So far I have listened to Track 3 "Minas Trith" and Track 5 "Steward of Gondor" (which kind of evokes Beyond Rangoon in the beggining).

This is so good....
It's better than al previous two. Yes it sounds darker. Also a more souplesse use of foreign instruments... It's more about creating an atmosphere. Second motifs and leitmotifs... While the first two where the other way around. Themes go before atmosphere.
It seems fair as the first two films keep introducing new elements to the trilogy and they need a music to accompany them.

Peter Jackson himself said in the documentaries in LOTR: TTT that he needed a "hummable" tune for TTT.

Of the new stuff, nothing particularly stood out theme-wise, though I've only listened to it all once and parts maybe four times. Said parts include the lovely Annie Lennox-voiced final tune and, if mine ears don't deceive me, a bit in track 17 that sounds like Aragorn - or, the Master Chief for all you GI JANE fans - himself singing.

Overall, there's a heavyness to this music, a regality (pun intended, though seriously, that's what it is - very stately music, full of the appropriate pomp, etc.). I would say of the three scores, it's probably the most mature, but I still find the whole of FELLOWSHIP to be the best score. That said, RETURN may be the best representation of every theme/piece of the entire series. It also has some nice choral stuff and even a pastoral pan-flute moment somewhere in track four or five, I forget.

Kudos to Senor Shore for delivering a 3rd time. Let's hope - and I have little doubt - that the film itself does the same.

Mills

For those that have not yet heard what film music is all about, this track says it all. The Return of the King score is the best of the three, and after hearing the entire score today on CD, track 16 is by far the most telling of what we are to expect when seeing the film this December. This particular track on the ROTK soundtrack is the most dramatic and emotional cue I have heard in the series of the three Lord of the Rings films. Howard deserves an oscar for this one for sure!

Slight spoilers...

I picked up all three scores on the day of their release, and I must be honest that I enjoyed the first two more without having seen the film. Now, I am not saying that dislike this score, far from it. The returning themes for Gondor that first peeked out in Fellowship are the real standouts for me, both in the Minas Tirith and Anduil (sp?) tracks. I suppose there is simply to much material to digest (even after a couple listens.)

I was hoping (and still am) the "Ring Theme" plays a more prominent role in the film than in the score release. I had always hoped for a triumphant refrain (akin to The Great River in Fellowship) when the ring is finally destroyed...perhaps it still will.

Frank--the playfulness in the beginning makes sense as I believe the prologue will be the inital discovery of the ring by Smeagol and Deagol. Glad to see that Andy Serkis actually gets some "physical" screen time. (Per one of the inserts available with the CD.)

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I picked up all three scores on the day of their release, and I must be honest that I enjoyed the first two more without having seen the film. Now, I am not saying that dislike this score, far from it.

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I agree, Quill. I listened to it for the first time last night, all the way through, and found myself a bit underwhelmed. It's good, don't get me wrong! It's just missing whatever it is that tied the Fellowship and Two Towers so tightly together. I personally feel as if there's been too much toying and variation on the themes from the last two films. I would have been much happier had he stuck to his original takes on those themes. In the track "The Return of the King", which is utterly beautiful, even the Shire/Hobbit theme utilizes a different orchestration, and I'm not sure I like it as much as what I originally heard in "Concerning Hobbits." As you said, it's just a lot of material to digest. I'm hoping it will sink in a bit more once I've seen the film.

Jeron

I love the Gondor theme, but the one track that really sticks out for me is "Shelob's Lair."
Really intense, pulse-pounding stuff -- and it'd be thrilling to hear this one piece in concert.

I want to also make note of the musicians on this album. This orchestra, as far as I'm concerned has never sounded better. Shore's used Sir James Galway and Renee Fleming, but I wanna know the name of the violin soloist -- the person that puts that Golden Age spin on the LOTR theme.

Hopefully I've just missed them on the CD, they will present themselves in the score after I see the film, or those moments will be in the movie and have not been represented in the score release.

Shore from the outset has tried to create an intricately woven tapestry for these scores...which he has done quite well. I would say that ROTK feels a little too different from the first two chapters.

The Bad:

I basically agree with Quills and Jeron. There doesn't seem to be a cue that has a wonderfully outstanding moment like Two Towers and Fellowship did. Pelennor Fields and End of All Things come really close but both just seem to end abruptly just when they were getting good, the former especially.

I was also hoping for more of a satisfying musical ending rather than having it just fade away like it does. This is especially ironic considering that Return was supposed to be the one movie with an actual ending to it! There seems to be more resolution musically in the endings of Fellowship and Towers.

So far I'm not a big fan of "Into the West." I much prefer the heavy orchestral songs like "In Dreams" and "Gollum's Song" than the light and fluffy ones.

I wish that some of the themes could be played more triumphantly and, dare I say it, with more bombast. The fellowship theme is at it's best when it's played with grandness, like in The Ring goes South, Bridge at Khazud Dum, and the Urak-Hai. On the ROTK album it's always played softly. The Gondor theme is the only one ever played loudly.

Another minor quibble that I had with this and Two Towers albums. Where is the Dark Rider chorus? It's such a prominent theme in FOTR and I know the wraiths are in ROTK. I wish the chorus could be reprised on album at least once.

The good:

I love the Gondor theme, especially during track 3. It sounds so subdued in Fellowhip that it really plays out well to hear it in full.

Billy Boyd does an excellent job in track 5 and I was surprised how well his contribution turned out. The return of the Rohan material in track 7 is excellent as well. Anduril is very awe inspiring. The rendition of Sauron's theme opening track 6 had interesting orchestration. It almost sounds like someone is wailing it along with the instruments.

I mean, the music is all excellent. There's certainly nothing bad in it. My only criticisms of the album come from what it lacks and not of what's actually on there. The music is still pretty new to me and there's plenty to digest. These are just some initial thoughts from the first 6-7 playings.

Questions:

The Black Gate Opens: Are you sure about that Howard? Probably just due to edits, but this cue sounds way too warm for what is supposedly happening in this scene! Any ideas on why the Gray Haven's theme shows up?

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Originally posted by Wickenstein:
The Black Gate Opens: Are you sure about that Howard? Probably just due to edits, but this cue sounds way too warm for what is supposedly happening in this scene! Any ideas on why the Gray Haven's theme shows up?

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I haven't heard it, but I imagine this is an inspiring William Wallace style speech by Aragorn before the Black Gates along the lines of: 'A day may come, when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day!'

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Originally posted by Wickenstein:

Aragorn's Theme in Two Towers: When Aragorn rides his horse back to Helm's Deep, is this really a theme for Aragorn? Can anyone pick anything close to it out in the album? It almost seems like the Fellowship theme has become Aragorn's theme instead judging by how it's used in the track, Return of the King.

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That is a theme for Aragorn in TTT. You can also hear Aragorn's theme as one of the woodwind melodies in 'Evenstar'; the brass theme that plays over the Isengard percussion when Aragorn takes on the Uruks solo at 'Amon Hen'; the same brass theme when Aragorn dispatches five of the Black Riders simultaneously in FOTR. There is a suggestion of it at the Argonath beneath the choral track.

Where I would look for Aragorn's theme in ROTK is:
- Anduril - it may appear in either a soft or noble rendition here if the title track is what it purports to be.
- Twilight and Shadow - if this cue delves further into the Aragorn-Arwen relationship, then a woodwind melody for Aragorn ala Evenstar may appear.
- Return of the King - you may hear a softer version of it here rather than a heroic statement given *** SPOILER there are no more armies left to kill singlehandedly. ****

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Originally posted by Wickenstein:

Another minor quibble that I had with this and Two Towers albums. Where is the Dark Rider chorus? It's such a prominent theme in FOTR and I know the wraiths are in ROTK. I wish the chorus could be reprised on album at least once.

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Though this is not the theme you're missing, some of the material that is related to the ringwraith is on ROTK, but in a very subtle way: the same descending figure you find in FOTR's "a knife in the dark"(0'15")plays under the chorus in "the fields of the pelennor".

Shore on his "home ground": even more than in Shelob's Lair, the instrumentation in some parts (beginning/end) here is harking back to his darkest work like se7en or The Cell. I hoped very much that he would bring some of this style into the darkest chapters of LOTR. And he did

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Perhaps you should purchase a copy as well Mrspock.... I always find that CD's sound much better than mp3's anyways.

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Highs: Both Gondor themes are excellent--Minas Tirith is the highlight of the album for me. Probably the most diverse of the score albums with very little material being repeated.

Lows: Outside of Minas Tirith there is no one queue that really grabs me as with the first two releases. My hope is that the use of themes from the first two films have a stronger presence in the film, as the score release does not tie enough together for me.

Now there are moments in most of the tracks that are excellent, but as someone previously mentioned they either end too quickly or the material surrounding those moments is not as strong.

The Fields of the Pelennor and The Gray Havens are the two key disappointments. The first just never grabs me and the latter seems to meander and never comes to a powerful denouement as I would expect.

I might have fallen victim to my own worst enemy...bloated expectations. My only hope is that the use of the score on film (which has always been superb) will make up for this lackluster release.

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Highs: Both Gondor themes are excellent--Minas Tirith is the highlight of the album for me. Probably the most diverse of the score albums with very little material being repeated.

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Originally posted by Luc:

Perhaps watching ROTK 20x will change this

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LOL!

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Originally posted by Luc:

Perhaps watching ROTK 20x will change this
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LOL!

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It's amazing how after seeing a movie you like, your taste for the score completely changed. I remember the first time I loaded in Fellowship, I thought: "I thought a fantasy film would be more thematic than this." I was disappointed. Now after listening to the score for at least 30x and seeing the movie over 20x, it has become my favorite score.

I'm wondering whether Fellowship is my favorite score rather than Two Towers is because I only saw Two Towers only half as much .

This is both the blackest and brightest of Shore's music for these films. Themes which appeared briefly in the previous two scores now are developed fully. The Gondor theme, first heard on French horn in Fellowship as Boromir waxes about how wonderful Gondor is in Rivendell is now a major theme in this score. The motif heard as he talks to Aragorn in Lothlórien is now heard in "Minas Tirith" and "Andûril." "The White Tree" also quotes "The Departure of Boromir" from "Amon Hen," and "Evenstar" is heard in several cues. The Rohan is no longer broken and weak, but is proud and triumphant. I almost didn't recognize Éowyn's theme, having gone from a meandering string motif to a Valkyrie-esque clarion call.

Valiant deeds with our main characters riding into the halls of legend dictates the glorious music heard on this disc, often fighting against orchestral and choral forces in such a way as so to reach a fever-pitch of intensity, as in "The Fields of the Pelennor."

But the real hardship is in Frodo and Sam's journey, and the cues outlining their toils are even bleaker and more challenging than what was heard in The Two Towers, if such a thing is imaginable. The serious nature of the music that follows them grounds the score, in a way, from the relentless variation of Sauron's theme in "Minas Morgul" to the Herrmann-esque "Shelob's Lair." And "The End of All Things" sounds like... well... the end of all things. Black Speech truly sounds frightening.

"Into the West" works better in context of the album than the sample I heard, and it is thematically consistant with the score, but lacks the resonance with Tolkien that "In Dreams" and "Gollum's Song" had. The orchestral finale, however, is impressively Wagnerian.

There are no words in Elvish, Entish or the tongues of Man to describe how happy I am with this CD.

What makes this score so important is that it is, essentially, the penultimate chapter of a film score that has been in continuous development over three years. The fact that these films were shot back-to-back and are being released one year apart with an extended DVD edition requiring more music allows a unity to these scores that is unprecedented in film music history.

The scale of this work is huge, partly owing as to the voluminous length of each film, but also because J.R.R. Tolkien's source material is so rich. Shore has had an opportunity here to create something that is to film music what Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen and has risen to the challenge. I truly think that with The Lord of the Rings, Howard Shore has created a new milestone in film music history, along with Sergei Prokofiev's music for Sergei Eisenstein's films, Bernard Herrmann's music for the Hitchcock films and so on.

I actually met Shore once. Royal Brown brought him down to Queens College for a Q & A session (Waystone was there). The way he described his compositional style is something that I can only describe as Zen inspiration, which may account for some of the more dreamlike sounds heard in Crash or Videodrome. In contrast to many of the downright terrifying soundscapes he creates with his music, Shore himself was sweet and outgoing.

I must have made an impression, because he seems to have been writing The Lord of the Rings just for me.

My only complaint, and it's more like a quibble than a real complaint, is that, outside of the songs and a short coda, Shore hasn't written end titles for thse films, instead having a series of cues playing over the credit scroll.