My Hero’s Journey
February 27, 2012 2 Comments
On permaloop in my head: the theme from the Star Trek reboot movie. One of the hazards of its being in heavy rotation on cable.
If you’ve heard that theme (it’s basically the first ~1 minute piece you hear here), then you know it goes something like:
1. mysterious/hopeful string overture/buildup
2. DUH DUH – DUH DUH DUH DUH with horns/strings/timpany etc
3. sweeping, spacey multi-chord-change Hero Theme
In the movie, it’s used in basically 2 places – the beginning, right after Baby Kirk is born and the opening title is revealed, and then about 20 minutes later when the Kirk and Bones first get a glimpse of the full, completed Enterprise in spacedock. String overture/DUH DUH – DUH DUH DUH DUH/Spacey Hero Theme.
In reality, with it on permaloop in my head, the way I use it is that I’ll be, say, approaching a crosswalk where I can see I’ll need to Push Button To Cross. In my head as I do: String overture, DUH DUH, Hero Theme!
Paying for my coffee and muttering ‘thanks’ to the purple haired coffee girl: String overture, DUH DUH, Hero Theme!
Stepping up to a urinal, start to unzip: Strings, DUH DUH, Hero Theme!
Pulling up my socks, as they had started to sag, leading to slight discomfort: Strings, DUH DUH, Hero Theme…
Just about any task in life becomes more heroic with the 2009 Michael Giacchino Star Trek (reboot) main theme. Now I just need to hit the Publish button. DUH DUH – DUH DUH DUH DUH!
That was a nearly perfect reboot, the music being the one place where they blew it. There’s a “main melody for this movie” theme played on a solo trombone at the very beginning when you see the Star Trek logo, then they play it after the destruction of the USS Kelvin, and then toward the end with all their “and this is where the events went over here and they lived happily ever after” scenery, they loop it, like, eight times or something. I’m surprised that’s not the one stuck in your head. Kinda ruined the movie.
If there’s a main theme for the movie (that isn’t just what I refer to above as the Hero Theme) then it definitely escaped my notice. I suspect what you’re talking about *is* the Hero Theme, in which case, clearly I LOVED it.