Mood Music

I like mood music for games and am putting together some background noise for my players. The "Conan the Barbarian" soundtrack's an obvious choice and I've got some other tracks in addition. Just thought I'd ask if anyone else does this and, if so, what makes your Hyborian Hit Parade?
 
The free MP3's designed for the recent Conan console game appear on their web site, and seem very close to the ones from the films. Definatly worth a look. Last time I checked there were 4 to download.
 
Lucius said:
The free MP3's designed for the recent Conan console game appear on their web site, and seem very close to the ones from the films. Definatly worth a look. Last time I checked there were 4 to download.
Thanks - I've got plenty of music and various sounds, I was really interested in whether anyone else puts together music and, if so, what choices people recommend in particular.
 
Depending on where the adventure is placed, but I use soundtracks from Last of the Mohicans, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Braveheart, and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (videogame).

Uh, obviously CtB is used as well.
 
BullBear said:
Depending on where the adventure is placed, but I use soundtracks from Last of the Mohicans, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Braveheart, and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (videogame).

Uh, obviously CtB is used as well.

Some nice choices there. Yes, the setting's important so it's great to find some music to match. Vaughn-Williams' "Sinfonia Antartica" has some superb "frozen" moments if your players ever get to Nordheim, Prokofiev's "Alexander Nevsky" has some excellent atmosphere pieces - "Under The Mongol Yoke", "The Tuetonic Knights" - I've just found a couple of folky pieces by The Duellists that are great for the market place in Messantia (well that's how I imagine it) and another odd outfit called Grinnigogs have some pieces that will be great for nomad encounters, desert settings and so on.
 
I've put together a few "soundtract'' peices for my games. albums that I've stolen fro... Er, ... barrowed from include;

Conan the Barbarian
13th Warrior
Scorpion King
The Mummy(New Version)
Conan the Series
Gladiator
Cutthroat Island
Subspecies
Earth Final Conflict
Enya, The Celts
Dracula(Frank Langella Version)
 
Thanks for the Prokofiev recommendation. I find most recent movie soundtracks sound too glossy, slick, and modern-Hollywood for the Hyborian atmosphere. I would look to Wagner and pre-1960 film scores.
 
Conan Goes to the Opera
Here is a list of classical pieces that I have found go well with reading Conan stories by Robert E Howard, and might be good choices for future movie soundtracks.
Alexander Nevsky; Alexander Nevsky
Carmina Burana; Carl Orff
En Saga; Jean Sibelius
Fanfare for the Common Man; Aaron Copland
Firebird Suite; Igor Stravinsky
Gayne Suite; Aram Khachaturian
Ilya Murometz; Reinhold Gliere
Polovtsian Dances; Alexander Borodin
Scythian Suite; Sergei Prokofiev
Sinfonia Antarctica; Ralph Vaughan Williams
 
Faraer said:
Thanks for the Prokofiev recommendation. I find most recent movie soundtracks sound too glossy, slick, and modern-Hollywood for the Hyborian atmosphere. I would look to Wagner and pre-1960 film scores.
Yes, that's a problem I find with some soundtracks, it's also why I like trying to put together my own soundtracks for different situations. For those who like a little more strangeness in their soundtracks, Coil have some menacing pieces ("Unreleased Soundtrack to Hellraiser"), Magma have some heavier sounds "Da Futura" from "Udu Wudu", the modern Art Zoyd soundtrack to "Nosferatu" has some good creepy moments too.
 
If you do a search on the net, there are some free downloads of tracks from games like "Clive Barker's the Undying".

Actually, i had the link:

http://billbrownmusic.com/index.htm
 
My favourite Hyrkanian / Turanian themes:

Melechesh "Arrival Ritual"
Orphaned Land "Building the Ark"
Orphaned Land "A'salk"
Orphaned Land "Aldiar Al Mukadisa"
Orphaned Land "Takasim"
 
Zeus said:
My favourite Hyrkanian / Turanian themes:

Melechesh "Arrival Ritual"
Orphaned Land "Building the Ark"
Orphaned Land "A'salk"
Orphaned Land "Aldiar Al Mukadisa"
Orphaned Land "Takasim"

Thanks for those, always on the lookout for new sounds.
 
Pharoah Kromium said:
I like mood music for games and am putting together some background noise for my players. The "Conan the Barbarian" soundtrack's an obvious choice and I've got some other tracks in addition. Just thought I'd ask if anyone else does this and, if so, what makes your Hyborian Hit Parade?

I would add The Planets by Holst (nice variety of moods). I also like the soundtrack from The Brotherhood of the Wolf (American title), and the theme from Ben Hur (great for pomp and circumstance).

Brian
 
Pharoah Kromium said:
I like mood music for games and am putting together some background noise for my players. The "Conan the Barbarian" soundtrack's an obvious choice and I've got some other tracks in addition. Just thought I'd ask if anyone else does this and, if so, what makes your Hyborian Hit Parade?

Soundtracks:

Conan: The Barbarian (obviously)
The Last of the Mohicans
The Passion
Passion: The Last Temptation of Christ
Long Walk Home
Excalibur
The Emerald Forest
The 13th Warrior
Rune (the computer game)
The Mission

and various other albums, especially:

Brian Eno's On Land: Ambient IV
 
For a Zingaran feel, you can't beat Rodrigo's Fantasia par un Gentilhombre.
In eastern lands, try Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov.
 
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