Need Music for a Barbarian Funeral

[Gericko]

I'm running a Dungeon Mag module Sat called Ill Made Graves from issue 133. It begins with a barbarian king's funeral.

I am wanting some music to add to the roleplaying for this. Nothing wimpy. My first thought was to find a Russian Men's Chorus singing something like the song in Hunt For Red October, but couldn't find what I was wanting. The soundtrack didn't reproduce the acapella song as the russian sub leaves Russia as in the movie. It "arranged" it.

Any other ideas? Something perhaps that just expresses the sentiment?

[Cuchulainn]

Pull something from Wagner's Ring Cycle (not Ride of the Valkyries) but there is a lot of stuff in there that sounds sufficiently Barbarian-y.

Either that or find a Trekkie site that has a song someone has performed in Klingon.

[magdalena thiriet]

Mystere des Voix Bulgares.
The ultimate soundtrack for barbarian funerals (bit like those Russian men's choruses except that it's female chorus, singing sorrowful and melancholic songs...so it's the proverbial "lamentations of their women" without being in any way weak or soppy).

And as they have made rather decent crossover success in field of "world music" (genre name hated by many), they are reasonably available.

[Charles Evans 25]

I don't know if there are any military band recordings (strictly not regular orchestra recordings) out there of the 'Funeral March' movement from Beethoven's Symphony Number 3, 'Eroica', but that might be what you're looking for. Several years ago military musicians playing it accompanied the funeral procession of the queen-mother (here in the UK), helping to add to the air of gravitas and solemnity of the occasion.

[Timitius]

Music from Conan the Barbarian soundtrack....

1st track...Anvil Of Crom is sweet for anything.
Track 13. Funeral Pyre could be what you need though.

[Hunterofthedusk]

Sounds like you're looking for something rather grand, but have you ever thought about the simple bagpipe funeral arrangement? If you don't think Irish is the archtype for barbarians, then you've never seen one drunk... well, you just haven't seen one. I know some people don't like the bagpipes, but it's definitely what I would use.

That, or some big drum ordeal. Barbarians tend to be the kind that like percussion instruments, so an army of drummers might set the scene.

[Gericko]

Ended up using bagpipes at the end, preceded by some music from the Conan soundtrack. Thanks folks!

[Pax Veritas]

You'd be surprised to learn that several tracks on the Legends of the Fall soundtrack work exceptionally well for that sort of thing.