Hyperspace (audio recording)

Fan album
Title	Hyperspace
Based on	Don Davis
Fandom(s)	Beauty and the Beast (TV)
Date(s)	1993
See also	[1]
Related articles on Fanlore.

Hyperspace is a 1993 for-profit album of instrumental music by Don Davis. Half of the tracks are Davis' music for various shows, and half was Beauty and the Beast (TV)-focused.

The album was originally recorded in 1991 to be used as part of a follow-up album to "Of Love and Hope".

From an ad in Once Upon a Time... Is Now #52 (1994): "Don Davis' CD, "The Film Music of Don Davis: Hyperspace", is now available from Prometheus Records and features 45 minutes of previously unreleased music from "Beauty and the Beast". (Something new!) The music is hauntingly beautiful and will instantly conjure up images of very dramatic scenes from the show."

Fan Comments

I just received in the mail the new CD released by Don Davis (Beauty and the Beast episode composer) called Hyperspace. I am just beside myself! This CD contains over 45 minutes of previously unreleased music from our favorite series in addition to about 30 minutes from the movie "Hyperspace". According to the CD pamphlet, "the symphonic suite presented here was originally recorded in early 1991 as a follow-up to Capitol Records* album of music and poetry. Various difficulties tied up the release until now". The first 11 tracks are from "Hyperspace" Here is a list of the Beauty and the Beast tracks (tracks 112-20) and the time of each track. #12 Main Title Theme (Lee Holdridge) - 1:19 minutes, #13 Suite from "To Reign in Hell" - 18:16 minutes, #14 "Labyrinths" - 4:03 minutes, #15 Portrait of a Paracelsus - 5:29 minutes, 116 "God Bless the Child" - 4:00 minutes, #17 "When the Bluebird Sings" - 1:47 minutes, #18 "Gabriel" - 3:43 minutes, #19 "The Rest is Silence" - 4:21 minutes, 120 "Though Lovers Be Lost: Catherine's Death" - 2:52 minutes.

I like the music very much and recommend it to all fans of the show.

Some comments about the music, this album is very different from "Of Love and Hope" in both content and tone. I've been listening to both and trying to find a way to compare them. ""Of Love and Hope"" contains many short musical themes of about a minute to a minute and a half long with the whole work being about 42 minutes long. These themes are mostly soft and pretty pieces that bring back memories of the gentler, more magical moments of the show. The poetry that was selected to go with the music is mostly love poetry and the overall feeling from the album is uplifting and magical. Also, the dominant musical theme is variations of the main title theme by Lee Holdridge. I do not get the feeling that there is a story being told by "Of Love and Hope" but rather a mood is set.

The symphonic suite of the new CD definitely tells a story. The story is that of Vincent and Catherine and a relationship that is filled with peril and ultimately doomed. The dominant musical theme is that of Paracelsus. The music starts off with the Main theme by Lee Holdridge but is immediately followed by an 18 minute suite from "To Reign in Hell". The selections of music from this episode contain Paracelsus' theme, battle music where Vincent fights the giant, lovely sad music from Winslow's funeral and an ending called "the truth beyond knowledge, where even though peace returns, there are still hints of Paracelsus's theme suggesting that he will return to threaten Vincent and Catherine again. Following this is a gentle interlude from the episode "Labyrinths". As soon as this 4 minute piece is over, Paracelsus returns with a 5 minute piece of music combining themes from "The Alchemist" and "What Rough Beast". Following this are two more interludes of gentle music, the first from "God Bless the Child" and the second from "When the Bluebird Sings". After this resting place, the music turns to the relationship's ultimately doomed ending. We have a theme for Gabriel and his henchmen, fallowed by music from "The Rest is Silence" which ends on the point where Catherine enters the cave occupied by the raging beast. Even though Paracelsus is dead by this episode, musically, his theme is still present. The final selection after "The Rest is Silence" is "Catherine's Death". This piece is interesting because it is the first version that Don Davis wrote for the scene but is not the one the producers used. They thought his piece was too powerful and asked Lee Holdridge to rewrite it to soften the impact. Davis does something in "Catherine's Death" that I never noticed before. He uses an echo of the music from "A Happy Life" where Catherine is getting into the car to drive back to Vincent. (If you remember, "A Happy Life" is the last musical piece in "Of Love and Hope".) In "Catherine's Death", the music has a faint echo of the build up to the music from "A Happy Life", but instead of climaxing at the point in the music where Vincent is running through the tunnels to meet her, the music turns into a grief filled lament for his dead Catherine. This is really effective when you listen to it, but I never noticed it when I watched it on TV because I was too distracted by the action taking place.

This suite was originally recorded in 1991 to be used as part of a follow-up album to "Of Love and Hope", but that album was never produced. I can't imagine what kind of poetry they would have put with this symphonic suite and I really think it is a complete work without any additions.

Although we have no CD player, I bought for my daughter to record on audiotape, Don Davis' "Hyperspace" which contains his "Villains" suite from "Beauty and the Beast". The "Hyperspace" music did not interest me, but the different villains' themes were very moving. How we each have this stimulating (and partly sad) music. The symphonic suite was conducted (did you purchasers notice?) by "Jacob Wells"!