I was inspired by how good "Hush" was. The first time I saw it, I was caught up in the story. This time I really listened to the score.

It is quite a challenge to tell the story without any dialogue, just action and music. But what music Beck gives us! More than any other episode (except for maybe "The Becoming") the music was almost a character in the story! Even my sister, who considers me a freak, commented on how good the score was.

Christopher Beck certainly deserves another Emmy nomination (He actually won for "The Becoming") and he (and "Hush") certainly deserves a score release.

MWRuger: pretty sure the mp3s on the CBCC site (which is FINALLY back up) ARE from the second season promo CD. 3rd season promo mp3s are not posted because (according to Beck) Fox & TVT records are in negotiation as we speak on the score album.

Couldn't agree more on Hush. Also, what did you think of the music in the 2 parter of Faith's return? Some damn fine stuff!

Jack!! Same question to you.

Where's Joan?

Missed you guys--let's catch up! And hey, anybody else who wants to join in the fun, the more the merrier!

The second part of Faith's return was excellant. The music in box car was poignant without being maudlin. Very well done.

We have to a SCORE CD out! Those MP3's are okay but there ain't two CD's worth there.

The only Buffy that can be found is a track on the Buffy Soundtrack album. There is a promo of Beck's buffy stuf, but it is not generally available. Curse the luck!

Interested?

You bet I am!

Anyone rewatch the crossover? Beck did the several cues (besides the obvious one at the end). Back to your point about melody, Joan, I always know if a cue is his--just listen for the melody line.

TimT: Since Hush is THIS season, it couldn't be on a promo disk yet--those are generally produced after the season is over. However, I'd be SHOCKED if it wasn't on the soundtrack.

MWRuger: Faith 2 parter--LOVED the eerie stuff when she was wandering the hospital. And the dream cues. Oh AND under the spell that Tara & Willow did. Wow.

Hi H Rocco! Good to see ya again!

Streaming does not work, but downloading does. If you have trouble downloading, I know an alternate site as well.

By the way, if anyone should have a burning musical question they'd love to ask Chris Beck, there's a discussion board at that URL above, and Beck does stop by to answer questions, usually every 3 weeks or so.

Here's an interesting note re: that Willow/Tara spell music in the Faith 2 parter: Beck posted on the BtVS board that "The W/T music was mostly just strings. I slaved over the sampled strings in that scene for half a day before giving up and hiring a violinist to come over and overdub on top of himself 6 times or so, to make a little mini-violin-section. Made a big difference." Gotta love a perfectionist.

Uranium powered? Don’t think so. Unless he’s carrying around a nuclear powerplant in his chest. More likely its Magic drawing on the uranium to power the spells that keep him going. Still wicked.

timmer: aren't you a Barry fan? You had to have loved this ep!

"…Superstar, indeed it was a blast. My first draft went even further in the 70's direction but that aspect was toned down for the final airing - it was a bit much in places."

Bel366: "David Arnold's take"--thought it was just Walter Murphy and Shawn & Sean who'd worked on BtVS. I know Danny's done Stargate SG1...

"It would be premature to think too hard about this, but one of the decisions facing me soon (very soon I promise) will be whether to a) include only season 2 and 3 material, and hope there will be a volume 2, or b) put season 4 material on there as well at the expense of some oft-requested clips from seasons 2 and 3."

Me again. Only S2 & 3 would mean, among other things, no Hush (!!) no Willow/Oz theme, etc. etc. But eliminating cues from S2 & 3 is a tough choice, too.

Personally, when the music is substantially different from episode to episode, I say go with the complete scores. In the case of the BABYLON 5 ones, they do tend to sound somewhat alike.

Maybe a 2-3 Season CD followed by a Season 4 standalone would work. Hush is long enough that I wouldn't want it cut short to just fit.

Obi Jok Kenobi: (I love that name!) Hush --I agree, one the best eps ever. Critics here in the states went NUTS praising it. Funny story--Beck came on the posting board after having read the script, saying how great it was, but that it was an OPERA, a month wouldn't be enough & he was gonna beg Joss Whedon for more time. Then Whedon posted, and Beck DID beg him right there on the board. He got ONE more day. He said later he needed three weeks and a 70 piece orchestra. I wish! He also said:

"Hush". It took a while to get used to the lack of dialog - I (and many of my colleagues) am very preconditioned to tone it down when characters are speaking - otherwise the music fights with the dialog. When I first started writing I found myself creating all this room in the score for the characters' mouthing, then realizing the space didn't need to be there and rewriting. Plus, there was just so much featured music. Your average Buffy cue (by necessity) is normally not very interesting or dense, otherwise it would draw attention to itself in the scene. "Hush" was twenty minutes of the opposite kind - the cues were just full of notes and counterpoint and went ON and ON. But I wouldn't have traded it with an episode of, say, Law & Order, which contains, on average, three minutes of extremely simple (and effective, I might add) scoring. Opportunities like "Hush" are rare for composers in TV, and I'm forever grateful to Joss for giving it to me."

BTW, Hush is as far as y'all have gotten? Oh, you have SUCH good things in store for you! Just wait!

Bel366: That is a really interesting idea! You mean episode suites? I actually think that would work quite well since the eps and the music they contain are so unique. Probably couldn't do every ep though. Which ones would you want?

Buffy/Angel and The X-Files aren't so far behind, but Star Trek is like 2 years behind. But then again, Star Trek is only around 7 months behind with episodes on video.

debi: I guess with the exception of this season's "Hush," "Fear Itself" and the one with Jonathan, my impressions of the music comes more from a series of moments rather than entire episodes. My personal favorite
moment this season was easily when the "fight" music kicked in full blast during Xander and Harmony's slap fest. On a side note, I work in the cd section of a bookstore and we had someone come in looking for The Sundays cover of "Wild Horses" after they heard it on the prom episode.

BMUSTANG: Season4--Caveman music (Beer Bad), Willow/Oz theme (Wild at Heart), action music (The Initiative), Indian motif (Pangs), ALL of Hush, Floating the Rose (A New Man), a lot of music from the two parter (NOT going to spoil Obi), & the OO7 stuff (Superstar). I agree with your choices for S2. Beck only did half the eps (IMO, the better eps!) that season. The complete list:

"When She Was Bad"-- Resurrection, Sledgehammer
"Inca Mummy Girl"-- Ampata's Kiss
"The Dark Age"-- Mark of Eyghon
"Ted"-- Accused, Robot Rampage
"Surprise" --Escape
"Innocence"-- Moment of Happiness, What's That Do?
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"--The Buffy Rat, Mob Rush, Twice the Fool
"Passion"-- Angel Waits, Remembering Jenny
"I Only Have Eyes For You"-- Love is Forever
"Becoming 1 & 2"-- Show Me Your World, Cursed, Devil Child, As Angel Becomes, Massacre, Waking Willow, Vision of Jenny, Close Your Eyes.

Obi Jok Kenobi: I hear the UK is a LOT behind. And eps shown all out of order.

It seems like if it's not Star Trek or B5 song compilations seem to be the order of the day.
Not that most series have all that great a set of scores anyway, but look how long we had to wait for a decent release of Lost in Space.

Also, reposting this from earlier.

Buffy:
It was really interesting to see mostly the gang deal with this issue as Buffy and Riley were…,um, ..Occupied. Beck did some awesome work on the very creepy music just when we start to realize that the place is haunted. Very much Ghost music!