score for Part 1 of the story, but as with all prior episodes of the series (except the premiere movie), the elements retained by Universal are in the monaural format. Part 2, however, marks the point at which the music appears to have been vaulted in a “split mono” configuration that grouped sections of the orchestra onto separate tracks to facilitate minor balancing adjustments during the mixing process.

War of the Gods opens with another startling discovery when Apollo, Starbuck and Sheba find a strange planet with a crashed vessel and a lone survivor calling himself Count Iblis (English actor Patrick Macnee). The stranger rapidly seduces Sheba and positions himself as the fleet’s savior. Soon it becomes the devil vs. angels in a battle of good over evil.

The interjection of angels and demons into the Galactica mythos enabled Phillips to draw on historic traditions. Iblis’ main ideas—a creeping line and a more extended, spidery theme—are cloaked in dissonant harmonies and eerie tone colors. Electronics, contrabassoon and contrabass clarinet dominate. By contrast, pleasant harmonies abound, treating the mysterious light ships with a degree of ambiguity, in the form of darting minor-key arpeggios. But these are superseded by a theme of symphonic exaltation, later joined by a women’s choir and finally appearing utilizing harps and strings to enhance the empyrean atmosphere.

As an added bonus, this volume includes Mission Galactica, which combined the two-part Living Legend with the next one-hour episode, Fire in Space. As part of the complex editorial process to put Mission Galactica together, a decision was made to re-record music for it. As most of it consists of cues from Part 1 of The Living Legend, presenting it on disc 1 after the complete original score offers the opportunity to hear a slightly different approach to the compositions—this time derived from split-mono-to-stereo elements.

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 222

Retail Price: $24.99

Available Now

For track listing and sound samples, please visit

http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.7851/.f

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA VOL. 4

Label: Intrada Special Collection Volume 222

Date: 1978-1979

Tracks: 80

Time = 117:18

Fourth and final volume of classic Stu Phillips music for 1978-1979 cult TV sci-fi epic from Universal, featuring Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict. This exciting 2-CD set presents scores for two of series most ambitious two-part episodes, "The Living Legend", "War Of The Gods". Former episode score offers military theme for Commander Cain (Lloyd Bridges), haunting line for Cassiopeia (Laurette Spang) plus plethora of space battle action material. Latter episode brings powerful contrast between good and evil with Count Iblis (Patrick MacNee) getting dramatic "devil" motif battling against "angelic" music for mysterious light ships, with gentle harmonies featuring women's chorus getting spotlight. As with all Universal episodes of the era, masters were stored in variety of mono, split mono and stereo (main themes, end titles) formats. Mike Matessino has carefully combined all formats into best listening experience possible. John Takis again presents detailed notes about episodes, Joe Sikoryak wraps package up with beautiful graphic design work. Stu Phillips conducts. Intrada Special Collection release available while quantities and interest remains!

DISC 1

The Living Legend - Part 1

01. Main Title 1:07

02. Episode Titles 0:48

03. Cease Fire 1:20

04. Not Dead Alert Commander Cain 0:29

05. Commander Cain/Holograph/How To Fight 1:41

06. Visual Echo/Fabric Of Miracles 1:29

07. Cassie & Cain 1:33

08. No Friendship/Get To It 0:58

09. Good Luck, Son 0:52

10. Launch/Squadron Rendezvous 0:54

11. Tanker Mission 3:12

12. What Happened?/Cain Relieved 3:08

13. Lucifer Reports 1:41

14. Baltar’s Ugly Smile/Shuttle To Pegasus 0:38

15. Under Attack 3:22

16. Another Battlestar 1:13

The Living Legend - Part 2

17. Adama Worried/No Choice/Side Bet 0:57

18. Air Drop 2:03

19. Charges Set 1:35

20. Change Of Orders/How To Win a Battle/About That Lady 2:24

21. Sheba Shot 1:17

22. Sheba Wounded/Blessings 1:19

23. A Special Man 1:14

24. Sick Room/Family 1:07

Total Score Time: 34:24

Extra: Recordings for Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack

25. Cease Fire 1:33

26. Not Dead 0:31

27. Commander Cain/Holograph/How To Fight 1:39

28. Visual Echo/Fabric of Miracles 1:24

29. Cassie & Cain 1:05

30. No Friendship 1:04

31. Good Luck, Son 1:01

32. Tanker Mission [Part 3] 1:02

33. What Happened?/Cain Relieved (Alternate) 3:09

34. Shuttle To Pegasus 0:36

35. Under Attack [Part 1] 1:20

36. How to Win a Battle 0:39

Total Score Time: 15:00

Additional Music

37. Into The Swamp 2:53

38. The Attack Rhyme 1:43

39. Preview 0:21

40. End Titles (stereo) 0:34

Total Disc 1 Time: 56:55

DISC 2

War of the Gods - Part 1

01. Main Title (stereo) 1:07

02. Episode Titles (stereo) 0:48

03. Mysterious Lights 1:39

04. Plans 0:41

05. Very Soon 1:24

06. Strange Planet 1:27

07. Iblis–The Stranger/A Little Suspicious 2:08

08. Looking For Iblis/Iblis–The Spell/Transmission OK 1:00

09. Find Adama/Pardon Me/They Are Everywhere/Where Are You From? 2:04

10. Another Narrative 0:47

11. Garden Of Sin/Inside You/Launch Again 2:46

12. Intercept Launch 1:03

13. Death Is The Beginning 2:05

14. Mind Over Mind/Under Protection 0:46

15. Marching Feet/Plodding Freight Ship/See For Yourself 0:56

16. Fruit A-Plenty/The Count's Proposal 1:55

17. Our Enemy Has Been Delivered 0:49

War of the Gods - Part 2

18. The Sentence/A Familiar Voice 1:42

19. Baltar Sits 1:32

20. Son 0:50

21. To Win/Apollo Loses Control 1:45

22. Heaven Gets Closer/Out Of Reach 0:43

23. Diabolical/Adama And The Bird 0:42

24. Learning 1:40

25. What’s Up, Count?/A Price To Pay 1:59

26. You Won’t Find Him/Greusome Sight 1:11

27. Devil, You Say 2:55

28. On The Way Home 0:21

29. Gotta Get To Heaven 6:46

30. It Was Beautiful 1:22

Total Episode Time: 46:48

31. End Titles (stereo) 0:33

The Extras: Source Music and Sound Effects

32. Rising Star Celebration 3:18

33. Light Ships 1:21

34. Light Ship Effects And Fly-Bys 1:11

35. Ship Of Lights Approaches 0:25

The Extras: Recordings for Galactica: 1980

36. A New Narrative 0:52

37. Blue Squadron Returns 1:51

38. Cylon Base Ship Rises Again 1:43

39. Our Enemy Has Been Re-Delivered 1:09

40. End Titles (Galactica: 1980) 1:06

Total Extras Time: 12:56

Total Disc 2 Time: 60:23

Stu Phillips

Price: $24.99

[Wojo 2,453]

Wow, I haven't even dug through volume 3 yet!

[OneBuckFilms 319]

Mine's on it's way ...

Love the artwork on this one. Interesting blue/white hues.

[Jay 37,293]

Congrats to John Takis on the notes!

[ST-321 4]

Excellent.