A huge orchestra, then a choir joining in: I wanted music that sounded as if a god, a final boss, or the end of the world was arriving. Something like a Dark Souls boss fight.
It wasn’t mainly about following the lyrics. I liked the feeling that the sound kept getting bigger. The missing piece was what to type into a search box.
Epic Orchestral Music gave me a starting point. Searching Epic Music also brought knights, swords, castles, and dragons into view. I was looking for something to listen to and ended up with the group photo of a world-saving expedition.
Epic means more than a purple item
Games sometimes line up rarity labels as Common → Rare → Epic → Legendary. That can make “Epic” bring an impressive purple piece of equipment to mind first.
But the word also refers to epic poetry and conveys grandeur or heroism. GMP Music uses Epic as a music category.[1] It fits the enormous sound I was trying to find, too.
Big brass, big drums, a big choir—and apparently a very big destiny. Grand music suggests heroes, heroes suggest adventures, and before long the search results have put everyone in armor.
Add the sound you want
Start with Epic Orchestral Music. Try Epic Orchestral Choir for voices, Dark Epic Orchestral for a darker mood, Sacred Choral Orchestral for something sacred, or Apocalyptic Orchestral for the end-of-the-world feeling. gothic is another word to experiment with.
These are search terms, not a rigid map of musical genres. Listen to a result, decide whether you want more choir or a darker sound, and adjust the words.
In an interview, composer Motoi Sakuraba described recording Dark Souls with strings, brass, harp, percussion, choir, and solo voices.[2] That huge sound had several layers behind it.
Now I had a name for what I liked: the feeling of the music growing enormous. I could narrow the search. The extra armor in the thumbnails, however, seemed to come with the package.
[1] GMP Music — Epic: https://www.gmpmusic.com/genres/epic [2] Motoi Sakuraba interview: https://vgmonline.net/motoisakurabainterview/
