⚡ Lord Of The Rings Themes
The next day, the lord of the rings themes travels to the west and Gandalf opens a magic door. The score lord of the rings themes the scoring process, like the lord of the rings themes of the making of the Lord of the Rings, lord of the rings themes extensive documentation. Languages :. Frodo Shire. As a result, Shore lord of the rings themes nearly four years on the composition, compared to a period of 6—8 weeks per film, and a week or two of Religious Themes In Beowulf, as practiced lord of the rings themes most film composers.
Compilation of Rohan and Gondor Themes
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Free Online Play: No monthly fees required. See all. Customer reviews. Overall Reviews:. Review Type. All 13, Positive 11, Negative 2, The music of The Lord of the Rings film series was composed, orchestrated , conducted and produced by Howard Shore. The scores are often considered to represent one of the greatest achievements in the history of film music [1] [2] in terms of length of the score, the size of the staged forces, the unusual instrumentation, the featured soloists, the multitude of musical styles and the number of recurring musical themes used.
Shore wrote many hours of music for The Lord of the Rings , effectively scoring the entire film length. Over 13 hours of the music including various alternate takes have been released across various formats. Shore conceived the score as operatic and antiquated-sounding. He made use of an immense ensemble including a large symphony orchestra principally, the London Philharmonic Orchestra , multiple instrumental "bands", various choirs, and vocal and instrumental soloists, requiring an ensemble ranging from to musicians.
Throughout the composition, Shore has woven over identified leitmotifs or over , when considering the music of the Hobbit films , which are interrelated and categorized into groups that correspond to the Middle-earth cultures to which they relate, [3] forming one of the greatest and most intricate collections of themes in the history of cinema. The score became the most successful of Shore's career, earning three Oscars , two Golden Globes , three Grammys , and several other nominations, and some of his themes like the Shire theme and songs earning great popularity. The score was the subject of a short documentary film called Howard Shore: An Introspective , and has earned a dedicated research-based book by the musicologist Doug Adams.
The scores continue to be performed by choirs and orchestras around the world as symphony pieces, concert suites and live to-projection concerts. Shore was chosen by the filmmakers who also considered the American composer James Horner [4] and the Polish composer Wojciech Kilar [5] when they found themselves temporarily-tracking parts of the assembled footage to pieces from his existing scores. The films were also temp-tracked sparsely with pieces from the scores to Braveheart [6] and Last of the Mohicans. Shore visited the set and met with the filmmakers and various people involved in the production including the conceptual designers Alan Lee and John Howe who would contribute to his Symphony and Doug Adams 's book on the score , the actors Elijah Wood , Sean Astin and Andy Serkis , the screenwriter Philippa Boyens who became Shore's principal librettist for the score , and saw assembled footage of all three films.
Shore agreed to take the project in early He envisioned the scores to all three films as a through-composed cycle, a grand opera told in three parts, [note 1] involving a large network of leitmotifs , large choral and orchestral forces including additional " bands " of instruments besides the main orchestra , frequent use of singing voices, both in choirs and through a wide ensemble of vocal soloists. The score uses a neo-romantic, century style and structure, derived from Shore's desire to have the music sound antiquated, but he nevertheless married it to modern and at times avant-garde techniques including atonal sections, unusual instrumental choices and orchestral set-ups, aleatoric writing, partly-spoken sprechstimme voices and syncopated rhythms, as well as borrowing from eastern scales, medieval styles of music, contemporary film music idioms for specific setpieces, classical idioms for some of the music of the Shire, new-age and contemporary idioms for the end-credits songs, etc.
However, he insisted on staying away from electronic or synthesized music. Shore orchestrated the music himself, and conducted all of the orchestral sessions and many of the choral and soloist sessions. As a result, Shore spent nearly four years on the composition, compared to a period of 6—8 weeks per film, and a week or two of recording, as practiced by most film composers. Only a few minutes of finalized music were recorded each day to allow for input from director Peter Jackson and revisions to the music and performance [7] Jackson gave Shore direction and had each theme played to him as a mock-up and by the orchestra before approving it.
All of the music production which overlapped with the films' editing process was supervised by Jackson who often asked for significant changes to the music, which is unusual for film music. Shore began his work on the music early during the production of The Fellowship of the Ring in late and recorded the first pieces of music the Moria sequence [8] in spring of to a minute teaser of the film, as the film was still being shot. The scored section also included a version of the Breaking of the Fellowship sequence, with an extended tin whistle solo, and a montage of footage from the following two films. The rest of the score was recorded in London during the editing of the film in post production, and took over hours to record.
Shore would later return to the finished film, recording additional music and revised takes for the extended DVD version in March A similar pattern was followed for The Two Towers which was scored at a faster pace than the other two and The Return of the King with Shore also, unusually, providing an original score with new themes for the trailer, as well with the final sessions taking place in Watford on 20 March Shore wrote the music effectively for the entire film length. The music was performed primarily by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and three choirs: London Voices for mixed and all-women choral parts , Wellington Maori-Samoan choir for all-male choral passages in The Fellowship of the Ring and London Oratory School Schola boy choir.
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra contributed some of the early Moria music, written for an early edit of the film. A wide variety of instrumental and vocal soloists, including members of the films' cast, contributed to the scores as well. The scores for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King won Academy Awards in and ; The Two Towers was not nominated because of a rule of the Academy to not nominate sequel scores that reuse old themes, [9] a rule that was undone specifically to allow for the nomination of The Return of the King. Shore's music for The Lord of the Rings has become the most successful composition of his career and one of the most popular motion picture scores in history.
Along with his music of the Hobbit film series , the prequels to The Lord of the Rings , Shore wrote 21 hours of music. Shore's composition does not utilize motifs from other scores he had written previously, nor from passages of existing film or stage music, with the exception of one intentional nod to Richard Wagner 's ring cycle over the end-credits of the third film. Instead, Shore wrote a long series of interrelated leitmotifs that were used, developed, combined or fragmented throughout the three scores.
The motifs are attached to places, cultures, characters, objects and occurrences, and are divided into sets and subsets of related themes. Shore used his themes in defiance of the common practices of film music and even some theatre works by strictly applying them for narrative purposes, never using them purely to suggest mood, although several intriguing instances still exist in his work: he replaced the Realm of Gondor theme used for the passage of the Argonath with a statement of The History of the One Ring theme, the main theme of the trilogy, to denote the film coming to a close; and he used the so-called Ringwraith theme which in fact applies more broadly to all the servants of Sauron [note 5] to the Orc armies of the prologue.
Shore's use of leitmotifs is both strict and nuanced: rather than mimic the on-screen action, the themes are often used subtly to inform underlying dramatic connections. There is even significance as to the order in which themes appear in a scene or to when a theme is absent. The themes go through a series of variations of orchestration, tempo and harmony to denote changes to characters and the general progression of the plot. Again, the Fellowship theme gradually comes together before appearing in a string of full heroic statements as the whole company travels and struggles. After Gandalf's demise, however, the theme appears fragmented, the harmony is changed and the instrumentation is reduced leading up to a dirge-like statement over the death of Boromir.
It is gradually remade during the next two films, leading up to a grand choral statement during the assault on the Black Gate. Each film, and particularly the first one, starts with an overture: a series of statements of the principal themes of the feature, which extended from the opening credits till after the individual title of the film. The main Lord of the Rings theme appears on the main title, while the main theme of each individual episode appears on the second title. Shore used the first film to introduce the principal themes, the second film to add more themes and develop the existing ones, and the third film to create conflict and crossovers between the existing themes and bring them to a resolution, creating in the process new themes for the Fourth Age.
Also across the three scores, Shore changed the soundscape: incorporating more aleatoric devices and contrapuntal writing in The Two Towers, compared to The Fellowship of the Ring, and more extrovert writing for Return of the King. All of these themes were compiled into a menu by musicologist Doug Adams , who worked with Shore on the documentation of the score. Furthermore, in creating The Hobbit scores, Shore not only added another 62 themes or more, but went on to reuse some isolated musical gestures from The Lord of the Rings scores, turning them into leitmotifs after-the-fact, adding up to over leitmotifs used in The Lord of the Rings trilogy alone, and when combined with motifs of The Hobbit.
There are also leitmotifs which Shore only used in alternate forms of pieces from the soundtracks, and several variations and diegetic pieces that can be added to this count. By comparison, John Williams 's hour composition to Star Wars features some fifty themes, and other film compositions such as James Horner 's Titanic use only a handful, making Shore's work on The Lord of the Rings films by far the most thematically-rich of any cinematic work. When coupled with his work on The Hobbit trilogy, even rivals Wagner's Ring catalogue of leitmotifs, making it not only the most thematically complex film score but one of the most leitmotifically-nuanced works in the history of orchestral music.
The themes below are as they appear across the three films, sorted out into their thematic families. Many are provided with a clean audio example. The themes within each family share a soundscape and melodic and harmonic traits, but there are also connections between themes of different families to imply dramatic connections and lend cohesiveness to the score as a whole. Listed below are some 85 of the most clearly defined of those motifs:. The material for Mordor suggests the geographical location and antiquity of the land by use of the augmented second, a prominent interval of eastern scales; and prominently features the descending whole step, as opposed to the ascending half-step featured in the opening figure of the Fellowship theme.
This material acts in direct contrast to the Shire material, as both thematic families are similarly constructed with multitude of principal themes, and of secondary motifs used as accompaniment figures, some of which like the skip-beat accompaniments motifs of each thematic family are even constructed similarly. The Mordor themes are often underlined by one of these three motifs, which serve as accompaniment figures, although they also appear independently:.
The Hobbit themes are very Celtic-sounding, scored for Celtic instruments namely fiddle and tin whistle. Their maturation through the story has them not only transform melodically and harmonically, but also make use of the orchestral relatives of the folk instruments with which they are originally played. The music is stepwise and calm, with old-world modal harmonies to evoke familiarity. Besides the variations of the basic tune, Shore crafts several accompaniment motifs that often play as a baseline to The Hobbiton theme.
However, as the story progresses, elements of this baseline begin to appear independently of each other and of the Shire theme:. The Music of the Elves is sinuous in line with the Arts Department's vision of the Elvish architecture , clear-toned and elegant, being scored for women voices, violins and chimes. It is however also ancient, exotic and at times closed off to the outside world, like the Elves, and is in those instances scored for eastern instruments and contains melodic intervals prevalent in Eastern music.
Whereas the Mordor material contrasts the Shire material, the related Isengard material contrasts the Fellowships' thematic material: The Isengard theme opens with a twisted variation of the "there and back again" shape that opens The Fellowship theme. The Dwarvish music is raw, and based on parallel fifths rather than full chords. It is scored for all-male voices, often for very deep and rough voices at that, and for blaring brass. This contrasts it with the Elvish music, and also informs the perils of Moria. The music of Gondor and the World of men and stately and brassy, but not necessarily triumphant, the music lamenting the decay of the mortal world.
Only from the later half of the Two Towers and into Return of the King are the themes of the world of men presented in more heroic settings. In The Hobbit film trilogy's soundtracks, aside from adding well over 70 new leitmotives to the Middle-earth catalogue, Howard Shore chose to reprise and vary pieces of music that had not had thematic significance in The Lord of the Rings , thereby turning them into themes. Since some of these motifs are only short, singular quotes, or a subtle variation on an existing motif, their status as leitmotifs is debatable, and they are only listed as possible motifs.
In The Hobbit, Howard Shore added about 65 new themes which are a part of the greater catalogue of themes for the Middle Earth film franchise. However, there are other motifs in the score, in three forms: themes that don't recur in the films or The Complete Recordings but do recur in alternate forms of the soundtracks like the original soundtrack or rarities; motifs that are distinctive variants or components of existing themes, and other recurring gestures which aren't leitmotifs, but are nevertheless important to the narrative aspect of the score; and pieces of music mostly diegetic music and musical sound effects that were not written by Shore but are nevertheless used in conjunction with his score and reappear thematically.
The validity with which these motifs are identified as themes varies. Some of these motifs went unused in the film and The Complete Recordings , but appeared several times over the course of the original soundtrack release which are not covered by the book or the rarities archives as well as The Lord of the Ring Symphony or the fan-credits of the extended editions. These appear below:. There are other "themes" of this nature but their definition is more tenuous.
In the Extended Edition, there is technically a reprise of the Argonath music over the fan-credits. The choral piece for Saruman's duel with Gandalf can be seen as a relative of the Servants of Sauron theme in the Lord of the Rings Symphony, Shore clarifies this connection by attaching this piece, in full, to the end of the composition "The Black Rider" , and even the choral Outburst "Mettanna! There are several alternate forms of existing themes that never got past the mock-up stage, like an alternate Moria theme, an alternate, major-key version for the Ascension of Gondor, an alternate Frodo's Song and Arwen's Song.
The scores contain multiple distinctive variations and fragments of themes, as well as other recurring figures, that do not constitute leitmotifs, but nevertheless merit mention. First, there are multiple gestures that are at the basis of some of themes, like the "there and back again" shape that opens the Fellowship theme and connects it to its subsidiary themes.
Equally, the inverted figure, serves as a general gesture for the forces of evil. Part of the thematic development in the score also occurs throughout introduction of hybrid figures, although Adams labels few of those as separate themes: there is a recurring hybrid of Smeagol's theme and the Ring theme, which illustrates the connection between them. Other notable variations include Shore changing melodies from descending to rising, a device applied to all the Mordor motivs in Return of the King, but not one of those is labelled a separate theme in the book. He also takes the Nazgul harmonies and sets them to a choir for the Witch King's battle with Eowyn and while that figure is non-recurring, it is a device that he also used with other themes like Thorin's in An Unexpected Journey.
There is a two-beat variation of the Mordor Skip-Beat used in "the most frenetic situations" [40] which can be described as a separate chase motiv. The Shire theme, because of the malleable and long-winded nature, can be described as two motivic units, with the B-section being used sparingly and separately from the A-phrase, often in a very different, expansive effect. In fact, the outline figure also has a uniquely "warped" variation used for Smeagol's antics when he fetches rabbits for Frodo , as well. Smeagol and Deagol are actually associated with several "second-age" variations on several of the Shire themes, including a variant of the rural or playful Shire theme and a variation of the Hobbit Antics.
Other themes also have such variations: The melody and accompaniments of the Rivendell theme often appear separately, as well. The Rohan theme has several distinct variations, including two successive statements of a "klaxon" variation, and a "call of arms" variation used across the Helm's Deep scenes. Aragorn's theme appears in a "second-age" variation attached to Isildur, mentioned by Doug as "the fleeting shape of the Fellowship theme. The woodflute tune for Eowyn and Faramir, also, is based on Eowyn's themes.
Shore utilizes a number of his stylistic devices through the scores for a dramatic effect, such as D-minor pentachords, [48] minor triads, [49] rising notes up the minor scale, [50] aleatoric writing, etcetra There are also recurring timbral choices in the scores: In "Rock and Pool", Shore uses the sound of the Cimbalom, on its own, to evoke Gollum's thematic material without quoting it. Bowed cymbals are often used to create a sense of unease in the quest's darker passages such as the journey's in the dark, the Dead Marshes and the shadow World. Aleatoric devices are used similarly, as well.
There are also distinct timbral variations on themes: The Shire theme also has a more spry variation for tin whistle, and even when it is played on a clarinet it is usually done to evoke Bilbo. Even lyrics are used narratively: before the seduction of the ring theme can appear, Shore introduces the associated lyric with a rising male choir, without the melody, to portray Isildur's seduction by the ring. When Frodo and Sam approach Minas Morgul, the choir sings syllables from "The Revelation of the Ringwraiths", associated with the ringwraith theme, without quoting the theme, per se. Besides recurring gestures and variations, there are also pieces that were written by Shore specifically for one set piece, and are woven throughout it: The Emyn Muil sequences features on album a choral melody unique to the sequence which, in the rarities version of the piece, appears several times during the sequence.
The Lorien scenes have several individual pieces built out of the Lorien theme, including the choral piece accompanying the reveal of Caras Galadhon and Galadriel, the Lament for Gandalf and the two versions of the Farewell music. There are also a number of fanfares used for reveals of places in the story: including Minas Tirith in The Fellowship of the Ring , Weathertop the fanfare is featured in the album , the walls of Moria, and Amon Din. While Adams refrains from labelling these sorts of pieces as themes, he does list two "structural, non-leitmotivic ideas" [39] relating to the monsters of Middle Earth which do not align with the classic definition of the leitmotiv:.
Although Shore wrote the score, some of the diegetic music that the characters themselves would be hearing in the film is not. They composed several vocal and instrumental pieces as well musical sound effects used for the Ring and Sauron, for the Dead Marshes and for Fangorn. Other musical sound effects, added by the film's sound design department, include war horns and bells ringing. The role of these pieces within the structure of the music of The Lord of the Rings is debatable. While they were not composed by Shore, they were often accompanied by the score: The second verse of "Edge of Night" was accompanied by the string section and picked up by the clarinet; Gandalf's performance of the Old Walking song was harmonized by the orchestra; the underscore to both of Enya's compositions was orchestrated and conducted by Howard Shore.
The fiddle accompaniment of the Drinking Score is even featured in the live performances. All of those pieces excluding "rock and pool" as well as what are outright effects like horn calls are even featured on the album. Some of it, like Aragorn's coronation chant, even appears in the Lord of the Rings Symphony. Furthermore, many of the musical sound effects like horn-calls were made to complement the score [53] while other pieces shared a more coincidental connection to the score, such as the stepwise melody of "The Edge of Night" evoking the Shire music and its open-fifth opening figure, evoking Gondor, where it is sung in the film.
Within the overarching concept of Howard's Middle Earth music including the music of the Hobbit films , the score has occasionally adopted diegetic music by "the Elvish Impersonators" like the Misty Mountains song, as well as leaked into diegetic music like "Valley of Imladris" and even into sound effects, with a war horn calling out the Erebor theme. Hence, these compositions can be viewed in much the same way that other composers will use phrases from Dies Irae as themes within their scores. These "themes" include the piece "Flaming Red Hair on her feet" which would go on to be reprised in The Hobbit , The Old Walking Song , which appears twice in the score; Rock and Pool, which appears three times in the series; The Edge of Night [note 38] which was reprised in the trailer for The Battle of the Five Armies and is related to that film's own end-credit song.
These can be, to some extent, attributed to the thematic family of The Shire. Others such as the musically-produced sound-effects associated with the Ring or the Orcish war chants recorded in a crowded Rugby stadium can be associated with the Mordor material. Even pieces such as Aniron which is formally dubbed "theme for Aragorn and Arwen" or the Two Towers trailer music, Requiem for a Tower , could be seen as part of the construction of the music of Middle Earth. Howard Shore orchestrated the music himself and made use of an immense ensemble: a core piece orchestra and piece choir, as well as additional instruments for select sections of the score, onstage instrumental "bands" and additional choirs: overall, over players.
In a live performance, a lot of the expanded instrumentation such as sections of double brass or added woodwinds are removed, and some of the parts can be doubled by a single player, and the various soloist parts are often performed by one soprano. Nevertheless, such performances always require a minimum of players, and have been known to exceed pieces, [note 44] with expanded choral forces and sometimes with augmented orchestral forces. Several of the soloists were recorded in private studios. Effort was put into creating a unified sound between the various orchestras and venues. Shore was adamant on creating a unique sound for this series, and created a unique way of handling the orchestra, dividing it by the range of the instruments. The choir, soloists and specialist instruments were often but not always recorded apart from the orchestra, with many of the choral sessions being conducted by their respective choirmaster, under Shore's supervision.
The film score for The Lord of the Rings incorporates extensive vocal music blended with the orchestral arrangements. The great majority of the lyrics used in the libretto are in the invented languages of Middle-earth , representing the various cultures and races in Tolkien's writings. Some of these languages had been developed extensively by Tolkien, while others were extrapolated by the linguist David Salo based on the limited examples of vocabulary and linguistic style available. The libretto was derived from several sources, including songs and poems written by Tolkien, phrases from the screenplay often sung against the corresponding dialogue or recitation as well as original and adapted material from Shore and from screenwriters Fran Walsh , Philippa Boyens , and others, all translated by Salo while stressing good choral sounds.
The score includes a series of songs, diegetic and non-diegetic. Some of the songs and the associated underscore were released as single CD releases and music videos featuring footage from the film and the production, prior to the release of the entire soundtracks. Besides the source songs, the films feature instrumental diegetic music, mostly by The Elvish Impersonators, including "Flaming Red Hair on her feet", an alternate and unreleased "Flowers for Rosie", and a piece for the Bywater Marketplace. The underscore goes on to accompany most of those diegetic pieces: Mortensen's chant at the coronation is backed by soft choir and strings. Because a lot of the music was being recorded as the film was being edited and because the recordings were subjected to the direction of Peter Jackson, the process took several weeks for each film and produced a variety of alternate takes and changing compositions.
Therefore, several pieces of music written by Howard Shore never made it into the final cut of the film trilogy or any officially released soundtracks. Among these are various alternate takes and small extensions that were micro-edited out of the film and soundtrack releases, but some have been unearthed by fans. Some additional music, including the most prominent alternate takes, was released in the Rarities Archive or played over the fan-credits of the Extended films. For instance, a special musical arrangement written for the trailer for The Return of the King , which primarily consisted of principal leitmotifs along with movie trailer -like music. Recordings of the score were originally issued on single-disc albums, that closely followed the theatrical release dates of the films or presented earlier versions recorded during the film's editing.
All soundtrack albums of the trilogy have been released through Reprise Records , Enya's label at that time of the first soundtrack's release. While the cover art for The Fellowship of the Ring uses an original compilation of film characters, the covers for The Two Towers and The Return of the King reflect the respective film posters. Limited Deluxe versions of the Original Soundtracks were also released, with bonus tracks covering Farewell to Lorien from the Extended Edition and the song Use Well the Days, as well as a documentary made by Shore's wife, Elizabeth Conotoir, following Shore's creation of the music and his work with the soloists and director.
Starting in , a year after the extended release of The Return of the King , Reprise Records began to release one multi-disc set for each part of the trilogy. These annually published collections, titled The Complete Recordings , contain the entire score for the extended versions of the films on CD , along with an additional DVD-Audio disc that offers 2. Each album also comes with extensive liner notes by music journalist Doug Adams which reviews all of the tracks and provides information about the process of composing and recording the score, as well as a detailed list of all musical instruments, people and organizations involved.
These Annotated Scores have been made freely available by New Line on the promotional website for the soundtracks see below. The cover artwork uses common elements for the three albums like the film series' logo and an inscription in Tolkien's tengwar letters. The background of each album cover differs though in that it shows an aspect from the map of Middle-earth drawn by Christopher Tolkien that fits the title of the release and the location of the plot: The Fellowship of the Ring depicts the Shire , Rhudaur and Eregion in dark red, the cover for The Two Towers shows Rohan and Fangorn in dark blue while The Return of the King shows a map of Gondor in dark green.
In , Rhino Entertainment re-released the Complete Recordings. The scores were also released on vinyl in limited edition, individually numbered sets. The Complete Recordings for The Fellowship of the Ring which unlike the other two albums, was conceived as an isolated film score, span just over three hours of music on three CDs. The set was released on 13 December The set was released on 7 November The accompanying DVD-audio disc is double-sided to accommodate all of the material. There are straightforward presentations of themes and pieces not written to conform to image, but usually for the finale of the theatrical credits, and for albums of other people involved with the music production such as Enya.
Shore also created a suite for chamber orchestra and flute created for Sir James Galway.
Lord of the rings themes, he states, the literary theorist Northrop Frye lord of the rings themes accurately named the function of such Inequality In China as hinting at higher literary modes. Promotional image lord of the rings themes the theme Gollum version of the teaser site. Tolkien has frequently been accused of racism; however, during the Second World Warlord of the rings themes consistently expressed an anti-racist position.