Toryley Linden rss - Was the Fringe Theme strongly influenced by Night Stalker?
First, I'm not going to use the term “rip-off”. I know while that attracts attention, I'm not into lame linkbation, and would rather not accuse someone sans merit. I prefer to ask questions and learn more to make an informed decision.
Numerous people, including myself, have observed that the Fringe Theme (incidentally one of my fave pieces of music which I performed a piano version of) is strongly reminiscent of Philip Glass' style. However, I was unable to pin it to a specific work until just now — ah, serendipity.
I'll explain the chain of events so you can better understand my thought processes:
I was on io9 reading about a new TV series called Warehouse 13, which bears similarities to that magnum opus of paranormal investigations, The X-Files.
Obviously, other commenters called that out, and I remarked that Fringe was just getting out from the X-Files' shadow.
I mused about earlier influences, such as Kolchak: The Night Stalker, then looked it up on Wikipedia.
Intrigued by the description of Kolchak's theme music, I searched on YouTube, and the first hit was uncannily similar to… you know what!
Turns out this is actually the theme to the Night Stalker remake, which came out in 2005, was shortly discontinued afterwards, but nonetheless, predates Fringe.
Googling around, I found this claim that the theme was by Philip Glass.
Sure enough, here's an official acknowledgement.
What makes it juicier: Frank Spotnitz, who wrote for X-Files, was also behind Night Stalker. And in turn, Fringe is frequently cited as an X-Files-ish show.
All that being connected together, have a listen and let me know what you think:
Fringe Theme
Night Stalker Theme
Dynamics and some of the instrumentation are different; the former is more upbeat and march-like. But the ostinatos (compare 0:17 of Fringe to 0:11 of Night Stalker), similar chord progression, and their root ending tones (C minor and A minor, respectively) all make me wonder if JJ Abrams was familiar with this Glass work — composed specifically for Night Stalker and not a freestanding piece, mind you — before penning the Fringe Theme.
So far, I've found only one other voice mentioning this, and a few noting the similarity of some Muse songs. Well, Muse of course is influenced by Glass, as was made evident in a recent Watchmen trailer. (Mmmm… connections!)
I'd love to shed more light on this mystery. What do you think, and do you have further clues to assist in this investigation?
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January 18 2009 11:19 am | General