A chorus belting out a Sanskrit translation of a Welsh poem

September 21, 2021 9:24 AM

Adrian Daub writes for Longreads about choral music in movie soundtracks, asking the question, "But who tells them what to sing?
posted by dellsolace (10 comments total)

I assumed the answer to this would be Lisa Gerrard, Sigur Rós, or Liz Fraser. But apparently there are a load of people doing it for a living now.
posted by pipeski at 9:45 AM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

But who tells them what to sing?
CORN ON THE COB! CORN ON THE KABOB!
posted by xedrik at 9:59 AM on September 21, 2021

The tagline of the article is, “And thus another Hollywood tradition was born: film choruses belting out perfectly nonsensical prose with utter conviction.” And yeah, sometimes it is just nonsense.

I like that in the opening theme for Final Fantasy XI Online, "Memoro de la Ŝtono", the choral part has its lyrics in Esperanto. I remember reading somewhere that this was a deliberate choice, both as a nod to diverse nations and races in the game world unifying against a shared threat, and because Esperanto is not a first language to any of the major markets for the game, the lyrics would sound suitably fantastical and lend a little mystery.
posted by xedrik at 10:06 AM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

But who tells them what to sing?

Van den Budenmayer. Often uncredited.

(Looking forward to actually reading the article now.)
posted by eotvos at 10:07 AM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

The tagline of the article is, “And thus another Hollywood tradition was born: film choruses belting out perfectly nonsensical prose with utter conviction.”

One of these days the song I Zimbra is going to make it into a film soundtrack, and social media is going to explode with requests about "does anyone have a translation for the Talking Heads song from [film]" and I will laugh and laugh.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:38 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]

A full orchestral/choral arrangement of I Zimbra would be absolutely wonderful.
posted by wanderingmind at 12:20 PM on September 21, 2021 [3 favorites]

.....I'd actually envisioned the original Talking Heads version being used on a soundtrack, but you've had a better idea.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:52 PM on September 21, 2021

t’s not clear how seriously Goldsmith (or the choirmaster who jotted down the Latin lyrics for the composer) grappled with that dimension of the score — for one thing, the very title of the piece messes up the declension of Satan.

People called Satan, they go the house?
posted by traveler_ at 2:03 PM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]

No mention of Yuki Kajiura? maybe that makes sense given the focus on western cinema. She scores a lot of anime and video games, and has developed "Kajiuran" language. Here's the text of Credens justitiam, and here's the actual song.
posted by snerson at 7:56 PM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]

Thanks, this was super interesting!
posted by dusty potato at 10:36 AM on September 24, 2021