So as I think most Civ fans probably know by now, the music in the games are usually based on a real life folk song (America has ‘Hard Times Come Again No More’ in Civ VI for example). For a long time, I’ve been interested in finding the songs the Civ themes in Civ VI were based on. Most of it has been very easy, as Peaches Lamb’s soundtrack playlist (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh4Eme5gACZGDVGh-unzj0p70NiADSdY0) has many of the Civ themes (both the main theme and the ambients) with the names of what folk song they are based on. You can also usually find their names in the files.
Some tracks don’t seem to have a folk song they are based on. This is the case for those tracks listed as ‘improvisations.’ So for example, Spain has several guitar improvisations as their ambient themes. There’s a few exceptions I have found, but this post isn’t about them.
Some tracks are ambiguously named. They aren’t listed as improvs, but they aren’t listed with the name of the song they’re based on. They seem to be based on real folk songs, it just takes someone with knowledge of the musical tradition to find it. For example, in the files there’s a couple tracks for Hungary that are simply titled ‘Court Music’ but have been found to be real folk songs. The ambient themes for France used to be unknown as well, but now almost all of them have been found.
The folk song I’m looking for is from the Polish Civ. Now, Poland has these songs, and here I will list what they are called in the files:
-The main theme, Hej Ide W Las
-ClarinetFolkDance
-Czerwienne
-PolandFestivalDance
-PolandAncientDance (simply titled ‘Folk Dance’ on YouTube)
Here is the Peaches Lamb playlist for Poland: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR2pbIMGdPmHK6x0WZenSpXAtVKs8wJc2
Now, Hej Ide W Las and Czerwienne were very easy to find, since these themes had the actual name of the folk songs they were based on.
Here is the original Hej Ide W Las:
Here is the original Czerwienne (or Czerwienianska as it’s called):
The other three tracks however weren’t at all obvious, as you could probably tell. It’s not like I could just search ‘clarinet folk dance’ and then suddenly find it. I didn’t even know where to look. I did find a music sheet that you could buy on Geoff Knorr’s website that was titled ‘Poland Additional Ambient Music - Wprowadzony.’ Wprowadzony means ‘introduction’ in Polish. I didn’t really know which one of the unknown ambients this could be, until I read a comment on the YouTube video for ‘Clarinet Folk Dance’ that implied the track was in Geoff Knorr’s site. So I guessed that Wprowadzony was the original name of ‘Clarinet Folk Dance.’ This is all the information I really had though. I couldn’t find the actual Wprowadzony song the track was based on, since the name was so non-specific. Not knowing what else to do, I shelved this little search of mine and moved on with my life.
Then, when I became interested in finding Poland’s songs again, I decided to email Roland Rizzo, who worked on the music for the civ, and about the three mystery songs in particular. Here’s what he had to say:
“When I was researching Traditional Polish folk music, most of the results were Polkas, which didn't even originate in Poland. But I did find this CD, which is where all of the melodies I used for the Polish Civ are from:
https://www.amazon.com/Polish-Folk-Traditional-Music/dp/B000ETRB7C/ref=sr_1_4?crid=14A4A1W0T3Y8A&keywords=Polish+Folk+&+Traditional+Music&qid=1661704736&s=music&sprefix=polish+folk+&+traditional+music,popular,74&sr=1-4
Quite a few of these were vocal, so if I used one of those, they were rearranged to be instrumental. Also, almost all of these pieces were renamed by someone who probably looked at the Polish names and said, no.
The Clarinet Folk Dance probably refers to the first track of the CD: Wprowadzony (Introduction Piece)/Clarinet Solo Folk Dance. I remember using Wprowadzony, but not the second half of the piece, which is the Clarinet Solo.
The Polish Festival Dance is: Gdzies Byl Jasinku (Where were you Johnny?)
I can't remember the PolishAncientDance, sorry, but that's definitely not its original name.”
He also said that since he was working on the next version of Civ (which means he’s composing music either for a future DLC or for the seventh Civ game), he didn’t have the time to get further information,
Amazon doesn’t seem to list all the songs in the album anymore. Luckily I made a doc with all of the songs along with Spotify links: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jjXolf5cR8rSlo1PhNkvvA_t1WhVp9tpr3KyNIvNadk/edit
With that information, I was able to track down both Wprowadzony and Gdzies Byl Jasinku on Spotify, and I was elated to hear that they sounded just like their Civ counterparts!
Here is Wprowadzony (Introduction Piece):
Here is Gdzies Byl Jasinku (Where were you, Johnny?):
All I had to do now is find the song in the album that PolandAncientDance/Folk Dance is based on, and then I will have found all of the music used for Poland. There was a problem however. I tried listening to each of the songs a few times, and none of them really stood out to me as the song. I think there are two major reasons why: the songs are recorded from the 50s and earlier and have low quality, making it a lot harder to compare them side by side; the Civ song uses radically different instruments from the songs in the album, using a string instrument and drum beat, while the album is consisted of mostly vocal songs. Most of them sounded similar, and it wasn’t clear to me if I could single one out as the song I’m looking for.
What I want is input from other people. This may sound like a trivial or even boring task to undertake, but this means the world to me. I really, really, really want to find this song! I’ve been wanting to find it for years! But I just can’t seem to figure out which one it is out of the set of songs in the album! I encourage you to listen to all of the songs I list in the doc, and see if you can figure out which one PolandAncientDance/Folk Dance is based on. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my post.
Some tracks don’t seem to have a folk song they are based on. This is the case for those tracks listed as ‘improvisations.’ So for example, Spain has several guitar improvisations as their ambient themes. There’s a few exceptions I have found, but this post isn’t about them.
Some tracks are ambiguously named. They aren’t listed as improvs, but they aren’t listed with the name of the song they’re based on. They seem to be based on real folk songs, it just takes someone with knowledge of the musical tradition to find it. For example, in the files there’s a couple tracks for Hungary that are simply titled ‘Court Music’ but have been found to be real folk songs. The ambient themes for France used to be unknown as well, but now almost all of them have been found.
The folk song I’m looking for is from the Polish Civ. Now, Poland has these songs, and here I will list what they are called in the files:
-The main theme, Hej Ide W Las
-ClarinetFolkDance
-Czerwienne
-PolandFestivalDance
-PolandAncientDance (simply titled ‘Folk Dance’ on YouTube)
Here is the Peaches Lamb playlist for Poland: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR2pbIMGdPmHK6x0WZenSpXAtVKs8wJc2
Now, Hej Ide W Las and Czerwienne were very easy to find, since these themes had the actual name of the folk songs they were based on.
Here is the original Hej Ide W Las:
Here is the original Czerwienne (or Czerwienianska as it’s called):
The other three tracks however weren’t at all obvious, as you could probably tell. It’s not like I could just search ‘clarinet folk dance’ and then suddenly find it. I didn’t even know where to look. I did find a music sheet that you could buy on Geoff Knorr’s website that was titled ‘Poland Additional Ambient Music - Wprowadzony.’ Wprowadzony means ‘introduction’ in Polish. I didn’t really know which one of the unknown ambients this could be, until I read a comment on the YouTube video for ‘Clarinet Folk Dance’ that implied the track was in Geoff Knorr’s site. So I guessed that Wprowadzony was the original name of ‘Clarinet Folk Dance.’ This is all the information I really had though. I couldn’t find the actual Wprowadzony song the track was based on, since the name was so non-specific. Not knowing what else to do, I shelved this little search of mine and moved on with my life.
Then, when I became interested in finding Poland’s songs again, I decided to email Roland Rizzo, who worked on the music for the civ, and about the three mystery songs in particular. Here’s what he had to say:
“When I was researching Traditional Polish folk music, most of the results were Polkas, which didn't even originate in Poland. But I did find this CD, which is where all of the melodies I used for the Polish Civ are from:
https://www.amazon.com/Polish-Folk-Traditional-Music/dp/B000ETRB7C/ref=sr_1_4?crid=14A4A1W0T3Y8A&keywords=Polish+Folk+&+Traditional+Music&qid=1661704736&s=music&sprefix=polish+folk+&+traditional+music,popular,74&sr=1-4
Quite a few of these were vocal, so if I used one of those, they were rearranged to be instrumental. Also, almost all of these pieces were renamed by someone who probably looked at the Polish names and said, no.
The Clarinet Folk Dance probably refers to the first track of the CD: Wprowadzony (Introduction Piece)/Clarinet Solo Folk Dance. I remember using Wprowadzony, but not the second half of the piece, which is the Clarinet Solo.
The Polish Festival Dance is: Gdzies Byl Jasinku (Where were you Johnny?)
I can't remember the PolishAncientDance, sorry, but that's definitely not its original name.”
He also said that since he was working on the next version of Civ (which means he’s composing music either for a future DLC or for the seventh Civ game), he didn’t have the time to get further information,
Amazon doesn’t seem to list all the songs in the album anymore. Luckily I made a doc with all of the songs along with Spotify links: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jjXolf5cR8rSlo1PhNkvvA_t1WhVp9tpr3KyNIvNadk/edit
With that information, I was able to track down both Wprowadzony and Gdzies Byl Jasinku on Spotify, and I was elated to hear that they sounded just like their Civ counterparts!
Here is Wprowadzony (Introduction Piece):
Here is Gdzies Byl Jasinku (Where were you, Johnny?):
All I had to do now is find the song in the album that PolandAncientDance/Folk Dance is based on, and then I will have found all of the music used for Poland. There was a problem however. I tried listening to each of the songs a few times, and none of them really stood out to me as the song. I think there are two major reasons why: the songs are recorded from the 50s and earlier and have low quality, making it a lot harder to compare them side by side; the Civ song uses radically different instruments from the songs in the album, using a string instrument and drum beat, while the album is consisted of mostly vocal songs. Most of them sounded similar, and it wasn’t clear to me if I could single one out as the song I’m looking for.
What I want is input from other people. This may sound like a trivial or even boring task to undertake, but this means the world to me. I really, really, really want to find this song! I’ve been wanting to find it for years! But I just can’t seem to figure out which one it is out of the set of songs in the album! I encourage you to listen to all of the songs I list in the doc, and see if you can figure out which one PolandAncientDance/Folk Dance is based on. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my post.
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