“Cosmos” Main Title Music by Alan Silvestri (transcription and analysis)

“Cosmos,” the modern-day reboot of Carl Sagan’s classic science TV program, hits me right in the feel-thinks.  For me, it’s equal parts science and spiritual contemplation, and I’m so thankful that the producers took the risk to create it.

As a film composer, I’m also enjoying the musical score by Alan Silvestri.  In this post, I’m going to analyze the main theme, because:

  1. We get to hear the whole, decadent 90 seconds of the theme in each episode.
  2. Those 90 seconds pack a lot of thematic material, and Silvestri draws heavily on it for the body of the score.
  3. There’s one passage in the middle that is just pure genius!  It’s the piece that motivated me to investigate this theme.

Continue reading

Advertisement