Neon Genesis Evangelion portrays such a powerful story about what it means to be
alive and
perceiving reality and does so in a variety of ways ranging from
full on mecha action to
surreal sketch animation. Throughout this
mind-blowing story about the quest by some for
Instrumentality, something remains constantly
perfect and that is the
music.
From the high energy opening credits featuring the Cruel Angel’s Thesis through to the slower, more sedate Fly me to the moon during the ending credits, the music always fits. It always matches the mood of different scenes perfectly and in doing so captures and enhances the emotion and feeling that different scenes are trying to impart.
The majority of music throughout the series and the movies is Back Ground Music composed and arranged by Shiro Sagisu. There are also some interesting uses of classical pieces such as Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G, Partita for Solo Violin, Orchestral Suite #3 in D 3 and of course his Jesu, Joy of Mans Desiring ("Jesus bleibet meine Freunde") and Air. Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, 4th Movement (Choral) lends spectacular emotion to one of the most gripping scenes in the series and Handel’s Messiah, Hallelujah Chorus does the same. The use of Verdi’s Requiem is nothing short of inspired. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie Evangelion: Death & Rebirth was where the four main characters sit down and play Pachelbel’s Canon as a Quartet.
Of course there are the other songs written specially for Evangelion which include Komm Süsser Tod and Thanatos - If I can’t be yours, which detail in the lyrics, some written by Hideaki Anno himself, the trails that different characters are going though.
As a result of there being so much good music in Eva, a large number of soundtracks have been released. The names of the soundtracks are as follows and I will endeavour to node them all up eventually. There are a lot of them though, each containing a lot of songs, so it may take a while. Note OST stands for Original Sound Track.
Please note I am adhering to Don't namespace your lyrics or in this case album names. I am not calling them OST 1, OST 2, OST 3, Addition, etc. because I am putting down the album under the name it was released. For example “Refrain: Songs Inspired by Evangelion” is the actual album name, same with the differences between “Neon Genesis Evangelion – Death and Rebirth” and “Evangelion : Death” these are different albums released under the names I have put them as, “:” and “-“ included. The same applies to some song titles within each of these albums.
There are some other different albums, such as those released by Megumi Hayashibara which contain one or two songs that came from Neon Genesis Evangelion and you can also buy special “Evangelion” editions of the classical pieces too.