Anno 1701 Collector’s Edition Soundtrack

	Album Title: Anno 1701 Collector’s Edition Soundtrack
	Record Label: Koch Media GmbH
	Catalog No.: N/A
	Release Date: October 26, 2006
	Purchase: Buy Used Copy

Overview

Since the early 1990s, the long-running Settlers franchise of computer games had proven that if there’s one thing that German PC gamers like, it’s a good nation-building simulation with a period flavour. Enter the Anno series, a number of PC titles that bear similarities to the Age of Empire series, but with a stronger focus on the economic aspects on setting up your dominion, rather than militaristic conflicts. Since the very first instalment, the Anno games have always set themselves apart from the Settlers franchise through —,; amongst other things — an element of conquering. The player controls a fleet of ships, on a mission to find and colonise uninhabited islands, before building up settlements and keeping the townsfolk happy.

From the first game in the series, Anno 1602, being released in 1998, the franchise made the leap from bitmap graphics into the third dimension with Anno 1701, which saw the light of day in 2006. Like its predecessors, the game was a resounding commercial — and critical — success, even spawning a board game and a novel. Although Anno 1701 was created by a new developer, the game’s soundtrack was to be composed by the same team that had been behind the previous two Anno scores: Pierre Langer and Tilman Sillescu of German game sound production company Dymedion. However, what had changed since the previous Anno game was the fact that Dynamedion had demonstrated with their excellent work for SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars that recording a live orchestral game soundtrack was a viable option of a German game developer. Consequently, the score for Anno 1701 would benefit from such a live orchestral recording. The results were made available to eager soundtrack collectors only as part of game’s limited edition in 5.1 dolby digital sound on a bonus DVD.

Body

As is customary for Dynamedion soundtracks, the album’s first cue presents the score’s main theme. In the case of Anno 1701, it’s a memorable, heroically ascending three note motif that is presented against emphatic percussion on “A New World”, perfectly capturing the feeling of sea-faring and departing for new, undiscovered lands. What is remarkable about this motif is that on various occasions throughout the soundtrack, it will be developed by adding different secondary phrases to the first three notes. The motif’s malleability is highlighted for example on “A Beautiful Day”, which sees the theme enhanced through the addition of a descending three note figure, and the resulting six note motif later returns on “Apples in Trees”. The most interesting variation of the main theme occurs on “Stay Negative”, one of the score’s few forays into darker territory. Here, the theme is presented in a minor key on solo violin and as a result performs an astonishingly effortless 180 degree turn from swash-buckling swagger to sorrow and misery.

Once more then, Dymnamedion ensures a high thematic consistency of their work, increased further by a second theme that is introduced later in “To the Shores”. It is performed by flowing, harmonious strings against a triumphant orchestral backdrop full of resonant drums and cymbal crashes. Compared to the main motif, this one is a longer, more languorous theme that is not so much a call to adventure, but rather an invitation to the gamer to sit back and admire his achievements. Unfortunately, in its unbound major key optimism and lack of emotional depth, the theme feels too simplistic and at times overblown to attract much admiration. Later presentations of the theme, for example on “Beggars and Kings”, don’t help much to dissipate this impression. In all fairness though, the theme does become more interesting when it’s presented in a smaller, less bloated instrumental setting, for example on solo clarinet in the second half of “To the Shores.” The composers’ intricate thematic work on Anno 1701 even allows for the existence of sub-themes, for example a motif for solo violin that first appears during the middle section of “A New World” and is later reprised on “A Beautiful Day” and “Pirates”, where it is coupled imaginatively with male choir “Ahs”.

As with other Dynamedion soundtracks for period strategy games — a market the company seems to have squarely cornered in Germany — historical authenticity is not the biggest concern of Anno 1701‘s score. The soundtrack’s overall musical language is clearly anchored in lush, late 19th century romanticism. There certainly are Baroque elements to be found, woven into the score’s soundscape, but they usually remain embellishments rather than forming part of the musical structure. Of course, in no way is this necessarily a bad thing, particularly when those appropriations of Baroque musical idiom are integrated as seamlessly as is the case here. Not surprisingly, these Baroque sounds are most prominently used when the composers try to convey a particular sense of place, such as on “Enter the City”. The cue opens with a joyful recorder melody and light dance rhythms performed on hand percussion. These folksy-sounding elements are expertly combined with the requisite brass fanfares, which serve to evoke the imposing grandeur of an imperial city. “Glory to Our Kn” emits an even stronger period feeling, with Langer and Sillescu — historically correct — opting for a Minuet full of light-hearted, yet dignified dance rhythms to impart a sense of Baroque royalty. Other period influences include the harpsichord adornments on “Glory to Our Kin” and “Era Rich Merchants”, the rhythmic, repetitive material for strings on “Catch the Rabbit”, and the slurred descending half steps in the violins on “Stay Negative” and “Black Death”, cleverly quoting that “sighing” musical figure which was so popular in Baroque classical music.

As already mentioned, one of the things through which the Anno games have set themselves apart from the Settlers franchise is the element of discovery and conquest, set in a particular historical period — as opposed to the Settlers games’ generically medieval, fairy tale-like game world. But while it is true that Langer and Sillescu occasionally inject the music for Anno 1701 with a greater sense of nobility than what the listener finds in some of the Settlers scores, Anno 1701 — for the majority of its running time — is carried by a similar feeling of carefreeness. Nowhere is this mix better illustrated than on “Move Forward”, which starts out as jaunty march, before offering variations on a more serious melody and finally closing with the melody being performed by regal brass. To a degree, this generally sunny musical focus is no doubt due to the fact that the music is supposed to underscore the slow colonisation of green, lush islands in the ocean. And as always with Dynamedion’s orchestral projects, each track is richly instrumented and unabashedly melodic. Just take a look at “A Beautiful Day” and “Rivers and Meadows”: the first cue opens with a bucolic clarinet solo against soft violins and gentle horns, and maintains this blithesome attitude throughout its running time. The latter composition relies on lightly sprung string rhythms, before thinning the musical texture to pass the track’s melody to a solo harp.

The sometimes gorgeous beauty of these compositions is never in doubt, and particularly for lovers of lyrical woodwind soli, this soundtrack is a feast for the senses. But the compositions’ relative emotional uniformity is the soundtrack’s biggest, albeit hardly fatal, downfall. Most of the cues on the soundtrack fall into the described mold of pastoral, mirthful orchestral material, and particularly when sequenced in longer stretches, like in the middle portion of the soundtrack album, the music’s relentless optimism and sunny demeanour can become a bit tiring and predictable. By the time the album’s penultimate track, “Cheerful Clouds”, comes rolling in, the listener can tell exactly what the music will sound like, just from the cue’s title. As tuneful and attractive as many of the compositions are, the album’s musical arc is less interesting than, for example, that of The Guild 2, among similar strategy titles. But while most of the time, the composers tread the same ground, they do so with considerable skill, knowing how to add some much-needed variety to the formula they’re sticking to. Throughout the course of each composition, the orchestral textures are sufficiently varied to hold interest, often highlighting solo instruments or chamber music-sized ensembles. An acoustic guitar on “Fields of Peace” and a melancholy music box on “Land of Happiness” add some charming instrumental colours to the proceedings. “Lake Freedom” gives the orchestra’s string section, which gets to carry the soaring melody, more work than than most other compositions do. The first half of “A New Day” is based on an energetic five note motif and staccato rhythms to communicate the townspeople’s readiness to begin a new day’s work. And closing track “Windmills in Green Fields” features the most emotional and thus engaging variation of the main theme on opulent strings.

Like on Dynamedion’s score for The Settlers: Rise of an Empire, the soundtrack’s generally idyllic atmosphere is both spiced up and interrupted by action cues and ethnic material. However, both kinds of compositions play a smaller role on Anno 1701 than on Rise of an Empire. For Anno 1701, the album producers made the inspired choice to lump the battle tracks together in two larger chunks on the album’s play list. Given that most of the action cues are shorter than one minute, this way the listener is spared of having the album’s flow interrupted by all too brief outbursts of power and energy. Instead, the terser battle tracks blur into each other and nicely set the scene for the more expansive depictions of military conflict. It helps that even the shorter action cues catch the listener’s attention, with “Fight for Freedom” pumping out a punchy brass melody over a relentless orchestral staccato backdrop, and “Cataclysm” being driven forward by a pounding march section. The score’s two longer combat cues, “Melee” and “Battlegrounds”, are satisfyingly varied in their orchestrations to never turn into booming tedium and fire up the gamer for battle. Structurally, “Battlegrounds” proves particularly interesting, since it features the soundtrack’s most successful rendition of the rather hum-drum second main theme, whose slightly anaemic nobility becomes much more interesting when it clashes with the more aggressive material surrounding it. The score’s action material is only brought down somewhat by what is the only recording-related blemish on an otherwise great sounding album. “Cataclysm” and “Battlegrounds” both rely on a choir to generate even more commanding sounds, but the mix puts the choir so far backwards that it floats somewhere in the background, instead of driving these pieces forward — a sadly missed chance.

Anno 1701‘s ethnic material is more varied than that on Rise of an Empire, but that’s not always a good thing. While the latter soundtrack slowly shifted its focus from traditional, romantic orchestral sounds to more sun-dried compositions with a Latin flavour, Anno 1701 throws a number of stylistically disparate tracks into the mix without much warming. And when three such cues are sequenced back to back at the end of the soundtrack, the listener jumps from Northern American tribal sounds (“Irokese”) to Chinese instruments (“Asia”) and lastly arrives at Indian-styled music (“Indians”) within the space of a few minutes. While this variety of instrumental flavours helps to alleviate the slight sameyness from which parts of the soundtrack suffer, the pendulum now swings too far in the other direction and it all ends up sounding disjointed. What’s more, the ethnic sounds on “Asia” and “Indians” are nicely evocative, but they’re also deployed in a rather hackneyed manner, working just through their timbral qualities rather than through actually being applied in an original manner. On the other hand, “Aztecs” and “Irokese” combine the more exotic material successfully with the soundtrack’s trademark luscious orchestral elements.

Summary

Anno 1701 features the same hallmarks as so many other Dynamedion soundtracks for strategy games: admirable thematic coherency, beautiful melodies and richly detailed orchestrations that know exactly when to shift gears and change tone colours and/or ensemble size. There is much love on this soundtrack for collectors of tastefully arranged orchestral game music, and the album provides a pleasant, sometimes moving listening experience. That being said, there are some details that hold the soundtrack back from attaining even greater heights: through its mostly congenial, carefree demeanour, the score may leave some listeners wanting for a greater emotional range. The well-composed battle tracks provide some welcome drama, but the album’s ethnic material is a more mixed affair, occasionally coming off as clichéd and disjointed. Still, the positives far outweigh Anno 1701‘s few weak spots, and the soundtrack remains a recommended listen, particularly if you like your orchestral game music bright and buoyant.

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Simon Elchlepp. Last modified on January 22, 2016.

About the Author

Simon Elchlepp A former German film student now living in Melbourne, Australia and working at the University of Melbourne's Architecture faculty - and a passionate music lover with an eclectic taste. Specialising in Western game music, I'm here to dig out the best scores Western video games have produced in the last thirty years.

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