On Pandora recently, I hit a streak of Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia pieces on my “Movie Soundtracks” playlist.
It’s stirring and awesome, and I have precisely no idea why it feels like that. It stirs me, even if I can’t connect it to a particular point in the movie?
Why is this? What gives it that distinctive sound? (Is it the horns?) And can anybody recommend more epic music?
The soundtrack to “Conan the Barbarian.”
Really. Tacky as all hell, in places (I’m thinking about the opening monologue), but still “wow” after all these years.
One that seems popular these days is a tune I usuall see called “Requiem Remix”, which is…I’m not sure what you’d call it, a “more bombastic” version maybe, of a mournful tune from the depressing drug-addiction film Requiem for a Dream.
For comparison, here’s the original, and here’s the remix.
You want epic Fantasy music? Get some Bernard Herrmann. He wrote music for Ray Harryhausen movies – Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, The Mysterious Island – not to mention other fantastic films (The Devil and Daniel Webster, It’s Alive). He also did music for Hitchcock.
Fantasy music tends to be romantic classical, often with fanfares. Look at John Williams’ scores for the Star Wars movies, Indiana Jones, Superman, Jurassic Park, and others.
And look at how many complained about the non-classical music in Ladyhawke.
I’m no musicologist, but I suspect that one reason it has that effect is that it’s played by a large orchestra with a lot of brass and strings (not so much with the piccolos and harps). Soaring melodies and driving rhythms help, too.
That’s pretty much it. Throw is some soaring incomprehensible vocals too. Soundtacks also tend to have “motifs” associated with particular characters. The most famous probably being Vader’s Imperial March from Star Wars(technically every Star Wars film except the original).
Some good examples:
Randy Edelman - Dragonheart
Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard - A few from the Gladiator soundtrack 1) 2)
Hans Zimmer - The Rock
Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman - Last of the Mohicans (used here in a Nike commercial demonstrating how epic music can make anything more awesome).
…and when combined with a hip-hop back beat (as seen here in another Nike commercial featuring a remix of Ecstacy of Gold from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) why I nearly shit myself at work.
**CalMeacham **- IIRC the Ladyhawke soundtrack used a lot of synthesizers. That synth sound is typically associated as something modern and thus creates a fairly jarring musical anachronism in a Midevil fantasy film. That style of music works a bit better in futuristic films.
Not just synthesizers – a lot of guitars, too. Although I think they work in the quiter moments, the guitar music hasn’t the majestic romantic sweep of the other scores noted.
You could transcribe the Ladyhawke score for orchestra and it’d work better, but I still think you’d have to play with it to satisfy the fans.
(Most of that movie was great – especially in the way the castles really did lookl like castles, instead of the Hollywood version. But I’m still troubled by Rutger Hauer’s helmet that looked unlike every knight’s helmet I’ve seen, and more like an NFL football helmet done in metal.)
Yeah, Bernard Hermann is right up there – FAHRENHEIT 451, VERTIGO, PSYCHO, etc.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold – ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938 with Errol Flynn et al) and THE SEA HAWK
Elmer Bernstein’s score for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (with Charleton Heston and Yul Brenner and cast of zillions) is amazing.
I have to point out the original epic music: opera. Wagner was the man for epic fantasy before Tolkien came along.