2016 marks Trevor's 20-year anniversary as a full-time professional film and television scorer as his debut, The Glimmer Man, was released in October of 1996. And it came exactly twenty years after his first composed score for Death of a Snowman (originally released in 1976).
Let's stop and think about that for a moment: it's nearly an equal amount of time to Trevor's career in popular music (if we count 1972 as his professional debut through to his departure from Yes in 1995) and that is ongoing work - during every year of that 20-year span Trevor was composing scores. Many years and a lot of music. Trevor's scoring career has been far more productive than his rock n'roll tenure ever was and that is the simple truth. As Trevor once noted: "I think I’ve done more albums since I’ve been doing film than I’ve ever done in my life." And it's been going strong, even as he made a lateral move of sorts into television series scoring. I say this because, since 2012, the only films which Trevor has scored - Grudge Match and Max - were likely at the personal request of their directors, whom Trevor had worked with previously. It has been my supposition for some time that he was unlikely to pursue feature film scoring in the future, preferring now to work within the scheduling constructs of television production instead (barring any further requests from colleagues, that is). But according to his comments in a recent interview with The Prog Report, Trevor is officially on hiatus from scoring now that he's revived his rock n'roll career with ARW as well as the rock vocal album project which he has been working on for at least the past two years.
And so it's time to fully recognize Trevor's achievements in film scoring, a career which has yielded much acclaim and an industry reputation for professional and respectful collaboration, as well as enormous creative satisfaction for our Maestro. The sheer genre-spanning depth and breadth of his scoring work is something to be proud of indeed.
Trevor Rabin, recipient of the 2012 ASCAP Henry Mancini Award for outstanding achievement and contributions to film and television music.
I realize there is a lot of time and effort involved with licensing for a compilation - which is required because Trevor does not own the masters or control the publishing for his scoring work - but because Trevor is one of the many composers signed with Varese Sarabande (whose responsibility has also branched out to the other areas of his musical output), and they have released a large number of his previous scores as well as included his compositions on the scoring compilations issued under their purview (i.e. their anniversary and thematic collections), I believe it can be done if there is sufficient motivation on the part of all responsible parties.
So I put it to you, The Powers That Be, to create a new version of Film Music Composed by Trevor Rabin for commerical release: a career-spanning anthology of Trevor's best themes - a twenty-track compilation would do nicely, I think. With an emphasis, perhaps, on those scores which never had an official release, such as Remember The Titans. Featuring liner notes with comments from Trevor about the pieces chosen, tributes from Paul Linford and/or Jerry Bruckheimer, or other long-time colleagues like Gordon Goodwin, Don Harper and Steve Kempster, and illustrated with photos from Scoring Sessions depicting Trevor and his crew at work. With careful curating - subject to Trevor's approval - of those themes which are not only memorable and beloved, but also display the evolution, heart and soul of what Trevor's work is, and what it has become, within the popular consciousness of moviegoers and music lovers alike.
Are you with me? Let's celebrate all the music of the Maestro, and afford his scoring career the true respect it deserves!
