Frontiere was a terrific composer. Loved his moving compositions for "The Man Who Was Never Born" for the first season of "The Outer Limits". He also orchestrated material for Chicago, The Tubes, Dan Fogelberg among others. Frontiere also composed the themes for many TV shows including "The Invaders", " The Name of The Game". RIP Dominic.
Someone pointed out on the forum years ago that the Outer Limits theme was a TV favorite "...even though it is a ripoff of the 2nd Movement of Bartok's Piano Concerto #2"
He also wrote the theme and soundtrack for The Rat Patrol. I think he also reused some of the music used in Outer Limits in episodes of The Rat Patrol. I got a weird jolt of familiarity/flashback from the music in the middle of The Rat Patrol.
Film and TV composers were known many times to recycle some material (James Horner being a prime example) there are exceptions such as Jerry Goldsmith who was loathe to do it.
The progression during the theme is similar at the beginning but goes in its own direction after. There's no doubt that Frontiere heard this but it's not a rip off--at the very least the beginning was inspired by Bartok's piece but after the beginning the Bartok's 2nd diverges going into its own direction and we need to consider the musical counter point in Frontiere's as well.
strange because i can hear planet of the apes in a few other Goldsmith scores, Tora Tora Tora springs to mind but thats from memory, equally a lot of incidental music on the invaders is clearly closely related to the outer limits, however i love both composers RIP Dominic
Goldsmith did try and use unusual instrumentation although, generally speaking, he found that using the same motifs in films would be distracting. He fought Ridley Scott over reusing parts of his score for "Freud" in "Alien". He did recycle the effect of the Echoplex that he used for the horns in "Patton" in "Alien" (using it for the haunting effect of the Indian conch shell in the film). Goldsmith did have a distinctive style to his writing and score so, perhaps, that's what you're hearing. Goldsmith might write a passage for similar effect in a different score but, for the most part, he was pretty firm about not recycling material for his scores.
Frontiere's scoring for The Outer Limits was first-rate; but I have always hated his tacky music for Hang 'Em High (1968), Eastwood's first post-Leone western. Come to think of it, I hated everything about Hang 'Em High; even the title.
i agree he was very distinct, and ground breaking imho, i did not know he did Freud, did he do in Harm's Way ?
Frontiere's end theme on The Invaders is so ominous and haunting, especially to myself who caught it completely by accident during a BBC re-run back in the mid-1980's, that it immediately hooked me, and I subsequently became a big fan of that underrated and ahead-of-it's-time show.
I have an SA-CD w/ Bartok's Piano Concertos 1 and 2. I've heard it numerous times, but never noticed the similarity. So, I had to listen very carefully again last night after reading this thread. It's probably because the opening strings are so quiet. I think Frontiere was definitely inspired by it. Not only the mood and theme, but the eerie open voicing of the strings was very similar. Thanks.
