Music in latest version of Civ IV

[DSYoungEsq]

Can anyone point me to a listing of the music being played now in the various ages of Civ IV? There are a couple interesting tracks I'd like to research getting my hands on full versions of.

 

[Kullervo]

Errr, the only ones I can reliably list is the Industrial age, and then not all of them, but here goes:

Dvorak, American symphony 1st and 2nd movements, Slavonic Dance #3 in A major (playing that one now on the piano), 2nd movement of the New World symphony (Oddly enough, the Civ version of it is the best performance I've heard thus far, and believe me I've heard a lot), Slavonic Dance #2 in E minor, Slavonic Dance #7.

Beethoven, Symphony #6 'Pastoral', movements 1 and 2, Symphony #5 2nd movement and if I'm not mistaken, Symphony #8, 3rd movement.

Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherezade, movements 1-3 (I think).

That's all I can remember, really.

 

[Kullervo]

Just remembered another one... Brahms, Hungarian dance #2.

 

[hsy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_in_Civilization_IV

 

[DSYoungEsq]

Thank-you. The list appears to be incomplete, however.

There was some period music added with either one of the expansions, or with one of the updates, that added a couple cute pieces for the Classical era. I wonder what they are.

 

[Dusk]

c:\whereyouinstalledciv\assets\sounds\soundtrack\

Throw in a "warlords" or "beyondthesword" before assets for that music

MP3 format and everything.

 

[stljeffbb]

c:\whereyouinstalledciv\assets\sounds\soundtrack\

Throw in a "warlords" or "beyondthesword" before assets for that music

MP3 format and everything.

Forgive my ignorance....I thought that I could not just put new music in the representative folders for BTS without changing the XML (like I believe could be done in Civ IV vanilla...a folder for each era)...am I incorrect? I guess I have never tried it....

Jeff

EDIT: I see the custom folder option still exists in BTS...a satisfactory work around without having to delve into the code....

 

[Nilmerf]

"Delving into the code" doesn't take too long and it's totally worth it. I couldn't imagine playing in the Industrial Age without Wagner and Tchaikovsky. And also replacing all the supremely crappy Modern Era music with the Industrial list.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

"Delving into the code" doesn't take too long and it's totally worth it. I couldn't imagine playing in the Industrial Age without Wagner and Tchaikovsky. And also replacing all the supremely crappy Modern Era music with the Industrial list.

I'm too bad at editing files to undertake doing so, but I emphatically agree about the music for the modern era.

 

[Kullervo]

All the Modern Era music is written by just one composer... John Adams...

I can occasionally hear some tempting finds in his music, but what was better as a brief, sharp menuetto turns into a dust-riddled 15 minute ballad with him. Why don't they at least diversify? Put in Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, Mahler's later works, especially the last movement from his 6th symphony, the Sibelius works... and I don't get how you can have a modern-era soundtrack without Stravinsky, who is arguably the most influential composer of the 20th century.

I like the Industrial and Classical soundtracks (well, almost all of Classical, and all of the Industrial), and a few interesting pieces from the Ancient soundtrack, especially the African-sounding tune.

 

[Öjevind Lång]

All the Modern Era music is written by just one composer... John Adams...

I can occasionally hear some tempting finds in his music, but what was better as a brief, sharp menuetto turns into a dust-riddled 15 minute ballad with him. Why don't they at least diversify? Put in Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, Mahler's later works, especially the last movement from his 6th symphony, the Sibelius works... and I don't get how you can have a modern-era soundtrack without Stravinsky, who is arguably the most influential composer of the 20th century.

I like the Industrial and Classical soundtracks (well, almost all of Classical, and all of the Industrial), and a few interesting pieces from the Ancient soundtrack, especially the African-sounding tune.

For the modern era, I also think they could have included some jazz music. Some of the most impressive modern music is jazz.

 

[skyclad]

psst, best song in the game is the warlords tune "pelopponesian" played during classical age.

Medieval music is so annoying... I wish I could stay in the rennaisanse and industrial age all game ^^

 

[lshockley]

I play mostly with music off nowadays - but I think it'd be really cool if the music changed when you were at war. There could be a whole second set of martial at-war music for each era. For instance, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture for classical, Holst's Mars (from the Planets) and maybe some of the more rousing Sousa marches for Industrial, maybe some revolutionary/anarchist punk for modern, and so on. Of course, we'd need a lot so the warmongers don't go crazy from repetition.

What do you think? Any other suggestions?

 

[Nilmerf]

I play mostly with music off nowadays - but I think it'd be really cool if the music changed when you were at war. There could be a whole second set of martial at-war music for each era. For instance, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture for classical, Holst's Mars (from the Planets) and maybe some of the more rousing Sousa marches for Industrial, maybe some revolutionary/anarchist punk for modern, and so on. Of course, we'd need a lot so the warmongers don't go crazy from repetition.

What do you think? Any other suggestions?

Why 1812 Overture for classical? The cannon fire does not work, and the piece is obviously about Napoleon's defeat in 1812 at the hands of Russia.
Here is what I've added so far, other suggestions welcome!

RENAISSANCE

Mozart - Rondo Alla Turca, German Dance, Magic Flute Overture, Minuet in D Major, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Piano Concerto No. 21, Symphony No. 40 in G Minor
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons (Spring)

INDUSTRIAL

Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 (Molto Allegro)
Georges Bizet - Carmen (Act 1 Overture)
Brahms - Hungarian Dance No. 5
Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 (Allegro), 1812 Overture
Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries, Tannhauser (Arrival of the Guests at the Wartburg)

 

[nmcul]

I play mostly with music off nowadays - but I think it'd be really cool if the music changed when you were at war. There could be a whole second set of martial at-war music for each era. For instance, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture for classical, Holst's Mars (from the Planets) and maybe some of the more rousing Sousa marches for Industrial, maybe some revolutionary/anarchist punk for modern, and so on. Of course, we'd need a lot so the warmongers don't go crazy from repetition.

What do you think? Any other suggestions?

Didn't Colonization (the Civ 4 one) do that when you started your revolution? Also, nice soundtrack for that game. Wouldn't quite fit in with the regular Civ 4 soundtrack, but it's a good fit for the theme.

 

[NBAfan]

All the Modern Era music is written by just one composer... John Adams...

I can occasionally hear some tempting finds in his music, but what was better as a brief, sharp menuetto turns into a dust-riddled 15 minute ballad with him. Why don't they at least diversify? Put in Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, Mahler's later works, especially the last movement from his 6th symphony, the Sibelius works... and I don't get how you can have a modern-era soundtrack without Stravinsky, who is arguably the most influential composer of the 20th century.

Don't forget Gershwin.

1812 Overture makes great Industrial era music.

 

[dodgerphreak]

One piece that I can hear that is in the game that (I think) has not been mentioned in here is an movement 3 from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. Truly awesome music. One of the mostt memorable iterations of Scheherazade is Santa Clara Vanguard's 2004 show which featured Scheherazade. One of my favorite drum corps shows of all time. But I am getting off topic here...

Anyway, this music is quite extraordinary. It truly makes Civ4 a unique game in the fact that it doesn't use crappy modern pop music as it's soundtrack...

 

[Bushface]

Anyway, this music is quite extraordinary. It truly makes Civ4 a unique game in the fact that it doesn't use crappy modern pop music as it's soundtrack...

Instead, it uses crappy modern-classical music. I would hate to think that the future will be led to believe that at this time we had only one composer, whose output (judging from the pieces chosen for this game) is entirely monotonous, repetitive and lacking any kind of structure or melody. A while ago somebody posted the question "What sadist chose the modern music ?", a sentiment with which I whole-heartedly agree. Whoever it was should be made to listen to the stuff on a continuous loop at high volume while at the same time being flogged.

 

[nmcul]

Instead, it uses crappy modern-classical music. I would hate to think that the future will be led to believe that at this time we had only one composer, whose output (judging from the pieces chosen for this game) is entirely monotonous, repetitive and lacking any kind of structure or melody. A while ago somebody posted the question "What sadist chose the modern music ?", a sentiment with which I whole-heartedly agree. Whoever it was should be made to listen to the stuff on a continuous loop at high volume while at the same time being flogged.

To be fair, the pieces are opera pieces, and if you listen to the samples on John Adams' website you will realize that the game devs stripped out all of the spoken audio in most of the pieces (The People are the Heros Now being the obvious exception). So most of the modern compositions are vocal pieces with the vocals removed.

 

[Kullervo]

To be fair, the pieces are opera pieces, and if you listen to the samples on John Adams' website you will realize that the game devs stripped out all of the spoken audio in most of the pieces (The People are the Heros Now being the obvious exception). So most of the modern compositions are vocal pieces with the vocals removed.

Approximately as logical as a circular firing squad.

Overture of 1812 would not work in Civ, I think. While I like the piece itself very much, the sound systems on most computers would be incapable of conveying the full impact of the piece. Cannon fire would not sound at all with a typical computer sound system, and the very effective builds in the piece would have their quieter parts lost.

I was actually thinking that Bruch's violin concerto #1 (mvt. 3) and Schubert's Symphony #9 (mvt. 2) would be great additions to the Industrial soundtrack. But they REALLY need to change the modern-era soundtrack. I can write better music than that.