“The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films,” by Doug Adams, Carpetier, $59.95
It speaks to the longevity of the “Lord of the Rings,” films that ten years later, movie tie-in books are still being released. It speaks to the power of Howard Shore’s soundtrack and author Doug Adams presentation that “The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films,” is the best of LOTR movie-related book and worth the wait.
In fact, if you are still hanging on to some of your post-Christmas or other holiday gift money, this comprehensive account of Shore’s scores are your answer on how to spend. This volume is a must-own for fans of Peter Jackson’s trio of films adapting the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and film score fans.
Tolkien deserves more than a passing mention here because it is clear from Adams’ work that the written word played an important part in Shore’s process. Far beyond scoring a movie, the composer delved into Middle-earth’s history and cultures, creatures and characters in order to best service the film. The book helps elucidate the fact that Shore’s 10-plus hours of music were done with Tolkien in mind as much as Jackson and that Shore’s work stands alone as a musical interpretation of a work of fiction as well as one aspect of the films. Continue reading “Review: ‘Music of LOTR films’ best of tie-in books”
John Di Bartolo writes: Hail friends! Just released the first episode of “The Minstrel, the Painter, & the Scholar” with Ted Nasmith & Dr. Corey Olsen. If you would like to post a link, or even re-release/distribute this mp3 through your own sites please feel free to do so. Glad to be able to share this with you all – and feel free to forward this to any friends or fellow podcasters! Cheers! Stay tuned for episodes 2 and 3 with John, Ted & Corey.
Doug Adams, author of the recently released book “The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films”, has written up an article over at his site on why New Zealand matters for The Hobbit. Doug has worked closely with Howard Shore for the better part of a decade and he has had great insight into the production for the music of the Lord of the Rings movies. So besides enumerating the enormous difficulties the production would have faced were it to move off-shore, Doug writes this article through a “music-specific lens” and details the impact the move would have had on the music for The Hobbit movies.
Here’s a snippet from the article:
That impact would have been felt most painfully during the post-production. Post, as you all know, is where the lion’s share of the music is created. Yes, Shore has already begun his creative process, but nothing other that pre-recorded songs an diagetic music can be recorded and mixed until the film is shot, edited, and locked. Performers and rooms need to be booked for specific schedules … as do technicians, editors, producers, and so on and so forth. It’s a small army, and it needs time and care.
My greatest fear — viewed through a music-specific lens, that is — was that the production would be rearranged in such a manner that there would be very little time for the music to be created appropriately.
Happily, with New Zealand now set and a February kick-off locked, it looks like none of these concerns will materialize. With a December 2012 release for part one, Shore and company should, presumably, be able to earnestly start into the post-production in late summer of 2012 … essentially the same schedule that was in place for the LOTR pictures. And those came out pretty well, I think! 🙂
Read the entire article over at Doug’s site. Many thanks to message board member Magpie for pointing us to this article.
Can’t make it to New York City for the TTT Radio City Music Hall event? We invite you to stop by the TORn message boards where we’ll be hosting a virtual concert, giving you another way to celebrate and enjoy the great music from the LOTR films.The Virtual Concert will be conducted in four “Movements” — two on Friday, and two on Saturday. Each Movement will be in the form of a discussion thread covering several tracks from the TTT Original Soundtrack disk. So, break out your TTT Soundtrack disk and stop by to post a comment on your favorite tracks. We encourage our NYC-bound friends to drop in and share some thoughts on the Live Concert, too! The Virtual Concert will begin at noon EST Friday on our “‘Main” message board and will be available to participate in all weekend.
Howard Shore’s The Lord of the Rings soundtrack has taken the top spot on UK’s Classic FM’s top 100 movie music chart. Thanks to Ringer Diztek for sending us the link. For the full list, jump over to Classic FM. [Top 100 MovieMusic] [LOTR Top Spot]
Our friends at Warner Bros Studios are also celebrating Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday today with up to 50% off selected items, and free shipping on orders of $60 or more from their WBshop.com store. This might be a perfect opportunity to nab a Halloween costume, DVD or that Gandalf bobblehead you’ve been putting off buying. Check out their complete Lord of the Rings offerings here. Thanks to stormcrow20 for the alert.
“The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films,” by Doug Adams, Carpetier, $59.95
