What's your favourite piece of Myth music?

[Myrninerest]

I'd make this a poll, but there are far too many options.

I'm in the preliminary stages of planning a plugin, and I was considering creating some music for it myself, with GarageBand. However, it also occurred to me that recycling some of the music from the previous games would work fine; there's enough of it that it probably won't sound repetitive. However, it got me thinking: what's my favourite piece, and why?

Personally, I'm partial to Out of the Barrier. The melancholy "lost in the desert oh god what do we do now" strings just get me every time. Through The Ermine, too, is excellent, and I love the narration that goes with it.

So, what's your favourite?

[William Wallet]

Some real brill moments in the Myth 2 epilogue.

Some of the best themes are also in the TFL credits music.

[A-Red]

TFL win screen is one of the prettiest game songs I've ever heard. I love the mood it sets--not celebratory like M2's win, but more like an awed feeling of "whoa. it's over."

I'm also very fond of Stair of Grief and Redemption--two completely different versions of the same theme, both very well done.

[Lugas]

For me...there is lots of good Myth music...but one of my favorites is definately Forest Heart.

[lank]

for me, the most evocative myth music is either "the fallen lords" or the epilogue/credits music. however, i do like "the watcher", for its energetic drums building up to a substantial victory, and most (maybe all) of the "siege of madrigal" themes, from "the siege of madrigal itself", through the win screen music to "sons of myrgard". i'm also a fan of the TFL intro, with its small narration and its journey through most of the main musical themes explored in the rest of the game.

"in a time long past, the armies of the dark came again into the lands of men. their leaders became known as the fallen lords, and their terrible sorcery was without equal in the west.

"in thirty years they reduced the civilised nations to carrion and ash, until the free city of madrigal alone defied them. an army gathered there, and a desperate battle was joined against the fallen.

"heroes were born in the fire and bloodshed of the wars that followed, and their names and deed will never be forgotten."*

as spoken by geoffrey charlton-perrin (iirc), this is gold, to my mind, but almost anyone else would make it sound completely hammy.

* recited from memory = i need more things to occupy my mind.

[Oroboros]

Discounting the music that came with Mazz VI, and of course that timeless fanmade classic "Casualty", incidental score works best if it depicts the action well, IMO.

"A Traitor's Grave" sounds full, spooky and terrifying... But you're basically leading a JM, 5 Archs and a duff in broad daylight through a pleasant wood, doing meat n' potatoes killz on souls, ghols and thrall. Huh.

"Out of the Barrier" is a very nice reprise of Myth's central theme. Epic saga, it says. It's a better match with the scenario, because it's a big-ass map with lots of scope, AND an epic "battle" (read 'eye-candy') finish.

"Forest Heart" features piano. Another reprise, and very pretty. But it's the first into for players to the FGs, and FGs and Trow slug it out lots. The music doesn't suit the level for me.

"Smiths of Muirthemne" was a great match. I liked it lots.

My fave from M2:Soulblighter is "The Baron". A nice fusion of Tudor court recorders with modern sounds, and the major key was a nice change to give a certain victorious or pompous feel.

"Landing at White Falls" is another goodie. Tension, slightly epic, and draws in the M2:Soulblighter main theme.

"Through the Ermine"... WTF was that? Spooky woods, Bre-Unor, wolves... and we have guitars and piano playing something out of "Days of Our Lives"??? Really romantic piece, diverse, sure... but there are no love interests in the Mythlore. Dumb. And it's REPRISED on "Limbs, Heads, and Smoking Craters..." I'm thinking O'Donnell composes to myth films he plays in slow motion.

If you extracted "With Friends like These..." you could play a melody over it. I hope you like 6/8 timing, is all.

The M2 Epilogue was a cool pastiche of tunes from throughout the Myth soundtrack, and I thought it was cute the way O'Donnell snuck in a preview of the main phrase to another little project he had started work on: the theme to Halo.

In short (if there is such a thing in my posts): good music matches the action. No epics for small battle scenarios, no romantic strings if you don't have chicks in the storyline. Unless it's an ancient greek scenario - man love was encouraged in pre-Hellenistic times.

-Oro

[gugusm]

Well, I really can't recognize which theme comes from which level, but they're all simply AWESOME. Never heard so great and touching music in any other game...

[Myrninerest]

For me...there is lots of good Myth music...but one of my favorites is definately Forest Heart.

I love Forest Heart and The Siege of Madrigal, too. The piano is just so perfect in both of them!

And thanks, lank; I've been wondering what the name of the narrator was for quite a while now. His voice is fantastic -- the only one I've heard that's even remotely similar is Philip Pullman's...

[Myrninerest]

"Through the Ermine"... WTF was that? Spooky woods, Bre-Unor, wolves... and we have guitars and piano playing something out of "Days of Our Lives"??? Really romantic piece, diverse, sure... but there are no love interests in the Mythlore. Dumb. And it's REPRISED on "Limbs, Heads, and Smoking Craters..." I'm thinking O'Donnell composes to myth films he plays in slow motion.

I completely disagree! You must be forgetting that the narration for "Through The Ermine" -- the narrator tells us some history, in true rose-tinted spectacles style.

After the Great War, the armies of the Dark collapsed and the Fallen Lords were swallowed up by history. We believed we had entered a golden age, a new era of peace, and our armies laid down their weapons to begin the long task of rebuilding the world. For sixty years we worked our fields and tended our cattle and did all the things that we had fought to defend, until the war became something that fathers told their sons and grandfathers their grandchildren.

But sixty years is nothing to the likes of a Fallen Lord. And while King Alric was restoring the Province to its former glory, Soulblighter was plotting its infinite ruin.

The majority of the piece accompanies the history being told; the end, which trails off with just piano and strings, accompanies the narrator expecting to rest and sleep. It's supposed to be a Bre'Unor ambush, no? It's not as if he'd have expected it.

[Oroboros]

"Through the Ermine"... WTF was that? [...] I'm thinking O'Donnell composes to myth films he plays in slow motion.

I completely disagree! You must be forgetting that the narration for "Through The Ermine" -- the narrator tells us some history, in true rose-tinted spectacles style.

After the Great War, the armies of the Dark collapsed...[...] And while King Alric was restoring the Province to its former glory, Soulblighter was plotting its infinite ruin.

I'm splitting hairs. You quote the first two paras. The other 5 or so paras talk about some dark, plotting stuff about impending doom: the only thing pretty about it was that it was pretty dark. But did the music change, to reflect this? No. Soulblighter's plotting our infinite ruin: Quick, pluck a daisy.

The suspended ending of the track could be done any number of ways (but generally with a high string perfect 5th).

It's a very romantic track, and I'll give you that point about the intro paras on the narration. But I think other tracks could be swapped out and better serve this intro, that it doesn't go with the rest of the narration, and that the music better reflects romance, not the toil of 60 years of rebuilding or the plotting and scheming behind why the boys are roughing it in the woods.

-Oro

[Tireces]

After so many years Ill not say a bad word on Myths Soundtracks tho I remember that back in '99 I was a bit dissapointed with some tracks f.e. The Deceiver ( after such great "modern" hehe SoG level intro ) or "Walls of Muirthemene" after cool "With friends like theses". Back than I had feeling that Myth need something with bigger kick.

Btw you should all check Martin O'Donnells Halo 1, 2 and 3 soundtacks - they still have that Myth-feel and most of Halos tracks have more "power" - more like "Into the Breach" or "Murder of Crows" rather than "Through the Ermine".

[Myrninerest]

I'm splitting hairs. You quote the first two paras. The other 5 or so paras talk about some dark, plotting stuff about impending doom: the only thing pretty about it was that it was pretty dark. But did the music change, to reflect this? No. Soulblighter's plotting our infinite ruin: Quick, pluck a daisy.

The suspended ending of the track could be done any number of ways (but generally with a high string perfect 5th).

It's a very romantic track, and I'll give you that point about the intro paras on the narration. But I think other tracks could be swapped out and better serve this intro, that it doesn't go with the rest of the narration, and that the music better reflects romance, not the toil of 60 years of rebuilding or the plotting and scheming behind why the boys are roughing it in the woods.

-Oro

Hmm, I understand your point -- and I agree, to some extent -- but that whole narration seems to me to be just for the purpose of giving us some history after the chaos of White Falls. There's very little mention of The Ermine forest, and I think that actually enhances the "oh shit" moment the ambush gives you.

We have decided to go through the Ermine, the homeland of our fir'Bolg allies. Though the forest seems to be a continuous thicket, we have made good time.

Night has fallen and we have pitched our camp. Time to pick the brambles out of my bootlaces and then to sleep. At dawn we begin our march anew.

You expect the narrator (well, half heartedly...) to get some sleep, but out of nowhere bone throwing monsters attack you. The fact that there's no narrative warning only enhances that.

Clearly, though, we have different backgrounds -- you blow me away in musical knowledge. I guess I'm drawing on my fiction/plot devices/film influenced knowledge. Oh, and by the way, I should mention that I love your piece "Hope Fades". Something like that might make a good replacement for "Through The Ermine", actually.

[Oroboros]

Hmm, I understand your point -- and I agree, to some extent -- but that whole narration seems to me to be just for the purpose of giving us some history after the chaos of White Falls.

[...]

Clearly, though, we have different backgrounds -- you blow me away in musical knowledge. :) I guess I'm drawing on my fiction/plot devices/film influenced knowledge.

Hey, always cool to debate with a fan ;) But Grasshopper's the muso: if you're a fan of Machinima you might have come across GH's guitar intro for the celebrated series "Red vs Blue". I'm just a hack who has listen to a LOT of music.... and had a lot of recording experience for radio... and written comedy and drama for radio and television... Hmm. Maybe I should start growing up soon. Later. Maybe.

-Oro

[Myrninerest]

Heheh. I do enjoy Red vs Blue.

By the by, does anybody know where I can find the TFL narrations in some kind of audio format? The link on atvcowboy is dead, and I can't find them anywhere else...

[Tireces]

Nah Myth Addicts site is alive and rocking
http://mythaddict.atvcowboy.com/?downloads=true
You will find there both TFL and M2 narrations converted by Tarous Zars to MP3 format - guess who aksed for em - I rememebr that in '99 I had M2 narrations recorded old analog tape hehehe My favourite downloads.
THX again TZ