''300: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' is the soundtrack to the 2007 film of the same name by Tyler Bates. The album was released by Warner Bros. Records on March 6, 2007, three days before the film opened for public viewing.

Production and composition

In July 2005, composer Tyler Bates began work on the film, describing the score as having "beautiful themes on the top and large choir," but "tempered with some extreme heaviness." The

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

had scored for a test scene that the director wanted to show to Warner Bros. to illustrate the path of the project. Bates said that the score had "a lot of weight and intensity in the low end of the percussion" that Snyder found agreeable to the film. The score was recorded at

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...

and features the vocals of Azam Ali (where she implements ethnic wailing). A standard edition and a

special edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...

of the soundtrack containing 25 tracks was released on March 6, 2007, with the special edition containing a 16-page booklet and three two-sided

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s. The lyrics sung are in Bulgarian, Greek and Latin. The opening lines of the track "Come and Get Them" are "''Ferto! – Parte to!"'' () translating as "bring it! – take it!". It is said that Leonidas exclaimed Molōn Labe! () when asked by Xerxes to surrender their weapons, which is translated into English as "Come and Get Them".

Track listing

Copyright issues

The score was criticized for its similarity to other then-recent soundtracks, including James Horner and Gabriel Yared's work for the film '' Troy''. The heaviest borrowings were said to be from Elliot Goldenthal's 1999

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for '' Titus''. "Remember Us," from ''300'', is identical in parts to the "

Finale Finale may refer to: Pieces of music * Finale (music), the last movement of a piece * ''Finale'' (album), a 1977 album by Loggins and Messina * "Finale B", a 1996 song from the rock opera ''Rent'' * "Finale", a song by Anthrax from ''State of Eu ...

" from ''Titus'', and "Returns a King" is similar to the cue " Victorius Titus". On August 3, 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures acknowledged in an official statement:

Reception

Upon its release, the 300 soundtrack received mostly negative reviews from film music reviewers, largely due to the Goldenthal plagiarism. Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks.com refused to review the album upon its release, later giving the album one star and quoting Bates as saying "I have as much respect for a garbage can lid as I do for the orchestra. Both of them can be entirely useful and important in the scope of a movie, if you look at them the right way." Clemmensen responds "That's a wise statement, but it's completely irrelevant unless you can actually use that garbage can lid in a manner that doesn't break the law.". The soundtrack debuted at #74 on the Billboard Top 200 and rose to #52 in its second week. It has sold 37,638 copies to date.

References

{{Authority control 2007 soundtrack albums Warner Records soundtracks Tyler Bates soundtracks Action film soundtracks Adaptations of works by Frank Miller Albums involved in plagiarism controversies