What Remains of the Past: Diegetic Music in the Star Trek Series as Reference to the Cultural Heritage of Humanity

The diegetic music used in the different Star Trek series belongs to a whole network referring to different products of human art, and therefore representing the quintessence of culture as a repository of society’s most valuable and priceless treasures. This network is highly significant for the Star Trek universe: it states that the fine and performative arts are an important part of human education, necessary for the refinement of one’s character as well as a condition for the evolved state of humanity as primarily peaceful race in a non-dystopian future. Based on a selection of examples from the different series, the paper questions the repertoire, the performance practice and the use of human music framing the cultural background of living in the future. By looking closer at one special episode, it also examines the importance of opera music as representative of the classical music culture.