Ravenloft music: the softer side

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I've seen plenty of threads here related to music as a background-mood tool for Ravenloft campaigns. Usually they focus on music that's scary, or appropriate for a particular darklord or domain, or that'll stir players up for a combat encounter. (The latter often turn into debates over whether or not rock music belongs in Ravenloft games, but I digress....) But when you think about it, music in these cases isn't really *setting* the mood, it's accentuating moods which are already present, and which players (or at least Ravenloft-players) slip into easily: if they didn't like RPG fighting, they wouldn't play D&D in the first place, and if they didn't like scary stuff they'd play in some other setting.

What seems like more of a challenge, to me, is finding music that can help evoke moods that aren't so openly exciting, yet are very useful and necessary in a Ravenloft campaign. What music is good for a scene of tragic exposition, where the PCs learn of the misfortunes that brought a ghost into existence? What's appropriate an background-theme to play when PCs meet some wise scholar or weary veteran of an ongoing war against the darkness, encounters which might be very moving yet aren't themselves scary or dangerous? Anyone can choose fighting-music, but how do you select a love-theme for an in-game romance, either for NPCs the party encounters or for the PCs, themselves?

So, where do other DMs here turn when they need "soft" music for their Ravenloft games? I'm quite curious, and could use your suggestions for my own games (which are getting even more roleplay-heavy than they were before, which is saying a lot), too.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

"Close you Eyes" by Christopher Beck.

It's also called the Buffy/Angel love theme. It's great for slow, tragic moments.

Also, the Undertaker's music from WWF the Music Vol. 4 is nice and atmospheric as general background music.

[Jasper]

One I personaly love to use as it is such a moving piece and it fits the 'vistani by the campfire' feel so well is Gypsy Violin by Mancini. Mancini has some very nice oristrated themes and this theme is the theme to all my vistani encounters to date.

Another I find that fits nicely for the setting and the time period for romantic settings is Greensleeves. If you ever get around to reading the lyrics they tell of a love spurned and fit the gothic feel nicely.

[vipera aspis]

for the majority of my games i use Russian folk music, romanian folk music, and personaly made disks of backround music. Usually quieter music. The folk music helps because it's not so epic and scary, but still has an old world feel to it. i can run anything with it. Npc interaction, love intrests, crime, casual drinking at a bar, looking for clues, spell research and it works great when desribing a town(or anthing for that matter) during the day. I save horror scores and Midnight Syn for scenes that require it as part of description. make the scares feel more like scares and less like "hey, is this the Batman Returns soundtrack dude?"

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I'm in full agreement on the Buffy love theme. It's the perfect mood for tragic love. Another one I like to use is Faraway - by Apocalyptica. (Instrumental version). Also one of my villians has Nine Inch Nails' - A warm place as his theme. I use the album version usually, but found a bunch of remixes for different feels. It's a really good creepy, but unobstusive song.

Most soundtracks have at least one or two songs that are slower paced. Any soundtrack recommended for battle music should have several tracks for exposition as well.

[ballsetto]

composed music by various dudes from the 18th-20th century would work well in my opinion. I agree with the poster on folk music, espeically froma country with a gothic or old world feel (such as hungary or russia). I also always thought that really early music such as chants and motets would be great for d@D but not so much the horror side. Also i think many film scores that would go unnoitced because they are not of the horror genre would have a place for gaming scenes that arent necessarily climactic. I think for my game I am going to make a different mix for every session because i have a obscenely large mp3 library. One film score I would highly recommend is the interview with a vampire ost by elliot goldenthaal. Every score he does is top notch, but this one is perect for ravenloft.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Rasputina and Medaeval Baebes are nice for mood music for the setting.

[Smeazel]

I actually composed my own theme song for the Ghost Dancer for a Ravenloft campaign. Early in the campaign (even before the PCs got to Ravenloft), there were hints about the Ghost Dancer; an NPC or two had nightmares she was behind, and I made mention of a melody that kept recurring in those nightmares (cue simple piano version of theme song). Near the end of the campaign, I anticipated the PCs actually having to physically enter one of those nightmares and face the Ghost Dancer herself, at which time I planned to have a full version of the Ghost Dancer theme playing in the background...

I still think that would have been a good idea, and very atmospheric (given the contrast between this full version of the theme song and the melodic version they'd heard before), but unfortunately when the time came I sort of chickened out and didn't make as much use of the Ghost Dancer theme music as I should have. Bah. Oh well.

I'm thinking of making an NWN module at some point involving the Ghost Dancer, just so I can have an excuse to make better use of that music...

[Big Bad Jack]

They get mentioned in any Ravenloft discussion.. but to my mind, Cradle of Filth is an excelelnt 'Loft group, particularly their instrumental pieces.

And Dann yElfman's various movie themes. Sleepy Hollow's main theme, for example..

[Shadow]

Video game soundtracks....No, seriously! Have you ever played any of the Final Fantasy games or any other console rpgs? Many of the games have a wide variety of music ranging from battle music to exploration music. Best of all game music is generally all instrumental and made to evoke specific moods during differen points of the game. The only problem is it's kind of hard to get video game soundtracks in America. Still you can get the Final Fantasy soundtracks on iTunes, and video game midis are available at www.vgmusic.com

[Big Bad Jack]

Sephiroth's theme and "One-Winged Angel" from FF7...

[Jakob]

I humbly suggest Michael Petrucciani, a good pianist.
Really good for "light" moments (quiet days in the town and the like) or for a good backround music during calm character interaction.

[Ken of Ghastria]

Many mellow tracks on Black Tape for a Blue Girl's albums. I especially recommend the CD As One Aflame Laid Bare by Desire.

[Rucht Lilavivat]

"The Village" score - I just posted on the "Ravenloft Music for Ravenloft Dungeon Masters" thread. Pretty much the whole album is exactly what you are looking for Rotipher. You can get it off of I-Tunes or buy it. I put the link on the other thread.

[Bloody Morgan]

I find that the scores to the three Lord of the Rings movies cover a good range of cheerfull, melancholy, sorrow, peace, excitement, etc. And I'm perky to say that I have the score to Queen of the Damned on order through Amazon, and plan to use Lestat's fiddle piece for any Vistanni that my PCs happen on.

Bloody Morgan