The Emotional Core: Choirs in Epic Music The Power of the Human Voice There’s something ancient about hearing a human voice woven into music — especially in cinematic and epic scores. No matter how huge the orchestra gets, a choir cuts straight through and hits us on a deeply emotional level. It taps into something […]
There’s something ancient about hearing a human voice woven into music — especially in cinematic and epic scores. No matter how huge the orchestra gets, a choir cuts straight through and hits us on a deeply emotional level. It taps into something we instinctively recognize: the sound of humanity itself.
In Liberation, the choir isn’t just there to make things sound “big” (though it definitely helps). It’s about adding a layer of raw emotion and vulnerability that pure instrumentation can’t always reach. The voice brings an organic quality — a reminder that there are real souls behind the sound, struggling, rising, hoping.
Of course, let’s be real — compared to a live choir, sample libraries just can’t compete. But that doesn’t mean they can’t still be incredibly effective when used thoughtfully. In this track, I needed the choir to carry that sense of soul within the phrases, and the best way to get close to that, in my experience, is by using pre-recorded phrase libraries like the swells from 8Dio’s Insolidus choir. To make the lines feel richer and avoid that “out-of-the-box” sound, I layered Insolidus with the choir from Orchestral Tools’ Metropolis Ark 2. Blending the two brought a lot of character and helped the choir feel more alive and emotionally connected to the track.
Listen to Insolidus only:
Listen to Insolidus paired with Metropolis Ark 2:
Notice how the Legato Samples from MArk2 singing only oo’s almost melt together with the syllables of Insolidus. As you can hear, the MIDI also isn’t the same for both choirs, leveraging the deep ranges of the MArk2 basso profondo and the soaring melody in the female and children choir.
Even when the words are in Latin or a made-up language, it doesn’t matter — we still feel it. That’s why choirs are such a staple in epic music, from Two Steps from Hell to Hans Zimmer’s iconic scores. They instantly elevate a piece, making it feel grander, more urgent, more alive.
Don’t be afraid to use choirs or solo voices in your tracks to add an emotional impact.
Here’s the overall structure of Liberation. It’s simple, but it works — letting each section breathe and evolve naturally.
The intro sets the tone right away. The choir and strings create a sense of space and soul, while the percussion adds subtle drive. Brass comes in early too, giving the track instant warmth and cinematic weight — because let’s be honest, if you’re going epic, you need brass. There’s even a little melodic idea here, diatonic and mostly sitting on top of the harmony with occasional extensions to keep it interesting without clashing.
The A Theme puts the solo violin in the spotlight, doubled by the section violins. In the second half, female and children’s choir voices join in, with counter lines weaving through the oboes and trumpets. Rhythm-wise, things pick up here: taikos and loops push things forward, while ostinatos in the violins, violas, flutes, and clarinets add pulse and harmonic momentum. The low end — cellos, basses, bass trombones, and tubas — drives the roots with punchy staccato hits.
The B Theme pulls things back. Gone are the soaring lines — in their place is a warm, grounded melody in the cellos and bassoons. A soft percussive heartbeat is introduced here, anchoring the rhythm for the rest of the piece. A metallic shimmer in the high register starts to peek through — it’s been there all along, just buried in the mix until now.
Later, a variation of the cello melody returns, now carried by violins, woodwinds, and choir — which seamlessly transitions into a variation of the intro.
The final third is essentially a reworking of earlier material — with slight variations in phrasing, particularly in the woodwinds. The orchestration remains familiar, giving the return of the solo violin melody an emotional lift. The outro pulls everything back once more, closing the piece gently with a short phrase in the oboe, supported by clarinet and warm sustained chords in strings and brass.
