THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

From the very beginning he grabs the listener into the world of Tolkien and never lets go. He uses a very large orchestra, with adult and children's choruses and different speciality instruments. These are all mixed into the Wagnerian use of leitmotivs for the depiction of characters, places, objects, etc. The different motifs and themes then move through a complex web of orchestrations and action on screen in the best Williams tradition. The thematic richness coupled with Shore's introverted style then makes this score a very fascinating study for a longer analysis than this. Thanks to the colorfulness of the story itself, Shore has been able to conceive a wealth of emotions and musical styles to create the feel of Middle-Earth. There is a certain wistfulness to the main "Ring" theme (called by Shore as "The History of the Ring theme") heard in the very beginning of the film (and on album in "The Great River") that is very sad and ancient. The music for the Hobbits on the other hand is very innocent and folksy, later on refining into the more gentle Fellowship music. The evil of Mordor is represented by a massive assault on blistering brass and twirling strings, coupled with a massive chorus, and this style is also retained for the other evil of Isengard with a more clanging and mechanical aspect to it. The main Fellowship is then given a heroic brass-led theme that crops up often after the middle of the film, while it is only being hinted at in the beginning (getting its best presentations in the cues "The Ring Goes South" and "The Bridge of Khazad-Dum").

Beyond the different themes, the music also shares many other details that emphasize the world of Tolkien's creation. The words for the chorals are adapted from Tolkien's own writings and translations of the texts he himself developed, like the dark chants of the Ringwraiths is a translation of the Black Speech of Mordor; the deep male chorus in Moria uses the Dwarvish language to accentuate the fact that we are in the realm of the Dwarves; in the cue "Lothlorien" the Lament for Gandalf consists of lyrics translated into Quenya and Sindarin. Also the different speciality instruments are used in a fashion that translates into the realm of ethnic instrumentation, depicting the different peoples of Middle-Earth, like the rustic fiddle for the folksy Hobbits, the rhaita for Mordor, a sitar (at least I think so) for Lothlorien, and so forth. Also of importance are the solo voices employed throughout the score: Elizabeth Fraser in "Lothlorien" (personifying the Elves), Mabel Faletolu in the more ethereal moments ("A Knife in the Dark" and "The Bridge of Khazad Dum") and Edward Ross in the final song "In Dreams" ("The Breaking of the Fellowship"). Then there is Enya. Enya's contribution is limited to two songs: the middle part of "The Council of Elrond" and the end credits song "May It Be." Now it is clear that Enya is more or less of a marketing ploy than anything else. Her five or so minutes of contribution to an already very strong score waters down her music more than it would in a more average score, but the relieving thing is that her songs don't stick out from the rest of the music as is often the case. Instead (with a little orchestration help from Shore) the songs fit into the score like a glove. The performances of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra with the London Voices and the London Oratory School Schola is absolutely fantastic. The mixing is a little heavy on the reverb, but that should not bother you, unless you are a very demanding audiophile.

After the great success of The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring, the second part, The Two Towers, arrives amid great expectations. Howard Shore continues his amazing journey through Middle-Earth, now moving towards the domain of Men and Rohan. Shore continues to develop his music further from The Fellowship of the Ring into a more darker and dramatic direction as our heroes face darker territories in the crumbling surroundings of Rohan. The thematic material is even more diverse this time around with added musical material for the new aspects of the film as well as presentations of the old themes for the Hobbits, the Fellowship, Mordor, etc. This makes the second score arguably better in comparison to the first, with more cohesion in the general construction of the work.

The choral writing is as potent as it was in the first part. "Foundations of Stone" gives a wonderful example of the thematic cross-reference work Shore is building, bringing back the Dwarvish male chants and mixing it with the more general chorus (the first appearance of the chorus here is truly shattering and is sadly drowned out in the film by sound effects); the Elvish music from Lothlorien makes an appearance in a pompous military arrangement in "The Hornburg" as the Elves join the humans in battle; and the penultimate action sequence, "Forth Eorlingas," brings the Rohan theme, the Fellowship theme and the White Rider theme together for a brilliantly thematic climax. Replacing Enya for the finale song is Emiliana Torrini in "Gollum's Song." Now this is probably as far as you can go from Enya's more ethereal style, with the more morbid, dark-toned, Björk-like voice of Torrini, making a more crude and less-commercial sound. And, what's good about it, the music is pure Shore. The three stanzas of the song also give a nice glimpse into Gollum's dualism, with the first using the pronoun "I", the second "we", and the third "you." The overall feel of the album is somewhat more cold as the music is missing much of the more heart-warming music that was found in The Fellowship of the Ring. It just goes to show that the middle parts in a trilogy always seem to be more gloomy than the other parts tend to be.

After the huge success of the two previous parts of The Lord of the Rings, the third part, The Return of the King, then finally brings the story to a close. For two years in a row, film music collector's have been treated with the wonderful music of Howard Shore for the trilogy, with the third release then creating much anticipation for the penultimate score that is The Lord of the Rings. The Two Towers represented the culmination of Shore's grandiose style. For The Return of the King Shore, instead of trying to top his previous effort, created an equal score in parallel with The Fellowship of the Ring. The general musical fabric doesn't really break new ground, with the chorus amply represented, the orchestral textures as thick and complex as ever, and the vocal soloists remaining essentially in the same sounds.

The action pieces have mostly been limited in the cue "Ash and Smoke" which is a little jumbled I have to say. However there are plenty of bombastic and sometimes ever horror-filled cues. "Shelob's Lair" is particularly frightening with its rapid "spidery" string figures assaulting you more fiercely than any such attempt I have ever heard before. "Minas Morgul" also creates much power and the penultimate "The End of All Things" cue offers probably the most bombastic choral assault of the entire trilogy. There is also room for the more beautiful music, most notably in "Twilight and Shadow" which is another one of those melancholy Elvish tunes like "Evenstar," the sad flute-opening of "The Steward of Gondor," and the cue "Andúril," with its golden choral sound. After all the ear shattering destruction of "The End of All Things" comes the 10+ minutes of "The Return of the King," which brings back the Gondor theme and the Hobbit theme, as well as Arwen's music and the Fellowship theme. The Hobbit theme then returns to its pastoral self in the latter half of the cue as the hobbits return to Hobbiton. The last score track "The Grey Havens" then offers some very bittersweet music as Frodo leaves Middle-Earth with Bilbo & co., with a final presentation of the Into the West theme.

Under special agreement, the score for The Return of the King received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Score for 2003, along with the song. Initially I had my doubts as to the possibility that the score could win after already winning the award back in 2001, but both score and song found enough favor to win the award again (really no surprise considering how the awards were dispensed in 2003). As before, the album release suffers from the same marketing flaws as the previous releases, but this should not cause great problems otherwise. As before, the performance of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Voices and the London Oratory School "Schola" is top notch, and the recording quality is a little more reverb-free than the previous scores, while still retaining the similar sound world of the others. Another great score from Shore and a must have for anybody liking good, solid adventure music.