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Originally, producer Dino De Laurentiis had planned a soundtrack of pop music for the movie, but was eventually persuaded by Milius to use a full orchestral score. For this purpose, Milius hired the Greek-American composer Basil Poledouris, a former classmate of his from the film department at the University of Southern California, and assigned him to make "a continuous musical drama."[2] The result was a choral and orchestral soundtrack that fills nearly every moment of the film, with pronounced use of leitmotifs to portray mood and character.

The violent early portions of the movie are filled with intense pieces including "Anvil of Crom", played by 24 french horns, strings and timpani, and "Riders of Doom", inspired by Prokofiev's "The Battle on Ice" from the score of the "Alexander Nevsky" movie by Sergei Eisenstein and the derived cantata. Thulsa Doom's theme, which recurs throughout the film, is based on the Gregorian chant "Dies Irae". A number of quieter pieces fill the middle of the movie, including "Civilization", "The Leaving", "The Search", and the sensuous "The Orgy" (co-written with his then 9-year old daughter Zoë Poledouris resembles Gustav Holst's The Planets Op.32 Jupiter) before the music again intensifies for a series of battle sequences at the end of the film. Other string sections resemble Ralph Vaughan William's "Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis", namely "Atlantean Sword". Several of the pieces, including the "Anvil of Crom" are frequently used in the movie trailers of other films by Universal Pictures, like Ridley Scott's Gladiator.[3] Much of the film's music was also reused in Conan the Destroyer.

"Riders of Doom" is usually used for the first trailers for several games in the Legend of Zelda series.[citation needed] It was also used in the 2004 video game Conan, which otherwise used its own original soundtrack.

The soundtrack has become a classic amongst movie-music collectors. The score for Conan the Barbarian is considered by some people to be one of the finest examples of motion picture scoring ever written.[4][5][6][7]

[edit] Track listing from original Milan soundtrack album
"Prologue/Anvil of Crom" - 3:39
"Riddle of Steel" / "Riders of Doom" - 5:38
"Gift of Fury" - 3:50
"Column of Sadness / Wheel of Pain" - 4:09
"Atlantean Sword" 3:51
"Theology" / "Civilization" - 3:14
"Wifeing (Love Theme)" - 2:10
"The Search" - 3:09
"The Orgy" - 4:14
"Funeral Pyre" - 4:29
"Battle of the Mounds (Part 1)" - 4:53
"Orphans of Doom" / "The Awakening" -5:32
In 1992, this soundtrack was re-released on CD on the Varese Sarabande label (VSD-5390) and featured an expanded score with extra/extended tracks, although the prologue narration on the opening track was removed:

[edit] Track listing from expanded Varèse Sarabande soundtrack album
"Anvil of Crom" - 2:34
"Riddle of Steel" / "Riders of Doom" - 5:36
"Gift of Fury" - 3:50
"Wheel of Pain" - 4:09
"Atlantean Sword" - 3:50
"Theology" / "Civilization" - 3:13
"Wifeing (Love Theme)" - 2:10
"The Leaving" / "The Search" - 5:59
"Mountain of Power Procession" - 3:21
"Tree of Woe" - 3:31
"Recovery" - 2:11
"The Kitchen" / "The Orgy" - 6:30
"Funeral Pyre" - 4:29
"Battle of the Mounds" - 4:52
"Death of Rexor" - 5:34
"Orphans of Doom" / "The Awakening" - 5:31

Directed by John Milius
Produced by Dino De Laurentiis
Raffaella De Laurentiis
Buzz Feitshans
Edward R. Pressman
Written by Characters:
Robert E. Howard
Story:
Edward Summer
(uncredited)
Screenplay:
John Milius
Oliver Stone
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
James Earl Jones
Sandahl Bergman
Mako
Gerry Lopez
and Max von Sydow
Music by Basil Poledouris
Distributed by Universal Pictures (USA)
20th Century Fox (International)
Release date(s) May 14, 1982
Running time Theatrical cut:
129 min.
Extended cut:
131 min.
Edited versions:
123 min.
115 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $20 million
Followed by Conan the Destroyer