Howard Shore Composer of the Rings

I haven't read it myself yet (I'm off to bed after posting this message), so don't shout at me if it's worthless.

My favorite observation:

Peter Jackson is not looking for another John Williams. He is attempting to make an experience like no other. The ... spectacle is subversive ... most effectively expressed not through the mythic events, but through the physical and mental scars of the characters ... Perhaps Mr. Shore will reinvent ... what an epic score should be.

gotta love those jabs at Horner.

Nothing in the article says anything other than I already guessed, have written, and believe. I'd still be curious to hear Kilar take a hack at it, but Shore is just fine by me.

As I said before, choosing Howard Shore to score the trilogy does definitely signify one thing: They gave serious thoughts to who should compose the score. Nobody would have picked Shore without expecting him to do an important contribution to the films.

I'm certainly not a Shore expert - I have Ed Wood, Looking For Richard, Dogma and The Cell on CD, and know several others from the respective films - but he seems to me to be first of all a very visual composer. Meaning that many of his scores don't necessarily work that great on album without knowing the accompanying visuals - for example, I found his scores for Se7en and The Game very good in combination with the films, but I don't know if I would need to have them on CD.

I definitely disagree that he's a "score producing machine" or a "typical Hollywood" composer. His work is much too subtle for that. Considering the many different scores he's done, I'm also confident that he CAN compose a "psychological adventure score" for LOTR. The point that still makes me a bit nervous is: HOW will he CHOOSE to score it?

His trademark style of dark "brooding" underscore will certainly fit many parts of the film. But for LOTR this won't be enough. As most of you know, I consider Rosenman's work on the animated LOTR one of the best scores ever written, yet even that one is missing certain aspects which I think are very important in this case. It's not his fault, these aspects simply were not present in the film to begin with. His score is dark, menacing, (darkly) heroic and at times adventurous. What it's missing - and my great hope is that Peter Jackson did NOT leave this out - is the "beauty" of the whole story. I haven't read the novel 8 times because it's so dark, or so thrilling, but because it's still a pleasure to read and in a way very uplifting. Rosenman's main theme works in that way, but it's not used very often throughout the score.

Finally, in this case I particularly want the score to work as a pure listening experience. This is not the main purpose of a good film score, but I think we all agree that since we all love listening to film scores, it's a very important aspect to us. As I said, I don't doubt Shore CAN write a score that pleases all my wishes. The question is, WILL he write it that way. And that's no criticism, I simply don't know it.

Regardless to say, I will buy the CD as soon as it comes out (but this time, I WILL keep it on my shelf unplayed before I've seen the film )

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Originally posted by Marian Schedenig:

I definitely disagree that he's a "score producing machine" or a "typical Hollywood" composer.

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Originally posted by Marian Schedenig:
BTW, Rocco & Wedge: Did you get my mails?

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Unless you're talking about "Les Troyens," no.

As for Shore's ability to write beautiful lighter melodies, a skill he doesn't often get asked to do, I need only to point you at his beautiful score for BIG. On balance, I think the RINGS trilogy will be an ideal showcase for his little-appreciated range. Might even nab him his first Oscar nomination (that he doesn't have one yet, even for the multi-award-winning SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, is grotesque, but then so is the process.)