So I am not from West and I have no idea idea what to do with these chants. I have a bunch of choir libraries and would love to be able to create cool chants for dramatic/action sequences, sadly I do not know Latin so it makes zero sense to me.

Can anybody shed some light on the subject? Where should I begin? Those who know Latin, what is it that the choirs usually sing in film trailers and similar epic compositions? Is it some general vague stuff? Or is it Latin poetry specific to the story?

Libraries I have include: Cinesamples Voxos, 8dio Liberis and Requim Lite.

 

You might search these chants in Google?!?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_chant

 

You already got an answer. They are mainly related to the christian church and were developed during the midlle age (organum, discantus) in what is known as Ars Antiqua. Don't worry too much about the meaning I would say unless you're a perfectionist, have you heard how many times Carl Orff's rendition of Carmina Burana is used in thriller movies and similar stuff? If only people knew the meaning of what they're hearing...

 

It's mostly generic and religious words/phrases that are used (In veritas, Benedictus, Sanctus etc). There are a few ways to go about this:

- Make something random that makes no sense... Who cares? You can pretend it's some different/obscure language of your own (you can try Sumerian or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycenaean_Greek or something) or say it's Elves or whatever.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_phrases_(V) / Find premade/classic phrases/pieces
- Learn some basic Latin (prepositions and a few nouns along with a good lexicon [pun intended]) and make your own phrases
- You can very well use English or whatever with VOP or EWQLSC (or emulate it)
- Use something premade/classic but make it incomprehensible, lol
- Make it incomprehensible anyway and just use the timbres and fills of the voices, except if you absolutely want lyrics to be audible and have meaning

I'd opt for one of the latter as I find I usually don't really want to say anything (it's more about the fills & feels) and I defo don't want a religious meaning (although some of them phrases can sound like they're about themes such as knighthood, majesty etc.)

 

I have often made "pseudo Latin", meaning "it sounds like Latin, but it's mumbo jumbo". I liked it, but some people did not and said people who understand any Latin could get offended and that it does not fit in the setting. Using some sort of pseudo bilbical period religious sounding Latin for a story about huge epic space battles for example But I don't know about that really. It's more about the sound than the actual meaning of words.

Just make clear syllables

Sank-tus
Corp-us
Domi-nus
Sata-nus

and so on.

Some time I make up a phrase in English, and just use some online translator to make the Latin words, "sort of" make sense. Like I used this "translated words" once "Deus Temporis - Terrarum Extinctor" my English phrase was "God of time, Destroyer of worlds" it kind of means that, but the grammar etc of course is not correct at all. But it "sounds cool" and that is the main thing.

 

Oh and, of course, find and listen works you'd like to imitate or draw techniques/inspiration from, so that you see everything more in context (along with tranlations if you can find them, it can help a lot). A few examples:
http://lyricstranslate.com/en/hans-zimmer-kyrie-magdalene-lyrics.html (Also contains some Greek)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9n8ZKZwO_I / http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/files/dota2_trailer_score.pdf (An example of custom/random crap)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7hDwYF0OXY (Trailer - Many of the classic ones)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqaARDsiJv4 (Classical)

 

That's more common than you might think. Several film composers do the same, and notably, Nobuo Uematsu (composer for much of the Final Fantasy series) loves to create anagrams and turn them into pseudo-latin lyrics. He did so for Final Fantasy VIII's main theme as well as the Hymn of the Faith from Final Fantasy X.

 

I know Latin and I´m a teacher. I´m from Italy. If you need some help, no problems at all.

 

Alicubi in novissimis saeculis , factae Latinae " terror " lingua . Fieri potest , ut haec verba cecidit et a cultu magni mille annis. Aliquam sit amet linguae Romanae Ecclesiae , quia est , et ideo divina virtute coniunctum , spiritualitatem mysterium mortis et obscuri Europa. Tantum inde saliunt, et Salire ad rationem amet interdum . Donec sit amet est et saepe cum Latino - ut unum sonum cantus gregoriani , - quod facile videtur obscurior etiam scary aurem velit . Chorea Latinis etiam quae distinctiva " ooh " " aah " , " milium " et " US- sonis :" ascendentes et descendentes spectacular scaena .

Sic , quacumque hora audieritis symphoniae cantu latine virtute , praesertim bombing orchestram sit amet quòd etiam non. Hoc est valde communis tropum in trailers vastationis ultimus et summum proelia dicam vobis Hollywood dictare posse quicquam ' vigilo movie " seu " Maximus Finale et Finem Mundus " Potentissimi carmina in choro Linguam maxime visores non sciunt , et quod suus via ad speciem extra quod frenum terrebat momenti .

Ipsum verborum refert. Cantandi vel legendi possent latino rithimorum phone libri Romanae Quae enim nescimus , aut etiam canis Latinis seu completum INANIS STREPITUS , suus vox istud , sed sunt bonus punctis cantico est simile , nec omnino furatus by Carl Orff Carmina Burana , etiam « O Fortuna » . Aliud est ille Dies Irae , cuius verba sunt, vere sollicitarent .

Si creatores sunt maxime intelligens , cantus includit dignissim ligula .

Notissimum sit amet linguam Latinam mortis antecessoris tempor Linguae Romanicae suo (nam Angli Germanicam linguam Latinam eam vim habere rationem excelsam maxime Galli scientia ), et dignitas atque immutatione facta aetatis facile reprimatur . Sed antiqui Graeci Sanscritica Hebraea, et alii in directum interdum . Si opus sit , vel in Russia Fontes iuris Germanici antiqui , exspecta - minaces servo cantu. In cantus popularis oratio subesse Orientalis habens , an per augmentum in fabulis inter Orientis et Occidentis Aliquam saecula. Qui susceperat gravida fingere lingua opus esse in hoc iter amet ipsum. Est etiam casus quod musica cantus est simile sinistre Latine , bene uti ' ooh " " aah " , " milium " , etc . Nam illud non oportet dicere, quod pluribus audientibus, latine sonant, INANIS STREPITUS prodigia aeque laborare .

Compare Chorus cherubim et unus- mulier plorandum. Saepe partem bombing orchestram et religiosi horror. Potest esse organum minaces . Vide etiam nigrum version fracturis Oratio in aure. Filii quoque videre Creepy cantu lugubri carmine et rithimorum ubi lusit in in background ut adderetis tensionem et metus in arcu . Saepe etiam accommodat se ad Mondegreens . Chorus victor contra , quod se habet in contrarium effectum huius tropum .

Multis exempla , quae sequuntur locis in coronationem parta infigo page Si vis musicam audire .

 

Thank you guys, I got my answer and then some! Much appreciated!