Customer Reviews

Music of Cosmos: Selections from the Score of the Television Series "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a mediocre. re release of the Soundtrack of the COSMOS TV series by Carl Sagan.

There is a much better Re-release 2-CD set Collector's Edition available exclusively through Carl Sagan Productions at Carlsagan.com

I hope that they will soon allow other online retailers to sell their version.

It contains much more material than this version.

Contrary to what J Mark Sick says about this CD, it does contain the entire vinyl soundtrack. The 18 original tracks are broken down and lumped by threes into 6 tracks for the CD. Mr. Sick should learn to be a little more observant! If you look at the selection titles you would see they're the same as the album! The one fault I would site is that there should have been MORE music included from the series. A CD can hold much more than a vinyl disk! The music covering the Alexandria Library sequences was fabulous, but, unfortunately, was not included. It took me nearly ten years to track down the source: Alan Hovhaness's Symphony #4. I guess since Mr Hovhaness already had one sampling on the album (Symphony #19) the producers decided that two would be too many. But it should at least be on the CD, along with the many others that were excluded.

No doubt that this is a great album, and was undeservedly long out of print (due to problems securing musical permissions), but true fans should go for the recently digitally-remastered 2CD version of the Cosmos soundtrack which came out at the same time as the new DVD/VHS set of the series. That includes one previously unavailable Vangelis piece "Comet 16" amongst a total of 28 tracks.

This is the soundtrack to the famous and critically acclaimed PBS television series "Cosmos".

Carl Sagan's 1980 book and series made hard science not only popular, but more understandable to the average person as well. Spanning space, time, life, and history, the series changed the landscape of PBS forever. "Cosmos" remained the number one ratings event on PBS untill Ken Burns' documentary "The Civil War".

The music was an integral part of the program. Original themes ("Heaven and Hell"), mixed freely with classic baroque music and Mozart. Combining the new music with the famous or at least more familiar sounds went hand in hand with Sagan's vision for the show. Science may seem new and complicated, but science is really quite familiar to all of us, and we use it in our everyday lives. The music conveys this, both the new and the familiar.

The music was carefully selected to match segments on space travel, lonely planetscapes, thoughtful moments of contemplation, violent supernovae, and scientists at work unravelling mysteries throughout the ages.

Some of the Vangelis selections may seem a bit dated by today's standards, but the brilliance of the soundtrack still shines through. The music has long been out of print, so snap up a copy today and remember this wonderful television program.

As the opening credits to the series state, "Cosmos" was "a personal journey, by Carl Sagan." How thoughtful of Dr. Sagan to take us on the journey with him.

When I went to finally buy the CD version of this disc I noticed there were two versions- the one above and the newer remastered edition which has the same cover as the dvds do. I also own the old vinyl version of this from the 80s. First off between the original release on vinyl and the new CDs, it is obvious there are more new tracks on the CDs. Also the songs listed are longer versions of what was originally released. The fidelity is obviously improved, as the vinyl did have a softer sound to it. But as with CDs the sound quality at times does have edgyness that the record did not. The first thing I noticed was they reshuffled the tracks from the original release. I'm not sure the new track order works as well as the old, as the old had a good pace to it. Also another thing is there are some rather annoying transitions between songs that sound rather cheezy and do not suit this album. They break up the pace and rhythm of the album and don't always fade out during the next song which can ruin the beginning of it. The sound byte transitions turn a rather classy album into something of science fiction for teens. This selection could have been mixed without them and work better in the mood the album presents. Also keep in mind not all tracks are the original songs presented on the vinyl version, and possibly even the tv series itself. Some are newer recordings of the same song, and its noticable they are not the original. One track that comes to my mind right off the bat is track 15 on the first CD. But the newer editions are fine, but it can be jarring if you have a auditory memory of how the older version sounded- especially if you liked it that way. All in all its still an excellent assortment of songs on two discs, and I would recommend it on that basis. If you already have the DVDs, I would suggest these CDs as well. But after hearing this new disc, Im keeping my old vinyl record for sure.

The music from the Cosmos series is awesome. Much of it can stand alone as thought provoking and most pieces even seem to tell a story of their own. In low light or even in total darkness, I listen to this CD and another called "The Music of Cosmos - A Collector's Edition" I got at CarlSagan.com. The absence of visual sensory tremendously amplifies the emotion this music gives. When I listen, I imagine that I am an early explorer discovering the laws of nature for the first time and then I fly thru space looking for signs of life around other suns. The collector's edition of the music is a two CD set and plays more than two hours. It's my favorite. I recommend The Music of Cosmos to all lovers of music. The variety of music is wide and many are classics. Ten digits up!

Being an avid soundtrack collector I have collected many soundtracks over the years but none has been more illusive then the score to Cosmos. My Dad was a huge fan of the series and also had a very overused copy of this terrific score on tape which I played and played over again while I was growing up. This CD is somewhat of a holy grail for me as it represents some of the finest work ever assembled on CD. It's a great testament to this score that even if you haven't seen the accompanying television series you can't but be swept up by the majesty of this work which skilfully merges old works with the then modern synthesiser score to evoke images of space and the cosmos without the need for the television pictures. I would recommend this soundtrack to classical lover and to anybody else who enjoys great music. First rate !!!

There was something special about the music from this series.It realy grows on you after a few episodes.I saw this series back in around 1990.
Certainly a fascinating series.I have been watching it on pay Tv and there is some updates on it.That music is realy good,and the whole show was well made.Some musicians made their mark in music by writing songs for particular shows,such as Enya with The Celts.Carl Sagan presented a great series,and went into great depth to explain things.The music was another aspect of this show which made it all the more interesting.

This CD is ok but if you want to hear-listen to the Real Deal that'll blow your socks off,, I suggest you get/ buy "The Music of The Cosmos" DIDITALLY REMASTERED COLLECTOR'S EDITION !! ( Carl Sagan ) You won't be disappointed !! :o)

Easily some of the most beautiful music on the planet is in this CD. As a young man I was captivated by the PBS TV series COSMOS. This music is from that series, and to me it captures the beauty and truth that science is. Carl Sagan and wife Ann Druyan did well in these great selections. However, if you don't like classical music you may not like this CD.