Moviescore, a site dedicated to tracking film music, reports that New Zealand composer and award-winning music editor Stephen Gallagher has been tapped to score the music for Kenji Kamiyama’s The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.

Gallagher is probably best-known to Tolkien fans for his work on The Hobbit where, as well as working as music editor on all three films, he composed the songs ‘Blunt the Knives’ and ‘The Torture Song’ for An Unexpected Journey.

Perusing IMDB reveals that Gallagher has previously composed music for a range of documentaries and short films, but arguably this is his most prominent compositional role to date.

He also has a decades-long career as music editor spanning big productions like Avatar: The Way of Water, District 9 and Wolf Warrior 2 to niche films such as Amy Berg’s West Of Memphis and Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. Last year, he won an Emmy Award for his sound work on Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back.

IMDB states that he’s currently based at Park Road Post Production in Wellington — a facility that’s owned by Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films.

The War of the Rohirrim is slated to release on April 12, 2024. Director Kenji Kamiyama is also currently co-directing on the final season of Ultraman with Shinji Aramaki which will debut on Netflix sometime in 2023.

SPECULATION

A speculatory post-script.

I was idly chatting with TORn staffer Justin about the leak/confirm and he wondered if the selection of Gallagher could indicate a return to the style of music that was the hallmark of the Rankin Bass animated features. After all, Blunt the Knives in An Unexpected Journey is very much a homage to the sing-along style of the animated Hobbit of 1977.

Personally, I’m inclined to say no.

I feel that both Blunt the Knives and The Torture Song (as sung by Barry Humphries) owe more to a combination of the children’s tale-nature of Tolkien’s novel and the comedic sensibilities of Peter Jackson (Meet the Feebles, anyone?).

On the other hand, the tale of Helm Hammerhand is far grimmer. It’s also a little tempting to add that Kamiyama animes typically play the material straight, but then the quirky Tachikomas (AI spider tanks/mechs) of the Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex animated series are a spectacular outlier. Kamiyama leverages them in multiple ways: surreal comics, action heroes, philosophers, and ultimately as beings capable of self-sacrifice. The “cute” Tachikoma moments don’t devalue the serious ones. In fact, they make them more rounded characters (I dare say, more human — a crucial point to the story Ghost in the Shell explores).

So, if Kamiyama could see a way that a quirky, lyrically focused tune would serve the needs of the Helm story, he absolutely has the chops to pull it off.

Neverthless, I think it’s probably better to calibrate musical expectations more in line with the thoroughly grounded nature of Kamiyama’s acclaimed adapatation of the fantasy story Serei no Moribito. If nothing else, it’s still difficult to get folks to take anime as a serious artform that’s not “just for kids” without hobbling your production with a bunch of cutesy tunes. I’m surer Warner Bros. will be keenly aware of that.

All that being said, we know that Miranda Otto has a very fine singing voice. If, as Éowyn, she’s relating this tale to someone (like her grandchild Barahir) there’s certainly an opportunity for her to sing in the intro, or some lament as the outro at the end. I like that idea.

The OST for Season 1 of The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power features work from composers Bear McCreary and Howard Shore.

While McCreary has crafted Season One’s score, Shore’s contribution to the show is the title theme. Shore has won three Academy Awards for his music for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit feature film trilogies. McCreary is an Emmy and BAFTA winner for his music scores on Outlander and God of War.

In this new segment, two of our Discord regulars, Reading Room Moderator DrNosy and composer Mike T, debate the show’s title theme and whether it is ‘musically’ suited to the score of The Rings of Power.


DRNOSY

The French horns.

It is that instrument that I closely relate to the music of The Lord of the Rings, particularly in the soundtrack Prologue: One Ring to Rule Them All. Hearing them again, in the first second of the Main Title, I was immediately pulled back towards the story and events that launched the Third Age — Sauron with the One Ring in hand laying waste to the armies of the Last Alliance of Men and Elves.

However, as I keep listening to the track, I start to feel something is off. This music sounds like a watered-down version of that track from The Lord of the Rings. A “lite” version of The Lord of the Rings is absolutely not what the Second Age should sound like. It is also almost completely at odds with the rest of the themes in the album.

Listening to the entire album, it is clear that McCreary (following in Shore’s footsteps with the film tracks) has created a succinct soundscape for the Second Age, complete with themes for each character and narrative arcs for the events of Season One. Shore’s theme does not seem to fit with any of McCreary’s tracks.

MIKE T

I think this might be the biggest thing driving negative reactions to Main Title, as well as the opposing negative reactions that favor the theme over the score, and it’s definitely a misstep on the part of the people behind the show, but is it a problem with the music itself?

Not from where I stand: both composers have done what they were tasked with, and done it well.

If there is a question to ask, it’s this: why wasn’t part of that task, for either of them, to strive for more musical unity with each other. For now, it seems pointless to speculate on that.

Perhaps we’ll get more insight into the circumstances of the composition eventually, or maybe we’ll even have a situation where Bear does start to weave some of Shore’s ideas in. In any case, some of us just seem more willing to “bridge the gap” ourselves, and to take Shore’s theme as a welcome bit of torch-passing that will nicely frame each episode of the series.

DRNOSY

While I take your point about “bridging the gap” between the films and the show, I simply do not see how or why they should be linked in Main Title itself.

Main Title’s fairy-esque tones simply do not fit with the characterization of the factionalized, bloodied, and catastrophic ending of the many races of Middle-earth in the Second Age. Not to mention how it completely seems to miss the themes and leitmotifs of the other peoples of Middle-earth, i.e., the Dwarves, Harfoots, NĂșmenor, and Orcs.

I appreciate Shore’s use of the musical leitmotif representing Galadriel (ethereal ‘Elven’ feminine vocals at 0:35), but that moment also rings along the lines of a ‘fairy lady in the woods singing to the birds’, which is closely followed by ‘evil has come to the woods and it threatens the lady and her birds’ (0:53). It is the ultimate mischaracterization of the Galadriel of the Second Age, especially as the Galadriel we meet in The Rings of Power is an Elf at war with herself.

Why is it that we don’t hear that conflict in Shore’s theme?

MIKE T

As you noted at the outset, from the very first notes heard it is clear, from both the voicing of the chord and the way it is orchestrated, where this music is supposed to take us. It follows exactly the rhetorical and stylistic precedents Shore first set over 20 years ago. And yes, his writing is indeed always committed to very tightly-woven leitmotivic processes. His Main Theme does in fact seem to make reference to a number of musical structures that are present in his previous Middle-earth music, related to the various story elements you mention.

Whether this is explicit enough for every listener, I certainly can’t decree
 but there is an argument to be made for their presence (the specifics of which I will not bore readers with here!).

As for your feeling that the theme mischaracterizes Galadriel, I would simply argue that the vocal element in question is not meant to represent Galadriel in the first place. It sounds to me more like an incidental orchestration choice by the composer, rather than being intended as a direct evocation of anything or anyone previously associated with that specific color, and likewise, the darker turn you mention is a more abstract musical turn to represent the overall tumult of the events of the Second Age, not anything specific to Galadriel’s arc.

The whole piece in fact centers around this dramatic “triptych” structure, in which we are introduced to familiar-sounding material which begins confidently but then takes a darker turn, and is briefly restated in a more pure way before ending in a quite unresolved place.

This feels like an apt encapsulation of what we’re going to see play out here, a sort of grand overview of events rather than a focused musical commentary on specific characters. Does it do so in weighty enough tones for what we will experience in the substance of the show?

Again, I can’t decide that for everyone, I can only explain the possible thinking behind things.

DRNOSY

I see Galadriel as the main protagonist of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings Of Power.

If the feminine vocal element isn’t Galadriel, it would seem that Main Title doesn’t weave any element of McCreary’s sounds for the Second Age, which is curious to say the least. I was also disappointed how Main Title drastically falls short of iconic sounding title themes we hear in other fantasy/epic shows such as A Game of Thrones, The Wheel of Time, The Witcher, Westworld, His Dark Materials, The Sandman, and others.

The whole purpose of title music is to leave a lasting impact or memory of the show on the audience every single time they tune in to watch. I still remember how I binged the entire glorious Season One of The Crown in one night. At that time, I did not dare to skip the titles (even to save time) because of my need to let the music (and title sequence) wash over me as I savored and reflected on the episodes I’d watched previously. I did the same with The Witcher, His Dark Materials, and The Wheel of Time.

It is hard to ignore the impact of ‘good’ and ‘catchy’-sounding theme music, especially because its sole purpose is to transition the audience from the opening events of the episode (or even the previous episode) into the central story arc.

I find myself forgetting Shore’s title track music even after having listened to it about 20 times now.

MIKE T

It’s true, there are ways to open with a bang and to set up a musical hook that will immediately grab the audience. It may simply be that Shore’s approach as a composer tends more towards subtlety than the expectations formed by the examples you mention, for better or worse.

There are surely important musical structures in Shore’s prologue to “The Fellowship of the Ring” which, if not for the subsequent hours of music building on them, might not be clear to us as meaningful, and which would not grab us by the heart, so to speak, without that reinforcement.

I think we have a situation similar to that hypothetical here. Nothing of Howard’s new theme is, at least based on what we’ve heard so far, built on in Bear’s score.

Those elemental structures are not reinforced. We go right from an echo of the Middle-earth sound that we know, to a younger and more vibrant Middle-earth, with no real bridge between that and the grand but poignant “civilization in decline” soundworld we’re used to.

The power of familiarity shouldn’t be underestimated though. Given what I’ve seen happen with some other scores’ themes over the years, I’m willing to bet that quite a few of those who are currently unimpressed by and unattached to this one will feel differently once they’ve heard it fifty or so times accompanying each episode, when this new journey reaches its end.

About our chat participants

DrNosy is a scientist (physical science), scholar, and Tolkien enthusiast. Her primary interests lie in review and analysis of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. She is an active contributor and Reading Room Moderator on TheOneRing.net Discord where she also hosts live open-forum panel discussions on The Rings of Power, The Silmarillion,  and a variety of Tolkien-related topics. You can reach her on Twitter.

Mike T is a composer and near-lifelong Tolkien aficionado. After obsessively relying on TORn for spoiler reports during the early 2000s, and pursuing a musical life in large part due to the experience of hearing Howard Shore’s scores in darkened theaters dozens of times, he is delighted to find himself back amongst the TORn community for this new journey through Middle-Earth. You can listen to his music at https://michaeltrapasso.bandcamp.com and reach out to him on Twitter.


Editor’s Note: we reported in September last year that McCreary was being brought onboard to work with Shore on scoring the series. It was rumored at the time that Shore didn’t “necessarily want to compose the whole series”.  We now know that Shore and McCreary ended up composing the music separately.

rings of power ost cover

It’s here! If you’re anything like me, listening to the music of The Lord of the Rings is a great way to relax at the end of a stressful day. Now we can add the music from the new series to our playlists.

Rings of Power Season 1 OST

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season One Soundtrack

Listen now on Amazon Music

Amazon has two additional Amazon exclusive releases, “Find the Light” and “The Promised King”. I’ve already listened to “Find the Light” and personally I love it, I found it to be quite moving and beautiful, very emotive.

Listen now on Spotify

Physical copy pre-orders

Double CD pre-order on Mondo Records

VINYL Double LP pre-order on Mondo Records

Amazon exclusive Double VINYL LP advance purchase

Exclusive Amazon double vinyl cover

PRESS RELEASE

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season One: Amazon Original Series Soundtrack) 

Score composed by Bear McCreary, this soundtrack features â€œThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Main Title” by composer Howard Shore available on Amazon Music

CULVER CITY, California – August 19, 2022—Today, Amazon Studios released The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season One: Amazon Original Series Soundtrack). Available worldwide across all streaming services, the full episodic score for the highly anticipated Amazon Original series was composed by Emmy-winner Bear McCreary and also features “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Main Title,” composed by Academy Award-winner Howard Shore. Amazon Music listeners will also have access to two exclusive songs from the soundtrack: “Find the Light” and “The Promised King.” CLICK HERE to listen to The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season One: Amazon Original Series Soundtrack)Physical CDs can be pre-ordered HERE and the LP can be pre-ordered HERE. An Amazon Exclusive vinyl variant is available for advance purchase HERE.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will debut worldwide on Prime Video on September 2, 2022. Following each episode, Amazon Music will release a weekly soundtrack album containing the entirety of the score for each episode, plus additional bonus tracks only available on Amazon Music.

The Season One: Amazon Original Series Soundtrack includes two performances by The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power actors—Sophia Nomvete (Princess Disa) on the track “A Plea to the Rocks” and “This Wandering Day,” sung by Megan Richards (Poppy Proudfellow).

Bear McCreary, known for his incomparable world-building and use of innovative musical approaches in the worlds of television, film, and video games, will guide audiences through the major events of the Second Age of Middle-earth, as seen in the forthcoming series. Working out of the iconic Abbey Road Studios as well as AIR Studios and Synchron Stage in Vienna, he has recorded and composed hours of music for the score, weaving together his original themes into a sonic tapestry for a full symphonic orchestra, alongside vibrant folk instruments and choral singers. 

“J.R.R. Tolkien’s stunning novels and their film adaptations have had a profound impact on my imagination for nearly my entire life,” McCreary said. “I am honored to compose the music that will help guide audiences through the major events of the Second Age of Middle-earth.”

“This soundtrack is a stunning companion to the series’ exploration of the Second Age of Middle-earth” said Bob Bowen, worldwide head of music for Amazon Studios.  “With two weeks to go till the debut of Season One, we’re excited to give fans a further glimpse into the epic series.”

Legendary composer Howard Shore has composed scores for some of the most memorable and world-renowned film and television series. Globally respected for his passion for J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, he is perhaps best known for his work on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. 

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history, set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings stories. Led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay, the series begins in a time of relative peace, following an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth.

Additional executive producers are Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, BelĂ©n Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado, and producers Ron Ames and Christopher Newman. Wayne Che Yip is co-executive producer and directs, along with Bayona and Charlotte BrĂ€ndström. 

The multi-season drama will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories around the world in multiple languages on Friday, September 1-2  (time zone dependent), with new episodes available weekly. 

TRACK LISTING: 

01) “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Main Title” (by Howard Shore) 

02) “Galadriel” 

03) “Khazad-dĂ»m” 

04) “Nori Brandyfoot” 

05) “The Stranger” 

06) “NĂșmenor”

07) “Sauron” 

08) “Valinor” 

09) “In the Beginning” 

10) “Elrond Half-Elven” 

11) “Durin IV” 

12) “Harfoot Life” 

13) “Bronwyn and Arondir” 

14) “Halbrand” 

15) “The Boat”

16) “Sundering Seas” 

17) “Nobody Goes Off Trail” 

18) “Elendil and Isildur”

19) “White Leaves”

20) “The Secrets of the Mountain” 

21) “Nolwa Mahtar”  

22) “Nampat”

23) “A Plea to the Rocks” (feat. Sophia Nomvete) 

24) “This Wandering Day” (feat. Megan Richards) 

25) “Scherzo for Violin and Swords” 

26) “Sailing into Dawn” 

27) “Find the Light” (Amazon Music Exclusive)

28) “For the Southlands”

29) “Cavalry” 

30) “The Promised King” (Amazon Music Exclusive) 

31) “Water and Flame”

32) “In the Mines” 

33) “The Veil of Smoke” 

34) “The Mystics” 

35) “Perilous Whisperings” 

36) “The Broken Line” 

37) “Wise One” 

38) “True Creation Requires Sacrifice” 

39) “Where the Shadows Lie” (Instrumental) 

ABOUT PRIME VIDEO: 

Prime Video offers customers a vast collection of movies, series, and sports—all available to watch on hundreds of compatible devices. 

·         Included with Prime Video: Watch movies, series, and sports, including Thursday Night Football. Enjoy series and films including Emmy-winner The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Emmy-nominated satirical superhero drama The Boys, and the smash hits Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, The Tender Bar, Being the Ricardos, The Tomorrow War, and Coming 2 America. Prime members also get access to licensed content. 

·         Prime Video Channels: Prime members can add channels like discovery+, Paramount+, BET+, EPIX, Noggin, NBA League Pass, MLB.TV, STARZ, and SHOWTIME—no extra apps to download, and no cable required. Only pay for the ones you want, and cancel anytime.  View the full list of channels available at amazon.com/channels

·         Rent or Buy: Enjoy new-release movies to rent or buy, entire seasons of current TV shows available to buy, and special deals just for Prime members. 

·         Instant access: Watch at home or on the go with your choice of hundreds of compatible devices. Stream from the web or using the Prime Video app on your smartphone, tablet, set-top box, game console, or select smart TV. 

·         Enhanced experiences: Make the most of every viewing with 4K Ultra HD- and High Dynamic Range (HDR)-compatible content. Go behind the scenes of your favorite movies and TV shows with exclusive X-Ray access, powered by IMDb. Save it for later with select mobile downloads for offline viewing. 

Prime Video is just one of many shopping, savings, and entertainment benefits included with a Prime membership, along with fast, free shipping on millions of Prime-eligible items at Amazon.com, ultrafast grocery delivery and pickup, unlimited photo storage, exclusive deals and discounts, prescription savings, and access to ad-free music, books, and games. To sign up or start a 30-day free trial of Prime, visit: amazon.com/prime

About Bear McCreary: 

Emmy and BAFTA award-winning composer Bear McCreary began his career as a protĂ©gĂ© of legendary film composer Elmer Bernstein, before bursting onto the scene scoring the influential and revered series Battlestar Galactica in 2004. Since then, McCreary has been a four-time Emmy nominee and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme for Da Vinci’s Demons, a musical palindrome that sounds the same forwards and backwards. His recent projects include Foundation for Apple TV+, the Sony and Starz international hit series Outlander, Netflix’s Academy Award nominated documentary Crip Camp, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot Films’ 10 Cloverfield Lane, AMC’s global phenomenon The Walking DeadMarvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the video game Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge for Disney; and Sony PlayStation’s massive video game God of War, and its highly anticipated sequel. 

About Howard Shore: 

Shore is one of today’s premier composers whose music is performed in concert halls around the world by the most prestigious orchestras and is heard in cinemas across the globe. Shore’s musical interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imaginative world of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, as portrayed in the films directed by Peter Jackson, have enthralled people of all generations for years. This work stands as his most acclaimed composition to date awarding him with three Academy Awards, four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes as well as numerous critic’s and festival awards.  He is an Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la France, the recipient of Canada’s Governor General’s Performing Arts Award and is an officer of the Order of Canada. The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures honored Howard Shore with an award for Career Achievement for Music Composition, the City of Vienna bestowed him with the Max Steiner Award and in 2017 he received the Wojciech Kilar Award established by the mayors of Krakow and Katowice. Shore has received numerous other awards for his career achievements. Shore has been invited to speak at many prestigious institutions, including La FĂ©mis in Paris with Michel Hazanavicius. Other notable talks have been at Oxford Union, Royal Conservatory, Yale, NYU, Julliard, UCLA, University of Toronto, Berklee School of Music, Berlinale, CinĂ©mathĂšque in Paris, and at Trinity College Dublin where he received the Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage. 

It appears that some, uh, overly enterprising leakers thought they could make a quick buck by posting the full OST of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power to YouTube.

It was quickly caught and deleted. But, in the meantime, we were able discover a little over half of the track titles — and they provide interesting hints of what’s soon to come. Of the 37 tracks on the OST, the title theme is composed by Howard Shore, while the other 36 are by Bear McCreary.

Below are the titles of the first 19:

  • 01. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Main Title
  • 02. Galadriel
  • 03. Khazad-dĂ»m
  • 04. Nori Brandyfoot
  • 05. The Stranger
  • 06. NĂșmenor
  • 07. Sauron
  • 08. Valinor
  • 09. In the Beginning
  • 10. Elrond Half-elven
  • 11. Durin IV
  • 12. Harfoot Life
  • 13. Bronwyn and Arondir
  • 14. Halbrand
  • 15. The Boat
  • 16. Sundering Seas
  • 17. Nobody Goes Off Trail
  • 18. Elendil and Isildur
  • 19. White Leaves

We can also now add the remaining track titles

  • 20. The Secrets of the Mountain
  • 21. Nolwa Mahtar
  • 22. Nampat
  • 23. A Plea to the Rocks
  • 24. This Wandering Day
  • 25. Scherzo for Violin and Swords
  • 26. Sailing into the Dawn
  • 27. For the Southlands
  • 28. Cavalry
  • 29. Water and Flame
  • 30. In the Mines
  • 31. The Veil of Smoke
  • 32. The Mystics
  • 33. Perilous Whisperings
  • 34. The Broken Line
  • 35. Wise One
  • 36. True Creation Requires Sacrifice
  • 37. Where the Shadows Lie

TORn does not condone piracy. Remember that the official release is around the corner, folks. You’ll very soon be able to stream the music to your heart’s delight via your favourite service, or even pick up a copy on physical media.

Deadline and Fellowship of the Fans (FOTF) are carrying separate reports that Howard Shore is in the frame to compose soundtrack music for the LOTR on Prime series. FOTF reports the deal is, in fact, already inked and, additionally, that Shore will be joined by American composer Bear McCreary.

For those living under a rock (yours truly, for example), McCreary is best known for his work on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, as well as Outlander and The Walking Dead. He also composed the music for the God of War computer game.

The choice of Shore offers more evidence that Amazon Studios is exerting a lot of effort to create a synchronicity between the LOTR on Prime Second Age-focused series and the aesthetics that Peter Jackson established with his own renditions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Update

In 2019, Shore expressed in an interview with Loot Crate that he’d be open to and interested working in the Middle-earth milieu again.

I spent so many happy years traveling through Tolkien’s world. If I was able to return and explore a bit more in a creative environment, I would be very interested to do so.

Howard Shore, speaking to Loot Crate.

It’s also worth noting that in September 2020 TORn Tuesday revealed a rumour that Shore and Amazon were in discussions. Staffer Justin reported that Shore didn’t “necessarily want to compose the whole series”, but was keen to be involved in the design and development of the themes. This would tend to bear out FOTF’s report of a dual-pronged appointment and the involvement of McCreary. You can watch that TORn Tuesday episode here (Shore discussion starts around 9 mins 50 secs).