Music from the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack. The franchise began with a 1978 TV show, followed by a sequel TV series in 1980. A reimagined miniseries aired in 2003, continuing with a regular television series aired from 2004 to 2009. A prequel series, Caprica, began airing in January 2010.
The theme song of the original show was an orchestral piece with an emphasis on brass instruments. It was written by Stu Phillips.
The soundtrack for the 2003 miniseries was largely scored by Richard Gibbs. Many of the cues from the miniseries soundtrack were re-used as incidental or background music in the regular series beginning in 2004.
Bear McCreary was the primary composer for the reimagined television series, having assisted Richard Gibbs on the 3-hour miniseries. When the show was picked up, Gibbs opted not to devote full time to the regular series' production, and McCreary became the sole composer. He worked on the series until it reached its conclusion in 2009, scoring over 70 episodes. To date, five Battlestar Galactica soundtrack albums have been released, and they have garnered a great deal of critical acclaim. The music of Battlestar Galactica displays a wide variety of ethnic influences and intentionally tries not to conform to the "usual" style of a science fiction score. For some of the series' more important episodes, McCreary was granted a full orchestra. Character themes and leitmotifs gradually took on a major role, despite being avoided at the outset. A variety of ethnic instruments were utilized. One season 4 episode employed: Chinese membrane flute, Indian bansuri flute, duduk (Armenian woodwind), erhu (Chinese violin), yialli tanbur (a Turkish lute), dumbek (Middle Eastern drum), Japanese taiko drums—in addition to four brass players, 30 string players and a 12-voice choir.
Bear McCreary was also tasked to compose for the Caprica series. McCreary's work on Caprica is almost entirely orchestral. As on Battlestar Galactica, character themes are used extensively; however, world ethnic influences play a much smaller role. Although the full ethnic percussion ensemble, including taikos, frame drums, dumbeks, chang changs, tsuzumis and other instruments, was brought in, it has been used much more sparingly. .
