Real-World Melodies Used for Leader Music

deltafoxtrot129 · Mar 1, 2015

I've found that (from what I've seen at least) there hasn't been much conversation on the actual historical melodies that are referenced in the theme music used for the each leader. So I've made an attempt at compiling what I could into a series of videos, broken up by (in Civ-like Eurocentrism) leader era:

Ancient/Classical Leaders - Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Celts, Huns:

Egypt^†: Ancient Melody Fragments
Carthage^†: Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal (c.13th Century BC)
Assyria: Ancient Assyrian Hymn
Babylon: A Zaluzi To The Gods (Hurrian Hymn No.6) (c.13th Century BC)
Persia: Mohammad Shajarian - Morq-e sahar (20th Century)
Greece: Seikilos' Epitaph (c.1st Century BC-AD)
Rome^†: Traditional Melody Fragments
Celts: The Lass of Aughrim
Huns: Li Ling Si Han

Medieval Leaders - Byzantium, Mayans, China, Arabia, Denmark, Venice, Mongolia, Indonesia, Poland:

Byzantium: Phos Hilaron (c.4th Century AD)
Mayans: Traditional Melody Fragments
China: Bo Yo - Gao Shan Liu Shui
Arabia: Mohamed el-Qasabgi - Zikrayati (20th Century)
Denmark: Drømde mik en drøm i nat (c.1300)
Venice: Cesare Bendinelli - Rotta Ò Sonata (1614)
Mongolia: Mongolian Long Song
Siam^†: Melody in "The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music"
Indonesia: Udan Mas
Poland: Franciszek Karpiński - Bóg się rodzi (1792)

Renaissance Leaders - Korea, Incans, Spain, Ottomans, Netherlands, England, Japan, Morocco, Iroquois, Sweden:

Korea: Arirang (c.15th Century)
Aztecs^†: Cora Mitote Song from Santa Teresa
Incas: Traditional Melody Fragments
Songhai^†: Gambian Folk Song
Spain: ¡Ay Carmela! - Viva la XV Brigada (c.19th Century)
Ottomans: Ceddin Deden (c.16th-17th Century)
Netherlands: Abraham Schooleman - In naam van Oranje or Een liedje van Koppestok, den veerman (1872)
England: Gustav Holst - I Vow to Thee, My Country (1921)
Japan: Yatsuhashi Kengyo - Rokudan no shirabe (17th Century)
Morocco: Mawal Gnawi
Iroquois: Ho, Ho, Watanay
Sweden: Edvin Kallstenius - Du gamla, Du fria (1844)

Industrial/Modern Leaders - Austria, Russia, America, Portugal, Polynesia, France, Zulu, Germany, Brazil, India, Ethiopia:

Austria: Wolfgang A. Mozart - Requiem Mass (1791) / Still, Still, Still (c.1865)
Russia: Sergey Prokofiev - Montagues And Capulets from Romeo and Juliet (1935)
America: Samuel A. Ward - America the Beautiful (1910)
Portugal: Saudades de Coimbra (c.19th Century)
Polynesia: Leleiohoku - Hole Waimea (19th Century)
France: Jacques Offenbach - Infernal Galop from Orpheus in the Underworld (1858)
Zulu: Juluka - Inhliziyo Yami (1977)
Germany: Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No.9 "Ode to Joy" (1824)
Shoshone^†: Traditional Shoshone Sun Dance
Brazil: Antônio Carlos Jobin - Chega de Saudade (1958)
India: Raag Asa
Ethiopia: Imperial March of Ethiopia

^†Omitted from video series due to lack of sources upon video creation.

If you know of anything I missed (like multiple song references for one leader [I mainly am going off the peace themes], composer names, dates, etc.) or errors I made, please share! Will try and keep this post updated as I learn more. :cool:

Guandao · Mar 4, 2015

Egypts themes: Curran got his melody from the album "Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians & Greeks" by "The Ensemble De Organographia", particularly the track Harp Piece (A) (influenced the Peace theme). The war theme is taken straight from the first track, Musical Excerpts (2nd century AD). Check it out, its a great album and also contains A Zaluzi to the Gods (Babylons musical inspiration)

Carthages themes: it is from the same song as Babylons, but the melody does sound considerably different, look up A Hurrian Cult Song from Ugarit in Youtube, it has the same melody as Carthages themes

Romes themes: The Roman theme is based on fragments found here: http://classics.uc.edu/music/michigan/index.html

Siams themes: I think this one would be the toughest to find. Curran took inspiration from a melody in The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music (edited by Terry E. Miller, Sean Williams). It was a Northern Thai Melody. He based it on the musical notes and not on musical performance.

Aztecs themes: Cora Mitote Song from Santa Teresa, this website may be of use http://www.philtulga.com/Aztec Music.html , I believe this song was originally part of the Cantares Mexicanos and was adapted by the Cora,

Songhais themes: Here are Michael Currans words to me in an email,
The Songhai Empire did in fact extend into what is today Gambia, so when researching for a melody to base my leader music on, I did consider this. In deciding what melody to use as a "touch piece", I consider many things, including how much I like the melody and I liked this folk song very much. I found it actually by searching youtube. The melody which was quite simple and repetitive was being played and improvised on by a guy playing an instrument that sounded a bit like a banjo - playing a melody similar to the log drum and kalimba parts in my piece.
I have searched Youtube with no luck in finding this Gambian folk song.

Shoshones themes: Check out Geoff Knorrs website, go to the videogame section to find out his inspiration for these themes. He gives links to the songs.

Mongolia: I am not sure if the song you used is the same one Geoff Knorr based it on, it is part of the Yo-Yo Ma Silk Road CD. The vocal performance is by Khongorzul Ganbaatar.
http://www.amazon.com/Silk-Road-Journeys-When-Strangers/dp/B0000641CG

Also, can you tell me the titles of the youtube videos for the Mayans, Indian, and Ethiopian inspirations?

deltafoxtrot129 · Mar 4, 2015

Guandao said:
Egypt’s themes: Curran got his melody from the album "Music of the Ancient Sumerians, Egyptians & Greeks" by "The Ensemble De Organographia", particularly the track Harp Piece (A) (influenced the Peace theme). The war theme is taken straight from the first track, “Musical Excerpts (2nd century AD)”. Check it out, it’s a great album and also contains A Zaluzi to the Gods (Babylon’s musical inspiration)

Carthage’s themes: it is from the same song as Babylon’s, but the melody does sound considerably different, look up A Hurrian Cult Song from Ugarit in Youtube, it has the same melody as Carthage’s themes

Rome’s themes: The Roman theme is based on fragments found here: http://classics.uc.edu/music/michigan/index.html

Siam’s themes: I think this one would be the toughest to find. Curran took inspiration from a melody in The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music (edited by Terry E. Miller, Sean Williams). It was a Northern Thai Melody. He based it on the musical notes and not on musical performance.

Aztecs’ themes: Cora Mitote Song from Santa Teresa, this website may be of use http://www.philtulga.com/Aztec Music.html , I believe this song was originally part of the Cantares Mexicanos and was adapted by the Cora,

Songhai’s themes: Here are Michael Curran’s words to me in an email,
The Songhai Empire did in fact extend into what is today Gambia, so when researching for a melody to base my leader music on, I did consider this. In deciding what melody to use as a "touch piece", I consider many things, including how much I like the melody and I liked this folk song very much. I found it actually by searching youtube. The melody which was quite simple and repetitive was being played and improvised on by a guy playing an instrument that sounded a bit like a banjo - playing a melody similar to the log drum and kalimba parts in my piece.
I have searched Youtube with no luck in finding this “Gambian folk song”.

Shoshone’s themes: Check out Geoff Knorr’s website, go to the videogame section to find out his inspiration for these themes. He gives links to the songs.

Mongolia: I am not sure if the song you used is the same one Geoff Knorr based it on, it is part of the Yo-Yo Ma Silk Road CD. The vocal performance is by Khongorzul Ganbaatar.
http://www.amazon.com/Silk-Road-Journeys-When-Strangers/dp/B0000641CG

Also, can you tell me the titles of the youtube videos for the Mayans, Indian, and Ethiopian inspirations?

Cool finds. Nice to know where those I missed came from.

Mayan: http://youtu.be/9HILbfuvBD0

Indian: http://youtu.be/XvU12MOtsxo

Ethiopian: http://youtu.be/LGPJFSxLqxI

I'm not really sure if that's actually an Ethiopian march, but it did have a similar sound to the music in the game.

Guandao · Mar 6, 2015

the Iroquois themes and the Babylonian themes are the only tracks not composed by Geoff Knorr or Michael Curran. The Iroquois music is by Ian Smith (who left the company after), while the Babylonian music is by Roland Rizzo (he also composed the city-state music)

The thing about Michael Curran is that when he composed the non western music (ex: Mayan, Aztecs, Siam, Songhai, Ethiopia, Korea), he doesn't focus on one specific piece of music, he uses a variety of music from the culture. Thus, he admitted straying from the music in the book for Siam's themes. Also, he admits taking inspiration from music soundtracks for the Mayan themes (I guess Apocalypto's soundtrack was one influence).

I think that the Ethiopian Imperial march you found is the one he used for Haile's music. He also used another traditional Ethiopian melody (he does not remember the name), which accounts for the lyre-like string instruments (especially in the war theme)

IkM · Mar 6, 2015

Ottoman theme is an ancient Ottoman music, Ceddin Deden. It's a Heroic Song of Turks. And real one, which performed by Mehter(First Military Band in History) makes everyone in Turkey invade somewhere randomly

reddishrecue · Mar 6, 2015

The old mayan song that used to appear in civilization 4 kind of used to sound like a song that came out on the radio and its lyrics had it singing, 'baby, i cant wait.'.

deltafoxtrot129 · Mar 6, 2015

Updated post with more info. Will eventually include more links.

Real-World Melodies Used for Leader Music

deltafoxtrot129

Chieftain

Ancient/Classical Leaders - Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Celts, Huns:

Medieval Leaders - Byzantium, Mayans, China, Arabia, Denmark, Venice, Mongolia, Indonesia, Poland:

Renaissance Leaders - Korea, Incans, Spain, Ottomans, Netherlands, England, Japan, Morocco, Iroquois, Sweden:

Industrial/Modern Leaders - Austria, Russia, America, Portugal, Polynesia, France, Zulu, Germany, Brazil, India, Ethiopia:

Guandao

Rajah of Minyue and Langkasuka

deltafoxtrot129

Chieftain

Guandao

Rajah of Minyue and Langkasuka

IkM

King

reddishrecue

Some dude on civfans

deltafoxtrot129

Chieftain

Similar threads