Battlestar Galactica Mini-Series

Battlestar Galactica Mini-Series – Richard Gibbs – La-La Land (2004) (http://www.sendspace.com/file/2argq1)
26 tracks, 68 min, 320kbs, 166MB
Lossless Version – Part 1 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/xs370j)
Lossless Version – Part 2 (http://www.sendspace.com/file/ibxau4)
Password: z3r0
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Others are, of course, allowed to post their own links here or elsewhere.
Until then,
JonC

The Complete Battlestar Galactica thread (Thread 74663)
Your one stop shop for all your Galactica music needs.

I keep stumbling about the info, that Bear McCreary did some of those tracks [as an aid to Richard Gibbs or whatever]. Can you confirm that? Or even better- list the tracks made by BMC?

I have no idea. I find listings for him composing ‘additional music.’ I have no idea which tracks (if any,) are his. He may have just helped on tracks already done by Richard Gibbs, he might have just helped with arranging, etc.
I can’t help you.
JonC

Thanks for the share! Finally saw the mini-series about a month ago, and went on to watch Season 1 of the show. Yes, Bear McCreary is listed as "Additional Music" for the Mini-series, though no idea which cues, or to what extend. What is interesting is that the reverse happened on the show. At least in the first season, Gibbs composed one or two episodes, and got Additional credits on a few others.

Overall good stuff, the later seasons under McCreary really flourished and became truly epic and gorgeous. The mini-series and at least Season 1, seem to suffer a bit musically, not quite sure what to do, trying to be a bit too "edgy", and often pushing the "Gladiator" sound too far, but still enjoyable.

fROM THE BOOKLET LINER NOTES:

A NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER:

One of the challenges in writing this particular score was to serve the emotional needs of the story while avoiding, as much as possible, the tried and true ways of scoring a space opera- sweeping, swooping orchestra, strong melodic themes, incredibly detailed flourishes. While I would have loved to have shown my swashbuckling writing chops, this was not the time for that. the concept of the show from the beginning- long before my involvement- was to shoot it "doco" style (Michael Rymer’s Aussie-speak for documentary style). Music was meant to be felt more than heard. It actually went against my grain to take such a minimalist approach, most likely because I simply was looking forward to an opportunity to show off some serious orchestral composition. Once Michael and his sidekick/editor Danny Cooper hammered that out of me, however, I got into the swing of what I called a zen approach to the score. Say only what needs to be said, no more. I did toy with using Stu Philip’s theme from the original show, but it was simply too effusive for the feel of this iteration, unless I altered it to the point of obliteration- and Stu deserves better than that. The next quandary was determining what the sound of the score would be, the orchestration of a parallel universe, familiar, yet not. Michael and Danny had temp scored the early edits with mostly nonorchestral ethnic and synthetic music- I remember Peter Gabriel’s "Last Temptation" score being prominent ( a particular favorite of both mine and Michael’s). They had also used Japanese taiko drum music for all of the battle scenes. What seemed to work was the sense of the primitive without a specific location, as we didn’t want to indicate time or place in relation to Earth. I obscured the musical sources as much as possible by blending a mixture of ethnic instruments from around the globe with a western orchestra, with a smattering of synth.

The next hurdle was a bit tougher-writing and producing a very large boatload of music in the time equivalent of a two-oared dinghy. I turned to my assistant Bear McCreary and told him to bring his sleeping bag to the studio as I was going to need some serious help meeting this schedule. As I knew he would, Bear came through with flying colors and flailing drum beats. We took turn writing in eight to twelve hour shifts, day in and day out (sorry, Bear, I know you mostly got the night shifts!). He did a great job interpolating my themes and in particular nailed the percussive writing, while I was concentrating on themes and logistics. I think a creative turning point came for me when I faced with the cue titled "to kiss or not to kiss". It had been temped with a piece Edward James Olmos had given to Michael to use, featuring a sanscript mantra. I loved the concept, so I lifted the words wholesale from the mantra and wrote what became my favorite piece for this project. It felt right to be simple and peaceful in the face of death and mayhem. This approach served me well in many other scenes that I wrote later. Thanks, Eddie!

All in all this was a fairly insane and intense experience that was made enjoyable by Michael’s unflappable sense of humor and humanity. Sculpting air to coexist with sculpted light is an incredibly fun and rewarding art that sometimes gets lost in all the worries of budget, logistics, schedule, politics and sleep deprivation, but Michael stays true to the art, allowing me to do the same. G’donya, mate!

Richard Gibs
Composer, Battlestar Galactica
Los Angelas, 2004

So, McCreary sounds to have been thoroughly involved in all aspects of the cues. And, the minimalist sound of the mini-series (and season 1), were intentional and exactly what the producers were aiming for.

Sorr, no scanner, but I was reading the booklet and figured I would type it up for y’all.

Lossless links reloaded.
JonC

Replacing my copy with your lossless files, thanks so much!

Very cool JonC. Thanks for the file in lossless and for maintaining the link.

Thank you so much JonC, any chance for a reup of the lossless links? If not, 320 will be sufficient. Thanks in advance.

Until further notice, links will no longer be maintained. Links will not be renewed upon request.
Others are, of course, allowed to post their own links here or elsewhere.
Until then,
JonC

Does someone happen to have a mirror for this one? 🙂

Can someone re-up the lossless links? Thanks 😉