Music in Glorantha

[JRE]

This has not been mentioned, though probably most people listened to it in the "Black Hawk Down" soundtrack, but even with the electronics I have used it as base for an Orlanth wooing Ernalda scene. As an extra, it has pipes and the lyrics fit quite well. 

 

[Erol of Backford]

I realize this is an old thread but somehow had to ask.

Is there Rune Quest age-appropriate "Country Music" as for some reason the old song by David Wilkins - Blow in His Ear surfaced this morning, made me think there would be songs about animals in Prax, trusty ole steed, princess of my double wide-wigwam, chicken lips, etc. etc. where would there be country music, not just minstrel ballads as they travel but local music influenced by bumkins, Jeff noted bagpipes which when I looked into it as to real world history, they weren't native to Scotland but were rather of Indian or Hittite origin?

Obviously music subject matter changes via myths and instruments as does style, curious as to what each style would be per the major cultures of Glorantha? For example, do the Easterners use taiko like in Japan, what are the feels of music in each major cultural area compared to real Earth... if there is any parallel?

[soltakss]

2 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Is there Rune Quest age-appropriate "Country Music"

There would be Folk Music, and depending on how you see that it could encompass Country Music. Each area would have its own style, maybe with different musical accompaniment. This is the sort of thing that Sartarites and the like sing and nobles look down on, preferring stately hymns to the folk songs of country bumpkins.

[Erol of Backford]

Yes folk music not country, my mistake! 

Assume Heortland Aeolian temples-churches had choirs of some sort but not pipe organs?

 

[jajagappa]

16 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Assume Heortland Aeolian temples-churches had choirs

Song (and dance) will be part of most temple ceremonies (not limited to Aeolian ones). 

For Aeolian temples, I'd expect choruses accompanied by wind instruments, cymbals, dried gourds with seeds, etc.

[Malin]

We have a chapter on music in our upcoming Sun County themed book, and I think it's my favorite one in the book.

[mfbrandi]

23 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

music subject matter changes via myths and instruments as does style

I have said it before, but what the hell … for Maran Gor, avant garde gong music. Huge tam tams and such in reverberant underground chambers. Keep away from the raptor mosh pit, though.

Edited April 14 by mfbrandi

[soltakss]

Cultic music could be different, based on the sacred instruments or powers of the various cults.

I can see massed Shargashi drummers, with hundreds of snare drummers, timpanists, even with bass drums in concert.

Yelm cultists have the harp, flute and other gentle, refined instruments.

Orlanthi are big on instruments that you blow through.

Earth cultists have instruments that you play through touch, so through plucking, strumming, or stroking, so I can see lutes, banjos, guitars, fiddles and so on being earthy, as well as tambourines and cymbals.

We mentioned water instruments above.

Darkness instruments are percussion based, but I can't see massed drummers like the Shargashi, more like beating rocks and empty barrels. The Uz has the Tree-Chopping Song which is played by beating on a tree trunk.

Lunars probably invented new instruments, or took instruments from various parts of their Empire and used them in strange combinations, or adapted them.

I can see Praxians and Pentians using throat-singing as part of their folk music, maybe with instruments like the Kurai, which seems to be throat-singing through a flute, at least that is what it sounds like.

 

[Nick Brooke]

In my Glorantha, the Pol-Joni have both types of music…

 

[mfbrandi]

1 hour ago, soltakss said:

Orlanthi are big on instruments that you blow through.

Kazoo, comb and paper, whoopee cushion.

[Erol of Backford]

5 hours ago, Malin said:

We have a chapter on music in our upcoming Sun County themed book, and I think it's my favorite one in the book.

Sun County prudes are like that movie footloose, you get flogged for dancing... maybe? It will be nice to see someone's take on them.

Oh while on the topic, I've never games with game-themed background music. As I looked there are so many fantasy city and tavern sound and music youtube links. Does anyone wish to share their favorite backgrounds for city squares, markets and taverns or link where it was posted? (Again my apologies if this was all linked/discussed before.)

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

In my Glorantha, the Pol-Joni have both types of music…

I was just looking at how to stage some scenarios 1600ish near the Verge so the Pol-Joni music would be nice.

Thank you for the thread link.

[Joerg]

14 hours ago, soltakss said:

flute and other gentle, refined instruments.

Flutes stop being grouped as gentle refined instruments if you have siblings practicing the recorder with at most a single wall in separation. Percussion can be less grating on the ear.

Yelmic music might well have been closely related to Mongolian throat singing since Jenarong took over the semi-abandoned metropolises and brought them civilization from the steppes in the Gray Age.

Murharzarm's dinotopia Dara Happa did have the harp as its signature instrument, possibly with synaesthesia effects of colors emitted when plucking the strings (after all the medium for music was the previous celestial plasma of Aether alongside that new-fangled Storm). Birdsong would provide colorful choirs.

Alkoth had its Underworld-originating drums, making the shadows answer the beats of the drummers, already whe Sshorga invaded the Good Land of the fluffy dinos and their birdheaded and early made-human tenders.

Anaxialian Dara Happa did continue the harp tradition, but may well have lost that synaesthesia quality. Flutes may have entered the picture as the birdsong of the dinos and other feathered entities like the sun horse got lost.

[Ynneadwraith]

Seems as good a time as any to post the awesome rendition of Aristophanes' 'The Frogs' on the aulos. A lot of aulos stuff veers towards the 'atmospheric' so it's nice to see an actual song played.

Love the idea of kargyraa-style throat singing being a troll thing:

I always thought sygyt-style throat singing sounded like the wind whistling overhead. Would certainly fit Orlanthi of some variety (though I'm loathe to attach it to Sartarites, leave some cool stuff for other Orlanthi cultures).

I'd always thought Sartarites more as ocarina people (perhaps not quite so high pitched as this, but it's a lovely tune):

Or maybe a Native American-style drone flute played from a mountaintop?

Perhaps something like these awesome 3-chambered stonewhistle jobbies (though for me these would fit nicer as Earth funerary instruments):

Shouldn't discount the impact of just the voice either (even without Wind Voice projection). Perhaps this might do well as a marching song:

Or the awesome Bulgarian dissonant choral singing? Sung in a high-ceilinged solar temple I expect it would be impressive!

With a male voice? Not often you get male voice in choral work.

Water drumming for water festivals?

I know it might feel a little too 'viking' for comfort, but I do rather like the tagelharpe for someone like the waertegi perhaps (or other sea-aligned folk). There's nothing else that builds quite the sense of threat and unease (while hinting that it's coming in boats to do it).

Makes a good lament too:

Again, more viking-inspired stuff but good for shamans this time round I think:

Lastly, to end on a fun little song because not everything needs to be dark and brooding:

 

[Erol of Backford]

On 4/15/2024 at 3:19 AM, Joerg said:

Flutes stop being grouped as gentle refined instruments if you have siblings practicing the recorder with at most a single wall in separation. Percussion can be less grating on the ear.

Nothing like the recorder for parties... the little girl at the beginning of this "think about things" video is a vivid image.

On 4/15/2024 at 4:58 AM, Ynneadwraith said:

sygyt-style throat singing

Dune?

On 4/15/2024 at 4:58 AM, Ynneadwraith said:

Native American-style drone flute

I may have to get more of this, its so American Southwest or west coast for me. We drove down to San Fran from Seattle and did a few redwood walks 2 weeks ago. Thanks for sharing!

[Ynneadwraith]

13 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

Dune?

Dune's more Kargyraa than Sygyt if you're googling for it. Though it's an excellent use of overtone singing to build atmosphere! Sygyt gets used in film a lot when you're designing mystic siberian snowscapes and stuff like that. Think Orlanthi mountaintop temple.

13 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

I may have to get more of this, its so American Southwest or west coast for me. We drove down to San Fran from Seattle and did a few redwood walks 2 weeks ago. Thanks for sharing!

Yeah it's a really good channel! There's loads of little shorts of the guy just playing a neat little tune on a different flute.

[Darius West]

So what musical instruments does everyone/anyone think Praxian Animal Nomads play?  And what kind of songs and arrangements?

[soltakss]

How to win a water maiden.

 

 

[Joerg]

15 hours ago, soltakss said:

How to win a water maiden.

Looking at those underwater musicians, I came to wonder what kind of instruments other than their own bodies would be usable for submarine musicians. We know whale songs and clicks, and most fish make quite a bit of sound underwater, too, some with their gas-filled buyoancy bladders, others by farting (not a joke).

Wind instruments like flute or conch shown in the video obviously would not work well submerged unless you eject a very sharp current of water, and drum membranes may have some problems, too. Strings would be dampened a lot when swinging against water, requiring great initial plucking, and might sound like strings on a guitar muted by softly laying a finger across.

 

Other than that, I found the blowing technique of the flutist protagonist interesting - mouth open, flute end between his teeth blocking half of the mouth, with the rest widening and closing to create different sounds.