Kilrathi Music

Needaham45

Spaceman
As I've been working more and more on Standoff's musical score, I've been becoming interested in some possible experimentation for it. I was wondering if anyone know of any established canon details for Kilrathi music (instrumentation, scale structure, style... anything). I might experiment with some of it and see what it sounds like. It could be very useful down the road.

I don't even know if there is anything... but if anyone knows anything about what Kilrathi music would sound like, please, let me know.
 
taking thrakhath's theme as well as some of the other themes from cutscenes...

it would sound something like star trek's klingon opera music i guess. :confused:
 
Warfare-based societies music (in reality and most literature) tends to be more about storytelling of glorious battles and heroic deeds of the past rather than say "painting a picture with music" as most modern music tends to do. When put to music it is generally slow, dramatic, and bombastic. Music one could recite battle-poetry to.
 
Actually though not fitting for Standoff, i think a perfect Kilrathi song would be "Ahead", the 3rd song from the WCP simulator. It sounds dark, alien and warlike. Personally I'd think that'd be the perfect theme for Stalker.
 
Some insights

I'm not sure if there's any Kilrathi music in the first game installment (WC1), but the WC2 used the 'Prince Thrakhath's Theme' which was quite majestic.
links:
ftp://ftp.wcnews.com/music/wc2/wing commander ii - prince thrakhath's theme.mp3
ftp://ftp.wcnews.com/music/wc2/wing commander ii - kilrathi theme.mp3
ftp://ftp.wcnews.com/music/wc2/wc2-kilrathi.mp3
wc2-45.mid (from ftp://ftp.wcnews.com/music/wc2/wc2mid.zip)

there's also the Prince Thrakhath dogfight theme (wc2-44.mid)

---

in WC3 the most Kilrathi theme I could think of is the Throne Room sequence which also became the main theme of WC3.
ftp://ftp.wcnews.com/music/wc3/wing commander iii - intro.mp3
ftp://ftp.wcnews.com/music/wc3/WC3-Kilrah.mp3

There's also the Fighting Thrakhath theme ftp://ftp.wcnews.com/music/wc3/WC3-MID21.mp3 and the Beating Thrakhath Theme ftp://ftp.wcnews.com/music/wc3/WC3-MID25.mp3

About the structure and scale stuff I can't say much since my knowledge in music theory is rather limited.

-Fraix
 
There's a Kilrathi theme that David Arnold wrote for the movie - but theres not too much to it. It's basicly a four note motif - you hear it best when you see the Snakeir pursue Blair into the Charybdis Quasar.

If youre thinking more along the lines of "source music", consider the Kilrathi culture's likening towards asymetrical design, warfare and disharmony. For my two cents, something dissonant or "experimental" (12 Tone) with lots of percussion.
 
All good ideas - thanks.

I was thinking about something atonal probably, but then another idea hit me. Would they even have the same tuning system as our western music? I mean... there's no reason to assume that they would have 12 tones in an octave. Perhaps they only have 5 - or 48. My university has the collection of the Harry Parch instruments (designed specifically to play microtonal music) so I know a thing or two about that. It might be difficult to write tho.

I think I'm leaning towards something fairly slow, atonal (or micro/macro tonal), and lots of percussion - I tend to agree with LeHah here. I know a lot of music has been writen as Kilrathi themes, but I didn't want to really look at any of those. I very much like what people have done for Kilrathi themes, but they sound like 'The theme for the bad guys'. I'm looking for something that Kilrathi culture would produce.

If there are any more ideas, please keep them flowing - this could be a lot of fun to experiment with.
 
The Kilrathi have 8 fingers (I suppose) which makes their numbering based on eighths.

Perhaps dividing a scale into 8 equal notes? It's hard to imagine what kind of music those feline race might make. They're aggressive, live in a harsh volcanic world. Have a strong sense of hierarchy and hrai structure.
 
Needaham45 said:
If there are any more ideas, please keep them flowing - this could be a lot of fun to experiment with.

What you said reminded me of the "Blaster Beam" instrument from the original Star Trek movie. It was a "highly polished artillery shell casings... used to create spectacular unearthly sounds with motorized magnets on an instrument 15 feet long."

Or something along the lines of prepared piano.
 
NuclearPenguins said:
Warfare-based societies music (in reality and most literature) tends to be more about storytelling of glorious battles and heroic deeds of the past rather than say "painting a picture with music" as most modern music tends to do. When put to music it is generally slow, dramatic, and bombastic. Music one could recite battle-poetry to.

But then you have to wonder how they would react if they ere introduced to various kinds of Terran music. I'm sure some of them would be pretty open-minded about it. :D
I can imagine some Kilrathi lord finding a slight interest in old musical compositions.
 
Just slap some Metallica in there and it should work great. :D
Actually, the feeling I get from the Cats, in terms of what their music is like, is very much like Edvard Grieg's O Fortuna and Tanz, from Carmina Burana, only deeper and more percussive. I agree it would probably sound like something you could recite war poetry to.
A lot of percussion and more organic instruments, I'm thinking Taiko drums rather than horns.
 
Armada Kilrathi music

I just remember a couple more Kilrathi themes.
armda318.mid
armda320.mid
armda322.mid
armda324.mid
armda326.mid
armda327.mid
armda329.mid
armda340.mid
armda342.mid
armda344.mid
armda346.mid
armda350.mid
armda352.mid

All from Wing Commander Armada music at ftp://ftp.wcnews.com/music/arma/armdamid.zip
 
Shaggy said:
Just slap some Metallica in there and it should work great. :D
Actually, the feeling I get from the Cats, in terms of what their music is like, is very much like Edvard Grieg's O Fortuna and Tanz, from Carmina Burana, only deeper and more percussive.

He just said he didn't want anything "Western".
 
Yeah - I mean... I could probably write something that would sound "Kiltrathi" in the sense of have the same feel and idea as what all the other WC composers have done for the Kilrathi, but I'm looking for something that the Kilrathi would produce, not something we would produce about them.

Oh, and yea - you should see some of these microtonal instruments - they're ridiculous. Imagine a marimba. Now imagine one key of that marimba being 7 feet tall and about the length and width of an average piano. And then, you'd have the 'Marimba Roica'. Its lowest note is the approximately the "D" below the piano's lowest "A". Its so low, some people can't hear it because it goes outside of their hearing range.

And that's just the beginning... there's a ton of wierd stuff, but it all sounds pretty cool. It gave me the idea to maybe experiment with marco or microtonal music for this.... but I don't know.

Anyway... your image of that "highly polished artillery shell casings... used to create spectacular unearthly sounds with motorized magnets on an instrument 15 feet long." isn't far off. That's what most of the Harry Parch instruments are like.
 
I've been trying to wrap my head around this idea all night. TheFraix had the idea about an 8 note motif which isn't bad - so how about 8 notes in 4/5 timing? In my really, really limited experience in writing notes, I've found 4/5 to be really hard because it sounds really "unfinished".
 
4/5? You mean 5/4? Cause 5th notes don't exist...

And consequently I was working with some 5/4 timpani drumming stuff last night... I eventually discarded it cause I couldn't get something that sounded really good.
 
The finger stuff is kind of silly isn't it? Our five fingers have zero impact on how we divide the harmonic series or time our meters.

Since you're developing an entire style of music for a nonexistant race of cats, anything you do that sounds out of the ordinary will probably suffice. That is the whole point isn't it? The reason we think some things sound good is because we're so used to them, so the more inventive you are, the worse it will sound. If you want my advice, just stick with something modal and have an uneven meter (the asymetrical comment was a good one). The Kilrathi seem more religious than artistic, so make it sound religious and expell any ideas about microtonality or other academic inventions.
 
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