Human Target

(The Human Target 3 CD set, click image to embiggen!) This week, my “Human Target” soundtrack is finally released!  More than two hours of score are available for download from iTunes, courtesy of WaterTower Music.  La La Land Records has released a limited edition 3 CD deluxe set, featuring 62 tracks totaling nearly 4 hours of music.  In addition to an hour of exclusive...

[media id=23 width=445 height=255] My theme for Human Target has been nominated for Outstanding  Original Main Title Theme Music! Awesome! Its an honor to be on a shortlist with so many wonderful composers.  (See the nominees.) There was some debate within the Academy earlier this year to eliminate this category altogether, so I’m also pleased that it still exists at...

Tonight’s episode of “Human Target,” Christopher Chance, is the season finale.  It answers many questions that have arisen throughout the series, and asks new ones as well.  The episode is the culmination of my thematic approach to the series.  Characters we see for the first time, such as Katherine and the Old Boss,  already have their own firmly established...

The shocking truth is finally revealed!  See who is really playing the trumpet solos for “Human Target:” The final “Human Target” episode and blog entry of Season 1 are coming tomorrow night.  Stay tuned! -Bear

SPOILERS BEYOND: This week’s episode of “Human Target,” Victoria, chronicles Chance as he protects a princess from an assassination attempt by her jealous husband. The episode opens as Chance flies into New York city by helicopter and gets in a limo taking him to the British embassy. Inspired by the grand-scale cinematography, I wrote an opening cue that could...

SPOILER WARNING: Tonight’s episode of “Human Target,” Tanarak, chronicles Chance’s adventures on a small mining island in northern Canada.  A doctor named Jessica Shaw (a distant cousin of Kendra Shaw perhaps?) is the target of an assassination attempt because she knows the corporation is storing deadly toxic chemicals in the mines.  Relatively light...

A few weeks ago, I was honored with an invitation to speak at Google, as part of their @Google Series.  The entire presentation is now available in HD on YouTube, or you can see it right here: For the presentation, Raya Yarbrough interviewed me about my early musical life, career, creative process, influences and turn ons… well, musical turn ons anyway. Like most music...

SPOILERS GALORE: In tonight’s “Human Target,” Corner Man, Chance travels to Brussels to compete in an underground fight club.  Relatively light on mythology and backstory (compared to last week’s densely layered Baptiste), this score focuses on the intriguing Eva Kahn (“Galactica” vet Grace Park) and the brutality of the combat sequences. Like...

SPOILERS AHEAD: Tonight’s “Human Target” is what I like to refer to as a “Mythology Episode,” because it expands beyond the adventure of the week to the larger story of Chance’s past.  This narrative arc has been woven throughout the entire series, but generally limited to passing lines of dialog.  Until now, no episode has dedicated more screen time to the broader plot...

SPOILERS BEYOND: The most recent episode of “Human Target,” Lockdown, allowed me to expand my compositional technique.  I made a conscious effort to write music with more layers and activity, that made better use of the diverse instruments within the orchestra.  The resultant score was more dynamic, effective and genuinely orchestral.  For Salvage and Reclamation,...

SPOILERS AHEAD: Lockdown was the most challenging episode of “Human Target” yet. Like most, it has enough action scenes to be its own little feature film. However, I also stretched myself creatively and found new ways of approaching composition and orchestration, refining general musical philosophies and techniques that proved incredibly effective.  In fact, this...

SPOILERS RUNNING AHEAD: Tonight’s episode of “Human Target,” Run, pits Chance against corrupt cops out to get a DA who would expose them.  The score introduces a new theme and provides several epic action and dramatic cues. Every episode’s opening title card features a unique orchestration of the Chance Theme.  After last week’s exotic boys choir...

SPOILERS AHEAD: The gentle refrains of a boys choir float down, as if from a celestial balcony, as we are transported to a monastery in the mountains. The opening ten seconds of Sanctuary promise something special, and the rest of the episode does not disappoint. Here, the mythology behind the main characters is explored further and the score bursts across the episode with...

This entry presents my first official VIDEO BLOG: SPOILERS AHEAD: Embassy Row shows Chance’s search for a spy who killed his former colleague Danny.  In the process, he fights henchmen, rouge double agents, jumps a motorcycle over armed guards and joins forces with a sexy government agent.  All in a day’s work for Christopher Chance! (more…)

SPOILERS AHEAD: Human Target‘s second episode airs tonight, now in its regular Wednesday timeslot.  Rewind takes Chance from a speeding train to a crashing jet, and also allows Chi McBride’s Winston to get involved in the action.  The pilot was scored with a pretty large orchestra, and surprisingly, Rewind was recorded with an even bigger ensemble.  As a result,...

[media id=23 width=445 height=255] Tonight the series Human Target premieres on FOX, featuring my original score and Main Title Theme.  This score is arguably the most ambitious, audacious and shamelessly romantic of my career to date.  Unlike anything I’ve done in the past (and 99.9% of everything on television), it is recorded every week with a full orchestra of live musicians. ...

Next week is a good time to be a fan of big, kick-ass orchestral Bear McCreary scores, because I have (count’em) three new scores premiering in a single week, each recorded with a full orchestra!  And all three projects have sweeping character themes woven into the music, featuring some of the best melodies I’ve ever written in my life. First up… SUNDAY JAN....

The cat’s out of the bag:  I am scoring FOX’s comic book action series HUMAN TARGET.  I’ve already completed music for the pilot, with a full orchestra recorded at the Warner Bros. Scoring Stage.  The score is epic, bombastic and, above all, tons of fun (I’ll put up audio clips in the coming weeks).  I think that any soundtrack, BSG or general Bear fans...