Amazing Grace " Amazing Grace " was a hymn originally written for Christian services on Earth , which later became associated with funeral s . The instrumental version was played on bagpipes by Commander Montgomery Scott at Captain Spock ' s funeral aboard the in 2285 . ( ) Background information . " Amazing Grace " was written by the English clergyman John Newton in 1779 . Film composer James Horner had concerns with the use of " Amazing Grace " , which he considered the major musical problem of the film . " " I never wanted to use it [ . . . ] I begged , " begged " , ' Please don ' t make me use ' Amazing Grace . ' It was the only battle in the film I lost . They all seemed to feel that ' Amazing Grace ' was the only thing to make them happy . It was 15 seconds – I just " did " it . It had already been shot , and I had to match it , " " Horner explains , " " Then I had the additional problem : Would I continue the bagpipe music outside the ship or would I switch to orchestral music ? My feeling was to do something very ethereal . " " He continues , " " The bagpipes were the wrong move . They sound like bleating goats . What you heard in the film originally was just the bagpipe alone . Now [ Paramount ] had a problem in the previews with people " laughing " at the sound . The producers wanted the sound changed . The only thing I could do about the curse of the bagpipes was put in a cue . It starts where there ' s a pause as Kirk ' s talking – " Of all the people I have met in my travels , he is the most Human . " There , the music came in . I had this strange chord that hangs over the whole scene ; it did quite a bit , but doesn ' t solve the problem completely , because you still get people laughing at the bagpipes . It was , perhaps , a slight miscalculation , but it ' s one of those things that you ' re not going to know if it works until you do it with an audience . " " ( " " # 63 , , p . 22 ) According to producer Harve Bennett , " " Paramount ' s most nervousness concerned the bagpipes . " " In explaining his choice of the piece , he recalled a funeral he attended for a close friend – a British government official – the year prior to his involvement in " Star Trek " . " " At the end of the service , a lone bagpiper walked down the aisle to the nave , turned , and played ' Amazing Grace ' [ . . . ] And I have " never " recovered from that . " " Upon learning the significance of the music from several British officers present , which was described to him as a traditional Scottish burial tune , he recalled , " " As I was sitting there writing this funeral [ for Spock ] , I said , ' Well , what have moved me the most in the last year ? ' And then I thought , ' Scotty ' s there ! ' [ . . . ] So to that end , I stand on the fact that it is not a " Vulcan " funeral ; this is Scotty ' s contribution . " " While acknowledging Horner ' s resistance to the idea , Bennett convinced Horner to transition into the full orchestra playing " Amazing Grace , " explaining , " " It may be corny , but sometimes corny is exactly the right choice , " " as the transition helps ease the audience ' s transition from " " inner to outer space . " " ( " " # 68 , , p . 48 )