Hello soldiers!
This week, it’s time to put on your listening ears! If you’ve played the game or watched our trailer, you might’ve heard it before. Isonzo’s main theme: Rinasceremo Insieme (We will be Reborn Together). Looking on the internet for the original song or just asking around if someone knew who the singer was, often left you guys with empty hands (or ears), as it is an original song made for the game! Our componist, Bart Delissen, has been with us from the very start and also worked on the music for Verdun & Tannenberg.
Inspiration from previous games
“For Isonzo, the research of what would be a culturally and historically accurate soundtrack started early 2020. I've done similar research back in 2014 for Verdun, and mainly during 2017 for Tannenberg. For this Eastern Front game, it relied heavily on finding musical tropes that fitted the Eastern European anthems and creating a custom orchestral soundtrack from that. Important was not to lose the Verdun theme at all, as to make clear this front is part of a bigger conflict/game series. So through the new Tannenberg Hymn and a few other tracks, the eager listener can also hear echoes of the ominous descending brass melody.”
As you can see, Bart is not a new recruit in the field when it comes to making music. Isonzo being part of an entirely different front and being the biggest entry of our game series yet, Bart’s desire to implement that in his music, while also having a notch back to our two earlier games, was very impressive. Not to forget that the music should also resemble and fit the time period of World War One, this is where the early stages of research and demos started. But did that idea last?
Puccini as Inspiration
“Early Isonzo demos contained this idea as well, but since it was less needed to rivet the IP of the WW1 game series again, in terms of music (a lot of people knew the Verdun & Tannenberg already) – it was dropped soon enough. We wanted to do something with the huge panoramas in combination with the fact that the game is set around Italy.
This made me pitch Italian opera and I showed the dev team some Verdi and Puccini. Puccini's work grew increasingly dramatic and bold as the years progressed into the 1910's. Some brushes and colours of his musical sound palette fitted perfectly to the Isonzo narrative, so I tried to incorporate some of the mannerisms into my writing for the soundtrack.”
Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer, mainly known for his operas. Seen as one of the greatest and successful composers (after Verdi), he stemmed from a late-Baroque era, which is a type of Western classical music composed around 1600-1750. He drifted more towards creating late 19th century Romantic Italian opera music before he developed his work in a verismo style (meaning realism). This style had its origins in the literary movement in Italy and Puccini became a head composer. His most famous works are La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1924).
Puccini is known as one of the greatest and successful composers
The Importance of the Main Theme Song
Besides taking his inspiration from well-known Italian opera singers, Bart looked further to see what kind of Italian music or artists were around the time period of the Great War and looked for inspiration. He explains what the importance of the main theme is for the rest of the soundtrack.
“A main theme should be written first as the base material from which I could later extrapolate the tracks and themes for the entire soundtrack. We decided it would be a sung opera aria. This is a moment in classical opera where the story 'freezes' on a dramatic moment and a single soloist expresses the emotional singing that is evoked by the given situation.
I wrote the menu/main theme with this in mind, with just a piano sound as a placeholder for where the singer should sound eventually. After a short search, I came across Barbara Lotti, an Italian linguist, who helped me create the lyrics (libretto). I had already done research for Italian poetry around the WW1 era, and stumbled upon Guiseppe Ungaretti. He fought for the Italians at the Isonzo front, and he grew to become one of the most important Italian poets of the 20th century.”
Giuseppe Ungaretti was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic and academic. He was one of the most important figures to contribute to 20th century Italian literature. Influenced by symbolism, he was briefly aligned with futurism. During World War One, he took an irredentist position, like many other futurists. He debuted as a poet while fighting in the trenches, publishing his pieces; L'allegria (The Joy). These poems were based on Ungaretti's experiences as a soldier.
Giuseppe Ungaretti during World War One
Putting everything together
“I had Barbara Lotti write original lyrics with stylistic elements of Ungaretti and I had music with hints of Puccini: now I needed a singer to bring it all to life. I found a tenor named Thomas de Bruijn, who sometimes goes by the stage name Thomas LeBrun. He's a freelancer, the National Opera House is even one of his clients! However, recording in a studio situation was new to him. The average studio sounds very different from a concert hall or opera house and that brings some challenges. In the end, the profound research and preparations paid off - we ended up with a main menu track called Rinasceremo Insieme, which many of you have heard by now.”
Bart even made a vlog video talking a bit more about the process of working on the song, combined with some footage of the recording session, be sure to check it out!
Rinasceremo Insieme is the DNA of the game
Making the main theme Rinasceremo Insieme set the direction of what the rest of Isonzo’s soundtrack would sound like. It formed a sort of DNA for the other in-game music. It wasn't really something that was discussed, it was more of a natural process. The next challenge for Bart would be creating in-game music that would move along with the different battles and objectives you face in the game.
“I took some inspiration and info from working on the precious games I’ve worked with. Tannenberg had two interactive music tracks, intensifying the late game. I took what I built for the former game as a starting point, and with a lot of testing and tweaking created a system that could toss around snippets of music from a gradual 4+ minutes buildup that I had composed. The result of all non-linear options, in which the music can manifest, guarantees a tension build up throughout a series of battles. Almost every piece of music in Isonzo ended up having interactive/adaptive elements.
Fun fact: shards of the Verdun theme make a stealth comeback, buried within a stream of fast notes in the objective music. “
Bart provided a video explaining more about the software he worked with for having the music and game work together, when certain events happen in the game! It’s an interesting video, so be sure to check it out!
We would like to thank Bart Delissen and the people he worked with for their amazing work on Isonzo’s soundtrack! You can clearly hear the time, effort, inspiration and passion that went into making it!
The Isonzo soundtrack contains about 30 minutes of music, and it will only increase along with the development of DLC!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556790/Isonzo/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2078340/Isonzo_Soundtrack/
To end this devblog with, here is the official video, together with the Italian lyrics and English translation!