"Star Trek" composer, Alexander Courage, dead at the age of 88

On May 15th, Star Trek composer Alexander Courage died at the age of 88. He had been in declining health since 2005
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Below is series of documentary clips including Alexander Courage and John Williams.




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Alexander Mair Courage Jr.

Composer, Alexander Courage, was born on December 10th, 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After graduating from the Eastman School of Music in 1941, Courage served as an Army Air Forces bandleader during World War II. Courage began his 54-year career as a composer in 1946 for CBS Radio, moving to MGM as an arranger and orchestrator in 1948. He worked on or orchestrated a string of musicals over the next twelve years including Annie Get Your Gun, The Band Wagon, Doctor Dolittle, Fiddler on the Roof, Gigi, Hello, Dolly!, My Fair Lady, Show Boat, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. In the ‘60s, Courage brought his prodigious talents to 20th Century Fox, and it was in 1959 when he began his work on what would turn out to be over 350 television episodes.

Courage orchestrated films scored by Adolph Deutsch (Some Like It Hot), Jerry Goldsmith (Mulan), Andre Previn (My Fair Lady), and John Williams (Superman.) Courage later continued his collaboration during John Williams tenure with the Boston Pops Orchestra.
Despite his work on such films and television series as Superman, Lost in Space, and Star Trek, Courage was not a fan of fantasy and science fiction, telling one interviewer, “I think it’s just marvelous malarkey,” he said. “So you write some marvelous malarkey music that goes with it.”

Best known to the public-at-large for writing the Star Trek theme, Courage felt ill used by the series creator, Gene Roddenberry. Courage looked to the song “Beyond the Blue Horizon” as a jumping-off-point, working the fast, train-like pulsating rhythm under the soaring melody. He envisioned using a soprano singer (Loulie Jean Norman), an organ, a flute, and even a vibraphone. Roddenberry wanted to increase the importance of the female voice and the finished product sounded more like a soprano solo. Roddenberry’s “help” did not end there. In order to share in the royalties, Roddenberry wrote lyrics that begin: “Beyond the rim of the star-light/My love is wand’ring in star flight.” The only known commercial recording is by Nichelle “Uhura” Nichols and it appears on her 1991 album, “Out of This World.”

On May 15, 2008 at the age of 88, Alexander “Sandy” Courage died in the Sunrise Assisted Living facility in Pacific Palisades, California from complications following a stroke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Courage

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006021/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/30/AR2008053003013.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/arts/television/31courage-1.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH0aSwFKacw

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-courage30-2008may30,0,5756996.story

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/alexander-courage-composer-of-the-star-trek-theme-837440.html

http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/news_events/features/2008/052808.html#

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/trek.asp

http://www.daisyplanet.com/st/info/Nic_Out.html