When director
Jeffrey Reiner
read the script for
Caprica
, the straight-to-video feature that also serves as the pilot episode for the 2010
Sci Fi Channel
series and is a prequel to the channel's 2004-2009 remake of the
Battlestar Galactica
series, he thought of minimalist composer
Philip Glass
' score for
Koyaanisqatsi
and also felt that the ethnic family saga needed a melody in the mode of
Nino Rota
's love theme for
The Godfather
. These notions, which he mentions in his liner notes to the soundtrack album, obviously also were conveyed to composer
Bear McCreary
, who had scored
, and he has tried to honor them with the music heard here.
McCreary
indulged his taste for big percussion and employed a variety of ethnic instruments from around the world for
, but he has taken a "polar opposite" approach for the city-bound
, employing what is referred to as
the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra
, which is to say, a batch of Hollywood-based session musicians, in this case a subset of the sometimes giant ensembles put together for film scores, consisting of only 16 violins, three violas, five cellos, and a bass. Here and there, he has brought in his ethnic favorites, including a dudek and a Chinese membrane flute, and the cue
"Cybernetic Life Form Node"
employs the taiko drum sound so familiar from
. But
Glass
-like short, repetitive string patterns do turn up frequently (without the relentlessness that
gives them, however), and
does write plenty of wistful minor-key melodies for the violins in a score that has a distinctively melancholy feel. After all, as
fans know, the city of Caprica is as doomed as Sodom and Gomorrah, and for many of the same reasons. ~ William Ruhlmann