《骑马与砍杀2：霸主》开发日志（128）——Ensemble Galatia乐队

贤狼赫萝

卡拉迪亚的战士们，大家好！
Greetings warriors of Calradia!


音乐是我们生活中至关重要的一部分，它是传达情感和情绪的最强大工具之一，特别是在电影和游戏等视觉媒体上更是如此。好的音乐能让你和设定紧密相连，并让你感觉身临其境。它让你从某种方式让你唤起感触和印象。但这并不是全部：音乐是你这辈子很少忘记的东西，音乐始终与你听音乐时的感受息息相关。因此，过了许久至今，如果你碰巧听到某种旋律， 你的思绪将被带回到那一刻，回到那段记忆中。这也就是我们为什么如此认真对待《骑马与砍杀2：霸主》音乐的原因，也是为什么我们要试图做到尽可能地真实，要求正宗的中世纪乐队为游戏创作音乐。这不是一项琐碎的任务，它需要艺术才能，还需要大量研究和努力……但是，我们会把这些问题留在的问答环节讲。

Music is a vital part of our lives, and it’s one of the most powerful tools for conveying emotions and feelings – especially in visual media, like films and video games. A good score connects you to the setting as a whole and grounds you to the scene; it evokes certain feelings and images, moves you to feel in a certain way. But that’s not all: music is one of the very few things that you never really forget – and it’s always connected in your brain with the feelings you had when you listened to it. And so, in many years from now, if you happen to hear a certain melody you will be brought back to that moment, to that memory. That is why we take really seriously the music of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord – and why we have tried to be as authentic as possible, asking a true medieval music band to compose and play music for the game. And it’s not a trivial task – it takes artistic talent, but also lots of research and hard work… But let’s leave that for them to explain in their own words in a special Q&A!

乐队是如何形成的？
就个人而言，我们对中世纪音乐的兴趣可以追溯很早以前，但是组成一个乐队来演奏这种音乐的想法最早是在2003年提出。Kaan Bahadır 和Selçuk Dalar 联合起来挖掘那些古老的音乐。他们选择了档案库的几首歌曲，然后用自己的吹奏乐器，并开始进行二人组演奏。这就是 Ensemble Galatia的起源！在2004年，Serkan Özçifçi加入了弦乐，而2005年，Senem Gökçe Okullu加入了人声。随后Gökhan Bulut在2006年加入，Nevin Şahin在2011年加入，这也就组成了现在的乐队阵容。此外还有不少音乐友人和我们合作并帮我们进步，但最终还是分道扬镳了。
How did the band form?
Individually, our interest in medieval music goes way back, but the idea of forming a band to perform this type of music first developed in 2003. Kaan Bahadır and Selçuk Dalar joined together to dig through an archive of old songs. They picked a few songs from the archive which they could play with some plucked and wind instruments that they own and started tryouts as a duo. Thus formed Ensemble Galatia! In 2004, Serkan Özçifçi joined on stringed instruments and in 2005, Senem Gökçe Okullu on vocals. Gökhan Bulut joined in 2006 and Nevin Şahin joined in 2011, which formed the current line-up of the band. Additionally, there were many musician friends who worked with us and helped our progress but parted ways in time.


你们专注于哪种中世纪音乐风格？
这千年来，给所有音乐进行分类是非常复杂的事情。即便如此，我们认为把我们的研究总结成两层也不会太过。

我们第一层定义的是“年代”。我们关注历史学家定义的“中世纪盛期”（11-13世纪）和“中世纪晚期”（13-15世纪）
第二层定义就是“主题”。在整个中世纪时期，音乐大约有两个分支，一个分支是“ 礼乐Liturgical”（例如教堂音乐），另一个是“ 世俗Secular”（例如民间音乐）。我们更喜欢从事这个时代的世俗音乐的创作。

作为一支乐队，我们对影响普通中世纪公民日常生活的音乐更感兴趣，而不是对宫廷礼仪音乐。有时候有宫廷里的舞曲，安达卢西亚的情歌，骑士之歌，流浪吟游诗人或歌手为国王写的赞歌，或是流传在整个中世纪欧洲的歌曲。这些中世纪的歌曲与我们一起体现为一切皆有可能的故事。我认为这就是我们挑选歌曲演奏的方式！

What kinds of medieval music (styles) do you focus on?
It’s extremely complicated to categorise all the music composed throughout European over millennia. Still, we think summarising our field of study in two layers won't be too far off the mark.

We can define the first layer as "Chronological". We are focusing on two eras historians define as "High Middle Ages" (11. - 13. Centuries) and "Late Middle Ages" (13. - 15. Centuries).

The second layer is more "Thematic". Across all of the Middle Ages, there were roughly two branches of music, one is "Liturgical" (e.g. Church music), and other is "Secular" (e.g. Folk music). We prefer to work mostly on Secular music of this era.

As a band, we are interested more in the music that impacted on the common medieval citizen's everyday life, instead of institutional ceremonial music. Sometimes it's dance songs from palaces, love songs from Andalusia, songs of knights, wandering bards or songs compiled by a king and dedicated to his holies, or songs of exiles spread all over medieval Europe. These medieval songs embodied with us as tales where anything is possible. I think that's how we pick what we play!

这种风格的音乐有什么吸引你的地方？
中世纪音乐的美丽在于隐藏在这段历史中的文化多样性。在中古世纪晚期，罗马帝国建立了庞大的文化帝国，从不列颠群岛到北非，从西班牙到里海。在帝国崩溃之后，西罗马的衰亡让中央权力分散到了地方王国和领地，建立了丰富多样的结构，让原住民主题得到了加强，当地语言语言也被记录下来。而在阿拉伯的穆斯林从罗马人那夺取了叙利亚，埃及，以及西非和北非之后，又从西哥特人那夺取西班牙和东哥特人那夺取了部分南意大利地区，后面还有马扎尔人和维京人从北方入侵，都增加了更多多样性。这是，北方的异教徒吟游诗人，古罗马希腊的遗产，充满活力的阿拉伯诗歌，以及北非的伯伯尔音乐都在整个欧洲共生共存。这种文化交流直到现在都是历史上罕见的一幕。十字军东征，突厥人，波斯人和其他中东国家的接入也为这个文化多样性提供了很好的基础。总而言之，中世纪这魔幻般的气氛是非常吸引人的，而这种文化多样性也给我们留下了最深刻的印象。
What attracted you to this style of music?
The charm of medieval music is hidden in this period's extraordinary cultural diversity. At the end of the Antique period, the Roman Empire was able to build up a vast cultural realm that spread from the British Isles to North Africa, from Spain to Caspian Sea. Following the break-up of the empire, the fall of Western Rome, the dispersal of central authority to local kingdoms and fiefdoms enabled rich and pluralist structures where indigenous themes stepped up and local languages were written down. And this variety went further when Muslim Arabs conquered Syria, Egypt and Northern Africa from the Romans, Spain from Visigoths, Sicily and parts of Southern Italy from Ostrogoths, and even further still when Magyars and Vikings came down from the north. At this time, the bards of northern pagans, ancient Roman and Greek heritage, vibrant Arab poetry and Berber music from North Africa were all living together across Europe. This interaction provided a basis for a very unique musical liveliness so uncommon up until this point in history. After the Crusades, Turkish, Persian and other Middle-East involvement put a good measure on this diversity. So, in short, the magical and fabulous atmosphere of the Middle Ages is very attractive for sure, but we are most impressed by this cultural diversity.

能告诉我你使用的那些乐器吗？
我们用的乐器对绝大多数出生在21世纪的人的音乐事件中都不熟悉。和文化元素一样，音乐也会随着时间而发展。这种演变也体现在了乐器的形式，音色和材料上。就像生物进化一样，乐器的进化依赖于对新时代的适应，否则就会被边缘化成为小众的晦涩音乐，或者停止使用并彻底消失。
根据演奏音乐的地区和时期，我们交替使用了20多种乐器。我们使用的某些乐器看起来很现代，因为它们是现代乐器的前身，而其他乐器看起来很陌生。比如我们最常用的是Vielle就类似于现代的提琴，Lute看起来像吉他。但也有名叫Psaltery的圈状古筝，北部弦乐“ Tagelharpa”或“ Hurdy-Gurdy”都有非常令人好奇的演奏技巧，他们演奏起来就会象是目睹活着的剑齿虎或者猛犸象一样！
Can you tell about some of the instruments that you use?
The musical instruments we use are mostly unfamiliar to anyone born into the musical world of the 21st Century. As with cultural elements, music evolves over time. This evolution is also reflected in musical instruments as form, timbre or material. Just like in biological evolution, the evolution of instruments relies on adaptation to new times, otherwise, it gets marginalised and squeezed into obscure music that lives on in small communities or ceases usage and vanishes altogether.

We use more than 20 instruments alternately, based on the region and period of the music we're performing. Some of the instruments we use look familiar to modern ones as they are predecessors of the latter, while others look very unfamiliar. For example, one of our most used instruments, a "Vielle", is similar to a modern viola, and a "Lute" looks quite like a guitar. However, listening to a kind of lap zither named "Psaltery", a northern string "Tagelharpa" or a “Hurdy-Gurdy” with its interesting mechanics could be as curious as witnessing a sabretooth or a woolly mammoth alive! :)

你是什么时候参与《霸主》制作的？
事实上，很久以前我们就遇到了亲爱的İpek和Armağan。在2007年4月的音乐会后，我们就他们正在开发的游戏（骑马与砍杀：战团）进行了漫长的讨论，但不幸的是，我们当时并没有乐器或者录制环境来胜任当时的工作。这么多年后，我们在2018年再会，并借此机会为该项目创作了部分音乐（这非常让我们兴奋）！
How did you become involved with Bannerlord?
Actually, we met dear İpek and Armağan very long time ago. After a concert in April 2007, we had a lengthy talk about the game they were developing (Mount and Blade: Warband). But unfortunately, we didn't have access to instruments nor the recording environment to handle such work at that time. After some years had passed, we were able to meet again in 2018 and took our chance to compose parts of the music in this project, (which is very exciting for us!).

你们在游戏中演奏了什么音乐？
通常来说，我们正在创作酒馆和宫廷里演奏的音乐。在这些地方，你可以看到乐师在那演奏。为此，我们为每个国家准备了很多样品。一旦我们完成样品，我们就会交给TaleWorlds的音频部（向音频总监 Uğurcan致敬），他们会选择音乐能在哪个地方播放，有时候还会选择意料之外的地方！我想多人联机游戏的大厅就是其中之一。
What music do you work on for the game?
As a general approach, we are composing music that's going to be used in physical locations, such as taverns and palaces. In these areas, you will see the musicians perform their act. For that purpose, we are preparing many demos for each kingdom. Once a demo is prepared we hand it over to TaleWorld’s audio department (salutes to Uğurcan) where they pick which music is appropriate for which area, and sometimes to places that we didn't plan! We think the multiplayer lobby is one of these places.

这是你第一次为游戏项目演奏的吗？你在其他项目中是否有相关经验？
Ensemble Galatia是专注于中世纪音乐的乐队。在过去16年，我们主要演奏保留至今的书面或者口头资料。换句话说，我们演奏和歌唱的音乐都是从古老的手迹或者几代人传颂来的。我们的录音被用于电视连续剧，纪录片和短片中。但正如我们所说，这些都是百年前的乐曲。所以，在TaleWorlds演奏原创歌曲这个经验对我们来说是第一次。
在其他项目中，我们就专注如何解决像是根据已有的旋律，正确地根据时期，声调以及和声来演奏问题。这种风格区分化对我们来说是全新的问题，也是我们所一直追求的。此外，我们非常激动而且高兴地能在这段时间用上制作和购买的新乐器，有的还是第一次听到。
Is this your first experience working on a game project? Is it different than other projects you have worked on?
Ensemble Galatia is a band that is focused on performing medieval music. In the past 16 years, we mostly performed songs that have survived to this day in written form or through oral sources. In other words, we play and sing songs discovered from old handwritings or that have been passed down through the generations by being performed. Our recordings have been used in TV series, documentaries and short films. But as we said, these were songs from hundreds of years ago. Therefore, this experience of composing original music with TaleWorlds is a first for us.

On other projects, as the melody was already there, we were focusing on performing issues like deciphering existing notation, correct execution by the period, sound and harmony. Stylised composition in this manner is a new and exciting pursuit for us. Additionally, we're excited and happy to use the new instruments we crafted and acquired within this period to be heard for the first time.

在该的制作过程中，迄今为止你解决的最大困难是什么？
我们说过，风格化合成是我们全新的追去。对于一个专注于一开始就录制表演时代音乐的乐队来说，创作全新的作品可以说是全新的涉及领域，这对我们来说是全新的挑战。
但由于《霸主》的历史背景是根据现实里是，而且各国都来源于中世纪不同文化，这也确实让我们的工作变得容易很多。当然，我们并不精通每个风格的文化音乐，但研究，阅读，聆听是试验每个文化对我们来说愉快的学习过程，而不是障碍。
Have you faced any challenges that needed to be overcome while working on the project?
As we stated, stylised composition became a new pursuit. For a group that's focused on performing period music that's been transcribed from day one, creating new compositions out of nowhere could be described as a new design area, and so a new challenge for us! :)

However, with Bannerlord's historical background being based on reality and each of the kingdoms inspired by medieval cultures really made things a lot easier for us. We are not experts on each and every style of music encompassed by these cultures for sure, but researching, reading, listening and experimenting on each culture was an enjoyable learning process instead of a drawback.

《霸主》有6个不同的阵营，全都是基于现实中世纪文化和人民。你是如何应对游戏中这些不同的文化？
中世纪本身就是意想丰富。对Ensemble Galatia来说，我们一开始建立了自己的意想丰富而且种类繁多的曲库，因此我们对《霸主》所包含的文化风格都非常熟悉。可以说，我们最大的灵感就是文化本身，因为我们以及有丰富的经验了。即便如此，演奏现实音乐和创作新颖风格的音乐还是有很大的不同。这种风格化的音乐，你必须代表这个时期的特征。所以，你必须利用现有的研究，演奏和聆听的方式来创作原创音乐，这些有时代和文化的旋律以及能唤起人们对这个文化的感觉。对我们帮助最大的就是那些手抄或者口头传承下来的传统艺术。
Bannerlord features 6 different factions, all based on real-world medieval cultures and peoples. What’s your approach for these different in-game cultures?
The idea of the Medieval Ages has very strong imagery on its own. As Ensemble Galatia, we built up our repertoire on displaying this powerful imagery and musical variety from the very beginning, thus we were very familiar to the musical approach of the cultures represented in Bannerlord. It's possible to say that our biggest inspiration was the cultures themselves, as we already had experience with them. Nevertheless, there's a big difference between performing authentic music and composing fresh, stylised music. With stylised music, you have to represent the period's characteristics. So you have to distil all of your research, performing and listening practices to craft original music that evokes the cultural and periodic feelings with sound and strong melodic structure. Our biggest aid was the works of art that have passed down as transcriptions or oral traditions.

你是怎么创作原声音乐的？
我们可以用不同的方式合成让音乐栩栩如生。有时候整个工作就是突然受到启示创作出来的。但老实说这是非常罕见的情况。绝大多数时候你需要吸收灵感。因此，我们首先关注该文化的特殊乐器。我们将乐器的能力，演奏风格与音乐结构，常见的音调和文化规模结合起来。然后我们在这个框架内即兴创作，最后，我们会修缮和改变这个过程中的主题。讲旋律和正确的乐器组合起来是另一项工作，这也就是我们在其中体现了这个文化的真实声音。
How do you go about making a music track?
A composition, with no doubt, can be brought to life in many different ways. Sometimes, the whole work just arrives as a sudden revelation. But, to be honest, that's a very rare situation. Most of the time, it's you who have to reach the muses. To achieve that, we firstly focus on the distinctive instruments of the target culture. We draw a frame by combining an instrument's capabilities and performance styles with the structure of music, common modality and scales of that culture. Then, we improvise within this frame. And lastly, we decorate and variate the themes that emerged from this process. Matching melodies with correct instruments is another part of the work, where we materialise the true sound of that culture.


你在《霸主》里有最喜欢的阵营吗？
我得承认这个问题需要让我好好思考一下。在游戏中，每种文化都很细致而且视觉上很有实质性，这让我很难做出先后选择，后来有人小声说“斯特吉亚”或许是因为我们在最近的工作中让我们产生了偏见，当然，除了Gökhan，他是“瓦兰迪亚”人！瓦兰迪亚文化和我们目前得曲目很相似，所以我们就觉得瓦兰迪亚就是我们得一部分。但在制作过程中，我们试图思考，梦想和行为就像是音乐家生活在现代社会。我们工作的每个文化都在这期间变成了我们最喜欢的文化。我想最终我们最喜欢的文化还需要我们自己在完成全部工作后自己去玩才能最终得出来。
Do you have a favourite faction in Bannerlord?
We can admit that when we first read this question, there was a silence of doubt. In the game, every culture was so detailed and visually substantial, it's really hard to put forward one over the others. But later, there were some whispers saying "Sturgia"... There's a good chance we are biased because of our latest works. Well, except Gökhan! He's a Vlandian guy! The Vlandian culture is very similar to our current repertoire, so it's not hard to say we feel that Vlandia is a part of us. But in our production phase, we try to think, dream and act like a musician living in that society at that time. Every culture we work on become our favourite during that time. I think we will ultimately decide about our favourite culture only after we finish all the work and sit down and play the game itself.

你们最新发布了一些新曲目，能告诉在告诉我一些吗？大家能从哪里听到你的音乐？
我们的歌曲有 Codex Minor（小手稿）系列作为迷你曲目/EPs，这包括了很多中世纪音乐的样本。就像刚出土的古老文化艺术和更大谜团一样，我们希望Codex Minor系列能像新发现的羊皮纸一样有同等目的。
我们10月11日在Codex Minor发布了新歌，希望能在将来还要发布更多，我们的所有专辑都能在各数字音乐平台上使用，比如Spotify，Deezer，Amazon Music，Fizy，Apple Music，Google Music等。此外，有兴趣的人还可以找我们的第一张专辑！
最重要的是，你可以去订阅我们的Youtube频道，你们可以听到我们的专辑和现场表演。还有很多惊喜！另外，你也可以在Twitter, Instagram and Facebook关注我们，以跟踪我们未来的音乐会和创作！
You recently released some new songs, can you tell us a little bit about that? Where can people listen to your music?
We designed our album series Codex Minor (Small Manuscripts) as Mini-albums / EPs, where we include examples of various medieval European music. Just as the relics unearthed completes the imagery and bigger puzzle of past cultures, we want our Codex Minor series to appear as freshly discovered parchments that serve the same purpose.

We released our latest Codex Minor on October 11, and we hope to release more in the future. All of our albums are available on all digital music platforms like Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, Fizy, Apple Music, Google Music and many more. Also, our first album can be found in CD format if anyone is interested!

On top of that, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you can listen to our albums and live performances. There will be some surprises soon! Also, you can follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to keep track of our future concerts and workshops!

乐队官网
https://www.ensemblegalatiaofficial.com
乐队社交媒体
https://www.instagram.com/ensemblegalatia/
https://www.facebook.com/ensemblegalatiaofficial/   
https://twitter.com/EnsembleGalatia
https://www.youtube.com/ensemblegalatia
乐队曲库
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5SW13PyqkGUyriEIj9t5ap
https://itunes.apple.com/artist/ensemble-galatia/651322866