Heroes II Soundtrack

[berntie]

Sorry for opening another thread on this but I think its a recurrent topic and maybe it would be a good idea to make it sticky. Not only for discussion about the lyrics and the like but also about obtaining the tracks etc.

My question is:
Does anybody know from which works the operas in Heroes II and its expansion (there are different soundtracks for original and expansion) do come from? And I also have been trying to get the lyrics for a long time but failed

What I managed to find out is that in PoL the barbarian and warlock theme are both from Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms.

The lyrics are taken from the bible:

Wo ist dein Sieg?
Wo ist dein Stachel?
Wo ist dein Sieg?
Wo ist dein Sieg?

Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg.
Tod, wo ist dein Stachel?
Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg?

for the barbarian and

Denn es wird die Posaune schallen
Und die Toten werden auferstehen
Unverweslich
Und wir werden verwandelt werden

for the warlock.

A translation of the requiem along with references to the bible verses can be found here.

With this information, maybe someone can find out more about the other themes.

The operas can be found on the Heroes-II-CD and PoL-CD, respectively, as regular audio tracks; the Gold Edition contains the tracks from the original. There is also a Russian website where you could download the tracks from the original as mp3-files but I cannot find that one anymore. Maybe someone got a link?

Edit: I found the site again: http://heroes.net.ru/heroes2/!

[Pitsu]

If you have not read already, then http://www.forumplanet.com/strategyplan ... 322830&p=1 could be an interesting link for you. According to Rob (HeroesMusicMan) all verses come from bible.

I do not have the lyrics, but i might have original H2 music somewhere as mp3.

[berntie]

If you have not read already, then http://www.forumplanet.com/strategyplan ... 322830&p=1 could be an interesting link for you. According to Rob (HeroesMusicMan) all verses come from bible.

Wow, that's really a lot of info. Pity I didn't get across this one. I only searched the Heroes I - III forums.

Well, what I found most interesting is that some other lyrics are Latin and the following:

Most of the town theme "influences" come from Lizst, Bach and Rachmoninoff. They are original with overtones of the composers.

Anyway, the Warlock town in Heroes 1 uses Gavottes 1 & 2 from J.S.Bach's English Suite number 6 in D minor. The Barbarian town also sounds extremely Bach-like, but I don't know what the piece is.

[lpatenaude]

Just go onto Ubi.com/US's website and buy yourself the game itself(Heroes II), it is re-released onto DVD disk and plastic case just like the movies' ones.

Once installed onto your machine(PC), use Windows Media Player 10.5(or the newest release 11) or RealOne's RealPlayer 10 to scan for all forms of music and video tracks/clips currently available onto your Hard-Drive.

Once the HD scan done, it should have picked up everything that is music based formats and video based formats. It'll be listed into the storage function of the Browser/Player called Library.

Really trying my best at helping you here. LJP.

[berntie]

Just go onto Ubi.com/US's website and buy yourself the Really trying my best at helping you here. LJP.

O.k., o.k. I think I did not express myself properly. I already have the soundtrack, I just wanted to give people a hint where/how to get in case somebody maybe wants to investigate the lyrics-thing but doesn't have it yet.

Anyway: Thanks a lot

[berntie]

I managed to find the lyrics for three more themes: Barbarian, Necromancer, and Warlock from the original!!

All are from Thus spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Barbarian:

Oder gehst du jetzt selber
auf den Wegen
auf den Wegen
Oder gehst du jetzt auf den Wegen der Diebe, du Freund der Bösen?

Necromancer:

Deine wilden
wilden Hunde wollen in die Freiheit; sie bellen vor Lust in ihrem Keller,
wenn dein Geist alle Gefängnisse zu lösen trachtet.
sie bellen vor Lust

Deine wilden
wilden Hunde wollen in die Freiheit; sie bellen vor Lust
vor Lust

Warlock:

Willst du heute dein Feuer in die Täler tragen?
Fürchtest du nicht
Fürchtest du nicht
Fürchtest du nicht des Brandstifters Strafen?

I couldn't find a translation, though.

What I'm still missing are the sorceress themes (from both original and expansion) and the knight from the original.

[Telvanni]

Hey!

A long time ago, I was the proud owner og Heroes II, but suudenly the game disappeared, must have been the cruel Warlock, who destroyed it..? But I seem to have fallen in love the the Sorcerer's song (original), but I can't find it anywhere, I just need to listen to it again, just once, and I can live happily ever after!
Please help me! I have MSN Messenger too, if someone maybe could send it as a music file? Maybe even Windows Media player? I don't know..
But I'll be the merriest man ever!

[Darmani]

Now that someone else has made a similar thread, time to bump. I so desire to know the lyrics to the Sorceress town!

Anyway, since I have some knowledge of German and a love for Heroes, I attempted to translate the lyrics:

From two posts previous:

Barbarian:

Or do you now go yourself
in the ways
in the ways
Or do you now go yourself in the ways of the thieves, you friend of the evil ones?

Necromancer:

Your savage
savage dogs want freedom; they bark in your cellar out of desire,
whenever your spirit strives to break all jails.

Your savage
savage dogs want freedom; they bark in your cellar out of desire,
out of desire

Warlock:

Do you want to carry your fire into the valleys today?
Don't be afraid
Don't be afraid
Don't be afraid of the arsonist's punishment

These lyrics are all very appropriate to their town, me thinks. [/quote]

[Darmani]

I just listened to some of the operatics in the Sorceress theme I think I was able to make out some of the words. For example, I believe I heard the word "Bevor" (German for "before," pronounced similarly) repeated several times, including the first word of the song. I also believe I heard the phrase "Dies ist mein Gott, mein ____" ("This is my God, my [some word I couldn't make out]") several times in the song.

Don't take me too seriously on any of this; I'm not known for my musical ear, especially when the lyrics are in a foreign language.

Edit: After a couple more hearings, it sounded a little more like English. I thought I heard, at times "This is, by God, my home."

[berntie]

Anyway, since I have some knowledge of German and a love for Heroes, I attempted to translate the lyrics:

From two posts previous:
Warlock:

Do you want to carry your fire into the valleys today?
Don't be afraid
Don't be afraid
Don't be afraid of the arsonist's punishment

Nice translations, Darmani!

Just a small correction:

"Fürchtest du nicht" is a question, it means "Aren't you afraid" (imperative mood would be "Fürchte nicht").

And me thinks that the remaining themes are in Latin. There have to be some Latin themes. Otherwise Rob King would have told us wrong (unfortunately, the above link to the old Round Table doesn't work anymore).

[Darmani]

Thanks; the lack of punctuation tripped me up.

Speaking of small mistakes, "prisons"would probably be a better translation than "jails."

It's just amazing how deeply the songs can be applied to the towns, not only in lyrics, but instrumentation, pacing, tone, etc. "Aren't you afraid" certainly gives me a different reading of the Warlock.


I am very certain that the Knight Theme lyrics are German, because I recognize several German words. /me listens in order to list which ones

Woah...I just cracked the lyrics! I listened to a certain word sandwiched between "und" and "nicht" several times and tried to make it out. It sounded at first like "fake-en" and then "regnen" (to rain), but I finally made it out as "reden." By Googling for "und reden nicht," I found the lyrics.

Psalm 115
Sie haben Mäuler und reden nicht, sie haben Augen und sehen nicht, sie haben Ohren und hören nicht, sie haben Nasen und riechen nicht, sie haben Hände und greifen nicht, Füße haben sie und gehen nicht

und kein Laut kommt aus ihrer Kehle.

Unfortunately, after "und gehen nicht," the song doesn't match the rest of the psalm according to my ear. Am I mishearing, or does someone else want to supply the rest?

Additionally, the "sie" after "Füße haben" seems to be absent.

Anyway, here's a translation of the entire part of the Psalm:

They have mouths, and do not speak. They have eyes, and do not see. They have ears, and do not hear. They have noses, and do not smell. They have hands but do not grasp; feet they have and do not go,

and no noise comes from their throats.

Edit: The evil towns are all Nietzsche. Wizard is lyricless; Knight is Bible. I'm guessing that Sorceress, the other good town, is also from the Bible, and probably in German as well.

Some of the Heroes town themes are definitely Latin; just not the ones from Heroes 2: The Sucession Wars. I recognize two Latin words in the Preserve theme from H4 ("Deo" (God) and "Hallelujah.")

[berntie]

Woah! Very cool, Darmani!

Only 2 remaining.

Regarding the uncertainties:

Füße haben sie: "haben sie" is there. The pronounciation is not clear, but it's there. The feet must be there, too (what else could she possibly sing at that point), although I can't tell it from listening. It sounds more like "Fuß". I guess the reason is that the opera singing makes the stress very different from normal speaking.

For the same reason, the last part is a mystery to me. The start sounds like "sie reden nicht", and then "aus ihrer Kehle" (would match the psalm), but in my ear that leaves out the last syllable (the one the singer elongates). Plus, "sie reden nicht aus ihrer Kehle" would be poor German.

[Darmani]

For the same reason, the last part is a mystery to me. The start sounds like "sie reden nicht", and then "aus ihrer Kehle" (would match the psalm), but in my ear that leaves out the last syllable (the one the singer elongates). Plus, "sie reden nicht aus ihrer Kehle" would be poor German.

I just Googled "und gehen nicht sie reden nicht." It seems the lyrics don't come directly from the Bible. Or, at least not from the conventional translation.

http://forge.fh-potsdam.de/~Kultur/PROJ ... salter.htm

The lyrics to the Knight theme are:

Sie haben Mäuler, und reden nicht; sie haben Augen, und sehen nicht;
sie haben Ohren, und hören nicht; sie haben Nasen, und riechen nicht;
Sie haben Hände, und greifen nicht; Füße haben sie, und gehen nicht; sie reden nicht durch ihren Hals.

They have mouths, and do not speak. They have eyes, and do not see. They have ears, and do not hear. They have noses, and do not smell. They have hands but do not grasp; feet they have and do not go; they do not speak through their throat.

[NurDas]

The lyrics of these songs have fascinated me too and I decided to track down the last ones: sorceress lyrics. And I believe I succeeded!

As Darmani pointed out by the knight lyrics the texts aren't from the conventional Bible translation. They are in fact from the original Luther Bible from 1545. The lyrics of the knight town come from the Old Testament, from the Psalms. It is psalm 115. Darmani also thought that sorceress lyrics may be from the Bible too.

I guessed that the lyrics of the sorceress town are, as the lyrics of the knight town, from the Psalms. Darmani thought hearing words like 'bevor' and 'dies ist mein Gott'. I heard 'es ist mein Gott'. I searched the Psalms in an online version of the 1545 Luther Bible on the net, but found nothing. I tried 'es ist dein Gott' also nothing. Then I just went with the two words I was most sure of: 'es ist' and voila Psalm 14 had 'es ist kein Gott'. I listened the theme again and there it was, the beginning of the fourteenth psalm:

"Die Toren sprechen in ihrem Herzen: Es ist kein Gott."

Translation (from BibleWiki):
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

[BMJedi]

Way cool to find a long overdue thread about the superlative HOMM music tracks! I'm starting a separate thread about HOMMI, but I have one thing to contribute here, maybe.

I don't listen to the original HOMMII tracks, I only listen to the music from the expansions.

And, I'm pretty sure the Sorceress theme is actually in English. It should be a no-brainer, I guess, but when sung, even English lyrics can be hard to understand.

I get:

"Peace to they who come,
Stay in peace today,
Peace to they who come,
Stay in peace, today."

It's one of the most beautiful and inspiring tracks ever, and as all the others, fits the character of the sorceresses perfectly.

I also know some German, and it's been bothering me for years that I couldn't get all the words in the Warlock's and Barbarian's castles. I even wrote an email to Rob King once, and got no answer, and at the time I couldn't find anything on line. Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all you guys who have finally dug up these lyrics! I did suspect that the Warlock's theme was Wagner.

All I could get clearly from the Warlock's castle was 'auferstehen', which I knew from the Mahler 2 meant 'resurrect', but now I can get all of it! Super cool!

[berntie]

The lyrics to the Knight theme are:

[...] sie reden nicht durch ihren Hals.

"Sie reden nicht durch ihren Hals" suits perfectly. Excellent!

"Die Toren sprechen in ihrem Herzen: Es ist kein Gott."

Translation (from BibleWiki):
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

Yes, that's it! Only one remaining: the sorceress from PoL. I shall be trying that in a few days again. With what we know now, I think it should be relatively easy.

[Khelben]

Sorry for resurrecting such an old thread, but I've been a fan of Heroes music for as long as the series has been around, and I thought I would complete the puzzle with the final piece from the PoL Sorceress town.

"Herr, du bist, du bist würdig zu nehmen Preis und Ehre
Preis und Ehre und Kraft"

and yes, it's from the bible, somewhere in Revelation.
(Lord, you are worthy to receive glory and honour and power)

Has anyone figured out the lyrics to the Preserve in H4?

Cheers!

[Darmani]

No, although I can be pretty sure it's in Latin.

Anyway, I thought this would be a good time to mention I found the lyrics for the Haven in H4 some time ago. Someone blogged about how they were looking for the lyrics for HoMM and they found the answer in.....this thread, and then some commenter stated the Haven lyrics.

http://niched.blogspot.com/2007/07/town-tunes.html

Apparently they're from "In Trutina," part of the Carmina Burana:

Sed eligo
Quod video
Collum iugo
Transeo
Praebeo
Lascivus
Amor

While I'm at it, to bring everything into one place, someone in the HV forum found part of the lyrics for the HV Haven theme. It starts off with the main line of "Requiem."

Lacrimosa dies illia, qua resurget ex favilla, judicanus homo reus

[Darmani]

It's just amazing how deeply the songs can be applied to the towns, not only in lyrics, but instrumentation, pacing, tone, etc. "Aren't you afraid" certainly gives me a different reading of the Warlock.

A few weeks ago, I finished Thus Spoke Zarathustra (I started in mid-January -- not the easiest and most engrossing read). It's a four part book. About a quarter way into the first part, I jumped when I recognized an alternate translation of the passage used in the Necro theme. A few chapters later, I recognized the one from the Barbarian. I then read the rest of the book without noticing the Warlock theme.

Curious, I Googled it. It turns out that it's from the Prologue -- about a page from the start of the book.

My guess is that someone was told to pick up Also Sprach Zarathustra (that's the German title), and skim/read for passages that could vaguely be fit to the factions. Probably ditto for the Psalms.

There are certainly passages that I think fit each of the factions better. For example, "Ich will Kobolde um mich haben, denn ich bin muthig" (translated by Walter Kaufmann as "I want to have goblins around me, for I am courageous") for Barbarian. But, it's quite easy to miss that on a skim (even though that example actually comes in the chapter before the Necro theme's quote).

I mostly retract the quoted paragraph.

[Heroes_Veteran]

I like the ambient themes better. Especially the grass\dirt ones.