Lyrics for Baba Yetu (For those who want to sing/read along)

[Colonel Kraken]

You can download Baba Yetu as sung by Talisman Acapella at Amazon.com for free.

[MSTK]

Thank you guys for all the praise. I hope I don't get in trouble for bumping this. But I wanted to comment on some of the things you guys said.

First, once again, thank you for all the praise. I am not a Swahili speaker or student, so I did a lot of it by ear. As with many of the composers here, I was transfixed by the music and harmonies before the beauty of the words caught me.
Second, I will be sure to fix it with Christopher Tin's version. It's more correct
Third, I'm overjoyed to see that my influence has stretched pass CivFanatics into my forum homeland of GameFAQs. What goes around comes around, eh? Small world.
Fourth, I'm working on putting this to music so that those of you who have minimal musical talent can play it themselves.

Thank you guys for the encouragement

[ejdacanay]

Originally Posted by josephstalin

Baba Yetu is one of the best examples of polytheistic music ever. That's why it sounds so "epic".

lol isnt the lord prayer only christian?

btw good job!

[Coky]

I forgot to say thanks in my original post aswell :P. Thanks a bunch, Good to see people care. I'm a musician myself and will be sure to send some e-mails out RE: Baba Yetu.

[Rellik]

Originally Posted by MSTK

No, I mainly used a dictionary. For the words not in the Lord's Prayer (I googled a swahili version on the internet ), I had to transcribe them the best I could and look them up.

How were you able to transcribe any of the words without knowing Swahilli? Words all run together for most languages, so if you don't actually know the language you can't accurately decide where to put the spaces ie (Sing a song, or singa song, or sing asong, or singasong?)

[TheDervish]

He did quite a decent job at transcription for someone who claims to have no Swahili experience. He should look into linguistics or learning several languages :P

[Myzenium]

When I first booted up Civ4, I was expecting greatness from the music on the Main Menu, but it was even better than I could have imagined. Words cannot describe it. After listening a few times, I wondered what the lyrics meant. Thanks, MSTK, you answered.

The Lord's Prayer in Swahili? Very appropriate for the first Civ with religion in the gameplay. I'm loving it.

[djohanlon]

Great job on this. I truly enjoy the lessoned learned. I would like to know if anyone does. what "type/ style" of music is in the Civ IV game....? It seems to be a cross between many different kinds. The THEME song Bab Yetu is of special interest to me. Is this known as " swahili" music? or what kind is it. Again the MUSIC makes the game a pleasure...

[Weekends]

Silly question. Is the version on the audio CD that came with the game a different version than the opening version of the game intro? Or is it just me?

[Colonel Kraken]

The opening video music is different than the main menu music. It's called "Corornation", and it's also by Christopher Tin. You can download it from his website.

[Weekends]

Thanks. So it wasn't just me.

[stannum]

I read somewhere that the opening music was compared to something out of The Lion King. I didn't really think anything of it, but after actually buying, installing, and opening the game, I really enjoy this song. It is a great song to be used for the opening to a great game (series). Kudos to Firaxis.

Also, great thanks and gratitude goes out to MSTK for giving words and letters to this song. Amazing job.

[Mirc]

I simply love this song!!! But I'm a musician and I have to say the music sounds not too "original". I love it, of course, I didn't mean it's not amazing!!! But the music sounds like being made by a composer who found the words for this in Swahili and composed a brand new piece with no African elements (maybe just that chorus). I mean it sounds very different of popular African music, it has a lot of sound effects so the music doesn't sound very African.
BUT IT'S GREAT!

[MSTK]

Originally Posted by TheDervish

He did quite a decent job at transcription for someone who claims to have no Swahili experience. He should look into linguistics or learning several languages :P

I actually learned Tolkien's Elvish (Quenya). It's not like I'm ever going to run into an Elf on the street one day, but it was a fun experience.

And for transcribing, it was mainly guess-and-check. Thankfully, the dictionary I used had wildcards. For example, if I heard "chaka-something" I probably typed "chak*" (* being the wildcard). If that didn't work, I'd try "shak*" (maybe i heard it wrong?). But it was mostly guess and check.

[Otakumonkey]

Hey, thanks so much for this service you have done. The song is absolutely amazing, and i'm even more moved now knowing that it is the Lord's prayer. awesome, just awesome.

now only if my civ 4 would actually work=p

[mudhut]

Heya MSTK,

Just wanted to add my thanks to the throng - there was no way I could get the song out of my head until I knew the words, so you have saved me from having this endlessly cycle round inside my brain.

I absolutely love Baba Yetu!

B,

[AutomaticBzooty]

Just to add to the literature being compiled about this song, I emailed Christopher Tin and got the following response:

Thanks for your email, and thanks for the kind words about Baba Yetu.

Yes, you're right to notice the difference between the version on my website, and the version that was released with the game. Firaxis remixed the song and retained the vocals and orchestra, but removed all the percussion that I originally recorded and added their own sampled percussion (the most prominent of which are the marimba loops that play from beginning to end). I'd be curious to know which version you like better.

Also, as of yet there are no plans in the works to make the sheet music available, mostly because of a lack of time on my part to make a suitable arrangement for church/high school choirs, etc. The song relies too much on a full complement of orchestra and ethnic percussion, and a thinned-down version would probably not sound very good.

Best,

Chris

I dunno. Anyone else had a chance to compare the versions? His original can be found here:

www.christophertin.com/samples/BabaYetu.mp3

[sweKangaroo]

Im listening to them at the moment, trying to compare.

Hmm, the rythmic sounds differ a bit. The Firaxis version has more diffrent variations of rythmic sounds, while Tin's version has more natural sounding rythmic instruments.

Thats my thoughts

[ritterpa]

Originally Posted by Mirc

...I'm a musician and I have to say the music sounds not too "original"...sounds like being made by a composer who found the words for this in Swahili and composed a brand new piece with no African elements

Bingo. Lyrics and talent are only two parts of music. This music lacks soul, expression, and cultural merit. It's as impersonal as software painting a picture. It's a machinistic reproduction of a type of music in no way connected with the artists.

The a capella group is obviously very talented, but I would expect a respected composer to respect the tradition of the music and language. I would love to be a fly on the wall as a bunch of Swahilis heard this song for the first time.

I'm not trolling here, and I did appreciate the work the OP did since I at least know what soul-less crooning I am hearing; I'm just presenting an alternate viewpoint and trying to do so productively instead of just saying, "This song sucks" like others have done.

[AutomaticBzooty]

Well, from what I understand (and I think it was mentioned in another thread around here), there's a lot of traditional African choral music that's essentially translations of Christian prayers...probably a holdover from missionary work. So this sort of Swahili setting of the Lord's Prayer is actually quite common.