Hero music , greek?

[Nicholasim]

hey , im wondering , anyone knows what music genres are those songs where there are harps etc.

in shows like beowulf they played , in games like ''heros of might and magic'' they use also.

mainly i guess those olden times where there were kings and armys.

anyone can tell me what genre is it? and recommend any good bands/orchestras that plays this kinda music?

thanks =)

 

[ac]

The harp has been used in quite a number of genres, including the folk bunch and the improv circuit. Here's a link to zeena parkins. She's been round the block a couple of times, most notably with bjork, but also as an avant garde artist.

http://www.nyctaper.com/?p=34

There's also joanna newsom, the psych folk poster girl, though her voice takes a little getting used to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcsBGR9uHmc

 

[Cheez]

Sorry. Never watched the movie and never played the game. If you can give us some real examples or better description, we can help you better.

 

[adamqlw]

Movie soundtracks are an awesome place to start. You should probably check out the soundtrack for Gladiator by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerard! Especially the track "The Battle".

I usually find the string sections being important as they land either percussive or textural sound the the piece depending on the context. The brass sections is always necessary for that heroic fanfare Never really hurts to have a small choir either. I guess I generally associate that heroic sound with a big sound that conveys power and purpose. Danny Elfman has done a fair bit of music for movies based comic book characters, Batman and Spider Man instantly leap to mind. While these aren't period-style fantasy in nature, you can see the similarities between the two. The batman these has the big brass fanfare. The spiderman theme has the strings running wild in the background at some parts. But yeah... generally movie soundtracks are an awesome place to start looking for music like this. And Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman are among my two favourite composers in that genre. Hans Zimmer, to me though, is the master of that "big" sound.... Always loved his work on Gladiator and Pirates of the Carribean

PS: On a side note, if you haven't already checked them out there are a couple of symphonic metal bands you might interested in. Check out Therion and Rhapsody (especially Rhapsody if you like the fantasy stuff)

 

[SherT]

^ Agree with the Hanz Zimmer bit. The guy has a knack for the huge, epic sound. Even his shortest works are brilliant.

Take this piece he did for the Contender for example;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFUoqNVc0qU

 

[Cheez]

Actually, there's a lot of criticism about Hans Zimmer's music. I like his arrangements as well. But in reality, he has a team of "orchestrators" and "arrangers" who does the real work. He comes up with the main theme etc, and the rest of the team puts it down into music. These people don't get recognised and you will never see their names appearing, which is why some people are not that happy.

Also, Hans Zimmer has a knack of copying his own themes. They get repeated here and there, which makes you feel that sometimes he just borrows his old music as if he is on a tight schedule and has to meet a dateline.

 

[Godspeed64]

its still nice though..
you can try Tyler Bates.. he made the OST for 300..
Klaus Badelt for Pirates of the Caribbean..
Danny Elfman for Spiderman..
you should go search for it man..
google on LOTR, etc..

 

[Cloudsky]

James Horner too!

 

[guitarsan]

Check out Ritchie Blackmore.....the present day version. The dude is into Renaissance or Medieval style music now.

 

[Gr3yF0x]

beowulf! i just watched that yesterday. they all look like metal heads sia.

 

[Nicholasim]

hey , thanks for the replies , esp adamqlw. Thanks a lot =)

oh , greyfox , u know the song the queen played with the small 'harp' and the lyrics was something like "a hero has come.." wa lao .. i like that song a lot lol but cant find it anywhere

 

[adamqlw]

Criticism or not, I judge the work on it's own merit not on what people say about it... as for "copying" his own themes, I prefer to think of it as developing them. If you read some of the interviews with Zimmer this concept of developing a theme makes sense.

Funny how you mention people aren't happy with Zimmer though. One example I can think of that sort of goes against this is the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. It's obvious that Hans had a part in that but Hans goes out of his way in interviews to point out that the person who truly deserves credit for that is Klaus Bedalt...

 

[Cheez]

I'm not against Hans Zimmer at all. I like his music. The fact that he borrows a lot from his own music is one thing. He also borrows from other music as well (Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky, Mars by Holst etc). That's OK too, because each piece of music we write are usually influenced by somebody else. Hans can re-orchestrate them, so that itself is creative. But then, when I heard that a group of other people does most of the orchestration from him, that made me wonder how much of his music is actually done by himself. Still, for somebody who never had any formal music training, Hans Zimmer is VERY good!

But for really good film music, Elfman is not bad. And my favorite till today - John William's ET. The orchestration is just simply amazing, second to none!

 

[litford]

is this what you were looking for?

http://soft.com.sg/forum/showthread.php?t=1593