The Song Planner

Fantasy Choir

tagStarted 1982Peak 1999–2016Last big hit still active

Located in 2 routes

Stage / Screen / Soundtrack → Choral / Sacred / Vocal ScoreStage / Screen / Soundtrack → Sci-Fi / Fantasy / Worldbuilding Score

Large-scale choral writing that gives fantasy and space epics their sense of the sacred, the ancient and the world-shaking—massed choirs singing in Latin, Sanskrit, Elvish or invented tongues, wordless soprano soars and thunderous low male chant layered over full orchestra. It ranges from ethereal, angelic high voices for wonder and magic to pounding, aggressive choral ostinatos for war and dark power. Composers set constructed languages to music to deepen worldbuilding, using the choir's human weight to lend myth an overwhelming, ritual grandeur. The mood is exalted and monumental—voices as the sound of destiny, magic and the divine.

History

Basil Poledouris's Carmina-Burana-style chorus for Conan the Barbarian (1982) foreshadowed the epic fantasy choir, but the mode exploded with John Williams' Sanskrit-texted "Duel of the Fates" for The Phantom Menace (1999) and Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings (2001–03), which set Tolkien's Elvish and Black Speech for choir across the trilogy's great set pieces. The device spread across franchise fantasy and its trailers—Two Steps From Hell's "epic choir" cues, the Harry Potter films' children's-choir magic—and Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard's wordless vocals gave the sacred-mythic strain its defining voice. Massed constructed-language choir remains shorthand for fantasy at maximum scale.

Defining artists

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Essential listening

  • Duel of the Fates (The Phantom Menace)(1999) — John WilliamsSpotifyYouTube
  • Battle of the Heroes (Revenge of the Sith)(2005) — John WilliamsSpotifyYouTube
  • Isengard Unleashed (The Two Towers)(2002) — Howard ShoreSpotifyYouTube
  • The Prophecy (The Fellowship of the Ring)(2001) — Howard ShoreSpotifyYouTube
  • Double Trouble (Prisoner of Azkaban)(2004) — John WilliamsSpotifyYouTube
  • Protectors of the Earth(2008) — Two Steps From HellSpotifyYouTube
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Sources

  • Doug Adams, The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films (2010)
  • Janet K. Halfyard (ed.), The Music of Fantasy Cinema (2012)
  • Emilio Audissino, John Williams's Film Music (2014)