Song of Forms - Suggestion of an appropriate musical piece

Marcon · Jun 2, 2009

Possible WotBS spoilers!

My players will most likely reach the seela village during our next session. I would desperately love to be able to play something that would closely emulate what it would be like to hear the same lamenting lyrics over and over again.

My understanding is that the Song of Forms is close to a Gregorian chant. I imagine the seela singing in a chorus, with every member of the trio possibly reciting different lyrics. Since it is in Sylvan, I would need something non-English to keep the feeling real.

Can anyone think about something? It would probably need to be downloadable since I don't think I will have time to go shopping for CDs before the game.

Thanks!

Morrus · Jun 2, 2009

Hmm... I imagine it as sounding something like some Clannad type stuff rather than a Gergorian chant. I expect everyone imagines it differently.

RangerWickett · Jun 2, 2009

In my head it originally started as something close to the Hymn of Fayth from Final Fantasy X, the same basic tune sung by many different voices taking turns. Then it morphed to be more akin to the music sung in Lothlorien in Fellowship of the Ring. (Maybe something like track 3 of disc 2 here: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S5A88G/ref=sr_f2_album_1?ie=UTF8&child=B000S42XC6&qid=1243902162&sr=102-1]Amazon.com: Lord Of The Rings Trilogy: MP3 Downloads: City Of Prague Philharmonic / Crouch End Festival Chorus / Raine[/ame])

Nothing quite fits, and I'm not a musician, so I can't even begin to compose something that fits. But I wish I could get four choral singers to do a jam session. Start with a trio of Gregorian monks who grew up starving and lived through hurricane Katrina, and add in Charlotte Church after she's been kept in prison for forty years, and I think we'll make it work.

In my now-abandoned attempt to write a novel for WotBS, I did my best to convey it thusly:

The song floated eerily above the roar of the forest fire, and though he could not understand the words, he grasped its meaning clearly. Its strangely familiar rhythm brimmed with loss and longing and a memory of beauty which its singers would not abandon, no matter how thickly death surrounded them.

Though he was sure it was just the shimmer of the fire’s heat, the trees appeared to dance with the song's rhythm. When the music swelled, the flames dimmed, but always an oppressive weariness would creep into the singer's voices, and again ash and cinders would howl on the wind.

He kept low as he crawled to a hill which overlooked the lake, and he struggled to discern the different singers by their voices and their roles in the song. A core group of at least four, three men and a woman, held the song steady, though other singers occasionally joined from scattered directions around the shore. Two of the men would sing a repeating chorus, while the third man’s deeper voice rose above them in counterpoint, wavering between pride and fear, before finally dropping to a sorrowful drone.

But then, through the despair would rise the woman’s voice, haunting and inspiring, calling out and uplifting the other singers.

The song went through two verses as he snuck forward, and would continue through several more as he watched and hid, but as far as he could tell it never repeated fully, and every time he heard the woman’s piercing voice, he could not help but feel weak at the beauty of it.

Marcon · Jun 4, 2009

Riding your "Hymn of the Fayth" idea, I found this gorgeous and instrument-less Choir interpretation which I will be using unless someone can find something better. Right now, my only little complaint is that it's a bit short and thus may sound repetitive after a while.

Other than that, that is pretty darn near what I was imagining. Heck, I can almost hear Lake Seela's frogs in the background!

-Marcon

Song of Forms - Suggestion of an appropriate musical piece

Marcon

First Post

Morrus

Well, that was fun

RangerWickett

Legend

Marcon

First Post

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