Music of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Did You Know?

• The original score album was released through MCA Records.
• The Intrada Records expanded edition included the song "I Hate You" by the fictional punk band Edge of Etiquette.
• Rosenman became the second composer to receive an Oscar nomination for a Star Trek feature, after Jerry Goldsmith.

Background

For the fourth Star Trek film, James Horner, who had composed the music for the two previous movies, chose not to participate. Director Leonard Nimoy instead brought in his friend Leonard Rosenman. Rosenman first wrote an arrangement of Alexander Courage's original TV theme for the opening titles, but Nimoy wanted something new. So Rosenman crafted a six-note theme with variations over a repeating four-note brass pattern, drawing from his own "Riders Of Rohan" from the 1978 animated The Lord of the Rings. A cycle of fifths forms the second subject. This melody appears early on Vulcan and during Taylor's search for Kirk. Because the story is set on Earth, Rosenman had freedom to work in many styles. Nimoy wanted a George Gershwin-style instrumental for the crew's first look at San Francisco, but Rosenman changed direction, and the scene uses a jazz fusion piece by the band Yellowjackets. The hospital escape music is baroque. After the probe departs, a Vivaldi-like "whale fugue" plays. The first sight of the Enterprise-A uses Alexander Courage's theme before the end credits. The punk song on the bus was written by Kirk Thatcher, who worked with sound designer Mark Mangini and two other sound editors from punk bands. Credited as the fictional band Edge of Etiquette, they wrote "I Hate You" with few explicit lyrics, recorded outside the studio in one take with cheap microphones for a distorted sound.

Reception

James Southall of Movie Wave called the album "fabulous" and affirmed the music's right to be considered alongside classic Star Trek material. Craig Lysy of Movie Music UK described it as "fun and enjoyable." Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks.com was critical, calling the score "too short, too silly, too dated, and too incohesive to be considered a success." Steve Vivona of TrekMovie.com called it "a buoyant, joyful soundtrack" that matched the film's tonal shift.