Editing Aguirre, the Wrath of God (section)

===Music===
{{main|Aguirre (soundtrack)}}
''Aguirre''{{'s}} [[film score|musical score]] was performed by [[Popol Vuh (German band)|Popol Vuh]], a West German [[progressive rock|progressive]]/[[Krautrock]] band. The band was formed in 1969 by keyboardist Florian Fricke, who had known Herzog for several years prior to the formation of the band.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eurock.com/features/florian.aspx |title=Florian Fricke Interview|access-date=2007-10-30|first=Gerhard|last=Augustin|publisher=Eurock| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071015223326/http://eurock.com/features/florian.aspx| archive-date= 15 October 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref>
He had appeared as an actor in the director's first full-length film, ''[[Signs of Life (1968 film)|Signs of Life]]'' (1968), playing a pianist. ''Aguirre'' was only the first of many collaborations between the band and the director.

Popol Vuh's "hypnotic music"<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=2561 |title=Aguirre: The Wrath of God |access-date=2007-10-30 |first=Nick |last=Schager |magazine=[[Slant Magazine]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213085318/http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=2561 |archive-date=13 December 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> for ''Aguirre'' met with considerable acclaim. Roger Ebert wrote, "The music sets the tone. It is haunting, ecclesiastical, human and yet something else&nbsp;... [T]he music is crucial to ''Aguirre, the Wrath of God''".<ref name="Ebert">{{cite web |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-aguirre-the-wrath-of-god-1972 |title=Aguirre, the Wrath of God |date=1999-04-04 |access-date=2024-02-24 |first=Roger |last=Ebert |publisher=Chicago Sun-Times |website=RogerEbert.com}}</ref> [[AllMusic]] noted, "The film's central [[Motif (narrative)|motif]] blends pulsing [[Moog synthesizer|Moog]] and spectral voices conjured from Florian Fricke's Mellotron-related 'choir organ' to achieve something sublime, in the truest sense of the word: it's hard not to find the music's awe-inspiring, overwhelming beauty simultaneously unsettling. The power of the legendary opening sequence of Herzog's film ... owes as much to Popol Vuh's music as it does to the director's [[Mise en scène|mise-en-scène]]."<ref>{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=album|id=r108141|pure_url=yes}} |title=Aguirre Review|access-date=2007-10-30|first=Neate|last=Wilson|website=Allmusic}}</ref>

Herzog explained how the choir-like sound was created: "We used a strange instrument, which we called a 'choir-organ.' It has inside it three dozen different tapes running parallel to each other in loops.&nbsp;... All these tapes are running at the same time, and there is a keyboard on which you can play them like an organ so that [it will] sound just like a human choir but yet, at the same time, very artificial and really quite eerie."<ref name="Ebert" />

In 1975 Popol Vuh released an album entitled [[Aguirre (soundtrack)|''Aguirre'']]. Although ostensibly a [[soundtrack album]] to Herzog's film, the six-track LP included only two songs ("Aguirre I (L'Acrime Di Rei)" and "Aguirre II") taken from ''Aguirre, the Wrath of God''. The four remaining tracks were derived from various recordings made by the group between about 1972 and 1974. At the time of ''Aguirre'' the band members were Fricke (piano, Mellotron), Fichelscher (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums), Djong Yun (vocals), and Robert Eliscu (oboe, pan pipe). The film features several music pieces that have not been released in any form.