The Lord of the Rings: The Complete Recordings (2001 - 2007)

One of the defining characteristics of Howard Shore's music for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings (LotR) trilogy was his use of themes, called leitmotifs, to represent specific characters, cultures, places, and events. The release of the Complete Recordings series has afforded fans the chance to hear how he weaved those structural elements through melody, instrumentation, rhythm, and texture, to tell the massive story of The Lord of the Rings.

Although Shore composed almost 70 individual leitmotifs for the trilogy, chief amongst them is the theme for The One Ring. Often called the History of the Ring theme, it is a reflective and sinister theme which breathes into life whenever the ring exerts its influence over the events in the story. The theme for the Sauron, the creator of the ring and the most evil presence in the story, is linked with the ring's theme. It mirrors the melodic line but twists and contorts into something much more brutal. The transformation represents not only the evil that is inherent in the ring, but its power to bring about the downfall and utter corruption of anyone who wears it.

The layered approach posed significant challenges for the composer due to the multi-threaded structure of the story and the style of narrative employed by Peter Jackson, who often punctuated large-scale action sequences with intimate, character-driven plot developments.

This is most evident in the final act of The Two Towers, in which the viewers focus is divided between three different climactic story-lines. In spite of Shore's best efforts, the heavy editing of the film in the final stages of the post-production process resulted in large sections of score being cut, re-organised, or tracked-in to different places in the film ^[1].

The Complete Recordings collection, released on a yearly basis starting in November 2005, afforded Shore the opportunity to revisit all of the material that was recorded and to present it in their entirety and in film-order. Weighing in at almost eleven hours, the recordings were presented on standard CD as well as in 5.1 surround and hi-definition sound on a DVD-Audio disc. Shore was personally involved in the remixing of the compositions to restore them to his original conception and order.

The recordings also include extensive liner notes by Doug Adams, who has documented all of the themes and their relationsips. He also drafted the Annotated Scores, which were free PDF documents giving a track-by-track commentary for each release. The content of those PDF's has now been re-written by Adams and collated into a book called The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films which will be released before the end of 2009.

Although the final part of the Complete Recordings collection was released in November 2007, work has been continuing on another music release for the material that didn't make the final cut for the films or the previous releases. The so-called "rarities" will feature early drafts of music that was re-done or dropped during the post-production on the films. Adams has stated that the material will be presented with some interview footage with Shore.

For more information keep watching Howard Shore's website and the official soundtrack release website. Track titles are available on Soundtrack.Net. Also have a look at the MovieMusic.com message board where Doug Adams has been posting updates on the Complete Recordings releases, The Lord Of The Rings Symphony, and Shore's work on other film scores. He has also published several preview podcasts for the previous two Complete Recordings releases on the Film Score Monthly website. Podcasts for the new release should be published closer to the release date. See the Links section below for links.

References

1. LordOfTheRings-Soundtrack.com (2006), The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - The Annotated Score [online], available: http://www.lordoftherings-soundtrack.com/ttt_annotated_score.pdf [accessed 15 September, 2007]

Links

Press/Publicity

• The Official Howard Shore website
• The Official The Lord Of The Rings Soundrack website (also includes annotated score materials)
• The Official Author's Blog For The Upcoming Book The Music Of The Lord Of The Rings Films
• The message board thread with regular updates from liner-notes author Doug Adams on MovieMusic.com
• A message from Doug Adams regarding the release date change
• Music For Returning Kings, Soundtrack.Net, 2003

Preview Podcasts by Doug Adams & the Film Score Monthly team

• The Fellowship Of The Ring - The Complete Recordings: part 1 and part 2
• The Two Towers - The Complete Recordings: part 1 and part 2
• The Return Of The King - The Complete Recordings: part 1 and part 2

Other Previews

• The Complete Recordings on The Cinematic Sound Radio Show On Demand

Reviews

• ScoreNotes.com (with samples)
• Soundtrack-Express.com
• Soundtrack.Net First Look
• Soundtrack.Net track listing and review (with the same text as the First Look above)
• FilmTracks.com (with samples)
• Original soundtrack release for The Return Of The King by Doug Adams in Film Score Monthly
• Original soundtrack release for The Return Of The King on Soundtrack.Net
• The Fellowship Of The Ring - The Complete Recordings on Soundtrack.Net
• The Two Towers - The Complete Recordings on Soundtrack.Net

Discography

• The original soundtrack release for The Return Of The King on MusicBrainz.org

Filmography

• The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Rings on IMDb
• The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers on IMDb
• The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King on IMDb

People

• Howard Shore (wikipedia page)

Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.

Discograpy links and data courtesy of MusicBrainz.org.

Box cover image courtesy of HowardShore.com.