Awesome Music / Battlestar Galactica

• Any of Bear McCreary's work on Battlestar Galactica deserves merit in a class by itself, specifically the main credit theme (which is a Hindu chant), "Wander My Friends", "Roslin And Adama", "Exodus", "Gina Escapes", "Two Boomers", "The Shape of Things to Come", or his arrangement of "All Along The Watchtower".
  • "Wander My Friends" really does deserve a special mention as it's a reoccurring theme that shows up after a victory, or during times of celebrations, in crowd shots when you can see all of the Galactican crew. Its a very hopeful song, that sends a sense of comfort and togetherness. The name itself, combined with the sound of the music, feels like the sentimental message from one friend to another, that they are proud of that person, and hope that their journey continues. A total Heartwarming Moment when ever it shows up. It is best remembered though for its first appearance is 'The Hand Of God', after the pilots successfully secure the fuel plant and return to mass celebrations aboard Galactica, and when the whole crew shows up to see Lee off one last time. The lyrics, though sung in Irish, translate to pretty much exactly what is mentioned above. Two old friends, tired and weary, having lost so many people, but still determined to push on and finish their journey together. Rather like Adama and the Galactica.
  • Add "Passacaglia" among the long list of beautiful compositions.
  • But especially if you remember the original series.
  • Or the Original Series.
• Starbuck's piano version of "All Along the Watchtower" from season 4 was a literal jaw-dropper. Not only is the song awesome on its own terms, but the way the song was played in that episode answered at least two of the season's biggest mysteries at the same moment.
  • "Heeding The Call". Less piano, same reaction.
• Season 4's Diaspora Oratorio, which played as the fleet arrived at the first Earth. It's played completely straight, which just makes the reveal of Earth as a wasteland that much more heartwrenching. McCreary considers it his best work on BSG.
• Something Dark Is Coming.
• The scene late in the show where Boomer perpetrates some spectacular treachery is accompanied by a suitably strident and broodingly effective piece of music.
• Zarek was one of the few main characters not to have received his own motif, so when it came, it was pretty damn good. His character inevitably went to his death an hour later.
• "Metamorphosis One" by Phillip Glass, which was featured in an early scene in the series, where Starbuck and Helo are sitting in Starbuck's apartment on post-nuclear-holocaust Caprica. The version in the linked video doesn't even begin to convey the atmosphere this piece creates in the actual episode. Original footage of that scene is also available on Youtube, albeit at much lower quality.
  • Neither is the final piece of music in the series. "All Along the Watchtower" - played by Hendrix.
• "Prelude to War" and "Storming New Caprica" are truly epic. "Prelude to War" is particularly epic in context — the scene where it's first introduced is flawlessly cut with the music, to the point where Adama hangs up the phone on the downbeat.
• "Assault on the Colony". An extremely epic fifteen-minute long piece.
• "Lords of Kobol". Um, holy crap.
• The two pieces Kara's Coordinates and Heart of the Sun, Awesome Music and Awesome/Tear Jerking Music respectively. "Heart Of The Sun", in particular, slips in the opening bars of the original Galactica theme/Colonial Anthem - just as Galactica herself disappears into the Sun.
• "Black Market" is utterly badass.
• "Pegasus" is Heartwarming Music.
• "Apocalypse" - the piece that plays over "The Plan"'s ending credits, a rock remix of the series's opening theme.
  • Now with a live version. Who knew rock n' roll and the Gayatri Mantra would go so well together?
  • Now with an expanded remix for prequel web series Blood & Chrome, dialing the rock up.
• "Razor" also had a great ending theme.
• BSG can have some haunting music, make a great and atmospheric episode, and advance the plot all at once. Not to mention show off Alessandro Juliani's fantastic voice.
  • "Gaeta's Lament" might as well be called "Break the Cutie: The Song".
  • Note also that when you see him singing, they went to the extra trouble to make the music diegetic—that is, he's not dubbing himself in later; the singing is part of the same performance.
• "Mandala in the Clouds" takes all the here-come-the-drums goodness of "Prelude to War" and "Storming New Caprica" and crank it up, with twice the speed and triple the intensity.
• "Prelude to War" Live. Sweet Jeebus.
  • And then Bear turns around, writes a solo piano version, then plays it, has it taped in BSG camera style, and posts it on the internet.
  • Aaand then, in his continuing quest to melt your face off with every instrument on the planet, he does the same thing with a goddamn ACCORDION.
• "Worthy of Survival", especially when it kicks into high-gear at the end.
• Bear's three classical piano pieces "Battlestar Sonatica", "Elegy", and "Dreilide Thrace Sonata No. 1" are the most beautiful pieces composed for piano to be put on a soundtrack album. "Battlestar Sonatica" is an elegant tribute to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. "Elegy" is intended to sound as if it is being played on a wrecked old piano in a bar, and transcends the limitations of the instrument. Finally, "Dreilide Thrace Sonata No. 1" is the reason pianos were invented. It is absolutely lovely to hear, being written for a grand concert piano, is a masterpiece in terms of the complexity of the composition and sound, and is easily the most emotional of the three piano pieces, especially in the final minute and a half.
• Of course, music by Richard Gibbs in the Miniseries is pretty sweet. "Are You Alive?" is wonderfully creepy.
• Among them, Storming New Caprica, Kara's Coordinates, and the Tear Jerker piece Heart of the Sun, which plays as the Fleet is being sent into Earth's sun.
• Violence and Variations is possibly the loveliest piece on a soundtrack that has plenty of lovely pieces.
• Stu Phillips's theme for the original series is a wondrously corny bit of 70s Star Wars homaging, but then Bear got ahold of it and turned it into something magical.

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