Guandao
Rajah of Minyue, Hlai and Langkasuka
Ok, I asked Geoff Knorr a ton of questions on the pre-RF Civ music themes. Here they are:
Good to hear from you again. I apologize for my delayed response, I haven't had as much time to respond to fan emails over the last few weeks. In response to your questions:
England Ancient and Germany Ancient were performed by Niccolo Seligmann, the same player who plays the vielle and bass viol parts in the medieval era pieces.
Greece Ancient includes a ney and 9-string Grecian lyre. They ney is performed by Chakib Hilali and the lyre is performed by myself. I purchased the lyre from a shop in Greece, Luthieros, that specializes in authentic recreations of ancient Grecian instruments.
The Indonesia Ancient theme is actually performed using the "Soniccouture Balinese Gamelan II" sample library. I explored working with and recording a gamelan ensemble, but the difficulty of having the tuning of the ensemble match any Western instrumentation made it impractical. I worked with an expert on gamelan music in order to recreate the various parts of pieces using the sampled library for the performance.
The Kongo Ancient theme also uses a few sampled libraries that I performed in.
I chose "Hard Times Come Again No More" as the American theme after working with some musicians who specialize in "old-time" American folk music. They introduced the song to me and I thought it's simple and beautiful melody would be a good fit America through the eras.
I had a few reasons for selecting "Banat Iskandaria" as the theme for Arabia. First, the leader for Arabia, Saladin, historically would have controlled many of the lands that claim the melody as their own which I believe makes it a good fit for the in-game use. Second, it is a very memorable melody that I thought would translate well to all of the various era arrangements we needed to compose. Third, the traditional musicians I was working with were familiar with the tune, making it a practical choice.
I chose "Waltzing Matilda" as the Australian theme due to it's overwhelming popularity in Australia. It is often called the unofficial national anthem of Australia. It is also part of the "bush ballad" genre, which is unique to Australia.
I chose "Scarborough Fair" as the English theme, due to it's popularity as a folk song and it's very easily recognizable melody.
Germany has thousands of folk songs notated and I found it difficult to sift through all of them to find an appropriate theme. I did not want to use a piece of well-known classical music, but rather something with a more folk origin. "Ich hab die Nacht geträumet" rose to the top as a very melancholy, beautiful theme that I thought would work well in the game.
I chose "Vaishnava Jana To" as the Indian theme due it's connection to Gandhi and popularity in India.
The shakuhachi player I worked on the music for ancient Japan introduced me to the Itsuki Lullaby. It's popularity in Japan and recognizable melody made it a good choice for Japan's main theme.
"Kalinka" was one of the tunes the balalaika player introduced me to while recording the Russian ancient era music. I thought it would be a fun, well-known Russian folk song to arrange for the various eras.
"Recuerdos de la Alhambra" is one of the most well-known lyrical classical guitar pieces composed by a Spanish composer. Since I wanted to feature the classical guitar in Spain's music, it rose to the top as a good choice for Spain's main theme.
All the best,
Geoff
I know some of you abhor some of these themes....
Hopefully, Mr Knorr is busy working on the next expansion or Civ7 (might be too early for that) or a spin-off game.
Good to hear from you again. I apologize for my delayed response, I haven't had as much time to respond to fan emails over the last few weeks. In response to your questions:
England Ancient and Germany Ancient were performed by Niccolo Seligmann, the same player who plays the vielle and bass viol parts in the medieval era pieces.
Greece Ancient includes a ney and 9-string Grecian lyre. They ney is performed by Chakib Hilali and the lyre is performed by myself. I purchased the lyre from a shop in Greece, Luthieros, that specializes in authentic recreations of ancient Grecian instruments.
The Indonesia Ancient theme is actually performed using the "Soniccouture Balinese Gamelan II" sample library. I explored working with and recording a gamelan ensemble, but the difficulty of having the tuning of the ensemble match any Western instrumentation made it impractical. I worked with an expert on gamelan music in order to recreate the various parts of pieces using the sampled library for the performance.
The Kongo Ancient theme also uses a few sampled libraries that I performed in.
I chose "Hard Times Come Again No More" as the American theme after working with some musicians who specialize in "old-time" American folk music. They introduced the song to me and I thought it's simple and beautiful melody would be a good fit America through the eras.
I had a few reasons for selecting "Banat Iskandaria" as the theme for Arabia. First, the leader for Arabia, Saladin, historically would have controlled many of the lands that claim the melody as their own which I believe makes it a good fit for the in-game use. Second, it is a very memorable melody that I thought would translate well to all of the various era arrangements we needed to compose. Third, the traditional musicians I was working with were familiar with the tune, making it a practical choice.
I chose "Waltzing Matilda" as the Australian theme due to it's overwhelming popularity in Australia. It is often called the unofficial national anthem of Australia. It is also part of the "bush ballad" genre, which is unique to Australia.
I chose "Scarborough Fair" as the English theme, due to it's popularity as a folk song and it's very easily recognizable melody.
Germany has thousands of folk songs notated and I found it difficult to sift through all of them to find an appropriate theme. I did not want to use a piece of well-known classical music, but rather something with a more folk origin. "Ich hab die Nacht geträumet" rose to the top as a very melancholy, beautiful theme that I thought would work well in the game.
I chose "Vaishnava Jana To" as the Indian theme due it's connection to Gandhi and popularity in India.
The shakuhachi player I worked on the music for ancient Japan introduced me to the Itsuki Lullaby. It's popularity in Japan and recognizable melody made it a good choice for Japan's main theme.
"Kalinka" was one of the tunes the balalaika player introduced me to while recording the Russian ancient era music. I thought it would be a fun, well-known Russian folk song to arrange for the various eras.
"Recuerdos de la Alhambra" is one of the most well-known lyrical classical guitar pieces composed by a Spanish composer. Since I wanted to feature the classical guitar in Spain's music, it rose to the top as a good choice for Spain's main theme.
All the best,
Geoff
I know some of you abhor some of these themes....
Hopefully, Mr Knorr is busy working on the next expansion or Civ7 (might be too early for that) or a spin-off game.
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It's a shame since he helped compose Civ4, and I wanted to know more about the Civ themes in that. Roland Rizzo also composed for Civ4 (he did the Dutch themes and the Khmer themes, judging by them being present on his website).
(yes, I mean even the most modern one, the one that feels like a circus 
