About the Album "Babylon 5: In The Beginning"
My instructions to Christopher Franke were as follows:
"Break our hearts."
"In The Beginning" is a tale comprising thirty-five years of history, from
the start of the Earth/Minbari War, to the death of Dukhat, the Battle
of the line wherein Earth stood on the edge of extinction, to the last
living hours of Emperor Londo Mollari. As soon as I finished writing it,
I knew that the music would have to be something truly extraordinary:
brave, adventurous, tragic, heroic, mournful. Whether it was Londo
recalling the worst of the war, or the President of Earth sending soldiers
off to die to save as many civilians as possible before the hammer fell,
the music had to touch our emotions at their most basic, primal level.
So I told Christopher, "Break our hearts." Go in under the radar net
of our logic and our calm confidence that this is only a story, only
a bit of television, ephemeral and sandwiched between loss and
bravery in the face of impossible odds, of the unique stubborn nobility
of the human being singular to stare death in the face and do what
is necessary, our capacity to fight even when we know that we are
outmatched and outgunned, never surrendering. Make us feel.
He wrote the score. I listened.
And he broke my heart.
I could not have been more happy. Because in a time of plastic
and artifice, Christopher Franke's music makes us feel.
So turn down the lights. Listen. And feel.
J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Executive Producer / Creator BABYLON 5
July 6, 1998
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