Meaning Of Epic Music Or Epic Orchestral Music

The Word Epic As A Standalone

In literature: An Epic is “a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the past history of a nation.”, definition provided by Oxford Languages.

This is the origin of Epic music. It is strongly associated with terms like fantasy, heroism and adventure which describe what the Epic genre aims to evoke in listeners.

Note

Epic or “epos” in ancient Greece could also mean “song”, this is because a song can tell you a story just as effectively as a narrative. It transformed into the Greek “epikos” and then the Latin “eipein”, ultimately losing its song meaning and retaining its narrative meaning.

Epic Music aka Epic Orchestral Music

Epic music refers to a modern type of classical orchestral music, with or without hybrid elements added to it.

Example: adding an electric guitar into the orchestra.

And the word orchestral means that it has been written for an orchestra to play. Epic music sounds really full because it uses the full range of an orchestra.

The goal of Epic music is to bring you along on an adventure and tell you a story rich in emotions, either happy or sad.

Is Epic Music A Genre?

“Epic Music” is not an official genre, if you would be releasing this type of music:

• The main genre would be Classical
• The subgenre would be Orchestral
• A second subgenre would be Contemporary
• If you use choirs, another subgenre can be Choral
• If you use hybrid elements, subgenre can be Cross-Over
• If none of these terms are available: use Instrumental

Note

When searching for classical music, people do not typically consider this type of music. This is the reason it is commonly referred to as Epic music or Epic orchestral instead of classical orchestral.

“Epic orchestral” really means “contemporary classical orchestral”, but as you can see, it’s way easier to say and remember.

Contemporary means close to present time, sometimes you can find the term modern instead.

Where Is It On The Billboard Charts?

When is comes to the charts, the epic orchestral genre is on the Billboard Classical Crossover Charts.

According to Apple Music’s guidelines (that everyone uses as a bible at that point), anything classical done today (i.e. something new and original, not covers/arrangements of public domain stuff from the classical era) should be tagged as crossover.

The issue with this is that “Classical Crossover” is way too board and doesn’t define that genre very well.

Is Epic A Mood?

The word “Epic” also conveys a particular mood, which can be described as intense. Thus, the term “Epic” can be substituted with “intense” to convey a similar feeling.

Although some people might use “Epic” as a synonym for “motivational” or “uplifting”, this is incorrect. In reality, Epic music can be as dark and dramatic as possible.

“Everything Epic is intense, but not everything intense is Epic”. ―Demfire Creation

“Epic” does add an extra layer that “intense” does not and is the most important part: storytelling.

It Wasn’t A Thing

“Epic” as a term in music was popularized by someone who wanted to tell a complete story through their musical works. The highs and lows of battles and love.

Their intention was to create music for trailers. However, the fact that many people enjoyed their music and used it in tons of YouTube videos, which led to their significant growth, was beyond their control.

“They” is referring to…

Two Steps From Hell

The pioneers of the Epic genre are Two Steps From Hell aka TSFH, founded in 2006.

While they were not the first making music in that genre in the industry, they were the first to propagate it to a massive audience thanks to old-YouTube.

They had set an extremely high standard for the genre and it would not have been a thing without them.

They described what Epic music is, in a very interesting way:

“Composers Thomas Bergersen and Nick Phoenix write epic orchestral music with energy that makes you feel like you can conquer the world!”, this quote is from their Twitter profile @twostepsfromhe1.

Their signature, in most of their Epic soundtracks, is the use of over-the-top choirs, giving their music a very intense feeling.

When I talk about TSFH, I’m always referring to the first album: “Invincible”. Because this was the place where their storytelling was absolutely breathtaking.

This album released in 2010 and includes some of their absolute best 2006-2010 industry trailer music. Before 2010 their tracks were all over YouTube; people kept asking them to officially release their music.

If you want to dig deeper, you can take a look at their official website.

The Origin

“This is something more than orchestral”.

In 1999, Chris Field, one of the founders of the label X-Ray Dog, had composed a track called “Gothic Power”.

This track was featured in the trailer for “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”.

It was the first time someone said that this is something different, something new; but the genre was still referred to as “trailer music” or “orchestral music” for the longest time.

(Weebs were also trying to call it “anime music”, because orchestral was already widely used in anime; this did obviously not stick, but is the reason a lot of videos on YouTube featuring Epic music had an anime image).

The term “Epic” for this new genre, was later generalized, like I said in the section above, thanks to Two Steps From Hell.

Epic Music In Trailers

The most common place to find Epic music is in trailers, as trailers can be made for any medium support (movie trailers, game announcements, etc..).

Many companies, called Trailer Houses (or simply music production companies), have specialized into composing trailer music and selling it to music supervisors in need of this type of music for their projects.

Trailer Houses will usually have many specific themed albums released in the form of catalogues to make it easy for browsing and pitching.

Epic Music In Film Scores

Because movies tell stories through various visual emotional cues, the music must match and complement the emotions on screen.

Every scene that is intense or dramatic will usually have some form of orchestral music attached to it. Depending on the budget available, you can’t always get a live orchestra to play everything.

Hans Zimmer (Twitter profile @HansZimmer) for example, will always provide incredible atmospheres for everything he composes for.

You can listen to the full soundtracks of his motion picture scores on Spotify to get an idea of what this means, or directly watch any film that he scored.

If you happen to listen to the “Interstellar” score (my favorite one), you know how intense his music can get.

Epic Music In Video Game Soundtracks

Just like movies, video games will tell you, or more like will have you play through a story. Depending on the game genre, the music can greatly vary.

The type of games you will most likely find classical orchestral or hybrid orchestral music in, are role-playing games aka RPGs.

Example: Elden Ring, God of War, Elder Scrolls, Assassin’s Creed & many more.

Epic Music In Playlists

How about trailers, movies and game soundtracks all in one place?

I currently have 16 Epic playlists, each with a specific thematic (like battle, motivational, pirate, fantasy, dark choral, etc..)

I’m updating them regularly with new tracks.

You can browse all my playlists on this page.