Music in Civilization IV

Infobox Album | Name = Civilization IV Soundtrack


Img_capt = The soundtrack CD
Img_size = 250
Landscape = No
Type = soundtrackThe music of the computer game "Civilization IV" features a large variety of tracks both original and historical, from Gregorian chants to modern minimalism, and makes extensive use of classical music as well as both world music and folk music . Such a focus on the soundtrack and the inclusion of classical, world and folk music are rare among games, though relatively common for strategy games. Original music was created for the expansion ' and includes specifically themed music for each of the several scenarios, and several new Leader pieces. ' also uses music from "Civilization III" to fill out some of the areas overlooked in the original "Civilization IV" such as music for the "classical" period, and adding eastern music for the Asian scenarios. All tracks are stored on the hard drive in mp3 format, making them perfectly usable outside the game.

Original music was composed by Jeff Briggs, Mark Cromer, Michael Curran and Christopher Tin. Featured composers include John Adams, Gregorio Allegri, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Antoine Brumel, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Francisco de la Torre, Josquin Des Prez, Antonín Dvořák, Orlande de Lassus, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Ockeghem, Michael Praetorius, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Camille Saint-Saëns and John Sheppard.

Each of the game's time periods has its own set of background music appropriate for the period. The Ancient and Classical ages are limited to four original tracks that mostly focus on ambience and primitive instruments such as drums and the flute. The Middle Ages feature medieval music, both instrumental and chants, such as Kyrie by Ockeghem. Renaissance music is a mix of Mozart, Beethoven and Bach. The soundtrack to the industrial period, also completely classical, mainly focuses on Brahms, Dvořák (particularly his "New World Symphony") and Beethoven, with one track each from Saint-Saëns and Rimsky-Korsakov. The modern age's music is composed exclusively of music by American minimalist composer John Adams.

Each leader has his or her own theme music as well, and each leitmotif has three variants, corresponding to different periods in the game. These are shorter and simpler pieces, from just under 40 seconds to three minutes. Each reflects the leader or country in question: Roosevelt's music is the "Marines' Hymn", and Napoleon's is based on "La Marseillaise". Some are renditions of famous pieces of classical music, such as Frederick's piece, which is a paraphrase of the fourth of the "Goldberg Variations", or Bismarck's, which is the opening theme of the second movement of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 3". Others, such as Mao Zedong and Alexander the Great have music that has been modified from earlier games, such as "Civilization III".

The theme song is "Coronation" by Christopher Tin, and the menu music is "Baba Yetu", also by him. The latter features lyrics based on a Swahili adaptation of the Lord's Prayer by Chris Kiagiri. Vocals were performed by Stanford Talisman. [ [http://www.stanfordtalisman.com/html/oldnews2.html Talisman featured on Civilization 4] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads/civ4/music/BabaYetu.mp3 "Baba Yetu", released for download] .
* [http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=123680 Lyrics to "Baba Yetu"]
* [http://sushi-delight.blogspot.com/2005/11/baba-yetu.html "More information about Baba Yetu"]