Over on Tracksounds.com, Doug Adams (author of Music of Lord of the Rings) discusses Howard Shore’s score for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Stream the Episode 54 of The Soundcast directly from the site, or download the podcast and listen later. In the episode, Adams discusses the effect of the format on film experience, how the score caused people some headscratching, and why this whole thing is just a huge “game of themes.” It does take the panel a fair chunk of time to actually get down to talking about the OST. If like me, you find that frustrating, you might want to skip the first 10 minutes or so.
Episode Highlights
00:00 Blunt the Opening and Doug Adams Intro
05:46 What we were expecting from this film
9:58 General reactions and comparing to Lord of the Rings
11:45 Reacting to the film and it’s music (spoilers)
31:21 Headscratching: Reacting to the score
49:56 A Game of Themes?
78:50 Wrapping it up
Christmas brings to mind the timeless, poignant image of a mother cradling her newborn child.
At this rather apt time of year then, TORn’s music geeks are pleased to bring you an exclusive interview with Hilary Summers.
An alto hailing from Wales, UK, Hilary recorded “Gilraen’s Song” that plays over the scene where Aragorn kneels in reverence before his mother Gilraen’s memorial in Rivendell, and whose lyrics hark back to the words once spoken by Gilraen herself.
Little boy, little one, night is falling, come into my arms, let me hold you safe. But still you run through the twilight, lost in your play, slaying demons in the shadows. Little boy, little one, full of grace, full of joy, oh, my heart will break,
For I see it in your eyes… you are your father’s son, not your mother’s child.
Join us in this exclusive interview as we talk to Hilary about her experience recording the song for The Lord of the Rings.
TORn Staffer Magpie reports that for the LoTR sheet music, which is available on the same site, “you could print the sheet music once and it has your name on it. But then you got this digital download that let you play the sheet music (with their player). It displayed the sheet music on your computer screen and played a midi file — highlighting the notes being played.”
You can also can preview most songs for one page to get a sense of how it works.
Howard Shore’s score for ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘ is out today! If you pre-ordered via Amazon or iTunes, you should be getting your shipping or availability notices right now. If you have not placed your order…what are you waiting for?!? The soundtrack is available both digitally and as a 2 CD set. The Special Edition of the soundtrack features six exclusive bonus tracks, seven extended score cues, and deluxe liner notes. Click on one of the links here to place your order today. After the break you can view the official release from Nov 1st outlining the tracks and detailse. [itunes: Special Edition or Standard] [Amazon.com: Special Edition or Standard]
It’s not that long ago that Howard Shore’s OST for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was fully revealed for the first time as a listenable web-stream. Problem was, you couldn’t pick single tracks to listen to, and if you paused it, you had to start all over. Now, Rolling Stone offers the standard edition to listen to in its entirety with the ability to select tracks independently and the ability to pause as well.
Or if you want to trial the Special Edition, Watchtower Records has short previews from every track available on its website.
In the Rolling Stone article, Neil Finn says that “Song of the Lonely Mountain” builds on a musical theme written for the movie by New Zealand film composers Plan 9 and David Long, which a group of dwarves sing in an early scene. To work on the song, Finn put himself in the dwarves’ shoes.
“I’d get a little melody and I’d think, ‘Would a dwarf sing that?’ And you go, ‘No, it’s too floral. It’s not earthy enough,’” he says. “Even though there’s aspects of brotherhood and kinship in the song, I had a line about love and Peter and Fran [Walsh, co-writer and co-producer] sort of looked at me and said, ‘No, not love. There’s something not quite right about that.’ It’s not a love song.”
Classicfm.com was able to snag a great audio interview with Howard Shore recently. Shore, a big Tolkien fan, tells classicfm that he constantly refers to the books as he’s writing the score. He also discusses what it’s like to collaborate once again with Peter Jackson, The London Philharmonic, and the all-consuming job of writing, orchestrating, conducting, tweaking and finalizing the score for “The Hobbit: and Unexpected Journey.” Read more and listen here…
These guys are pretty popular – we’ve received MANY emails from people out there, telling us about their new music video. So here it is, for those who have not yet seen it! Whether you’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving today and you’re now too full to move, or you’ve been working hard all day and need to relax, this music video is sure to please. The Piano Guys (Al van der Beek, Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson) use piano, cello, percussion and vocal textures to recreate well known tunes – and this video is a compilation of favourite motifs from Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings scores. Check it out:
HotHouse Music (the music supervisors and film composer agents at Abbey Road Studios in London) report on Twitter that — after three months of recording and mixing — The Hobbit score is finally complete.
Choice quote: “It’s going to be epic. #TheHobbit #Needaholiday”.
It’s all getting serious now. Isn’t the film supposed to be signed, sealed and delivered in a day or so, too? Thanks to Ringer Tolktolk on the forums for the heads up!
As part of their weekly Sunday countdown of top classical music and movie scores, the U.K. station,Classic fm, will be playing exerpts from Howard Shore’s score to “The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey.” The countdown show is playing as I type this with the #1 slot set to begin around 6:30 p.m. GMT (that’s 11:30 a.m. EST (New York) and 7:30 a.m NADT (Auckland). Follow this link to listen live on your computer: classicfm.com. Read More…
Warner Brothers has kicked off their Awards Season website for many of their films, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey among them. The page links to the Official Website and trailer, gives a brief synopsis of the story, and then lists all the names of the people who worked in eligible categories, from the Writers to the Sound Effects people, and a few of the actors. And just as a tease, there is a list of screenings, but those screenings are for Academy voters and members of the various Guilds (Screen Actors, Writers, Directors, etc) only. A full list of eligible names and categories below. Hopefully this means we will have a lot to celebrate at our own Oscar Party! [Website]
There’s all kinds of road music for all kinds of road trips…. and now we have been blessed by EMPIRE Magazine with a wonderful *streaming preview* of the entire Howard Shore score for the upcoming HOBBIT, Part 1 (the ultimate fantasy road trip)! Join our exciting *live webcast* TORn TUESDAY coming up at 5pm Pacific Time today, as host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway investigates the remarkable musical world of the film — and a very special guest might stop by! We will also dig into the remarkable Neil Finn song from THE HOBBIT end credits, “Song of the Lonely Mountain” — like it or hate it this is our new Hobbit theme song for 2012! Join the innovative live chat with our crew of Barliman’s chatters right here: www.theonering.net/live or turn on your Skype camera and join us via Stickam here: www.stickam.com/theoneringnet
Yesterday Peter Jackson and team unveiled Neil Finn’s song from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Today, Empire has the full soundtrack for your listening pleasure. Listen, enjoy and get a taste of what we’re in for come December 13 when the film hits screens. Note: this stream is working — we have confirmations from readers in both the USA and the UK. It does seem to be finnicky though, and we’re not sure why. We can only wish you the best of luck when you click to listen! (more…)
Over on Tracksounds.com, Doug Adams (author of Music of Lord of the Rings) discusses Howard Shore’s score for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Stream the Episode 54 of The Soundcast directly from the site, or download the podcast and listen later. In the episode, Adams discusses the effect of the format on film experience, how the score caused people some headscratching, and why this whole thing is just a huge “game of themes.” It does take the panel a fair chunk of time to actually get down to talking about the OST. If like me, you find that frustrating, you might want to skip the first 10 minutes or so.
