Music-Culture IX

As in almost all action movies, especially those with lots of fighting and war, Avatar’s soundtrack has lots of epic songs. The two types of music, the film score and the Na’vi music, have lots of differences as well as numerous similarities.

The film score seems to be done by an orchestra because one can easily hear the many instruments, especially the chordophones, which are found in orchestras. Apart from the usual orchestral instruments, James Horner also included many special instruments and computerized sounds and effects to give the music an “otherworldly” feel. Most of the music is also very upbeat. There is a very effective use of drumming in most of the film score which helps in two ways. The drum beats make the music very upbeat and give a rhythm to it while giving the music a very tribal effect. This makes sense because the Na’vi are a tribal people and they have many drum-like instruments due to their primal living.

The Na’vi music can be distinguished from the film score in two ways. Their music has a chorus which chants throughout the songs. Also, their songs do not have the orchestral instruments found in the film score. There are many new instruments that the Na’vi use to make their own music which gives their music an “alien-like” or “otherworldly” feel.

The biggest similarity between the two is that they both sound very epic and really have a way of drawing the listener to the movie.