# Anyone know of some good orchestra/choir music?



## Pedeadstrian (Nov 18, 2013)

Thanks to Last.FM, I stumbled upon a band called Angeldark, and they have a song called Libera Me that blew me away. I've enjoyed choir and orchestra pieces before, but this one is really up my alley. I was hoping someone might know of something similar musically and vocally. I don't know the right words to describe it, but I like heavier pieces.

If you wanna skip to the vocals, it starts at 0:50.


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## FAST6191 (Nov 18, 2013)

If you are going heavier you would be surprised how many metal musicians are actually classically trained musicians. Indeed there are several bands that do little else. There are subgenres for everything but I would say symphonic metal is actually not one of the silly/crazy specific ones, I will leave it to you to decide whether you prefer black symphonic or not (personally there are very few things I will listen to growling in)

To that end

O Fortuna is actually a fairly well known poem/song so you might want to look at some of their original pieces. They do quite a bit with a full orchestra as well.


Coming the other way there are a few vocal groups.


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## Cyan (Nov 18, 2013)

Not really the same genre, but I like listening to orchestra/choir/opera musics from different media (movie, anime, games, etc.)

More opera:
Diva's song : From Blood+ anime, voice starts at 1:25. By Mark Mancina and Elin Carlson.
Voyage to Avalon : From Avalon movie. By Kenji Kawai and Elzbieta Towarnicka.

More choir:
2H of Ghibli orchestra : From Joe Hisaishi. Not all of them have choirs, but the one with choirs are great and have a lot of chorister (?)
Dancing mad: From FF6,  One winged angel: FF7, Maria and Draco/darkness and starlight: From FF6 (you probably know them, and they have a lot of different versions in different languages)

Church:
Ave Maria, from Cowboy bebop
Hallelujah, from Song to Fly

It's not what you are looking for, but they are choir and orchestra.


If you like choirs, maybe you can check actual specialized choirs groups like The Red Army Choir
If you like Acappella songs, you could like Corsica chants which are sung by a group of male voices (Edit: and Peter Hollens on youtube too)

Check this Celtic (and French minstrel/medieval) style :


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## Pedeadstrian (Nov 19, 2013)

FAST6191 said:


> If you are going heavier you would be surprised how many metal musicians are actually classically trained musicians. Indeed there are several bands that do little else. There are subgenres for everything but I would say symphonic metal is actually not one of the silly/crazy specific ones, I will leave it to you to decide whether you prefer black symphonic or not (personally there are very few things I will listen to growling in)
> 
> To that end
> 
> ...


I actually love Therion and Symphonic Metal in general, including/especially the growly kind. And O Fortuna always excites me when I hear it in movies or commercials. Spot on.


Cyan said:


> Not really the same genre, but I like listening to orchestra/choir/opera musics from different media (movie, anime, games, etc.)
> 
> More opera:
> Diva's song : From Blood+ anime, voice starts at 1:25. By Mark Mancina and Elin Carlson.
> ...



Diva's Song: Got pretty awesome three minutes in.
Voyage to Avalon: Got pretty awesome three and six minute in.
Ghibli orchestra: working on it. God damn, 2 hours?
Dancing Mad: pretty good.
One Winged Angel: one of the main reasons why I love symphonies/orchestras/whatchamacallits. Got the original, orchestra, Crisis Core, and Black Mages versions. If you've heard any of the latter three versions, that'd be what I consider heavier. Faster, louder, etc.
Ave Maria: meh.
Hallelujah: meh.
Red Army Choir: that teaser video was pretty good. The singer kind of reminded me of Enrique Igles-oh god, I never thought I'd ever say that before.
Peter Hollens: I've heard his Misty Mountains song from The Hobbit before. It's pretty good.
Nausicaa: pretty good. I feel bad for the dude, though. From how high his voice gets, I think he doesn't have any testes left.


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## Ryukouki (Nov 19, 2013)

Ghibli is probably one of the best things out there. It's worth two hours. My friend got me the entire Joe Hisaishi Piano Collection for my birthday. You can imagine a piano player's delight...


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## grossaffe (Nov 19, 2013)

I do love me some symphonic metal, though I'm not usually big on the female-lead vocals.

Rhapsody of Fire is a band that's been known to use a full 70-piece orchestra on some of their albums.


Dark Moor is another Symphonic Metal band.  This song is a cover mixing together Beethoven's 5th Symphony and the Moonlight Sonata.


Kamelot is one more Symphonic Metal band to check out.  The lead singer here, Roy Khan, is a classically trained Opera singer.  He's since left the band, but his replacement, Tommy Karevik, is equally amazing (I thought nobody could replace Roy Khan, but he won me over).


Galneryus isn't really a symphonic metal band, but they do have classical influences, and this particular song derives heavily from Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Minor.  (This is the short version, the full-length version is 15 minutes long)



As for straight up Orchestral music, I've always been a fan of Franz Liszt.  His Sonata in B Minor is amazing, but it's a piano solo rather than orchestral, so I'll go with the Faust Symphony:


Can't go wrong with Dvorak, either.  I was lucky enough to catch the last half of his 8th Symphony on the classical music station on my way to class this morning.  I'm also a big fan of his 9th Symphony, here's the 3rd movement.


Gotta go with some Beethoven, too.  How about the second movement of his ninth symphony?


My brother is a big fan of a band called Two Steps From Hell who's music has been featured in The Dark Knight, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Mass Effect, X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.


That should be a good start.


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## nando (Nov 19, 2013)

My son goes to an all boy choir school so I've listened to a lot of it. O fortuna is probably the most recognizable, but Vespers by Rachmaninov seems to be highly revered.


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## Pedeadstrian (Nov 20, 2013)

grossaffe said:


> I do love me some symphonic metal, though I'm not usually big on the female-lead vocals.
> 
> Rhapsody of Fire is a band that's been known to use a full 70-piece orchestra on some of their albums.
> 
> ...


I'm actually the opposite way when it comes to female-lead vocals. But to each their own.

Rhapsody of Fire: that was pretty good. According to Last.FM, I've loved one of their tracks before, so I shall look up more of their stuff.
Dark Moor: I love this band, and along with Dies Irae, The Moon is one of my favorite songs of theirs.
Kamelot: pretty good as well. I shall look up more of their stuff as well.
Galneryus: pretty good, but I'm not a fan of male Japanese vocals, unless they're dirty.
Liszt: some parts are good.
Dvorak: pretty good.
Beethoven: not really a fan of that one as much as his others, like Fur Elise.
Two Steps From Hell: pretty awesome.


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## darkseekerliu (Nov 20, 2013)

If you enjoy classical/orchestra/choir songs check this site: http://www.kickassclassical.com/classical-music-popular-famous-best-top-100-list.html 
There you will find the most known ones ever!!!
Hope you like it!


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