music type

[peanut]

Can anyone tell me what type of music it is that you hear in scary movies, it's generally women doing it and it sounds like they are chanting. also i dont know if they are even using real words because it is totally uncomprehensive?

[kags]

Maybe you mean Carmina Burana by Orff, famously used in The Omen films.

[peanut]

thanks kags, thats exactly it.

[smorodina]

Carmina Burana was used in 'Only Fools and Horses' when 'Damien' was born and seems to be the reason why it's associated with the Omen films. In fact, all of the Omen film music is original music by Jerry Goldsmith. Although there are some similarities in style, I think it's much more chilling.

[jno]

Carmina Burana was also used in Excalibur, the movie, I think when King Arthur was riding out, so used for excitement rather than spookiness. Mostly medieval drinking songs put together by Orff as a choral piece, so the words are in Latin - I think the Excalibur extract was O Fortuna. Presumably this sort of music fits scary scenes: it helps to have human voices but you don't need to have them saying anything comprehensible - in fact it would probably be distracting if you were actually listening to the words they were using.

[PunkDaddy]

Gregorian Chanting.