For this third and final part of The Lord of the Rings (released in 2003 and adapted from Tolkien’s famous book), Howard Shore once again benefited from the exceptional opportunity to create 3h50m of music, which covers 90% of the film! Other than the London Philharmonic Orchestra, there is a wide variety of choirs and prestigious soloists. The latter are sometimes even actors in the films: The Green Dragon is an Irish-inspired tune, performed by the actor Billy Boyd, a.k.a. Pippin. Other soloists (both actors and not) include the famous flautist James Galway, as well as Viggo Mortensen and Renée Fleming. All three are present in The Fellowship Reunited.On the instrumental side of things, we hear several leitmotifs, some of which are already known (and sometimes developed), others completely new. One of the most beautiful phrases related to the ring appears in the first track, Roots and Beginnings, and evokes Richard Wagner's own ring theme from the opera Der Ring des Nibelungen. The simplicity of this short melodic phrase (only nine notes long) shows that Howard Shore wanted to personify the ring and not the stakes that it represents. Far from the strange calm of this music, we also encounter more epic, even horrific pieces, such as the amazing Shelob's Lair. Howard Shore is David Cronenberg's appointed composer, and in this respect, an undeniable specialist in the field. Finally, it’s worth listening to the majestic song Into the West as the closing credits roll, with Annie Lennox on mic. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

Howard Shore’s themes for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy are often considered as some of the greatest accomplishments in the history of movie soundtracks. By virtue of its operatic length, first: just for this second volume (available here in its entirety), the listener can enjoy this music for more than three hours! But first and foremost, we have to highlight here the extremely rich and inventive artistic performance of the composer of the movies of David Cronenberg, as well as Ed Wood, After Hours and Mrs. Doubtfire. For this second episode released in 2002 (called The Two Towers), the Canadian composer reuses here and there the epic and moving themes from the first volume, by injecting into them more darkness and ambiguity, as proven by the opening track (Glamdring, with Maori choruses), as well as tracks associated to Gollum that skillfully blend shadow and light (My Precious). This soundtrack is also filled with new themes like the one, epic and majestic, devoted to the Rohirrim, the riders of Middle-earth (The Plains of Rohan). But Shore’s score wouldn’t be complete without this Celtic flavor that the composer scatters with subtlety throughout this titanic partition—thus reminding that one of the influences of Tolkien, the author of the novels, was Irish mythology. Dermot Crehan (violin) and the great flutist James Galway (tin and low whistle) are usually responsible for bringing to this score this particular color (Edoras ; Ent-draught). In this regard, it is worth noting the impressive number of soloists inside Shore’s partition, something quite rare for a so-called “symphonic” partition. Naturally, throughout his work, the composer endeavors to respect to the letter the narrative and visual world of Tolkien and Jackson, thus intending it for the fans of the saga. But this rich and subtle original soundtrack proves in a blatant way that Howard Shore also wanted to speak to the heart of every music lover, whether they knew Tolkien’s fantastical world or not. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

Appropriately enough for the film adaptation of one fantasy literature's most enduring favorites, Howard Shore's score for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings is traditional and majestic, using sweeping strings, brass, and choral sections to create moments of fire-and-brimstone menace as well heroic triumph. An ominous, bombastic feel runs through much of the score, particularly on pieces like "A Journey in the Dark," "Flight to the Ford," and "A Knife in the Dark," but Shore also includes respites such as the sweetly elfin, Celtic-tinged "Concerning Hobbits" and the stately "Many Meetings." The vibrant "Bridge of Khazad Dum" and "Amon Hen" combine the score's major themes into dazzling climaxes, while Enya's contributions, "Council of Elrond" and "May It Be," add a subtle serenity that gives the score balance. While it's not a particularly melodic score, Lord of the Rings nevertheless does an excellent job of conveying the film's moods through music and has more than enough presence to be appreciated outside of the film's context. [Fashioned in the style of the faux-leather-bound books that housed the lauded trilogy's "Special Edition" DVD releases, 2005's Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring -- The Complete Recordings gathers every bit of composer Howard Shore's Oscar-winning score for the first film and spreads it over three discs (a fourth CD/DVD presents the work in 5.1 Surround Sound).]© TiVo

Like the second installment of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Howard Shore's score is big, bold, dark, and majestic. This is fitting as the movie is more action-oriented than the first, The Fellowship of the Rings, which -- necessarily -- spent more time on exposition and character development. It's also a good value for the money, as it features over 70 minutes of music, both instrumentals and vocal tracks (concentrated on the second half of the disc). These include "Evenstar" with the Canadian Opera Company's Isabel Bayrakdarian (who also contributed to Mychael Danna's Ararat soundtrack), "Breath of Life" with Sheila Chandra (formerly of Monsoon), "Forth Eorlingas" with Ben Del Maestro, "Isengard Unleashed" with Del Maestro and Elizabeth Fraser (the Cocteau Twins), and "Gollum's Song" with Emiliana Torrini. The latter is a British vocalist of Icelandic and Italian extraction, who has worked with Tears for Fears' Roland Orzabal and Iceland's Gus Gus. "Gollum's Song" is a tribute, of sorts, to the half-CGI, half-actor-created character (Andy Serkis provided his distinctive voice and physical movements) who handily walks away with the film. The affecting song ("We are lost/We can never go home"), which plays during the end credits, was written by Jackson's wife, Fran Walsh, and sets things up nicely for The Return of the King, the final book in J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy. Despite the critical and commercial success of The Two Towers, the strong orchestral work, and the more inspired selection of vocalists, the soundtrack was not nominated for an Oscar, whereas Shore took home the gold statuette (his first) for his work on The Fellowship of the Rings.© TiVo

It is not surprising that when awards season rolls around, commercially successful films nominated for major awards also manage to attract nominations for their music, and that may help explain why composer Howard Shore won three Academy Awards for the trilogy of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, although it does not explain the distribution of those awards: Shore won the scoring award for the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, wasn't nominated at all for the second film, The Two Towers, then won the scoring award and shared the song award for the third film, The Return of the King. Of course, the films generated soundtrack albums released by Warner Bros. Records, and others have also taken up their own versions of the music, notably the New World Orchestra, which made an album of the score for The Fellowship of the Ring in 2002, and the low-rent Hollywood Studio Orchestra and Singers, which addressed the three scores for the budget label LaserLight. Reynold DaSilva's Silva imprint specializes in new versions of film scores for which soundtrack albums were never attempted, but he too has jumped in with a version of the Shore music, employing, as usual, the 87-member City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and the 100-voice Crouch End Festival Chorus, plus soloists. His usual staff, headed by conductor Nic Raine, has paired the seven hours of scoring down to 88 and a half minutes in 16 segments. This makes for a reasonable précis, retaining the scope of Shore's efforts, which range from bombastic action music to delicate, Celtic-flavored interludes, with sweeping, string-filled melodies and angelic choir interventions to keep things suitably mythic. Unlike the typical composer hired on short notice to write a score in a few weeks, Shore was able to take more time on this lengthy project, and he also had many different moods to underline. He proved up to the task, even if there really isn't anything new in his approach. The album concludes with what are referred to as "bonus tracks," though they are not bonuses in the sense that record buyers usually suppose; it's not as though there's any version of the album that doesn't contain them. These are vocal versions of the three theme songs for the films, Enya's "May It Be" from The Fellowship of the Ring, "Gollum's Song" from The Two Towers, and the Oscar-winning "Into the West," co-written by Annie Lennox, from The Return of the King. All could have been dispensed with, just as they could have been in the films themselves.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo