Basil Poledouris – Conan The Barbarian - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1982)

Composer: Basil Poledouris

Tracklist

1. Anvil Of Crom 02:30
2. Riddle Of Steel / Riders Of Doom 05:31
3. Gift Of Fury 03:47
4. Wheel Of Pain 04:05
5. Atlantean Sword 03:53
6. Theology / Civilization 03:10
7. Wifeing 02:07
8. The Search 03:05
9. The Orgy 04:10
10. Funeral Pyre 04:28
11. Battle Of The Mounds 04:48
12. Orphans Of Doom / The Awakening 05:28

Basil Konstantine Poledouris (August 21, 1945 – November 8, 2006) was a Greek-American 

composer, conductor and orchestrator of film and television scores,

best known for his long-running collaborations with directors John Milius and Paul Verhoeven.

Among his works are scores for the films Conan The Barbarian (1982), Flesh & Blood (1985), RoboCop (1987),

The Hunt For Red October (1990), Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man (1991) and Starship Troopers (1997).
Conan The Barbarian is a 1982 American epic sword and sorcery film directed and co-written by John Milius.
The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones, and tells the story of a young muscular barbarian warrior named Conan (Schwarzenegger), who seeks vengeance for the death of his parents 

at the hands of Thulsa Doom (Jones), the leader of a snake cult.
The composer was given the opportunity to compose the film's music based on the initial storyboards 

and to modify it throughout filming before recording the score near the end of production.
Poledouris made extensive use of Musync, a music and tempo editing hardware and software system, 

to modify the tempo of his compositions and synchronize them with the action in the film.
The film's music mostly conveys a sense of power, energy, and brutality, yet tender moments occur.
According to Poledouris, Milius envisioned Conan as an opera with little or no dialogue.
The main musical theme, the "Anvil Of Crom", opens the film with a brassy sound of 24 French horns 

in a dramatic intonation of the melody, while pounding drums add an incessantly driven rhythmic propulsion.
Milius initially wanted a chorus based on Carl Orff's Carmina Burana to herald the appearance

of Doom and his warriors for the attack on Conan's village at the beginning of the film.

After learning that the film Excalibur (1981) had used Orff's work,

he changed his mind and asked his composer for an original creation.

Poledouris' theme for Doom consists of "energetic choral passages",

chanted by the villain's followers to salute their leader and their actions in his name.

The lyrics were composed in English and roughly translated into Latin.

Poledouris was "more concerned about the way the Latin words sounded than with the sense they actually made".

He set these words to a melody adapted from the 13th-century Gregorian hymn, Dies Irae,

which was chosen to "communicate the tragic aspects of the cruelty wrought by Thulsa Doom".
From late November 1981, Poledouris spent three weeks recording his score in Rome.
He engaged a 90-instrument orchestra and a 24-member choir from the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra and conducted them personally.

Memory