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'LORD OF THE RINGS' COMPOSER CONFIRMED

2000-08-14 After much rumours and speculations on various film music web sites, Howard Shore has now confirmed that he has been hired to compose the original music for Peter Jackson's much anticipated Lord of the Rings. In fact, it looks like the Canadian composer of stylish scores such as Silence of the Lambs, Crash, Dead Ringers, Philadelphia and The Fly, has been commissioned to score the whole trilogy. In a statement made to Music from the Movies, Howard Shore himself confirms: "Yes, I am doing The Lord of the Rings Trilogy".
Howard Shore has two new films coming up before entering Middle-Earth: he has scored the Jennifer Lopez thriller The Cell, opening this week, and The Yards. He recently wrote the score for High Fidelity, where Carter Burwell (who was hired initally) had to withdraw due to a schedule conflict. Another current Howard Shore project is the French film Ester Kahn.
The news about Howard Shore being the most likeable but surprising choice for Lord of the Rings was broken by www.soundtrack.net several weeks ago, but Music from the Movies is the first source to finally get the assignment confirmed. - Mikael Carlsson

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Did we miss this? I wasn't aware that Shore has been confirmed?

Jeron

--Kyp

But I'll say it again: "the proof is in the pudding" (oh God, I love that expression!)

I would not be severely disappointed, though, if Shore was forced to resign or the score was rejected for some reason. Well, perhaps if Ry Cooder or Dave Grusin or Mark Knopfler teamed up as the "replacement killers"...

Thor, I think parts of LOTR would be very good with a subdued score, but I don't think (or hope) that Shore will write the entire score in that way. A "real" LOTR score has to have many facettes.

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Originally posted by scoreaholic:
I also wouldn't have picked williams because of the quieter scores he has done recently. James Horner would be to repetitive, because I don't think he would have gone back to his Willow roots. Goldsmith could have done a good score for this, and Elfman could perhaps, although I was dissapointed with his score to "Sleepy Hollow".

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Star Wars/The Phantom Menace, The Patriot, quiet score?

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Thor, I think parts of LOTR would be very good with a subdued score, but I don't think (or hope) that Shore will write the entire score in that way. A "real" LOTR score has to have many facettes.

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eXistenZ
THE GAME
COPLAND
THE CLIENT
SLIVER

The above scores - at least what I remember of them - have parts that "slow" down the scenes too much, particularly THE GAME (such as the climax cue). They might be original, but not altogether appropriate.

When all is said and done, though, my criticism of Shore is not as a film composer as such (I recognize his greatness) but a music composer. Since I - as you know - listen to film music away from the movies, some of his scores lack the proper "developing drive" of a musical oddysey. The music is too "dependent" on a companion to work.