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John Williams' Duel of the Fates vs Howard Shore's Mount Doom vs Don Davis' Neodammerung


Edmilson

Epic choir™  

29 members have voted

  1. 1. What is your favorite action music with apocalyptic choir?

    • Duel of the Fates - John Williams - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
      16
    • Mount Doom - Howard Shore - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
      10
    • Neodammerung - Don Davis - The Matrix Reloaded
      2
    • Other (please specify in the comments below)
      1


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Time for the most epic poll of this forum!

 

We all know that an apocalyptic choir has the power to make every fight scene unbeliavably epic. Many composers have tried over the years.

 

But what's your favorite action scene scored with an epic choir? The duel between Qui-Gonn, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace? The last battle for the fate of Middle Earth? Or Neo and Smith flying around and punching each other?

 

Let's choose the best apocalyptic choir of all time!

 

 

 

 

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Stop it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But DotF is severely overhyped and Mount Doom obviously wins. If we count For Frodo+Mount Doom+The Crack of Doom+The Eagles of course, as we should.

 

"But zomg its da epic SW song not ovurrated" shuddup, it's repetitive as hell, all "development" amounts to the same as a mixer pulling orchestra sections up and down in volume, and it leaves me pretty damn cold. Film versions are better.

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Yeah, Duel of the Fates doesn't really fit the 'apocalyptic choir' description, it's a bit more uniform and directed when compared with the other two. Neodammerung and Mount Doom are more like portions of a narrative, whereas Duel of the Fates is a singular programmatic theme. 

 

I love Duel of the Fates, and would've chosen it above the other options, but I went with Mount Doom for that sense of all things ending. 

 

In the 'Other' category I might suggest 'Phoenix Rises' from X-Men: The Last Stand, some pounding percussion with apocalyptic choir!

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"Duel of the Fates" beats everything.

 

But hey, plenty of other great examples out there too. Love Goldenthal's "Victorious Titus", for example, which isn't apocalyptic in meaning, but definitely in sound.

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As other people are saying I don't find DotF apocalyptic. Is more epic, has the sense of a battle between good and evil more than "oh shit, we are going to die!!". Neodammerung is fine, but it lacks something... I can't point out clearly what it is (maybe the orchestration? The whole Matrix trilogy has one of those Don Davis' orchestrations were every instrument is always playing at the same time) but I don't like it as much as the other two tracks.

 

Also, I must confess that Mount Doom is developed with one of my least favourites melodies in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I love the theme for the eagles but the rest no so much... And that's why I voted for DotF. I think is a great theme, but definitely not very apocalyptic.

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There's no contest. The Mount Doom material is cathartic is a way that one would struggle to put into words. It belongs in the same category as the resolution of Gotterdamerung more than it belongs with Duel of the Fates.

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Yes, I think the word 'apocalyptic' was an unfortunate starting point for this topic, as it has relatively specific meaning. 'Epic' would have done just fine.

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Even if we applied the 'epic' label (what's one man's epic, is another man's serenity) the votes would be automatically biased against any other nominee in favor of Williams.

 

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2 hours ago, Fabulin said:

 

Tears of joy. Eucatastrophe par excellence.

 

That's it! That moment in the music right there, leading to the climax at 1:50.

 

Bloody numinous is what it is.

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This was a tough one for me. All three were incredibly well written epic orchestral choral works that made the scene they accompanied infinitely better. In the end, I went with the unpopular Neodammerung because of Don Davis' avant garde style. It's too unique to ignore. But in terms of impact and compatibility with the film, it definitely goes to Shore's Mount Doom. What is high fantasy without an epic orchestral choral work? This leaves Williams' Duel of the Fates to win the most memorable award out of the three thanks to a catchy melody within the epic chorals. Each one has strengths that puts the other ones to shame. It's a rock paper scissors type comparison to me.

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That's not the point of this thread, though. Maybe you can make a poll concerning best 'adventure music'?

32 minutes ago, Borodin said:

How about neither? I don't need pretentious impressions of epicness with all the real adventure music out there.

 

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There's also James Horner's War from Avatar, which also features a lot of choir. I'm not a fan, but I don't hate it either. And I can't blame Horner for at least trying. 

 

 

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