… it only came out yesterday, but if you’re so eager to hear it (as I am), you can listen to the full playlist here on Youtube.
Thanks, Hearing the full version of the Watchtower piano is…wow…I thought it would be old but I just LOVE it…
I just got my pre-ordered CD from UPS and listening through the first disc…
wow, Gaeta’s Lament (first track on the CD) brought tears to my eyes. just gorgeous! I can’t wait to hear the rest 
I’m probably going to order this, but does anyone know of any stores that are carrying it?
It’s gonna be hard to come by. All the copies of the first production line sold out.
Thanks for the link, Solarpilot.
Me too…I didn’t get to listen yet. The second disk is all the music from Daybreak.
grabbin mine on Saturday along with the DVDs…awww yeah…
The DVDs have an interesting extra in “The Evolution of a Cue.” Most of the stuff was not new to me, but I wasn’t aware that the percussion tracks were all done by a single performer, then edited together and composited to form the sound of an entire section. It makes sense, as that’s much cheaper than hiring all those percussionists, but the whole process is so different than the way I do things that it makes me realize that I chose the right path when I opted to go into the oh-so-lucrative (HA!) world of concert music (and it also made me want to work with Bear to see if some of this music CAN be done in concert with a chamber orchestra).
I’ve been listening non-stop to this soundtrack for the past few days and it’s simply wonderful. Bear published on his blog today a very insightful essay on the whole double cd. My favorites include: Gaeta’s Lament, Elegy, Dreilide Thrace Sonata No. 1, Diaspora Oratorio and the tracks 8-14 from the second CD scoring the last 20mn of BSG. I especially like how the show ends with a reprise of “The Shape Of Things To Come” (still my favorite BSG music) at the end of track 13.
I haven’t heard the whole thing, but I mostly share your feelings about the above tracks (except for the Thrace Sonata. That one to me doesn’t work as a single track. I worked as snippets in the episode, but not as an entire piece. Maybe I’m too much of a music snob, though). Gaeta’s Lament is an astoundingly powerful piece of music as a single edit and the Diaspora Oratorio has some of the most beautiful music in the entire show.
Gonna have to pick this up as soon as the record company makes more copies.
I actually think the sonata is beautifully written, could have totally seen this written by someone like Satie.
You might want to check Barnes & Noble, I just checked their website and it seems to be availble in some of their stores
B&N is so pricey though. I may just download it from iTunes. Or, you know, just keep listening to the streaming playlist on YouTube. I am a starving artist, you know. :o
As to the sonata: yeah, there’s some Satie in there. And some Debussy and Ravel (there’s a point that sounds just like the piece “Colors and Scents Turn in the Night Air” from Debussy’s first book of preludes). It’s one of those tracks that, to me, feels very disjointed. That’s just part of the nature of assembling music for a soundtrack album from a score that was not necessarily conceived as a unified whole. Each section of the sonata was supposed to represent various movements of the piece in the episode it was on.
I am, however, in love with Gaeta’s Lament. Listening to it as I type.
Me too. I’m also surprised - from the episodes I liked the instrumental version much more than the sung one (and the instrumental version is still awesome), but the vocal version on the CD is incredibly moving and awesome. I find myself humming it all. the. time. I’m so very glad that the CD has both versions, though!
For those with the CDs - the liner notes are awesome. Bear asked the cast and crew for a few lines about the music of the show and published them as part of the liner notes, and it was enough to bring tears to my eyes again. Great stuff!
I quite like the piece, but part of that is because I’d like to find the sheet music to try to play it. I agree that it’s kind of disjointed, but I like it because it reminds me of the different parts of the episode that the music is in.
The one piano track I do like is the “Cylon Piano Song” one. That one’s excellent. I wish they’d used a properly tuned piano for the CD issue, but I suppose this way it hearkens back to the sound of the beat-as-all-hell spinnet in Joe’s Bar. What a cool track, though!
It makes me want to do a BSG concert with my group. I wish I could finance something like that or, even more so, somehow get it to work as a fundraiser. Or both!
Have finally listened to the 2nd Dics of Season 4. Bear outdid himself this time.
Listening to “So Much Life”, I couldn’t hold it and cried. It was too emotional.
Where can I give my man card away?
Last night before I fell asleep I was staring at the CD cover. I’m not sure if they’re all the same but mine has Adama/Roslin/Tigh on the left and Starbuck/Apollo/Anders on the right. I couldn’t help thinking “love triangles”.
I was listening at work and had to stop myself from crying during ‘Diaspora Oratorio’. Holy craaap! It digs down, grabs your soul, and doesn’t let go.
So, having listened to both discs extensively at this point - wow. It’s a great compilation. As I mentioned on twitter last night, it’s kind of addictive. I don’t want to stop listening to it! On disc one I’m particularly fond of both versions of Gaeta’s Lament (though WOW! on the vocal version), Kara Remembers, and Diaspora Oratorio.
The second disc is fantastic. I’ve been unwilling to re-watch Daybreak, mostly because it made me cry so much the first few times. The music has a similar effect, though I can handle it more than the show 
from Kara’s Coordinates onward, it’s absolutely fantastic (if possible, even more so than the rest of the discs). The cues Goodbye Sam and So Much Life are tear-inducing, but awesome. I also really appreciate that Bear left a pause at the end of “An Easterly View,” very appropriate to allow us all to savor the reappearance of “The Shape of Things to Come” from season 1 and a fitting end to the story of our favorite Battlestar.
So… favorite cues?
I have the same cover - and it’s also the same as the groups on my DVDs. though I think you’re right on the love triangles - the back of the DVD set has sharon-chief-helo and baltar/six, so… yeah.
speaking of - did anyone get the blu-ray dvd set yet? there’s supposedly (well, there is, according to Bear’s blog) a blu-ray only extra on the music. (grrrrrrrrr too poor to have any blu-ray player…) Does anyone want to view and report back for us little people who only have DVDs?