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Monday, November 21, 2005

The Music of Civilization IV

Wow, it just sunk in for me just how amazing the soundtrack for Cvilization IV is.

After playing awhile, I started to recognise some of the music that was woven into the background music. Then, I started recognising a lot of the music. So, I decided to hunt in the program's directories to see if the music was accessible; it is.

It turns out that all the music are just regular mp3 files, and there's a lot of them. Some of the music pieces are original comppsitions, but most is selected pieces representative of the great works over many musical eras. There's Bach, Brahms, Dvorak, Palestrina, Mozart, &c (no Schubert?) and the treatment of each is quite excellent.

Thus, there's a new batch of 75 mp3 files running through my iTunes library. Not a bad little bonus that comes with the game.

39 comments:

  1. I too, was mesmerized by the music of Civ IV, particularly, the opening sequence. I performed an internet search for "the music of Civilization IV," and this blog was the only hit I got. Good to know that someone else appreciates the music.

    If you happen to know the title of the opening sequence, please let me know. I'd like to drop it into WinAmp and play it from time to time.

    Thanks

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  2. All the titles are in the ID3 tags of the mp3 files. I havn't used WinAmp in years, but any good media player should be able to read the ID3 tags and supply the title automatically.

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  3. I too was enchanted by the music of Civ4. When I pulled ahead of the other civs in technology and burst into the industrial age, what did I find was playing but my favorite piece: the New World symphony (2nd movement).

    I did some research on the title-music, and found that it was a Swahili rendition of the Lord's Prayer, put to music by Christopher Tin. It's called "Baba Yetu" (lit. "our father"), you can find the lyrics to it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_yetu

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  4. Thanks you so much for telling me the hint that the music files were in .mp3! I never would have thought to look in the files. Now, for certain, my cathedral choir will be singing el grillo at the next evensong. Although it has nothing to do w/ religion, more a satire of religion - it's still a lot of fund to sing.

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  5. And for an added bonus, you can get the public domain sheet music for El Grillo (and others). I think that one would be fantastic in a cathedral. If you make a recording, let me know, I'd love to hear it.

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  6. Wow... I can't believe that this is the only website I found when searching for the music in the opening sequence of civ IV.

    It's so beautiful... I had to know what language they were speaking!
    Glad that there are other geeks in the world that know wonderful when they hear it

    love, annie

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  7. How do you get the mp3 files of the game's music? Which file are they in???

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  8. Assuming you've installed the game into the default location, the music files are in C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Sounds

    And please, if you want me to respond to you directly, please either post with your Blogger account or include your email address in your post.

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  9. thanks man, ur blog entry is greatly appreciated!

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  10. Hello! I´ve been searching for the song "improperia" by Palestrina that I found in the game while visiting a friend of mine. He couldnt fins the mp3 file on his macbook so I´ve been trying to find someone who has that mp3 file, seems like you have it right?
    if you want to give me a hand, please e-mail me at per_ns@hotmail.com
    best regards

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  11. That's cool! Thanks! But I can't find wonder music or a way to watch the in-game movies.
    Help?

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  12. The movies and wonder music are not in any widely-spread format and don't have easily identifiable names. If you can pull out the right files, you may have some luck with VLC, but I doubt that digging them out is nearly as easy as getting the music was.

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  13. Thanks for creating this blog! As others have said, this was the only hit i got for the music of civ IV. I am now looking for some of the full length albums by the Stanford Talisman A group who performed Baba Yetu (the opening sequence for Civ IV)

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  14. Just had to leave a comment since I found this blog by googling music og Civilisation 4. Unbelievable, thanks for the info everyone.

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  15. Hey, yeah thanks you guys for directing me to the sounds folder. Was a little depressed though at first when i saw how many there were, thinking I'd have to pick through everything to find actual songs. But then I found the folder labeled Soundtrack and all was good. ;)

    Beautiful stuff. Makes me wish I had a soundtrack for my life. Will just have to make my own in case, you know, someone decides to make a movie about me :p

    Cheers!

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  16. Great information, Thank you!

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  17. Thanks for the post, and the comments. I love the music of the opening sequence ("OpeningSequence.mp3" in "Assets\Sounds\Soundtrack"), and am glad to see others share my interests. :)

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  18. What I really liked was the choice of Brahms' Symphony No.3... Absolutely enchanting. :)

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  19. If anybody's interested, the song "Baba Yetu" (which plays during the main menu) was written by Christopher Tin. You can download a free MP3 if you sign up for his mailing list.

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  20. How come the custom assets folder shows up as empty? Its the only folder that says assets in any but it just empty folders. My system is set to show hidden files but still nothing.

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  21. Offhand, I'm not sure why the assets folder would be empty. It could be that there was a full or partial option in the installation and you chose the partial option. In which case, it would be streaming the music from disc. However, as I don't run a Windows box anymore, I can't verify that.

    The music does need to somewhere. It's quite possible that it's not obfuscated on the disc. Pop the disc in your computer and search for mp3 files on there. You could also try a search of the Civilisation folder on your hard drive.

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  22. The assets folder is empty in the My Documents version of the Civ IV folders (which I assume is just for game saves). If you look in the C:\Program Files\Firaxis folder you'll find them.

    Out of curiosity, has anyone else gotten the ID3 tags to work?

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  23. the opening music is beautiful. I just searched Civilization IV opening on shareware sites and got a few hits, so I got it on MP3. Can almost sing the whole song now.

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  24. I just copied the song from the directory because i really liked it! They did an awesome job assembling this soundtrack! Awesome!
    greet,
    Borzo

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  25. Where is Program Files?

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  26. Thank god i found ur page...the music of this game alone worth the game. I´m in love with Rimsky-Korzakov´s Sherezade. Thank you

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  27. The music of Civ 4 is one of the primary reasons I enjoy playing. In particular the range of classical music in the early stages provides a very high end, mellowing experience during the game. Civ 4 in itself is a bit intellectual (strategy) and I find it fitting that it is accompanied by pieces such as Mozart's andante. Nevertheless, to be honest the Modern era music can get a bit repetitive/annoying.

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  28. The music behind Civ 4 is truly unique. Compared to say a game such as halo, or other shooters where adrenaline inducing heavy rock and bass beats are prevalent. Long Live Sid!

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  29. Every time i open civ 4 ( i have both the expansions but still prefer vanilla for the opening music) i wait for the opening graphic and the menu with the shining glob to go on for some time and after 2 or so repetitions of this most awesome song i get into the game....

    Beautiful song..some thing that seems to appretiate the sum of all the struggles of mankind to reach what we have till now...and yet something that points to the eternity of the on going struggle too..

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  30. And am glad that there are quite a few like me in this forum who loved this song..

    beautiful song..

    Mel

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  31. For anyone still trying to find that opening soundtrack amongst the 700+ mp3's (I've now copied it elsewhere and named it "Baba Yetu_Christopher Tin (Civ IV).mp3" thanx to all your input, it's called "OpeningMenu.mp3 and it's 3,254KB in size (since there are 10 files with that name).

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  32. In My civ 4 folder, i can find no music what so ever in there. all there are are folders that say "This folder is empty". Its so anoing

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  33. I still have not found out why some people don't see the music folder. It may have something to do with doing a full or partial install, or maybe newer versions of the game leave the music on the disc.

    Since I don't have a Windows machine anymore to play my copy on, it's hard for me to guess what the problem is.

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  34. I cant find a music that i REALLY like...It´s not the opening sequence but its like it...its in an unknown language (at least for me).Anyone can point out the title AND POST IT HERE PLZ???

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  35. I have been scouring the internet for an answer...does anyone know who performs the music within the game? Not the composers, those are easy enough, but the orchestra/conductor. Thanks a bunch!

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  36. Is there anywhere I can download the music for Civ IV? If you have any information please email me at sushimonster84@yahoo.com
    Thanks

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  37. The music from Civilization IV is only available on the game disc. If you want the music, you'll have to buy the game.

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  38. Thank you for your advice!!

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  39. Oh My God! Thank you so much to Stephen for the location, I can now enjoy all these songs on my ipod! Thank you all and the best of luck!

    P.S I had already spent forever trying to do this, including spend money looking for each song on itunes(not reccommended).

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