Heroes of Might and Magic II Soundtrack (PC), Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero, 1996
Even decades after its release, the Heroes of Might and Magic II soundtrack still stands apart as a unique experiment. The score for Heroes of Might and Magic had already articulated Paul Romero and Rob King’s immense ambition to create game music with the gravitas, impact, and cultural cachet of classical music. The result was a resounding artistic success. It is hardly surprising, then, that Heroes of Might and Magic II amplifies its predecessor’s already lofty aspirations. But how do you make symphonically styled music like that of Heroes of Might and Magic feel still more grandiose?
Romero and King – joined by King’s bandmate Steve Baca – found a logical answer. They added vocals, and not just any kind of vocals. In other words, a large portion of the Heroes of Might and Magic II soundtrack consists of full-blown operatic arias. Even today, underscoring a game with opera would be unusual. To propose such a thing in 1996 was revolutionary – and probably a little mad.
Calling the score “revolutionary” does require some qualification, however. It is not as though the composers were trying to invent some radically unprecedented musical style. What Romero and King are really doing is taking an existing form of high-art expression and placing it in a new context.
It is tempting to say that the Heroes of Might and Magic II soundtrack was ahead of its time. Yet given how few game scores followed in its footsteps, it feels more accurate to describe it as a work existing outside game music conventions altogether, unlikely ever to spawn a legion of imitators – unlike another conservative revolutionary such as Michael Giacchino’s Medal of Honor. Stylistically, Heroes of Might and Magic II may have been a dead end. At the same time, it also suggested that from this point on, the sky was the limit. If you could score a game with opera arias, what music could possibly be off-limits to composers?
Of course, it is one thing to have grand ambitions and another to realise them successfully. Yet considering how intricate and refined Romero’s orchestral writing in Heroes of Might and Magic already was, it is little surprise that his operatic material here feels like the genuine article rather than mere pastiche. The vocal writing, found throughout the castle themes, is impeccably handled. These melodies possess real operatic flair and reveal a deep understanding of the idiom. There is equally no doubt that the arias are performed to an impressive standard and range widely in expression: from the ethereal, almost New Age-inflected soprano lines of “Town – Sorceress” to the sinister bass bombast of “Town – Necromancer” and “Town – Warlock (Expansion)”, and on to the restrained triumph of “Town – Barbarian (Expansion)”.
These Romantic-era-inflected operatic solos carry a tremendous emotional charge and urgency, and Romero’s fittingly turbulent Sturm und Drang orchestrations merge with the vocal lines to create a score of immense symphonic depth and richness. His wonderful melodies are supported by an orchestral backdrop every bit as lavish and emotionally charged as the arias themselves. Romero layers the instruments into ever more colourful textures that reward repeated listening, each return revealing new subtleties.
It feels as though Romero is striving as hard as possible for truly classical scale. In doing so, he once again sets a new benchmark for orchestral writing in Western game music. The score moves through an astonishing range of moods and colours within compositions that are, in fact, relatively short. Its compositional and emotional complexity is nearly unmatched among Western game soundtracks. It is a testament to Romero’s skill that he can harness the torrent of ideas swirling through these pieces and shape them into works of real coherence and force.
Nor should one overlook King and Baca’s contribution to the soundtrack’s success. Not, admittedly, in the rather monotonous – if brief – battle cues, but in what would become another Heroes of Might and Magic staple: the terrain themes. Written to accompany the game’s various landscapes, these pieces are much sparser and less demonstrative than Romero’s contributions. In fact, they almost operate on the opposite principle. King and Baca require only a few solo instruments in each cue to paint vivid images of distinct places.
This music has no lavish orchestration or emotional extravagance to rely on. There are only simple melodies and carefully shaped, minimal accompaniments – and yet these are spellbinding compositions. The fact that the composers of Heroes of Might and Magic II can master two such different emotional registers – operatic bombast and reflective restraint – finally cements the soundtrack’s place among the finest orchestral scores ever written for a video game. Its aspiration to high art may strike some listeners as overwrought. But in the end, the score’s audacity reveals nothing less than an artistic triumph.
Rhetta Fae Gibson says
I loved listening to this music when I was in my early teens, like I had to be 13-15 when I was playing this game and it was so awesome! Your article does it great justice!
Simon Elchlepp says
Hi Rheatta,
Thanks for your comment and glad to hear you enjoyed the review! Yeah, that must have been an awesome experience, playing the game when it was released and hearing this fantastic music that hadn’t done before in that sort of way in video games before… Have you listened to the other Heroes of Might and Magic scores?
Rhetta Fae Gibson says
I played a lot of HoMM2 and 3. The music in 3 was pretty good too but the opera in 2 really just blew it away. It was so authentic and real! ♫ sorry it took so long for me to get back to you, I hadn’t thought about it in a while.
Tristan Blanchard says
Hello,
I just found this wonderful site while searching for the MIDI version of the HoMM II main menu.
I must say I was truly captivated by the way your describe this wonderful soundtrack. This is exactly the kind of review I am looking for, when I need my occasional nostalgia rush. So well documented, passionate and digging deep into the details.
I read the HoMM III review with the same enthusiasm (as well as Diablo, Secret of Mana and Total Annihilation, all of these games I played when I was a kid). Fantastic work !
I am looking forward to reading about more, mostly games from the nineties ^^
Have a good day !
Simon Elchlepp says
Hi Tristan,
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment and I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed those reviews! I need to focus most of my coverage these days on current releases – however, once I get back to tackling my backlog, I need to prioritise those 90s releases, they seem to be the most popular reviews on the site. That Final Fantasy series focus will come one day 🙂
Peter Cohen says
Thank you for this.
In my youth I had been exposed to opera badly, it was forced upon me in unfortunate circumstances. I thought for the longest time that I loathed opera.
Then I played Heroes of Might and Magic 2, and I was truly instructed as to my error. These operatic tacts completely changed my mind about opera and opened me up to a wholly new appreciation for not just opera, but music as a whole.
It does my heart a world of good to be able to hear those so formative bits of music that so transformed my experience.
Simon Elchlepp says
Thank you for sharing your story Peter! That’s amazing that HoMM 2 managed to bring you back to the wonders of opera (and music itself!) Yes, opera can be an acquired taste and there’s something in your story about how important it is to introduce children to things on the kids’ terms – no matter how keen the adults are. I am in awe not just of the composers’ audacity to use operatic vocals in the first place, but also of how well they managed to do it and how emotionally powerful the music is as a result. Opera does really have the potential to move us so immensely and I’m so glad that the review gave you an opportunity to revisit some of those happy memories.
Daenr says
So yummy sound! For me, aside from the Barbarian castle theme, those terrain characterizations so excellent. What a big add to the game(s). HOMM my fav game series ever, and the sound for sure gave it part of that edge. So so good!
Falagar says
does anyone has the lyrics of those operas
i dont know what they are singing
Simon Elchlepp says
Yeah, I’d love to find those lyrics too! The ones for “Town – Barbarian (Expansion)” are from the sixth movement of Johannes Brahms’ German Requiem – would love to know why the composers picked that one.
Josua says
They are also singing German in Warlock (not expansion) “fürchtest du nicht des Brandstifters Rache” – or so, it’s kinda difficult to understand for the singers are not native speakers but it’s definitely German.
I prefer for the most the non-expansion nusical scores, but they are all great.
Josua says
Ah, after all these years I googled it. I had heard it before from Nietzsche, was in the back of my head somewhere.
Someone already wrote and translated these lines below a YT video of the soundtrack. It should read “…des Brandstifters Strafen”.
And using lyrics concerning a – well to cut it simple by traditional Christian means – heretic wiseman certainly is a good choice for this faction theme.
All the noteworthy German intelligenzia (including artists) of the late 18th and 19th century have elaborated stuff on Z. which is worth your reading and listening time, if you want to go down that rabbit hole.
Notice also Strauss’ well-known musical piece on Zarathustra, which should have been inspirational: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GfwAPg4rQQE&pp=ygUXYWxzbyBzcHJhY2ggemFyYXRodXN0cmE%3D
Josua says
Necro (non expansion) theme is also from Nietzsche as Warlock is. There is probably more for the other town themes.
https://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/view/nietzsche_zarathustra01_1883?p=63
(Page 57, 3rd to last paragraph)
Simon Elchlepp says
Thanks for all this added information and for taking the time to piece it together! I’m particularly intrigued by the fact that the lyrics might actually match the nature of the respective faction they underscore (not having played the game myself) One day, I’d love to see an in-depth interview with the composers, going into the nitty gritty on how they landed on their operatic approach, how they chose the lyrics, how the recording sessions went etc. – it’d be a fascinating read!
Timur says
If someone doesn’t know, there is a channel Heroes Orchestra on youtube – it’s full blown orchestra playing pieces from different HoMM games. Paul Romero himself played with them!
Paul actually had a number of concerts featuring live performance of different HoMM soundtracks around Eastern Europe, and he talked there about classical composers who inspired him and about his thought process during creation process. For example, Dungeon in HoMM3 was inspired by Mussorgski’s Pictures at an exhibition, as far as I recall.
Simon Elchlepp says
Awesome, thanks so much for sharing this Timur! I had read about these concerts and orchestral performances, but it seemed hard to find a way to purchase them outside of Poland – will need to check you that Youtube channel.
Chimeric says
The review is five years old. Still, I’ll comment. The reason the style of music found in this game has produced no imitators and developers is not that it was a dead end – not any more than nature is one, but that truth – of art, but also the greater truth behind art – is not the sort of thing that can be developed. It has nowhere to go but to itself. It has already arrived. Concepts like improvement, setting a trend only apply to second-hand stuff produced by replication. The worst thing that could happen, and likely will happen, to the Heroes games would be the development of an algorithm to churn out melodies “in the style of” Romero, Baca and King. Mix and match the chords, the approaches, and even though an opera can’t be conjured up so easily, a nice track would be produced, ready for insertion into something with dwarves and elves. The reason today’s games use a completely different style – and the common denominator of that style – is that music’s modular, interchangeable character. The tunes are built up like Lego toys and serve definite, predetermined functions. Their combined function is to sell.
Here, on the other hand, Romero and the others do things that might not have sold well. The risk was not perhaps so great for them, the audience in the middle 1990s was better educated, at least obliquely, still resided in the continuity of the classical tradition, more eager for bold actions, tougher, less peevish, natives to ecstasy, owners of their money. In any case, risk or no risk, Romero and Co go here into the territory of nature, that is, permanent surprise. When composing these, I’m sure none of them quite knew what would result. The cauldron of creation was even closer in Heroes I, where the choice of music was nearly random. The tunes were so assigned that anything could be the theme of anything else. This flooded the mind with interpretative possibilities, but made no sense. Honestly, the composers were probably just slapping around automatic writing, putting in everything they liked. That sort of atmosphere is hard to take, which is one of the reasons I don’t like the first Heroes much (the other is right silly graphics). It takes some very serious girding of one’s loins to adapt to that level of chaos, and when one has acclimed, there may be no going back. As it happened, I came to the Heroes series at part two, even the expansion pack. For a long time I did not have the original CD and could not play the Ironfists campaign, nor did I hear the town tunes from the main game until years later. I don’t regret it, the expansion pack’s melodies are both better and more appropriate. The series always developed in the direction of greater intelligence, and I caught it right at the crest, before logic began to block the way of creativity in Heroes III. But had I began at Heroes I and accepted ITS style of music as right and free, I might have become indifferent to everything more coherent and therefore smaller, more modest, more rational. I might have been turned off on all but the wildest music altogether and snub videogames and most “cultural products” (ugh), tame and rationally appropriate as they are. What could I become? Where would I be today in that case, I wonder?
The music of the Price of Loyalty was in good form, it made sense. But it was not stale or deductive. The choices of town melodies there must be surprising to players of today. The identities within are not predictable. Today players would expect savage and crude tunes in a barbarian town, with some blared tally-ho for accents, perhaps, a necromancer’s town would be just sinister and so on. Reared on the ideas of consumption, they come to games knowing what to expect, and they are lost when they don’t find it. In Heroes II entering a town of a type for the first time and building up over the weeks and days its structures, hiring its soldiers is a revelatory experience. One’s ideas of what it means to be a “barbarian” are not affirmed, they are augmented, expanded and challenged. The mental quotation marks appear around the word after this kind of introduction. And I have never heard a tune as sorrowful, wise, powerful and infinitely committed as the music of the necromancer (it’s too bad that Romero, who played the piano himself, was not quite quick enough with his fingers everywhere). Other town tunes are less remarkable, like the knight’s, but all add up to the original and vivid unit graphics, pictures of the artifacts, heroes’ portraits, even the small drawings of resources – crystal, gems and the rest – for an overall impression of a world that can be lived in. The map of a Heroes II game is flat, but as those images sparkle and move and the tunes play, it seems open on every side to endless adventures. It is the world of imagination itself, and there can be no such thing as progress here. Another expansion, more of everything, new tales, new mechanics – those would be possibilities, but there is no moving a world like that AHEAD. In other words, it is the real world in its complex eternity of things seen by day and those dreamt by night.