To some tune too.

Bandsmen usually take on the roll as medics during military operations or war.

That must have been amazing.

I thought i should have talked a little more but i was just mesmerized by the performance. Thanks for the comment! 😊

@@McJibbin Hans Zimmer in a nutshell :P

the full concert is on their YT channel

One of the best films I have ever seen along with The English patient.

Yes, you’re quite right as it would have required some inter-military cooperation as HM Royal Marines are Royal Navy and the Household Cavalry are Army 😊

To answer your question, the vocals in the film Gladiator were predominantly/if not entirely the work of a rather curious Australian female vocal artist called Lisa Gerrard. She is known for making up her own 'gibberish' languages. It is often assumed the female vocalist parts of the musical score in Gladiator (2000) are Latin; not so. The sounds made are perhaps inspired by the sound of Latin, but it is actually not a real language. Or at least, it's a language which Lisa Gerrard made up. She does this a lot. There is a form of music based on the human voice without feeling the need to adhere to a specific language. Another example of Lisa Gerrard doing this, is in the interesting film, 'The Mist' (2008), in the haunting and powerful musical piece called, 'The Host of Seraphim'. It _sounds_ broadly Levantine or perhaps Greco-Turkic. But in reality, it's just made up sounds (words are just that, set to a codex of codified meanings to those arrangements of letters and phonetics) It's quite impressive how she can do this for a range of world music, blending things together. It can often catch people out. I've seen/heard plenty of folks over the years swear blind that the music in Gladiator is Latin, and I myself thought that The Host of Seraphim was highly accented Hebrew. But I was wrong. When I first watched the film, 'The Mist' (just earlier this year in 2024; after years of hearing good things about it) I didn't initially realise it was Lisa Gerrard singing. I was blindsided a bit. I was trying to figure out what the language was just by ear and I couldn't pinpoint it. That should have reminded me of Lisa Gerrard but I was enjoying the film so much that I didn't join the dots at first. After looking up the song because of how beautiful and haunting it was, I think realised it was Lisa Gerrard and I was kicking myself. It all made sense at that point. So, there is your answer. Lisa Gerrard, singing the most beautiful gibberish you've ever heard. The Royal Marines Band have rendered it beautifully as well.

Did anyone think it wasn't?

It's an antique leopard skin - skins are used across the British bands as a symbol. Starting in the 18th century, drummers and others originating from across the Empire would wear 'exotic' dress.

Thanks for the info. It is interesting that when i saw it, my first thought was of some of the ancient roman soldiers that wore leopard fur over their uniform. But i concluded that it should not be it and that the theme of the Gladiator should not have anything to do with it. So the skin wearing comes from British bands. Where did they get it from, i wonder. When i am at the computer, i must take some time to look into their history. This seem interesting.

This music gets me every time and I enjoyed your reaction

Really? It is a marching military band of the very finest quality. Obviously it will not be the same as the familiar, purely orchestral, original arrangement

it's not like they are doing Take That. if any commerical / movie soundtrack is app for the RM , surely it's gladiator

When you have military musicians of such high standards as these, you must appreciate that they can and do play music from every genre - and rightly so. If you look at the YT examples of the annual Mountbatten Festival, Beating the Retreat, the Edinburgh Tattoo &etc, you will hear everything from Pop- through Jazz and Classical to Opera - with the added bonus of the "Traditional and Stirring" music to which your refer. In addition, there is always a piece of musuic written by a member or members of HMRM bands, and of course the many military marches which most Britis know well. However, even with their complete range of tastes, there will always be someone who is never satisfied. You call it commercialisation, but if it wasn't for that tiny facet, the RM's would not get the funding they richly deserve. Perhaps you should watch some of the American military bands which do not have the same broad spectrum (or levels of professionalism) as Britain's own. Personally, I thrive on the traditional British military marches, but there is more to music than that, and HMRM do provide the best there is.

I loved the music. It was magnificent. Musicians get tired of the same tunes, this was different and majestic. Why shouldn’t they play it?

@@micheleedwin4004 Agreed 100%