Posted in books, film scores, historical fiction, movies, music, writing

Still Hot on the Trail – The Eagle Soundtrack

Posted on by D. D. Syrdal

If you’re sick of hearing about my obsession with “The Eagle” feel free to skip this post. This one’s about the soundtrack, so if you’re a music lover you might be interested. (You knew I wasn’t going to let this go, right?)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there’s a fantastic Celtic fiddle piece used in a deleted scene, the chariot race between Marcus and the local chariot maker. Although the scene was cut, the music was still used over part of the closing credits and is, to my great joy, included on the soundtrack CD. I finally busted out the liner notes this morning. This is why I still buy CDs, all  the additional info they supply makes it worthwhile, although there could be a whole lot more info in here. I would have liked a track-by-track breakout of who played which instrument, the vocalists on each track, instead of the more generalized listing that is supplied.

I discovered that the uillean pipes and fiddling on this pulse-pounding piece are the Neff Brothers, Flaithrí and Eoghan. I must be out of the loop because I’ve never heard of these guys despite my adoration of Celtic music. They’ve been busy, too. Happily I’ve now found them and wanted to share. The piece is based on the Irish reel, “The Musical Priest” and performed by Torc, which comprises The Neff Brothers, þórhildur (Thorhildur) Örvarsdóttir, Satnam Ramgotra, and Atli Örvarsson. This music makes me happy.

You can listen to the ENTIRE SOUNDTRACK at their site. Track #7, “Out Swords” is another favorite of mine. It accompanies a battle scene for the most part, although during part of the scene, the music is held, and all you hear are the men grunting from the exertion of the battle, the sound of swords and axes clanging and clashing, and the whoosh of air as they swing their weapons. It was exactly what was needed at that point. It’s grim, to the death, and it’s hard. It doesn’t need to be gussied up with music.

Track #12, “I Will Return” is mournful, heartbreaking uillean pipes and soaring orchestration.

And last one I’ll post here is an old Scottish piece, “Lament for Alasdair Dearg”, Piobaireachd “Ion-do, ion-da” (Ancient Gaelic Song of the Seal People), sung by Allan MacDonald. If anyone knows more about this, please fill me in.

I want more of this. I will be combing the Web looking for it.

Author:

Writer of vampire stories and science fiction. First novel, "Revenants Abroad", available now at Amazon. If you like a vampire you can go out drinking with and still respect yourself in the morning, I think you'd like Andrej.

22 thoughts on “Still Hot on the Trail – The Eagle Soundtrack”

  1. I haven’t seen the movie but I listened to the music you posted. It’s amazing! I did find the soundtrack on Spotify and have experienced some of the other tracks. Awesome! If you like Irish music with Gaelic lyrics, try listening to Clannad and Altan. It isn’t the all-encompassing sounds of Irish Orchestrations, but what you might hear in a pub. 🙂

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  3. Thank you, Yogurt 😉

    I love Clannad and Altan. Liam O’Flynn is another fine uillean piper. I’m a huge Celtic music fan from way back 🙂 I actually prefer the more traditional stuff. The best source I know of for Celtic music is http://www.custysmusic.com I think I want one of everything they have.

    You can listen to the whole soundtrack for “The Eagle” online at that link up above (the underlined words ENTIRE SOUNDTRACK). Not just clips, the full pieces. I was surprised the whole thing was online, but enjoy! I bought the CD ’cause I still like to rock it old skool 😉 I haven’t gotten into Spotify yet, is it a subscription service?

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    1. I love Celtic music too! Something in my blood stirs when I listen to it. I also like the Chieftains and The Corrs. Yet, The Corrs are more Pop than traditional, they do incorporate some of the folk Irish instruments in their work, which makes for a very rich sound. 🙂

      Spotify is free. They usually play a 30 second ad after every 5th song or so. You can pay for a monthly subscription if you want for extra features and no ads, but the ads don’t bug me too much and the have a large music library to choose from.

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  7. I love movie soundtracks without them or heart pulsing sounds movies these days would be a bit boring. I like the first one it is quite festive but I wonder if the second and third is played around the time that someone is dying.

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  8. Hi Lora,
    The second track is during a poignant scene, but it’s not a death scene. The situation is rather desperate, but there is still hope. The third track is while Esca and Marcus are making their way through the country, searching for clues as to the fate of Marcus’s father’s legion, talking with the local people whose lives are grim and harsh by comparison to the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Roman-held territories.

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    1. Hey, I just learn a new word today. I had to looked up poignant, lol, no joking. I just watched the you tube video from what you posted and it jogged my memories. I seen this movie a few months ago here on tv. Sadly to say I don’t remember the sound tracks of when something as occurred. The only thing I remember is how the guy from “Jumpers” and the other guy from the dance movie came together after the soldier broken his leg and the slave would not fight in the arena. I remember a tad bits of what occurred in the movie but not so much. But I agree it was good!

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    2. Haha 🙂 I love the scene when the guy shoves Jamie Bell (Esca) into the ring, and Jamie turns and looks at him like “You shove me again, I’m gonna throw you a beating.”

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  12. Just listened to the whole soundtrack as I was working on a graphic art project for a friend. The music is truly amazing, but there where times that it reminded me of the Halo 3 soundtrack for the XBOX 360 game. 🙂

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  14. Just to let you know that I just finished watching, The Eagle. I was able to get it at Walmart. The nice thing is that it was a little more than if I were to have watched it at the theater. Now, I can watch it repeatedly. The DVD had both versions on it: theatrical and unrated. I confess, I watched the unrated version first. It was a gritty story with enough light moments to carry over the rough ones. I didn’t realize that my highland ancestors were like the Native Americans of the US; at least, that’s how it seemed they were interpreted.

    The movie seemed more real in the overall picture, than another film I like: King Arthur w/Clive Owen. Both depicts epic history within the narrow framework of a motion picture, but that fuels the viewer with the ability to research more on the topic. Something that you have so wonderfully done. Thank you for introducing me to this movie along with its lushful soundtrack! Hmmm. my spell checker says “lushful” isn’t a word. Oh well, I think it should be, so I’m leaving it.

    Now onto….John Carter! 🙂

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  15. Yay! I’m glad you liked it so well! Yeah, I always watch the unrated version myself 😉 And don’t miss the deleted scenes, that’s where the chariot race between Marcus and the local village chariot-maker is. The Painted People were largely a concoction of imagination and rumor. The Picts (Pict or Picti is the Roman word for them, Painted People) left no written records, and the only historical references to them come from Roman sources. They called themselves Pretani, and the word ‘Britain’ itself may be a corruption of that word. There’s a lot of debate about whether the tribe depicted as the Seal People (which is a totally fictitious name) would have been Pict or another tribe. Not everyone in the highlands was Pict, there were many other tribes as well. That was one of the criticisms I saw of the film, that the depiction of the the Seal People as mohawked, teepee-dwelling, mud-covered pseudo-Native American types was ridiculous.

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  16. I simply am fascinated by the songs and the movie ….
    I am on the verge of obsession – but again, what´s not to be obsessed about ??
    I´ve been waiting for the book by Rosemary Sutcliff to get here, so I can start it over again ! ) thank you !

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