# Choral piece from "Pearl Harbor"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choral-piece-from-pearl-harbor/467758>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 13, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choral-piece-from-pearl-harbor/467758 "2008-10-13T19:31:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choral-piece-from-pearl-harbor/467758/1 "2008-10-13T19:31:09Z")

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Can anybody tell me the name of the piece of music played in _Pearl Harbor_ as the Japanese attack comes to an end? It was an orchestral piece with mixed chorus with (I believe) Latin text, and sounded extremely familiar to my ears.

I’ve tried looking up the soundtrack listings on IMDB and Amazon, and haven’t found any promising leads.

Anyone?

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**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choral-piece-from-pearl-harbor/467758/2 "2008-10-13T19:43:24Z")

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I haven’t seen the movie, but the review of the soundtrack at Amazon indicated the battle scene music was composed for the movie (“The action sequences themselves are somewhat subdued (especially by previous Zimmer standards), with “December 7th” even echoing Platoon and Barber’s Adagio for Strings”; Barber’s Adagio would be the piece used in Platoon at the end, as somebody’s crawling through the jungle post-napalm attack).

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**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/choral-piece-from-pearl-harbor/467758/3 "2008-10-13T20:11:38Z")

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I guess I’ll have to try going beyond just _reading the titles_ of the track listings at Amazon. Like maybe actually listening to the samples or something.

What caught my ear was the fact that the piece sounded very familiar (though I’d never seen the movie before last night) – I was even tempted to think I’d sung it before at some point in time. It definitely wasn’t Barber’s _Adagio_…I’d recognize _that_ with both ears tied behind my back.