Sid Meier’s Civilization
Year: 1991
Type: Original Soundtrack (OST)
Composer(s): Jeff Briggs
Number of tracks: 16
Primordial soup
I generally try to saddle up the review horse from the front and therefore usually start with the forefathers of a series before working my way through to the successors. With Sid Meier’s Civilziation deliberately broke with this tradition, simply because I wanted to talk about a really good soundtrack in the case of the 6th game. But because everything should be in order here, let's jump back to 1991, when the first Sid Meier’s Civilization was released. Since my personal release date wasn't until 1992, I can't say anything about the content. Nevertheless, I recommend taking a look at the screenshots - there's something magical about Stalin at paint level alone.
The soundtrack to the game was created by Jeff Briggs, who worked as a game developer at MicroProse on the very first installment of the series and a few of its successors. The fact that Briggs' expertise probably lies more in the field of design becomes clear even if you disregard the technical limitations of the MIDI format. The music is below average, even below average if you want to put it crudely. Since I don't want to be too harsh, I'll stick with below average. While Introduction, Part I and Introduction, Part II still create a Zelda-esque atmosphere with their flute and ascending notes, the rest of the composition is somewhere between uninspired and irrelevant.
For example, The Shining Path, the theme for the Chinese under Mao Tse Tung, makes you want to eat sweet and sour chicken at best, while Mongol Horde is less about taking cover from charging horsemen and more about the constantly repeating drums. In general, Brigg's own creations are at best functional and roughly outline the social field of the respective civilization. Presumably contemporary for a game from back then, for today's listeners it is more a source of agony than quality. It also doesn't help that a few classical compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach (Goldberg Variations), William Steffe (Battle Hymn of the Republic) and Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (La Marseillaise) have found their way into the MIDI world. If you want really good music, you'll have to sit through a few more iterations of the Civ-series.
| No. | Title | Artist(s) | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Introduction, Part I | Jeff Briggs |  |
| 02 | Introduction, Part II | Jeff Briggs |  |
| 03 | Rise of Rome | Jeff Briggs | |
| 04 | Hammurabi's Code | Jeff Briggs | |
| 05 | Goldberg Variations: Variatio 4. a 1 Clav. [MIDI Version] | Johann Sebastian Bach | |
| 06 | Harvest of the Nile | Jeff Briggs | |
| 07 | Battle Hymn of the Republic [MIDI Version] | William Steffe | |
| 08 | Aristotle's Pupil | Jeff Briggs | |
| 09 | Gautama Ponders | Jeff Briggs | |
| 10 | Song of the Volga Boatmen | Jeff Briggs | |
| 11 | Zulu | Jeff Briggs | |
| 12 | La Marseillaise [MIDI Version] | Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle | |
| 13 | Tenochtitlan Revealed | Jeff Briggs | |
| 14 | The Shining Path | Jeff Briggs | |
| 15 | Rondeau | Jean-Joseph Mouret | |
| 16 | Mongol Horde | Jeff Briggs | |
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