BSG question

[piranha]

i am trying to figure out the mythology.

at the end of the miniseries, at the memorial service, the priestess sings. that's not greek, nor any language i recognize. the main title song sounds like it could be the same language, but i am not sure about that. is that an actual human language, or is it completely made up?

i don't want to google for fear of spoilers about the myth stuff. :) anyone know?

Comments

[masonk.livejournal.com]

Since I don't watch the show, I wasn't afraid of Googling for you. :) According to the Battlestar Wiki (http://en.battlestarwiki.org/):

During the funeral service at the end of the Mini-series, Priest Elosha chants a prayer in a foreign language. It is recognizable as a common Sanskrit prayer, found in Part I, Chapter III, Verse 28 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

Although the lyrics are identifiable, it should be noted that the actress's performance is closer to the chanting of biblical Hebrew, and does not resemble the traditional melody.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

thanks!

sanskrit, eh? that makes ... no sense whatsoever.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was chosen just for the sound of it, and because it would be unrecognizable for so much of the audience, rather than any "sense."

lowest common denominator choices

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

that would _really_ annoy me. :)

[daev.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's the common (but mistaken) assumption that Sanskrit is the ancestor of Latin and Greek.

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

good point; that hadn't occurred to me. i am certainly happier with that than with the idea that it has no actual purpose.

[ebourland.livejournal.com]

The BSG soundtrack does all kinds of (interesting, I think, even if they are tangential) musicks from many (notably terrestrial) cultures. Wiki has a good discussion of it.

It is kind of enchanting -- I think that's the right word -- to apply these old chants and hymns to an epic sci-fi story. I think BSG is doing it with good judgment. I think they are pulling it off.

BSG music

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

am looking forward to reading heaps of discussion once i am caught up and am done thinking up my own theories.

i think your point about tangential terrestrial cultures is good, and quite probably the fact that this is a sanskrit prayer has no further bearing than that (ie, it's not mucking with the mythology). for a while i thought that i was maybe taking the mythology much more seriously than they do, though after the kobol stuff, i flipflopped right back about that. but i am probably more geeky than BSG's writers, so i need to be careful to not overanalyze apparent inconsistencies.

the music is all sorts of awesome, and more so, how well it fits in almost every scene is just phenomenal. it's a huge part of why this series sucked me in.