BOFA Standard OST Cover Art30 seconds not enough for you? Perfectly understandable. So for those of you who want just little bit more of a taste of Howard Shore’s final score in the Middle-earth Saga, iTunes has granted your wish.

The Special Edition Album of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is now up for pre-order in the iTunes US store, and along with that pre-order come 90-second samples for each track. This provides a much clearer idea of what to expect from this score – and if you ask me, the word you’re looking for is BIG. Or EPIC. Or GARGANTUAN… (you get the idea). Continue reading “‘The Battle of the Five Armies’ Soundtrack up for pre-order on iTunes US Store with 90 second samples!”

OrchestraAmazon UK has put up some fantastic samples from the Special Edition Album of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (as well as supplied us with an updated track list).

Click on the soundtrack cover below to get your first listen to Howard Shore’s magnificent score, as well as Billy Boyd’s poignant “The Last Goodbye”. Continue reading “‘The Battle of the Five Armies’ Soundtrack Samples!”

OrchestraThanks to Amazon’s France website, we now have the track list for Howard Shore’s score for the third and final Hobbit film The Battle of the Five Armies. We don’t yet know which of the tracks will be extended on the Special Edition Album, but there are definitely two bonus tracks at the end of disc two, as well as some reordering of the final tracks. Continue reading “‘The Battle of the Five Armies’ Soundtrack Album track list revealed!”

220px-Wojciech_Kilar_2 Polish classical and film music composer Wojciech Kilar has died aged 81 after a long illness.

Kilar became known internationally as the author of dozens of film soundtracks such as Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He also composed symphonic music, chamber works and works for solo instruments.

He was also, for a time, a frontrunner to compose the score for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films. Continue reading “Polish composer Wojciech Kilar dies, aged 81”

Production Video Howard Shore
Just a couple of hours ago, the Hobbit Production Video #14 popped up on Peter Jackson’s Facebook page. This final video blog covers the recording of Howard Shore’s magnificent musical score for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The score was recorded by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and conducted by renowned orchestrator/composer Conrad Pope. We’ve got the video for you just below in HD, courtesy of Peter Jackson’s YouTube page. Enjoy! Continue reading “Peter Jackson releases final Production Video of 2013!”

Soundtrack Special EditionHoward Shore’s score for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was, for many of us, a nostalgic trip back to Middle-earth. Regardless of the differences between some of the music on the album and the final film,
the score brought us back comfortably to musical territory that we knew – while also setting up a number of themes that would come back full force in the next films.

Let me tell you – if any of you were hoping for more original material from Mr. Shore, you’ve got your wish. In spades. Continue reading “‘The Desolation of Smaug’ Special Edition Soundtrack reviewed by Aragorn the Elfstone”