I'm rapidly building toward another marathon of The Lord of the Rings (LotR) trilogy, evidently. Mayhaps I'll review each entry as I watch it, so keep your eyes on this space to see that at some point in the future possibly. If I don't forget that I said I'd do it.
Real commitment over here, lemmetellya.
But today I want to touch on something utterly unique in all of Hollywood, as far as I'm aware; the symphonic performance of the entire LotR score. Arranged and conducted in a series of concerts after the release of The Return of the King by Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings Symphony is, simply put, a symphony about The Lord of the Rings.
That's exactly as self-explanatory as it sounds, but let's chat for a minute about the music Howard Shore wrote for these movies. I am, as frequenters are probably getting sick of hearing, a massive fan of film music. My favorite composer, ever, at this point, is John Williams. My favorite film scorer, at the moment, is still James Horner (RIP, dude). But I'll go on record right here as saying that the greatest film score of all time has nothing at all to do with either of them.
No, the film score that best matched and elevated the film it was paired with out of everything in Hollywood ever is the one Howard Shore wrote for the LotR trilogy. Yes, I'm lumping all three movies into one. No I don't see any problem with that, considering that's exactly how Shore scored them. The fact of the matter is that no complete film score has ever been crafted with the same level of detail and precision throughout as LotR was. To get anything else like this, you need to turn to opera, where literally the entire story is told via music.
So, why am I reviewing the symphony outside the reviews for the actual trilogy?
I mean, mainly because even just standing alone, without the movies existing at all, this symphony is Middle Earth. Shore has done such a great job with this music, and with including in-world languages throughout, that a person who has never seen the movies but is familiar with the book will have no trouble associating the music with Tolkien's highly developed world. Thematically, linguistically, tonally, I have no doubt that if Tolkien himself had been able to hear this symphony written about his books, he'd have been stunned, amazed, flattered, and if my own experience as a writer is anything to go off of, super embarrassed.
And then he'd probably grab a copy of the symphony and listen to it whenever he was working with Middle Earth. It's that good. I fully believe this work would have influenced the creator of the world it's based on.
Now this isn't even close to the first time a massive LotR fan has written a symphony about LotR. I'm sure it won't be the last. My stance on the matter is that it is the best, which aligns nicely with my stance that the best composers of instrumental music are all working in cinema, which leaves basically anyone but Shore at a severe disadvantage (until the inevitable future in which Disney remakes the whole thing as a series of 9 movies). I recognize the self-validation of these positions, but seriously. Feel free to bring your arguments to the contrary. I've heard the like before, thousands of reasons across thousands of worlds, and yet now they are all borg.
In summary, this symphony is dope. If you love the movies and hate the books you'll love it. If you love the movies and the books, you'll love it. If you love the books and hate the movies, I'll put money on you still loving it. If you hate the movies and the books and also music, what are you even doing here Tom? Go away.
But for the rest of you I'm honestly not sure I can recommend it enough.
Real commitment over here, lemmetellya.
But today I want to touch on something utterly unique in all of Hollywood, as far as I'm aware; the symphonic performance of the entire LotR score. Arranged and conducted in a series of concerts after the release of The Return of the King by Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings Symphony is, simply put, a symphony about The Lord of the Rings.
 |
| I like things that make sense. That's why I studied English! |
That's exactly as self-explanatory as it sounds, but let's chat for a minute about the music Howard Shore wrote for these movies. I am, as frequenters are probably getting sick of hearing, a massive fan of film music. My favorite composer, ever, at this point, is John Williams. My favorite film scorer, at the moment, is still James Horner (RIP, dude). But I'll go on record right here as saying that the greatest film score of all time has nothing at all to do with either of them.
No, the film score that best matched and elevated the film it was paired with out of everything in Hollywood ever is the one Howard Shore wrote for the LotR trilogy. Yes, I'm lumping all three movies into one. No I don't see any problem with that, considering that's exactly how Shore scored them. The fact of the matter is that no complete film score has ever been crafted with the same level of detail and precision throughout as LotR was. To get anything else like this, you need to turn to opera, where literally the entire story is told via music.
So, why am I reviewing the symphony outside the reviews for the actual trilogy?
I mean, mainly because even just standing alone, without the movies existing at all, this symphony is Middle Earth. Shore has done such a great job with this music, and with including in-world languages throughout, that a person who has never seen the movies but is familiar with the book will have no trouble associating the music with Tolkien's highly developed world. Thematically, linguistically, tonally, I have no doubt that if Tolkien himself had been able to hear this symphony written about his books, he'd have been stunned, amazed, flattered, and if my own experience as a writer is anything to go off of, super embarrassed.
And then he'd probably grab a copy of the symphony and listen to it whenever he was working with Middle Earth. It's that good. I fully believe this work would have influenced the creator of the world it's based on.
Now this isn't even close to the first time a massive LotR fan has written a symphony about LotR. I'm sure it won't be the last. My stance on the matter is that it is the best, which aligns nicely with my stance that the best composers of instrumental music are all working in cinema, which leaves basically anyone but Shore at a severe disadvantage (until the inevitable future in which Disney remakes the whole thing as a series of 9 movies). I recognize the self-validation of these positions, but seriously. Feel free to bring your arguments to the contrary. I've heard the like before, thousands of reasons across thousands of worlds, and yet now they are all borg.
 |
| I'll bet that is not where you thought that paragraph was going. |
In summary, this symphony is dope. If you love the movies and hate the books you'll love it. If you love the movies and the books, you'll love it. If you love the books and hate the movies, I'll put money on you still loving it. If you hate the movies and the books and also music, what are you even doing here Tom? Go away.
But for the rest of you I'm honestly not sure I can recommend it enough.
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