Quote from: Windjammer;453543And oh, who cares about Commodus - I was impressed they made a bare two lines towards the end of Aurelius' Meditations into an ok-ish protagonist (Maximus).

Well, I care. Commodus didn't deserve such a portrayal in the movie. He wasn't nearly as bad as a Nero or Caligula, actually reigned with his father for three years before he died, and governed afterwards rather well when compared to earlier psychopaths. There's a kind of sad irony in making him a bad guy in a big budget movie, to me. It's like the movie makers just retained Gibbon's idea that the decline of the Roman Empire started with him, which is kind of a shortcut that doesn't mean that he, personally, was somehow worse than all his predecessors combined, and just piled on the clichés of everything that was supposedly wrong with all the emperors on his character for the sake of poetic license.

Quote from: Windjammer;453542It sure doesn't sound bad, but it's nigh indistinguishable from OSTs for fantasy CRPGs. - Case in point: this sounds like a lesser version of this. Not to mention the Latin pronounciation in this song makes me cringe.

Just to repeat: it's not bad music, it just doesn't strike me as (for want of a better word) immersive. So while we're at genre-defying music, I'd also recommend having a go at this.

Our points of view probably rest upon how many hours each of us has sunk into those respective games.  I've never played Dragon Age.

Also, I thought Latin is a dead language.  We don't know how a lot of it was pronounced.  So don't look at it like it's Italian.  Also, there's an English version of those tracks.

Quote from: Blackhand;453574Also, I thought Latin is a dead language.  We don't know how a lot of it was pronounced.

We have pretty reasonable reconstructions. Latin's never stopped being taught or used.

Oh, I don't even need scholarship to realize that the singers in that TW song don't even bother to hide their bloody American accent. So, even if we knew nothing about Latin pronounciation, we'd still know that Latin people didn't have an American accent.

PS. I wish I could illustrate this better, but here's the same point about two modern languages.

I don't have a problem with an American accent.

Would it be better if they had an Italian accent?  Would that be authentic enough for your game music?

I lost a full post of links as well, yesterday, after hitting the back button one too many times... I think I need to modify firefox to auto-save fetched form pages.

... Anyway, a few good sources came up on a YouTube search for ancient Roman music... The Romans of course, borrowed heavily from the Greeks, using many of the same musical instruments right up until the end of the Western Empire..


From Augusta Raurica last August
Roman Music

Festive Music

Augusta Raurica was a Roman colony in Switzerland on the Rhine that reached a population of 25,000 or so before declining after 300 a.d.

Greek lament, provenance 200-300 a.d. Greece was part of the Roman Empire then...
Greek Lament

This is also Greece, perhaps quite a bit older though, still the same instruments though:
Delphic Paean

Old Roman Chant... This song is not named Gregorian Chant, presumably it was performed in the manner of the Ancient Roman Chants that they were famous for...
Inveni David Servum Meum

The Title translates to I have found my servant David. Jewish? Early Christian?

Finally some music for comparison...
Sumerian

Parthian or Sassanid

Egyptian

(Modern) Omar Faruk Tekbilek
Song of the Pharoahs

I Claudius tried it's best to stick with contempary archaeologist's view of early Imperial Roman music including a kickass theme tune but also including this

Run Fellini's Satryicon in the background. I doubt there's a soundtrack for it, but the language itself adds to the atmo anyway. IIRC the language is Italian, but it, the ambient noise and music and just the film in general are just so fitting IMO. I especially like the bit where the new Emperor's forces march forward or the public baths (Hail the Caesar! Hail the Caesar!).

Gladiator is a bit...soft but works fine for airy moments. HBO's Rome is great for harder stuffs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_spelling_and_pronunciation
While Latin class was more writing based than say a living language, we certainly did our fair share of speaking Classical Latin (as in the formal stuff spoken in the Late Republic/Early Imperial times). I also remember a professional reading of Cicero's speeches. It's not the same as either Vulgar Latin or Italian, but has some similarities.

Very good for making speeches or the type of poetry used back then. I tend to wave arms and hands about! Main thing is a hard c, no hard v, it's a sharper Italian in a way.

Can't recall what the RCC uses for when they speak Latin nor what was/is used for the Catholic Masses and whatnot.

sidenote: recently picked up Green Ronin's Rome book, Eternal Rome IIRC? through Alliance distro, for $5 or under. It's marked LTD, but I got mine in under 2 weeks! Good fodder esp. for cheap!

Quote from: Ian Warner;453719I Claudius tried it's best to stick with contempary archaeologist's view of early Imperial Roman music including a kickass theme tune but also including this

I, Claudius is awesome. I have the DVDs and watch them regularly with my wife, who also has been a huge fan since childhood like myself. The books are really good too.

Quote from: Benoist;453869I, Claudius is awesome. I have the DVDs and watch them regularly with my wife, who also has been a huge fan since childhood like myself. The books are really good too.

That was a great mini-series. Loved Hurt as Caligula.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;453871That was a great mini-series. Loved Hurt as Caligula.

I just watched the entire series again last week, actually.

I think it's Derek Jacobi's best role. I really love the whole cast. I even forgive Brian Blessed for being himself so much. LOL

Quote from: Benoist;453876I just watched the entire series again last week, actually.

I think it's Derek Jacobi's best role. I really love the whole cast. I even forgive Brian Blessed for being himself so much. LOL

And lets not forget Sian Phillips as the treacherous Livia. Now that's Lawful Evil!

Quote from: IceBlinkLuck;453885And lets not forget Sian Phillips as the treacherous Livia. Now that's Lawful Evil!

Totally. She is absolutely fabulous. Love to hate her.

Quote from: Benoist;453876I just watched the entire series again last week, actually.

I think it's Derek Jacobi's best role. I really love the whole cast. I even forgive Brian Blessed for being himself so much. LOL

My Classics Teacher thinks Blessed was massively miscast as Augustus was supposed to be a scrawny little shit but I quite like him. Especially this

I tend to go for more of an exotic/dramatic fantasy vibe for my game music, and have a "Roman Mix" on my iPad for gaming consisting of the following soundtracks:

Batman Begins
The Fountain
Passion: Music From the Last Temptation of Christ (Peter Gabriel, Milos Forman film version)
The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson film)
Troy
Rome
Spartacus
Ben-Hur
300

and the following albums:

In the Garden of Pharoahs, Popul Vuh
On Land, Brian Eno