Sources:Official Communique with Bear McCreary

This page is an archive of an e-mail correspondence. The contents of these e-mail(s) are copyright by their authors, and are reproduced here with permission. Certain sections may have been omitted at the author's request, and will be noted.

I e-mailed composer Bear McCreary asking if we could post the full lyrics and translations to songs on the soundtrack and he gave permission to use them:

On 6/23/06 7:26 PM, The Merovingian wrote:

> Hello, Mr. McCreary.  I am known on the BSG messageboards and on
> BattlestarWiki.org (the online BSG encyclopedia) as "The Merovingian"
> (here's my user page:
> http://www.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/User:The_Merovingian)
> 
> I wanted to ask you a few questions for BattlestarWiki, and ask if you'd
> like to update any of our Sountrack pages yourself:
> http://www.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Soundtrack  (BTW, Bradley Thompson
> recently joined the site and we've been picking his brain with our fan
> questions, it's cool.)


Merv, 

These pages look pretty good to me!  Can't imagine what else you'd like to
add...


> 
> I just got the Season 2 soundtrack on June 23rd (not the autographed
> version, sadly...but a "collector's item" intial print with the miscrediting
> of "Allegro" to Home, Part I instead of Home, Part II, fortunately!)
> 
> Whare are the lyrics to "Lords of Kobol"? There are no lyrics listed in the
> cd booklet for Season 2.  What language is it in?


I will be releasing these lyrics first on the vocalist's website
www.rayayarbrough.com, probably by the end of this week.  After that
happens, you guys can list them.


> Can we post them at BattlestarWiki?
> 
> People keep asking for the lyrics to "Wander My Friends" and "Battlestar
> Operatica", etc. can we post them as well?


At this point, sure.  Go ahead.  Be sure to post them in both their foreign
and English language versions.

Also, it would be cool to point out that the latin lyrics come from The Book
of Pythia as quoted in Hand of God.


> 
> Can we repost the list of lyrics from the Gayatri Mantra from the UK BSG
> theme song that you listed in your blog?

Yes


> I realize this is would need a long blog entry to answer, but what are all
> of the leitmotifs on the series?  We've been trying to keep track at
> BattlestarWiki but so far have only got solid information from that
> interview you had in issue #5 of the official Battlestar Galactica Magazine:
> Boomer's theme is the discordant Indonesian gamelans (i.e. from "Two
> Boomers", letting us know instinctively that something's wrong), "Wander My
> Friends" (and variants) as the Adama family theme, and Tuvan throat singing
> for the Centurions.

This is a big frakkin' question to answer for sure.  I've been looking for a
magazine or website that would actually be interested in this kind of
in-depth analysis, though.  I wouldn't have the time to give away all the
details and secrets, but I could supply a basic breakdown of the different
musical themes and what they represent.  Perhaps I'll do it for my own blog
when I get the chance...


> By the way, what happened to the...well I called it "Cylon March", the harsh
> clanging, sort of like a blend of "Scar" with the Tuvan singing and sounding
> sort of like the Isengard leitmotifs from Lord of the Rings, which is
> featured when the large Cylon fleet pops up during "Flight of the Phoenix"?
> It wasn't in the season 2 CD and I thought it was great work.

That theme was written for the Centurions chasing Helo and Boomer in Season
1.  However, in Season Two it kind of adapted into the Cylon Raider theme,
since there weren't as many scenes with Centurions anymore.  Its on the
season 2 CD, called "Scar" and its drum passages are a direct quotation from
the drums in "Flight of the Phoenix".


> The Season 2 CD set ended with an ad for the Season 2.5 DVD set, which will
> include the Extended Version of Pegasus.  The last time there was a big
> "Extended Version" of something it was the Lord of the Rings extended
> edition DVD's, and for the Extended Versions Howard Shore actually added in
> *new* soundtrack material.  Will the upcoming Extended Version of Pegasus
> include soundtrack material that was originally cut from the episode which
> you liked, or new tracks you will compose?

Ironically, no new tracks will be in the episode.  I actually scored the 90
minute version originally, but for all intents and purposes, the new scenes
you're going to see are basically all dialog.  There's virtually no music in
the entirety of the new scenes, except for a montage which features some
simple percussion pulled from another part of the episode.


> Thanks.
> 
> --The Merovingian, BattlestarWiki.org
> 
> 


Later
-Bear