Favorite Civ Soundtracks?

[Weraptor]

Wow, it's beautiful!

 

[Uberfrog]

I really like it all, and the new NFP civ themes have all been really strong, but my favourite remains the Zulu Ancient theme.

The Zulu ambient music is really good too, but my favourites are the fiddle tunes that play when America, Australia, Canada, England and Scotland are in the game. A pick from each: New Five Cent Piece, Billy of Tea, Crooked Stove Pipe, High Germany and Chì Mi Na Mòrbheanna.

 

[Pietato]

Whoa whoa...going outside of Civ 6? Then civ 3 modern music is the best.

Australia still the worst.

 

[reddishrecue]

This is actually my problem with the arrangement: it's too perky. "Hard Times" should neither sound upbeat nor dirge-like; it has to hit just the right note of bittersweet.

Spoiler :

That reminds me a lot of the history of America when the revolutionary war started a new country in the eastside of the continent and the rest of the events of the U.S. like the civil war and unrest between the north and the south, the manifest destiny expansion to the west and the union pacific that connected the east and west through rail.

I honestly thought this was just default industrial era music. Maybe i played rome too much in vanilla...

If I didn't know better i would think it was taken from one of those landscape shots in saving private ryan.

IMO the greatest civ music is specifically this variant of Justinian's theme from civ4 and is the reason i have my profile picture. Organs are my weakness.
But as it stands now, the hungarian industrial theme is my reigning civ6 favorite. It just has so many moods and is very distinct and catchy.

I liked the Roman theme because the instrument makes a sound like if it was the howl of a singing wolf and it made sense since it kind of stands for the way Rome started out with Romulus, Remus and a she-wolf protector.
My weakness was the violin like the one in Mongolia.
The Hungarian theme is kinda catchy, I agree.

 

[ShakaKhan]

My long-time favorite has been Arabia's "Banat Iskandaria" and in particular the medieval version. Mentioned it last time this subject came up, reasons haven't changed. Catchy melody, awesome accompaniment. Familiar with the tune as my teacher made me learn it on my upright bass. Although, it's played at roughly 1/2 bpm for the civ renditions, which really makes it more interesting: the "chill" feel that it has by being so much slower is countered by how deep the dissonances seem to dig in from that timing.

My new favorite, though, is Norway. Can't decide if I like Medieval or Industrial better. The ancient is simply introducing the simple melody. The medieval introduces an interesting cello countermelody (learned that one on bass as well. Think it sounds better on that instrument, though admit I'm highly biased) and a harpsichord-ish accompaniment- those two instruments, cello and harpsichord are two of my favorite instrument timbres in terms of introducing dissonance and resolving it. Then in industrial the cello part being played by a full string section gives it more depth sounding more, appropriately, modern. It's different, wouldn't say better or worse. The accompaniment sounds pretty cool on the harp but gets really awesome when it's covering the melody and accompaniment. The melody is smoothly passed from the harp, then strings, then woodwinds, back to low strings, but every time I hear the low brass come in to complete the phrase I get goosebumps. As for the Atomic era theme, I usually stop paying attention once it starts sounding like Skrillex got a hold of it.

And perhaps it's just me, but this theme creates more imagery than any other theme. When I hear the outtro to the medieval theme, it conjures the vision of a fleet of Viking ships leaving the city after a raid- You may be safe now, but you see Harald standing at the back of the ship and giving you the "Harald's FInger" as if to say, "just because this raid is over doesn't mean we won't be back when you fix everything." And in the industrial version after the brass-gasm, those quick wind stings on the weak beats make me envision a crashing wave, and the hope that the crash of the wave won't reveal the sight of a longship behind it. Finally the way the theme quickly and often shifts from seeming calm and relaxed to intense and grandiose mirrors the shift between peacefully building a civilization's infrastructure to enduring a blitzkrieg Viking raid, over before you know it, and leaving him stronger and you needing to fix everything.

 

[Uberfrog]

My long-time favorite has been Arabia's "Banat Iskandaria" and in particular the medieval version. Mentioned it last time this subject came up, reasons haven't changed. Catchy melody, awesome accompaniment. Familiar with the tune as my teacher made me learn it on my upright bass. Although, it's played at roughly 1/2 bpm for the civ renditions, which really makes it more interesting: the "chill" feel that it has by being so much slower is countered by how deep the dissonances seem to dig in from that timing.

My new favorite, though, is Norway. Can't decide if I like Medieval or Industrial better. The ancient is simply introducing the simple melody. The medieval introduces an interesting cello countermelody (learned that one on bass as well. Think it sounds better on that instrument, though admit I'm highly biased) and a harpsichord-ish accompaniment- those two instruments, cello and harpsichord are two of my favorite instrument timbres in terms of introducing dissonance and resolving it. Then in industrial the cello part being played by a full string section gives it more depth sounding more, appropriately, modern. It's different, wouldn't say better or worse. The accompaniment sounds pretty cool on the harp but gets really awesome when it's covering the melody and accompaniment. The melody is smoothly passed from the harp, then strings, then woodwinds, back to low strings, but every time I hear the low brass come in to complete the phrase I get goosebumps. As for the Atomic era theme, I usually stop paying attention once it starts sounding like Skrillex got a hold of it.

And perhaps it's just me, but this theme creates more imagery than any other theme. When I hear the outtro to the medieval theme, it conjures the vision of a fleet of Viking ships leaving the city after a raid- You may be safe now, but you see Harald standing at the back of the ship and giving you the "Harald's FInger" as if to say, "just because this raid is over doesn't mean we won't be back when you fix everything." And in the industrial version after the brass-gasm, those quick wind stings on the weak beats make me envision a crashing wave, and the hope that the crash of the wave won't reveal the sight of a longship behind it. Finally the way the theme quickly and often shifts from seeming calm and relaxed to intense and grandiose mirrors the shift between peacefully building a civilization's infrastructure to enduring a blitzkrieg Viking raid, over before you know it, and leaving him stronger and you needing to fix everything.

The medieval Norwegian theme is really lovely. I think the cello-like instrument is a viola da gamba, and I believe this is used in all the medieval/renaissance themes. The musician is Niccolo Seligmann, he has a great YouTube channel playing all sorts of historical instruments. I’m not sure what the harpsichord-like is, it sounds almost like a zither.

Here he is playing a medieval violin which I think is also used in the medieval soundtracks.

Funny to think the source melody for such a thematic piece of music is a lullaby!

 

[Zaarin]

My new favorite, though, is Norway.

It's about time someone else appreciate that gorgeous theme that gets far too little love. I ran a one-shot tabletop RPG set in a small (fictional) fjord town in Norway inspired chiefly by Norddal and Tafjord, and I listened to a great deal of "Gjendines bådnlåt," "Byssan lull," "Fanitullen," and various hardingfele tunes while developing the setting. (Coincidentally, "Byssan lull" can sound super haunting and would make a great theme for Norway in the future.)

 

[Sostratus]

The Hungarian theme is kinda catchy, I agree.

Some of the civ5 city state jungles were really good too. Buenos Aires in particular. Whoever is writing this music for civ has talent.

 

[ShakaKhan]

I ran a one-shot tabletop RPG set in a small (fictional) fjord town in Norway inspired chiefly by Norddal and Tafjord, and I listened to a great deal of "Gjendines bådnlåt," "Byssan lull," "Fanitullen," and various hardingfele tunes while developing the setting.

Now THAT is something I want to see a Let's Play of... with accompanied soundtrack of course

 

[reddishrecue]

Some of the civ5 city state jungles were really good too. Buenos Aires in particular. Whoever is writing this music for civ has talent.

I agree. I also enjoyed music from civ V.
This one sound so Andean like Inca music from civ 6.

Spoiler :

This one uses the violin a lot which I liked.

Spoiler :

 

[Zaarin]

Now THAT is something I want to see a Let's Play of... with accompanied soundtrack of course

The game was Tales from the Loop, where the players play kids from the 80s solving mysteries while dealing with real-life problems--something like Stranger Things or the "kids on bikes" genre of media--mashed up with Nordic supernatural mystery RPG Vaesen (but I plan to run another one-shot in the setting without the supernatural elements from Vaesen). I'd be happy to send you my setting notes; feel free to PM me if you want them.