Orchestral recording for The Desolation of Smaug soundtrack in the Wellington Town Hall has concluded. It also seems as though the choral(?) work occurring in London for the soundtrack is almost complete. It’s all very hush-hush though.
Additional Orchestrator and Conductor Conrad Pope reported on his Facebook:
With the superb first trumpet of the NZSO, Jon Dante celebrating the end of a series of some 29(?) sessions with the NZSO. Making music with the NZSO was wonderful and I look forward to working with them again — not only are they a superb concert orchestra, they are a remarkable “film orchestra” — they read difficult music accurately right out of “the chute”. But now, after 3 pictures, recording sessions in Wellington and London, since June — it’s time to sleep in, rest up and fly home and await the next assignment.
Doug Adams later on added a tiny bit more information on the boards of the John Williams Fan Network:
The NZ performance is great and the music is entirely Shore’s, don’t sweat it. There’s no news because people are … you know … working! This score is going to knock everyone’s socks off; it’s *phenomenal*. But don’t look for details for a while yet. Work comes first, promotion after. The play’s the thing.”
Some of the things we can expect from the soundtrack include: more section of aleatoric music, tibetan gongs and a Japanese taiko!
Bootnote: An earlier version of this article incorrectly included several tweets (reproduced below) from Doug Adams as supporting evidence. Doug informs us (see the comments section) that these tweets refer to personal deadlines he’s working on, and not the overall production.
Almost there … #Hobbit
— Doug Adams (@DougAdamsMusic) October 9, 2013
Delivery number one: made! #Hobbit #Phew
— Doug Adams (@DougAdamsMusic) October 11, 2013