Scoring Bionicle

[Junior Shark]

If you were asked to score a Bionicle movie/video game/piece of media using only pre-existing musical pieces, a la 2001, what would you pick? Alternatively, what's your headcanon music for Bionicle? Post what specific character, scene, location, or event the music pieces are used for. 

 

Mangaia-

Krzysztof Penderecki's "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima"

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPtP2gGGBCw  

 

Ko-Koro-

Philip Glass' "Etoile Polaire (North Star)"

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_oKSkHyDxQ  

 

Onu-Koro Highway-

Brian Eno's "Lizard Point"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRa3oId_d-Q 

 

Matoran-

Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians- Section 1" 5:18 in video

Edited April 27, 2016 by Junior Shark

[Bfahome]

My default answer:

[Kopekemaster]

There's a really obscure electronic/drum and bass group from the 90's called Pro>Tech that released an album called Orbiting Cathedrals. I always thought a lot of the songs fit Bionicle very well.

Trentemøller also has some songs that would be good with Bionicle, in particular Miss You.

Glitch Mob is great as always as well, of course.

 

Also lol Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima seems a little extreme for Mangaia. (I do love that piece, though. Check out Iannis Xenakis if you want to hear other pieces like that.

[Pohaturon]

Without naming any exact example, since none come to mind at the moment that fit it right, I'd score Bionicle entirely with melodic epic power metal, with the Turaga providing the vocals constantly narrating the action with elaborate descriptions.

 

And lo, our great heroes have drudged through yet another mile of open desert. Pohatu displays immense endurance as the added weight of puny livestock stick to his magnetized body

 

 

[Toa Imrukii]

The Battle of Bara Magna.

 

https://soundcloud.com/nuclearblastrecords/blind-guardian-sacred-worlds

[Junior Shark]

Also lol Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima seems a little extreme for Mangaia. (I do love that piece, though. Check out Iannis Xenakis if you want to hear other pieces like that.

Extreme? Yeah, maybe a little.    And thanks for the suggestion!

 

Without naming any exact example, since none come to mind at the moment that fit it right, I'd score Bionicle entirely with melodic epic power metal, with the Turaga providing the vocals constantly narrating the action with elaborate descriptions.

 

And lo, our great heroes have drudged through yet another mile of open desert. Pohatu displays immense endurance as the added weight of puny livestock stick to his magnetized body

 

 

Hmmm... something like this?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjKI_U9ENwU

 

The Battle of Bara Magna.

 

https://soundcloud.com/nuclearblastrecords/blind-guardian-sacred-worlds

Noice.

[Specter Knight]

I have a few pieces in mind (namely video game soundtracks) for various things in in Bionicle G2. For example...

 

Region of Fire;

 

Umarak's theme;

 

Region of Earth- Caverns

 

Tahu's Theme music power up (ex: Putting on the golden mask for the first time)

 

(This was a good opportunity to gush about my taste in music, wasn't it?)

[Junior Shark]

(This was a good opportunity to gush about my taste in music, wasn't it?)

Unashamedly. 

[Kopekemaster]

Ah, just thought of something else. Portions of the Half-Life 2 soundtrack would fit really well into Bionicle.

[Toa Imrukii]

Strangely, I prescribe this song to the Zyglak in my head.

 

https://soundcloud.com/veleslek/cryoshell-come-to-my-heaven

 

 

And this song it remind me some something relating to BIONICLE, perhaps the Order of Mata Nui? I am unsure.

 

https://soundcloud.com/skinnyb1203/iron-savior-hall-of-the-heroes

 

 

And this one I prescribe to the Makuta. More so if Mata Nui had such a rivalry and Hatred of Makuta Teridax, a hypothetical wroth. Additionally, this rage could apply to certain Toa. Perhaps Tahu, or Me (I'm non canon, but if I were I'd hate Taridax with a burning rage, and would fight to my last breath to make sure he just straight up exists no more, no matter the consequence or circumstance.)

 

https://soundcloud.com/roadrunnerrecords/trivium-built-to-fall

Edited May 12, 2016 by Toa Imrukii

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Teridax's theme.

 

This would be a good opening for Dark Mirror.

 

Edited May 12, 2016 by TheSkeletonMan939

[Erasmus Graves]

I would use this after an event of great significance - perhaps the sunrise after the raid on Vulcanus or as the survivors of Atero lick their wounds, or as the smoke clears in the Colisseum after the battle against the Visorak. Maybe even at the end of the story, as Mata Nui leaves everyone on Spherus Magna and retreats back into the Mask of Life.
https://youtu.be/aNhwQnDvcgM
 
We all know this one. I'd personally use it after Teridax takes over the Matoran Universe - perhaps after he finishes disrupting the festivities and he jettisons the Mask of Life into space. It still has a true, tragic power about it that makes it unclichéable.
https://youtu.be/i5Kwf_nNmGI

I'd use the Riddle of Steel for a significant moment that isn't particularly emotional - something involving  and the Riders of Doom for a sequence involving the Bone Hunters (probably the actual Raid on Vulcanus moment) or the Rahkshi attack on Ta-Koro. It might sound a little too triumphant, but the camera plays an immense role in generating the feel of the music for this particular piece - after all, who is triumphant in this situation?
https://youtu.be/onGWF8mz1Zw
 
The descent into the depths of Mahri Nui / Makuta's lair / that scene in the tunnels with Tanma and Takanuva in The Kingdom. This is an eerie piece and needs eerie situations.
https://youtu.be/meU2gAU7Xss
 
A very selectively cut version of this masterpiece for Mata Nui vs. Tuma:
https://youtu.be/cWo__6Xn6Qs
 
A darker version of this for Hakann vs. Thok and Hewkii's de-powering of them:
https://youtu.be/aZhdFBP1BAA?list=PL2b_qlgl5E_wjt23v5Jpv2YcycUymsSG7
 
Zaktan "apparent" monologue to the crystal vat should be conducted over this:
https://youtu.be/qCXLGjwHukE

Dies Irae from Verdi's Requiem (it featured in the Mad Max 4 trailer) for some random epic bit.
 https://youtu.be/ZDFFHaz9GsY
 
For the death of Matoro, Mozart's Lacrimosa:
https://youtu.be/k1-TrAvp_xs 
 
Allegri's Miserere is another serious contender for the theme played as the movie ends, as Mata Nui retreats, a new life dawns, and the movie ends.

Edited May 15, 2016 by Erasmus Graves

[Junior Shark]

Teridax's theme.

 

This would be a good opening for Dark Mirror.

To the first: El oh el! How did I not think of that?    I think this one's pretty good for Teridax, too. 

 

To the second: Awesome. Bonus points for pairing a story about time and space with a song from a movie with similar subject matter.

Edited May 22, 2016 by Junior Shark

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

A few years ago, I had an extensive playlist that covered the entire Bionicle storyline, lasted about 5 hours. Much of the playlist was made up of songs from TSFH, Immediate, and Audiomachine (yes, I have a taste for the dramatic ). It was mysteriously deleted a few years ago, and i wonder if the incident was a contribution in my decline of interest in Bionicle. Anyway, despite it's length, I made sure it had a beginning and end that would be fitting. I also remember a few of the songs and what I felt fitted it. Here is what I recollect:

 

Beginning: Aesir (Non-Vocal), by TSFH

 

Fatum Plebis, by Immediate (Serge Colbert). Karda Nui and the Destiny War

 

 

Inexorabilis, by Larry Groupe. The Arrival of The Makuta. The choir begins as his body eclipses the sun, and his landing causing great quakes. He speaks words heard across the globe and releases his amassed Rahkshi and Skakdi army. He attempts to persuade Mata Nui, but as we know this is fruitless. With the section of the drums (a redo of Sargon's Legion), the two begin their epic battle, such as the mountain lifting, the destruction of the Black Spikes, and the choking of the matoran god.

 

Sargon's Legion, by Immediate (composed by Larry Groupe). Continuation of the titanic view of the Battle of Bara Magna after a scene on the ground.

 

Strength of a Thousand Men, by TSFH. The beginning shows the Battle of Bara Magna's ground fight from the sky, and when the choir starts it shows level view a mighty horde of Rahkshi, mostly of the heat-vision variety but large amounts of others. The defenders of Bara Magna are surrounded by the aforementioned horde and fighting a battle they cannot win, many being trampled to death, stabbed and slain by the multitude of enemy powers (like people and limbs being cut apart by the heat vision and the remnants lit aflame). When the orchestra plays a lighter but still intenste tune, it changes to our protagonist, who are being defended to the brink as they gather together the pieces of the golden armor, and the vocals begins as the armor is attached to Tahu, he hesitating to put on his new mask and remembers quickly all that led him to this moment, and at the last vocal he climbs up atop the jutting pike they were hiding behind throws down his old mask and places the new golden one on his face at that moment, the choir comes back in higher tune to show the amount of power being unleashed, Tahu's muscles tensing and jolting like a charlie horse all over his body and screams as the power darts across the battlefield in the form of golden lightning, and if his kind can do so, tears and drool go down his face from the mass amounts of untold pain. Then he collapses, moving his head to the side to see the leg of Mata Nui.

 

Mountains From Water, by TSFH.  The beginning of the song shows Tahu in his golden armor surrounded by corpses, friend and foe alike (but mostly rahkshi), then he looks at Mata Nui in his prototype form, and when the song picks up pace, the scene goes back to Mata Nui and Teridax dueling just moments before, their feet crushing mighty mountains and their foot prints sometimes making great valleys, intense fist fights and blasts and what not, and when the song pause and resumes, Mata Nui spots the moon fragment of Aqua Magna heading north of their location, so he releases a relentless wave of attacks to drive Teridax north. When the choir begins to hum, Teridax returns the favor by beating on his fatherly brother in a few mighty blows, one great blow after another, until the moon fragment is in cue and Mata Nui, on his knees in weakness, pushes his brotherly son into the large rock with all his strength, the last repeats of orchestra and choir going along with the repeats of the cranial collision explosion from many angles until the song dies with the Master of Shadows, Mata Nui looking upon his maddened foe with regret as the piano plays.

 

Soulseeker, by Thomas Bergersen. Mata Nui reforms Spherus Magna and uses the last of his energies to revitalize the planet before his body crumbles beneath him at the cue of the last power choir.

 

Surrender to Hope, by Immediate (Yoav Goren). The dust settles, Mata Nui awakes in the Ignika, gives out his last message, then Tahu speaks. Seems slightly too dramatic IMO, listening to it after all these years.

 

End: Aesir (Vocals), by TSFH. Vocals used for the last one as it adds fresh life to the other version, befitting for new things to come. Perhaps hinting at a rude awakening to Mata Nui's dreams of eternal peace on SM...

Edited May 30, 2016 by Iaredios the Hip Historian

[Erasmus Graves]

For the section immediately after Fero has departed Vulcanus following the Raid (later.
https://youtu.be/bUZLngDuUDA?list=PLC02A8377B2E3DD08

0:00 to 2:05 for the search through the ruins of Tajun and sections of the following Gresh's flashback to the attack.
https://youtu.be/mUnIOWmkXkM?list=PLC02A8377B2E3DD08

At some point during the rescue of the real Turaga Dume during the 2005 arc. Seriously, that scene needs more attention. Somebody should cast Kurt Russell as Dume (or maybe Toa Vakama) to provide a bit of an in-joke.
https://youtu.be/f1JYDmo19to

Land of Karzahni.
https://youtu.be/YEql5rc9X0A

Sections of this for Karzahni's POV post-breakdown caused by Teridax.
https://youtu.be/WWbI19Pt_nU

There was another string piece I was going to use for the land of Karzahni but I can't post it here 'cause the background art is splattered with gore and surrealist horror art.

Edited June 13, 2016 by Erasmus Graves

[Specter Knight]

Here's another Suggestion for a moment in G1. This song should be playing as Matoro sacrifices himself to save Mata Nui at the end of '07, as it carries similar emotional weight, and sounds sad yet triumphant at the same time. It helps that the scene where this song was originally used is similar to Matoro's case, as it both plays when the focal character is dying, but it is presented as a climactic moment and conclusion to the current arc.

 

...I guess I'd better stop beating around the bush and actually post the song here.

 

[Takama Metru]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ8T1ZWUGaI

When Takua, Onua and the Le Matoran rescue Matau and Lewa in the Nui Rama nest.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLsmMM-jC41Vwu5S8UsTduD0qSOhwjF5V5&v=P1a_0lAGpLA

This should be played just as Teridax reveals himself to be in control of the MU. As the song plays, Rahkshi, of every kind, rush in out of nowhere in great multitudes, causing chaos in Metru Nui, injuring and killing the matoran. The Toa Nuva and Toa Mahri team up to fight off the Rahkshi, but they are crushed one by one. One of the injured toa struggles to move his head upwards, but jush as he does, he sees Ahkmou staring down in disgust, as he holds up a turaga staff, pointing out his role as Turaga of Metru Nui. Then in the final shot, we see the Mask of Life blast off into space, leving the Toa and Matoran with no hope.

[Erasmus Graves]

https://youtu.be/doJI6fDgmB0 Funeral of Amenhotep III - Philip Glass. It'd work well for an introduction to a Koro (Ta, Le, Po) and has a really atmospheric vibe to it.
 
https://youtu.be/5fe9W1gZPUs 1:14 onwards Sidorak's Theme and the Battle of the Collisseum.

https://youtu.be/7tiTzQoEWDw Musical Pocketwatch Theme- Ennio Morricone A leitmotif within Sahmad's Tale

The Wolf Suite Pt 1 - Danny Elfman. Trailer for 2004, 2005 or 2006.

Edited July 16, 2016 by Erasmus Graves