Morningcalm
Keeper of Records
So exuberant and delightful! It's always fun to see and hear the source music and compare with the in-game versions.
Music of Civ VI
- Thread starter Ben.
- Start date
So exuberant and delightful! It's always fun to see and hear the source music and compare with the in-game versions.
Guandao
Rajah of Minyue, Hlai and Langkasuka
Halala, Bayisa, Uthe Ubhuti Asizomlanda can all be found on Youtube. I'm not sure about Shaka Mamba.
I was critical of the Zulu themes at first (too "Westernized", no whooping cries
), but gradually fell in love with them during my overseas trip. 
sonicmyst
Emperor
R&F Original Soundtrack available now:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sid-meiers-civilization-vi-rise-fall-original-game/1342345571
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sid-meiers-civilization-vi-rise-fall-original-game/1342345571
WillowBrook
Lurker
I started a game as Wilhelmina last night, and I love her ancient theme! I know some have criticized the song choice, but however dubious its connection to the Netherlands, it made for very pleasant playing. 
And then I found Shaka right next door - very nice addition to the musical mix.
(He, however, will not last long. I paused to sleep with his capital under siege and 6 turns left in the ancient era.)
And then I found Shaka right next door - very nice addition to the musical mix.
(He, however, will not last long. I paused to sleep with his capital under siege and 6 turns left in the ancient era.
)
halfhalfharp
Prince
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2016
- Messages
- 517
I thought it was Chinese, personally. At the very least a more eastern civ than Norway
Chinese music is only composed on 5 notes: C, D, E, G, A (Do-re-mi-so-la, if you dont know anything about music theory). It is a pentatonic (5 notes) style, although it certainly had a lot of differences in the long history.
Even when we switch the key from C major to other keys, e.g. D major in Civ's chinese theme, there will only be 5 different notes at most.
If you hear a music of more than 5 different types of notes, it is definitely non-chinese.
Japanese and Korean music may have a different melody scale though, but also pentatonic, as I remember. Pentatonicity is shared by most eastern asian music.
Example of Japanese style: E-F#-G-B-C (mi-fa#-so-ti-do, as used in Civ6 Japanese theme)
Last edited:
God of Kings
Ruler of all heads of state
Don't forget that some Scottish music and some First Nations music are also pentatonic.
halfhalfharp
Prince
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2016
- Messages
- 517
Oh yeah, but that is enough for us to distinguish music styles from many civs already, like Arabic, Greek, Indian, which use more variety of notes.
Penta-tonicity may be shared, but the melody type (Harmonic, dominant 7, Major/minor, etc) and flow (cadence, rhythm etc) can be very different.
Let's not listing all of the features here.
Five notes can make a whole world of music already. Thats one of the fascinating nature of melody.
Guandao
Rajah of Minyue, Hlai and Langkasuka
Here is Mr. Knorr's kind reply to my inquiry about Tsaiqvanes Tamar Kali, and the Zulu themes:
Great to hear you're enjoying the music in the Rise and Fall expansion.
The Georgian vocal trio I was able to work with, Trio Kavkasia, has a very deep knowledge of Georgian music traditions and songs, and they are the ones who introduced me to "Tsaiqvanes Tamar Kali." When I described how the music would be used in game and mentioned Tamar, they suggested this tune as a possibility. It is, in fact, a processional written for Tamar, making it very, very old.
For the Zulu music selections, we arrived at the choices by a combination of my own research and listening to Zulu music as well as the research of the producer of the Zulu vocal sessions in South Africa, Caleb Vaughn-Jones. I'm not very familiar with the Zulu language, but I know they have different kind of clicks as parts of words, so it is possible the more noticeable "clicking" in these pieces is due simply to the different lyrics. It is also possible the clicking is more apparent with the smaller ensemble versus the choir that was used in Civ V.
One of the interesting things related to Zulu music is that it can sound quite positive, even when they are singing about very dark things. For instance, "Bayisa" is a war song with lyrics translated as follows:
Our enemies will be pleased
Our enemies will eat us
Today they chasing us out
Oh they’re coming
Ohh they’re coming.
All the best,
Geoff
Fun Fact: Caleb Vaughn-Jones performed the Cello for Civ5's Mongolian themes as a substitute for the Morin Khuur.
Great to hear you're enjoying the music in the Rise and Fall expansion.
The Georgian vocal trio I was able to work with, Trio Kavkasia, has a very deep knowledge of Georgian music traditions and songs, and they are the ones who introduced me to "Tsaiqvanes Tamar Kali." When I described how the music would be used in game and mentioned Tamar, they suggested this tune as a possibility. It is, in fact, a processional written for Tamar, making it very, very old.
For the Zulu music selections, we arrived at the choices by a combination of my own research and listening to Zulu music as well as the research of the producer of the Zulu vocal sessions in South Africa, Caleb Vaughn-Jones. I'm not very familiar with the Zulu language, but I know they have different kind of clicks as parts of words, so it is possible the more noticeable "clicking" in these pieces is due simply to the different lyrics. It is also possible the clicking is more apparent with the smaller ensemble versus the choir that was used in Civ V.
One of the interesting things related to Zulu music is that it can sound quite positive, even when they are singing about very dark things. For instance, "Bayisa" is a war song with lyrics translated as follows:
Our enemies will be pleased
Our enemies will eat us
Today they chasing us out
Oh they’re coming
Ohh they’re coming.
All the best,
Geoff
Fun Fact: Caleb Vaughn-Jones performed the Cello for Civ5's Mongolian themes as a substitute for the Morin Khuur.
Last edited:
Katakanja
Emperor
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2016
- Messages
- 1,258
Well, it is important to keep a positive mindset even in the most dire of situations...
As far as I can tell (with the help of the sleeve notes I linked above, and https://isizulu.net/) the Zulu words are as follows:-
Amanqakith' ayojabula
Amanq' ayodla thina
Namuhla bexhosha thina
Oh bayeza
Oh bayeza
The amanqakithi will be pleased
The vultures will eat us
Today they will drive us out
Oh, they're coming
Oh, they're coming
If the sleeve notes are to be believed, the amanqakithi (lit. kin of the vulture) are ancient enemies of the Zulu, and there seems to be a play on words here as amanqe means "vulture". So cannibalism may or may not be implied
.In isiZulu the consonants c, x and q correspond with click sounds made at, in turn, the front teeth (dental click), the side teeth (lateral click) and the palate (alveolar click). There's a very fine instruction video here (albeit for isiXhosa) if you want to sing along at home
-
Last edited:
Guandao
Rajah of Minyue, Hlai and Langkasuka
As far as I can tell (with the help of the sleeve notes I linked above, and https://isizulu.net/) the Zulu words are as follows:-
Amanqakith' ayojabula
Amanq' ayodla thina
Namuhla bexhosha thina
Oh bayeza
Oh bayeza
The amanqakithi will be pleased
The vultures will eat us
Today they will drive us out
Oh, they're coming
Oh they're coming
If the sleeve notes are to be believed, the amanqakithi (lit. kin of the vulture) are ancient enemies of the Zulu, and there seems to be a play on words here as amanqe means "vulture". So cannibalism may or may not be implied
In isiZulu the consonants c, x and q correspond with click sounds made at, in turn, the front teeth (dental click), the side teeth (lateral click) and the palate (alveolar click). There's a very fine instruction video here (albeit for isiXhosa) if you want to sing along at home
Allegations/accusations of Cannibalism against other tribes/ethnic groups in Sub-Saharan Africa was pretty common in the pre-Modern era....
halfhalfharp
Prince
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2016
- Messages
- 517
Yeah, this phenomenon was brought by many novels and adventurers in the colonial era, based on a lot of loosely proved rumors and stereotyping.
Motivated by finally figuring out the words to "Bayisa", I've cobbled together the various bits I've found to make a reasonably coherent (but flawed because... I don't speak a word of Zulu) transcription and rough translation of the Ancient theme for anyone who is interested:
Uthe ubhut' asizomlanda
Uthe ubhut' asizomlanda
Uthe ubhut' asizomlanda (uhyahluhpheka)
Ayi, ayi, ayi ('sizomland', 'sizomland' o 'sizomlanda uhyahluhpheka)
---
Amanqakith' ayojabula
Amanq' ayodla thina
Namuhla bexhosha thina
O, bayeza
O, bayeza
---
Halala
Halala siyan'bongela
San'bona maZulu!
San'bona maZulu amahle!
Awu ithi nje "Dear Mntanami"
Nam' angazi, nam' angazi
The first part (Uthe ubhuti asizomlanda - "we will fetch our brother") is a nice, peaceful song about bringing a woman's fiancé to the wedding . The second (Bayisa, but I think more correctly it is perhaps Bayeza - "they are coming") is, as mentioned above, a more sinister war song about a conflict with a cannibalstic enemy. The final part (Halala - "congratulations") is a widely-sung song of celebration.
I like the reasonably peaceful, if slightly menacing, introduction it gives the Zulu. Then when the Medieval Era hits and those Impi start their rampage, the stabbing violin strings and the song excerpts, including reference to Shaka being a mamba - or rather a horned adder (indlondlo) - suggest that celebration is now about a victory in war.
Uthe ubhut' asizomlanda
Uthe ubhut' asizomlanda
Uthe ubhut' asizomlanda (uhyahluhpheka)
Ayi, ayi, ayi ('sizomland', 'sizomland' o 'sizomlanda uhyahluhpheka)
Spoiler translation :
---
Amanqakith' ayojabula
Amanq' ayodla thina
Namuhla bexhosha thina
O, bayeza
O, bayeza
Spoiler translation :
---
Halala
Halala siyan'bongela
San'bona maZulu!
San'bona maZulu amahle!
Awu ithi nje "Dear Mntanami"
Nam' angazi, nam' angazi
Spoiler translation :
The first part (Uthe ubhuti asizomlanda - "we will fetch our brother") is a nice, peaceful song about bringing a woman's fiancé to the wedding . The second (Bayisa, but I think more correctly it is perhaps Bayeza - "they are coming") is, as mentioned above, a more sinister war song about a conflict with a cannibalstic enemy. The final part (Halala - "congratulations") is a widely-sung song of celebration.
I like the reasonably peaceful, if slightly menacing, introduction it gives the Zulu. Then when the Medieval Era hits and those Impi start their rampage, the stabbing violin strings and the song excerpts, including reference to Shaka being a mamba - or rather a horned adder (indlondlo) - suggest that celebration is now about a victory in war.
Last edited:
Fear not, hosiery fans: after some more careful listening, I think Shaka Mamba does include the reference to socks hinted at in the liner notes.
As best I can tell, the version in the Medieval theme is as follows:
weShaka wayindlondlo (sizwile bekusho)
weShaka wayindlondl' ekhaya (ubhanq' amasokisi semlenze)
As far as I can tell the socks line is a nonsense lyric added to fit the metre, which is quite common in folk (and indeed pop) songs. But I like to imagine Shaka sporting a particularly snazzy pair of socks while out on his conquests.
This makes the full lyrics something like this:-
As best I can tell, the version in the Medieval theme is as follows:
weShaka wayindlondlo (sizwile bekusho)
weShaka wayindlondl' ekhaya (ubhanq' amasokisi semlenze)
Spoiler translation :
As far as I can tell the socks line is a nonsense lyric added to fit the metre, which is quite common in folk (and indeed pop) songs. But I like to imagine Shaka sporting a particularly snazzy pair of socks while out on his conquests.
This makes the full lyrics something like this:-
Spoiler Zulu Medieval Lyrics :
Last edited:
Gabriel Sergio
Warlord
I'm gonna revive this thread since civ 6 music is one of its best features.
We're getting GS and about music (assuming the leaks are true) :
1. I'd like to see Haka chant as part of Maori's theme. That'd be badass and a way to show that Maori is a terrifying and fierce civ
2. Ceddin Deden should be back as Ottoman's theme
We're getting GS and about music (assuming the leaks are true) :
1. I'd like to see Haka chant as part of Maori's theme. That'd be badass and a way to show that Maori is a terrifying and fierce civ
2. Ceddin Deden should be back as Ottoman's theme
CivLuvah
Deity
Don't forget the Inca panpipes! I wanna hear that!
altayrneto
Prince
About the Maori, I would like to see a escalition in the music, starting by a song like this and growing up to the Haka:
And about the Ottomans, Ceddin Deden is a really good idea, but there's also the Mecidiye Marşı and other military marches, and for a more calm option, Güldür Gül, for example
For the incans, I hear about "El Condor Pasa" and I think it fits pretty well:
nzcamel
Nahtanoj the Magnificent
Not Maori though, ae?
I suspect much of the early Maori soundtrack will rely on vocals, both haka and song.
seasnake
Conquistador
Cedin Dedden is fantastic in Civ V, top 3 war theme in the game (with I Vow to Thee My Country and Du Gamla Du Fria). But it’s always fun to hear another song civ-styled, makes for a less-repetitive playlist
