The Religious Sound

"The Emperor's Death" from Return of the Jedi. "Stealing the Stones" from Temple of Doom... oh right, complete and chronological. Sorry. "Leaving Home" from Superman

-Erik-

Are we talking tracks, full scores or music in general? In case of the latter, you HAVE to listen to Arvo Part, if you don't do so yet. He's king of religious sounding or calming music at the moment.

Arvo part is along with John Tavener, the fathers of this neo modal / neo tonal religious sound which is wholly spiritual as a listening experience (no matter your religious beliefs or not) and soothing. Listen to FRATRES for strings by Part as well as anything for string orchestra that he wrote and you can find like, Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten for string orchestra and bell (1977), his best piece to date perhaps, Silouans Song for string orchestra (1991), Trisagion for string orchestra (1992), Orient & Occident for string orchestra (2000), Fratres for violin, string orchestra and percussion (1992) and of course his beautiful solo piano works, Für Alina for piano (1976) Spiegel im Spiegel for violin or cello and piano (1978) and Fratres for violin and piano (1980). Also anything from John Tavener. I am sure you'll also like Karl Jenkins own solo works.

And of course John Debney's PAssion of the christ and Peter GAbriel's the last temptation of the Christ.

Just wondered if you're familiar with Vaughan Williams 5th symphony Thor because if you aren't the 3rd movement 'Romanza' will blow your socks off!

True! And unbelievably he hits that sound more convincingly than any other composer in existence.

Add The Lark Ascending too.

I'm still enjoying both of my playlists very much. The Williams one is really spectacular, and I recommend those of you who own most of these yourself, to make a similar one. It really makes these tracks shine as one "whole" piece.

However, I was just now struck by how totally inappropriate the "Into the Death Star" segment that is tagged on to the "Final Duel" track really is. You've been going through this gorgeous, lyrical album and all of a sudden, this frenetic action piece pierces through. Perhaps I should fade the track out before it begins or something.

Yeah. That crazy film music.

Oh, stop that now. You promised me to get back to me with that evaluation once you'd actually seen some of my recommended titles.

Thankfully God updated himself with the times and it seems that he's no longer in the prehistoric stone-age state of things.

Pheww....thank 'mericans for that.

Some people fail at basic logic. They really do.

So, not without some considerable effort, I have recreated Thor's exact playlists for my own, and I must say: these do work a treat.

The major changes I made to the non-Williams list, is that I took out the classical cues.
Mixing those with soundtracks just didn't work for me. Beside, aside from the Vaughan Williams Tallis piece (which was absolutely gorgeous!) and the Lübeck organ cue, they didn't really ring my bell.
I also added some Rozsa (a RELIGIOUS list without ROZSA? That's blasphemy right there! :smite: ) and some more Delerue as well (mainly from the rerecording of A Walk With Love And Death, but I'm sure I'll find more cues as time goes on).

So, I'm very happy with it, so thanks Thor, for the inspiration!
We should have more threads like this, as I constantly am working on arranging cues into themed "mix lists" much as I used to created mix tapes (yeah, I'm from that generation) in the olden days.

To be honest, I've always thought Eco to be a bit of a pretentious prick, and this remark doesn't do much to soften that impression.

Clichés may be laughable, if employed unjudiciously, or in too specific a context.
But the reason clichés work is because they are generically recognised (otherwise they wouldn't be clichés).

They may be unsurprising to the point of annoyance, simply due to overexposure. Or, in the same vein, disappointing. But to laugh them off merely because they are clichés negates the power of archetypes, stereotypes and their inherent metaphores. A juduciously executed cliché in music (e.g. a minor piece ending in a major chord) is emotionally a zillion times more powerful than a hundred original, cerebral pieces.

Clichés do not inhabit a self-contained "meet'n'greet universe" as Eco seems to suggest. Rather they reflect a universal recognition that somehow echoes within each and everyone of us (for better or for worse).

Eco standing off on the side (rather than being involved), observing and analysing says a lot more abouty Eco than it says about clichés in my opinion.

I don't mind clichés in music (which I guess is a good thing, especially when compiling playlists of soundtrack centerpieces), but they should (at least) reflect a continuous (or naturally flowing) mood to make sure the experience isn't a jarring, bumpy one. Especially when working with themes like "religion" or -for example- "action", that ensures a certain type of composition will be prevalent.
But I don't mind that in its context any more or less than I'd rate it in a playlist of like-minded cues.
It's just what it is.
If we need a spiritual scene in a church, I'm just not expecting Powell-esque quirkiness (although that may be funny...very much because it's not an expected cliché).

Anyway, listening to that playlist again, I'm starting to get an inkling of what your "religious sound" is, Thor: it's very hymnal, quite elegiac. It's a very good category, and quite aptly named.

Who the feck is Eco?

That black guy from Lost.