The Music of the LOTR Films/Rarities Archives: Late 2009

[Northerner]

W00t!!! I know what I want for Christmas!

[TheTennisBallKid]

It's available for preorder at the usual places (Amazon, B&N, etc.), for about $60. I haven't had time to check overseas prices...

Here's the tracklist:

From Amazon.de:

1. Roots And Beginnings
2. Journey To The Cross-roads
3. The Road To Isengard
4. The Foot Of Orthanc
5. Return To Edoras
6. The Chalice Passed
7. The Green Dragon [Featuring Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan]
8. Gollums Villainy
9. Éowyns Dream
10. The PalantÍr
11. Flight From Edoras
12. The Grace Of Undomiel [Featuring Renee Fleming
13. The Eyes Of The White Tower
14. A Coronal Of Silver And Gold
15. The Lighting Of The Beacons
16. Osgiliath Invaded [Featuring Ben Del Maestro]
17. The Stairs Of Cirith Ungol
18. Allegiance To Denethor
19. The Sacrifice Of Faramir [Featuring Billy Boyd]
20. The Parting Of Sam And Frodo
21. Marshalling At Dunharrow
22. AndÚril - Flame Of The West
23. The Passing Of The Grey Company
24. Dwimorberg - The Haunted Mountain
25. Master Meriadoc, Swordthain
26. The Paths Of The Dead
27. The Siege Of Gondor
28. Shelobs Lair
29. Merrys Simple Courage
30. Grond - The Hammer Of The Underwor
31. Shelob The Great
32. The Tomb Of The Stewards
33. The Battle Of The Pelennor Fields
34. The Pyre Of Denethor
35. The MÛmakil
36. Dernhelm In Battle
37. A Far Green Country
38. Shieldmaiden Of Rohan
39. The Passing Of Théoden
40. The Houses Of Healing [Featuring Liv Tyler]
41. The Tower Of Cirith Ungol
42. The Last Debate [Featuring Sissel]
43. The Land Of Shadow
44. The Mouth Of Sauron [Featuring Sir James galway]
45. For Frodo [Featuring Ben Del Maestro
46. Mount Doom [Featuring Renee Fleming
47. The Crack Of Doom
48. The Eagles [Featuring Ben Del Maestro]
49. The Fellowship Reunited [Featuring Renee Fleming and Viggo Mortensen]
50. The Journey To The Grey Havens [Featuring Sir James Galway]
51. Elanor [Featuring Sir James Galway]
52. Days Of The Ring [Featuring Annie Lennox]
53. Bilbos Song



ttbk

[Alatar]

Whats "Days of the Ring"?

[TheTennisBallKid]

Probably a typo, and it's supposed to be "Days of The King".



ttbk

[TheTennisBallKid]

....or maybe it's just an odd track title....

The release has been delayed to November 13th:

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates… I’ve been traveling a lot lately. And, in fact, I’m heading out again tonight, so I’ll have to be brief.

Yes, I can confirm the ROTK delay. It is not related to rescheduling, legal issues or anything of that sort. The delay pertains strictly to the creation of the physical product which, because of the additional CD and the double-sided DVD in this set, has become a bit more involved than in the past.

No cause for alarm, though I certainly understand your frustrations.

The Annotated Score is its final edits now… I hope it’ll answer your questions regarding unused material, etc. Oh, and FYI, the sequencing on the album represents the film’s structure at the time Shore scored it (save for Sissel’s piece). So when questions arise regarding “why is scene X before scene Y on this album…” it’s because that’s how the film was originally edited and that’s how it was scored.

Ok, I’m late! Gotta run! Yay, airports!

-Doug

PS – keep those questions coming in to the Podcast, they’ve been outstanding so far! I’d still love to hear from more of you… Magpie, I’m looking at you! We should be up and running around early November.

773.840.7470

Here's the full tracklist, with running time:
Disc 1:
1. Roots and Beginnings 6:31
2. Journey to the Crossroads 2:17
3. The Road to Isengard 2:18
4. The Foot of Orthanc 4:45
5. Return to Edoras 1:51
6. The Chalice Passed 1:51
7. The Green Dragon (feat. Billy Boyd & Dominic Monaghan) 0:35
8. Gollum's Villainy 2:10
9. Éowyn's Dream 1:24
10. The palantír 3:10
11. Flight from Edoras 2:18
12. The Grace of Undómiel (feat. Renée Fleming) 6:21
13. The Eyes of the White Tower 4:34
14. A Coronet of Silver 8:27
15. The Lighting of the Beacon 9:03
Disc Time: 57:35

Disc 2:
1. Osgilliath Invaded (feat. Ben Del Maestro) 8:47
2. The Stairs of Cirith Ungol 2:41
3. Allegiance to Denethor 3:20
4. The Sacrifice of Faramir (feat. Billy Boyd) 4:08
5. The Parting of Sam and Frodo 4:04
6. Marshalling at Dunharrow 4:57
7. Andúril - Flame of the West 3:28
8. The Passing of the Grey Company 4:12
9. Dwimorberg - The Haunted Mountain 2:26
10. Master Meriadoc, Swordthain 1:40
11. The Paths of the Dead 6:22
12. The Siege of Gondor 9:01
13. Shelob's Lair 8:53
14. Merry's Simple Courage 2:09
Disc Time: 66:08

Disc 3:
1. Grond - The Hammer of the Underworld 1:33
2. Shelob the Great 5:13
3. The Tomb of the Stewards 3:58
4. The Battle of the Pelennor Fields 4:10
5. The Pyre of Denethor 2:59
6. The Mûmakil 0:57
7. Dernhelm in Battle 2:06
8. "A Far Green Country" 1:28
9. Shieldmaiden of Rohan 5:07
10. The Passing of Théoden 2:16
11. The Houses of Healing (feat. Liv Tyler) 2:58
12. The Tower of Cirith Ungol 4:41
13. The Last Debate (feat. Sissel) 4:21
14. The Land of Shadow 6:30
15. The Mouth of Sauron 8:15
16. "For Frodo" 3:17
Disc Time: 59:49

Disc 4:
1. Mount Doom (feat. Renée Fleming) 4:09
2. The Crack of Doom 4:02
3. The Eagles (feat. Renée Fleming) 2:24
4. The Fellowship Reunited (feat. Sir James Galway & Viggo Mortensen) 12:18
5. The Journey to the Grey Havens (feat. Sir James Galway) 7:35
6. Elanor (feat. Sir James Galway) 1:28
7. Days of the Ring (feat. Annie Lennox) 11:10
8. Bilbo's Song 2:57
Disc Time: 46:03
Total Album Time: 229:35



Track samples

The statement of "Into the West" in A Far Green Country is longer than it is in the film.

I haven't noticed much other unused music....there's part of the contrapuntal statement of all three Ring themes in "mount Doom" though...and "The Cracks of Doom" is all new....




ttbk

[TheTennisBallKid]

The release was delayed a week, till the 20th, because the assembly plant in San Diego was temporaily closed due to wildfires.

My apologies for not keeping the thread as well updated as I have in the past; I've been rather busy lately.

The Annotated Score is now available for download, though:

http://download.wbr.com/lordoftherings/ ... _score.pdf

As usual, recommended reading whether you plan on buying the set or not.


One more week, one more week, one more week....



ttbk

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[ot]
ttbk (or anyone else), are you familiar with this book, that was recently released: Matthew Young's PROJECTING TOLKIEN'S MUSICAL
WORLDS: A STUDY OF MUSICAL AFFECT IN HOWARD SHORE'S SOUNDTRACK TO LORD OF THE RINGS?

Explaining the meaning or affect of a piece of music is by no means an easy task. However, some success has been found through the work of Philip Tagg, whose technique consists of breaking down a musical example into minimal units of musical meaning (called musemes), comparing those units to other musical examples possessing sociomusical connotations, and demonstrating a transfer of musical affect from the music possessing sociomusical connotations to the object of analysis. This work expands Tagg's techniques in an attempt to analyze the musical affect of Howard Shore's film score for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. After a discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien's description of the cultures of the inhabitants found in Middle-earth, this work dissects the thematic material of Shore's score, focusing on his incorporation of the music and culture of Tolkien's text into his film score through instrumentation and style, as well as utilizing musematic analysis to argue the musical affect of Shore's major themes that is projected on the audience. This book is directed toward any individual, musician or film enthusiast, who appreciates the ability for a film score to heighten the overall movie experience.

It is quite pricey ($54 for only 92 pages) but it does sound interesting.

Amazon link

[/ot]

[TheTennisBallKid]

Amazon is currently offering the first two sets at %50 off:

TTT ($37.99)

FOTR ($29.99)


Oh, and ROTK is marvelous....more later.



ttbk

[TheTennisBallKid]

Doug Adams' book, "The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films", has been delayed again, from late this year, to late next year. But it's a good thing!

Plans are now underway to create an all-inclusive Master Box (a working title, not necessarily the final name) that includes all the Complete Recordings music. It has been decided that The Rarities Archives should be added to this set in order to make it absolutely as comprehensive as possible. This makes an enormous difference in terms of what rare material can be released… Had the Rarities been released with the book, licensing costs were always going to have SOME effect on how much audio could be included. We would eventually hit a point where, due budgetary realities, we'd have to start cutting things. There was just so much material.

However, with Warners now eager for the Rarities, everything is back in-house. They already own the license to this music. This means that CONSIDERABLY more music is now available for the project! You will see why this qualifies as something "major," I promise. And as I've said, there is some incredible LOTR music that no one has ever heard. Now we can be sure you'll hear it all. Frankly, it'll be amazing to put everything Shore wrote for this project side-by-side. It's remarkable both from a collector/completeist standpoint and from an artistic standpoint. Here, finally, is the complete collection of Howard Shore's music for The Lord of the Rings.

I have also stressed to the powers that be that I feel the Rarities should be made available as a stand-alone album as well, so that that material is not available only with the full multi-disc set. So those of you content with one set of the CRs need not panic!

So what else can I say about this so-called Master Box? Uh… nothing really. But only because there's next to nothing decided at this point. I don't know what it will look like. I don't know what's going to be inside as far as the CR's audio DVDs and liners go. It's very, very early on for this project. But everything seems to be in the best possible hands right now! This will be overseen just as The Complete Recordings were, with the same team and the same dedication.

As for The Rarities Archives, it's still safe to assume this will be presented on DVD because of the amount of material. But we're exploring some details past this that could potentially make the music a little more accessible for those disinclined to pop in an audio DVD.



This development also impacts the book. The Rarities were meant to represent the heart of the book's multimedia aspect. With that aspect now moving on to album form, we're freed up to create something entirely new. That's what all the upcoming filming is about. We're still discovering the parameters of this new aspect, but we're using our public appearances and pre-concert lectures as a starting point—the experiences that Howard and I have had discussing this score. The experiences themselves aren't going to be the focus, obviously, the music will. But I think our framing device will develop along these lines. We're in an even more embryonic state on this than on the Master Box. It's come as a complete surprise… and wonderful surprise at that, but thoughts are still being organized.

So are you all preparing to place the defibrillator paddles on your wallet? Don't do it! The book's bottom line is untouched. It will cost exactly the same as it would have six months ago. There will still be a Standard Edition and a souped-up Deluxe Edition. These will both be book and DVD combos. Deluxe will be deluxe in presentation only. You know, special hardcover, autographs, hand numbered, etc. Expect more announcements on this in the near future.

We are also actively looking into a super-deluxe package that would include both the Deluxe Edition of the book and the Master Box. (This would be the actual book, not a 5 by 5 liner reduction or anything like that.) If you've got the cash and are dying to get your hands on the most luxurious presentation possible, I promise you, we'll make it worth your while! Oh, and we have a special guest working on the deluxe book packaging, so we may tie this in with the Master Box packaging if it seems appropriate.

But, again, if you were simply planning on picking up the book at a reasonable price and nothing else, fret not. It won't cost a dime more than it did before these exciting developments. I'm pushing hard so that there won't be any material that is exclusive to the premium priced goods. Just presentation.

Could any of the above change? Sure. All of it could change. Nothing is cast in stone, and what little ink exists is still pretty wet. But we've got passionate people in all the right places, so I'm not worried about a thing. That said, please understand, none of this is an official announcement. I'm just trying to share my enthusiasm and let you know what's brewing behind the scenes. When everything is solid and unchanging, you'd better believe I'll be directing you toward every press release available. But until that time, I ask for your indulgence and patience.

Ah yes, patience…

More at Doug Adams' blog.

I've been waiting for this for over four years now, so what's another year? Especially since it means it'll be done right.

This will be the first Christmas since 2000 that there won't be new LOTR music to listen to (there wasn't an album in 2004, but there was plenty of new music in ROTK:EE), and that will be a little strange...


ttbk

[Alatar]

Thanks TTBK, I know I'll be getting the book at least. after that, who knows...