Music of Civ VI

[Theophilos]

Contrast Civ VI's American themes with Washington's in Civ VI.

The theme, Washington's Artillery March is present throughout. In the Ancient and Classical eras it is played only on drums. In the Medieval through Renaissance, it is played on its contemporary fife and drum. Industrial and Modern, we get a very MIDI-sounding attempt at a horn part. In my view, the middle version is by far the best and richest, because its instrumentation fits thematically with Washington as the leader, and a Revolutionary-era American civ. The other two pale in comparison, despite being an attempt to fit with instruments available in the era (although the snare drum in the back of the Ancient Era is surely anachronistic?). In the early version the drums really don't do a good job of conveying the melody, and as a result early era tunes sound quite similar across various different civs.

I vastly prefer Civ VI's approach. While banjos are anachronistic, they give a much richer sound even from the beginning of the game, and help to give a unique flavour to each Civ's theme. The leader music has come on leaps and bounds in terms of arrangement.

I like the themes in themselves, but , I am worried that there will be NO OTHER BACKGROUND MUSIC. I understand theme music when doing dipolimacy, or when "zooming in over a city" or maybe playing every once in a while in the background, but I am worried that without actual UNIQUE music that is not themed to a specific nation, that it will cause irritation

 

[Theophilos]

I would expect so, or at least I would hope so. On the other hand, now that you mention it, the fact that other civs' themes play as well is not encouraging...


You realize, of course, that Civ starts in the Late Chalcolithic, not the Neolithic let alone the Paleolithic. Stringed instruments are ancient, if not as ancient as reeds and percussions; they just feel more modern because they've changed more over the millennia. I do agree that I'd prefer a genuinely ancient stringed instrument to the banjo, but I have to admit that the banjo doesn't really feel that out of place--certainly not like, say, a guitar would. It at least has that taut plucky sound that I associate with lyres, ouds, erhu, and other ancient strings.

Some cultures did not have string instruments at all though! And what I mean by near primitive (bad choice of words I admit) is that from 4000 bc and onwards for quite awhile many cultures can be called nothing but tribal. Right now I have only heard Americas theme so maybe thats the problem, especially since they did not exist in the ancient era. Maybe I am just having too high of expectations. But the sound of the music does not make me think "Ancient" era at all, it just makes me think of a guy with a banjo playing by himself, especially since it is a STEPHEN FOSTER melody, it automatically brings me to the 19th century.

I really hope they do not only play countries melodies, but still have compositions for each era that is not tied to any specific nation.

In Civ III they had "culture specific" background music tied to eras, with NO NATION SPECIFIC music.

while in Civ IV they had mostly Western background music tied to eras, but INCLUDED nation specific music when in diplomacy or over a city

(civ V I don't really know cause I didn't enjoy the game)

Civ VI they seem to scrap background music entirely, and ONLY HAVE NATION SPECIFIC MUSIC (including other nations), also tied to ages. In my opinion it is a step back for immersive music while playing

 

[ToothedBomb]

I like the themes in themselves, but , I am worried that there will be NO OTHER BACKGROUND MUSIC.

Here is a video where you can listen to some of the music associated with the Aztecs (He stops talking at about 1:30). There does seem to be 'generic' music that is not tied directly to a specific civilization, but rather to regions (America, Europe, Asia etc.), exactly as was the case in Civ V. When meeting new civs, the accompanying music from those regions seem to start playing as well.

 

[Uberfrog]

In case anyone is still anxious about the lack of Christopher Tin, the man himself posted on Facebook to congratulate the rest of the composers on PCGamer's complimenting the soundtrack.

My title theme for Civ 6 hasn't been released yet, but in the meantime huge congrats to Geoff Knorr, Griffin Cohen and Roland Rizzo on earning PC Gamer's high praise "the best soundtrack in the series."

Go team!

So worry not, is theme will still be in the game, it just hasn't been officially released yet. Lest we forget, we've only seen a partial preview copy.

 

[Morningcalm]

When will they upload the music? I remember that for Civ V they released all the music weeks before the release. It really built up the anticipation.

 

[darko82]

I will repeat this:

Music should:

- be different for each civ (at least a few themes in each era per civ)
- evolve through the eras
- include war and peace themes
- change when hovering over and zooming in to a civ territory.
- be easily added/modded (no XML required).

 

[Guandao]

Can anyone identify Germany's theme?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XurcmncJlLs
it starts around 4:50 in this video

 

[reed8686]

The medieval version of the same song (germany theme) can be heard at 8:00 on this video

 

[Lyoncet]

I don't recognize the Germany music, but it gives me a lot of hope for the general state of the soundtrack.

 

[dexters]

I'm wondering if in house theme means streamers and youtubers can play with music on to showcase the soundtrack?

It's really a shame all civ5 let's plays have sound turned off due to the copyright dings they were getting

 

[Morningcalm]

So far, many playthroughs include the music. To me that makes sense. The music is not usually played unfiltered. There is always additional sound/commentary, etc from the YouTuber himself, which is why people are there in the first place. And Geoff Knorr has all the Civ V music for free on his webpage (well, the stuff he composed, anyway). I don't see what copyright issues should result from YouTubers having the game music playing in the background given that they already have game graphics playing in the background. From a legal perspective, I would argue that the commentary adds a transformative element to the Let's Plays (per fair use doctrine) that should allow music from the game to be played, albeit with some reasonable restrictions.

 

[dexters]

I've gotten copyright hits for uploading civ5 gameplay clips with music on. There are older let's plays with no sound at all because of copyright hits and the owner opted to cripple the video than to give money to the copyright trolls.

The issue is with the classical music in game. The youtube algorithm picks them up as copyrighted because someone may have rights to a specific rendition of a piece or Firaxis may well have licesendd those music pieces not intending to have them heard and reproduced in a let's play. Since those weren't quite a thing in 2009


Granted for playthroughs we want to hear the narration. Having music helps a ton even if it's turned down and just in the background

 

[Morningcalm]

I've gotten copyright hits for uploading civ5 gameplay clips with music on. There are older let's plays with no sound at all because of copyright hits and the owner opted to cripple the video than to give money to the copyright trolls.

The issue is with the classical music in game. The youtube algorithm picks them up as copyrighted because someone may have rights to a specific rendition of a piece or Firaxis may well have licesendd those music pieces not intending to have them heard and reproduced in a let's play. Since those weren't quite a thing in 2009


Granted for playthroughs we want to hear the narration. Having music helps a ton even if it's turned down and just in the background

It strikes me as weird that they would hit you for that if you were playing the game along with the music. What legal justification would they use? Given that Firaxis owns the rights to the in-house music, playing that should be fine, even if playing the (licensed to be played in the game) music is not ok (for whatever reason; i.e. maybe the licensors specifically asked that their contract not allow YouTubers to play their music).

 

[Danzo_87]

It strikes me as weird that they would hit you for that if you were playing the game along with the music. What legal justification would they use? Given that Firaxis owns the rights to the in-house music, playing that should be fine, even if playing the (licensed to be played in the game) music is not ok (for whatever reason; i.e. maybe the licensors specifically asked that their contract not allow YouTubers to play their music).

Also there are people/organizations that just file claims for the sake of it, in the end youtube policy still favors the one who claims, rather than protecting the victim

 

[dexters]

It strikes me as weird that they would hit you for that if you were playing the game along with the music. What legal justification would they use? Given that Firaxis owns the rights to the in-house music, playing that should be fine, even if playing the (licensed to be played in the game) music is not ok (for whatever reason; i.e. maybe the licensors specifically asked that their contract not allow YouTubers to play their music).

Havent checked in a long time but I get hit for the non in house stuff. Pretty sure this is why the major you tubers play with music off in civ5 or they can't monetize.

Me I don't care since im not a youtuber but it affects the content I watch

 

[God of Kings]

Someone would post the entire Civ VI soundtrack on YouTube anyways.

 

[Lesser Ajax]

Apologies if I missed it being pointed out already, but as far back as that first wave of videos based on the turn-limited demo, we've actually gotten at least one example of music that's not a civ's theme.

(Er, should be 18 minutes and 17 seconds in.)

That's "The Arkansas Traveler". It's an American song, but it's not "Hard Times Come Again No More" which is America's known theme. I don't know if that means there are musical groups like previous games or if each civ has its own list of songs they contribute if they're in a game or something, and I don't know if there are other era versions of "The Arkansas Traveler", but hey. Non-themes seem to exist.

 

[God of Kings]

It would be fun to listen to music of the indigenous peoples of the Americas as well (excluding those that are civs in Civ VI).

 

[Zaarin]

It would be fun to listen to music of the indigenous peoples of the Americas as well (excluding those that are civs in Civ VI).

One would assume that the Aztecs would have some Pre-Columbian music, and I for one certainly hope the glaring absence of a Native American civilization is rectified shortly, which will bring +1 Native American theme. It would be odd to link Native American music to the United States, though, especially given that we will eventually have at least one and hopefully more than one Native American civilization.

(May I just say that I would have loved the US to get a jazzy cover of "Hard Times" for the Atomic Age, given that jazz is one of America's biggest unique contributions to music.)

 

[6uho Koe]

Apologies if I missed it being pointed out already, but as far back as that first wave of videos based on the turn-limited demo, we've actually gotten at least one example of music that's not a civ's theme.

That's "The Arkansas Traveler". It's an American song, but it's not "Hard Times Come Again No More" which is America's known theme. I don't know if that means there are musical groups like previous games or if each civ has its own list of songs they contribute if they're in a game or something, and I don't know if there are other era versions of "The Arkansas Traveler", but hey. Non-themes seem to exist.

I think that's the case that there will be a second theme music from the same civ that's not the leader's theme. I mentione a while ago that I heard the song "gao shan liu shui," that was from civ v which was Wu's music, played in one of the early demos. It would be great if there are secondary theme music for all the civs. I almost wonder if they may be hints to being the theme music for secondary leaders in the future.