Film scores , composer of
The Lord of the Rings film score The Canadian composer and conductor
Howard Shore composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced the film trilogy's music. and the Polish composer
Wojciech Kilar for the role. Shore visited the set in 1999, and composed a version of the Shire theme and Frodo's Theme before Jackson began shooting. In August 2000 he visited the set again, and watched the assembly cuts of
The Fellowship of the Ring and
The Return of the King. In the music, Shore included over 50
leitmotifs to represent the different characters, cultures and places. There are for instance multiple leitmotifs just for the hobbits and the
Shire. Although part of the score for the first film was recorded in
Wellington, New Zealand, virtually all of the trilogy's score was recorded in
Watford Town Hall and mixed at
Abbey Road Studios in London. Jackson planned to advise the score for six weeks each year in London, though for
The Two Towers he stayed for twelve. Shore composed a main theme for the Fellowship rather than many different character themes, and the Fellowship's highs and lows are depicted during the series. Individual themes were composed to represent different cultures. In keeping with his operatic vision, Shore used the three scripts and the book itself to write themes even before having film reels to compose to. As a result, Shore spent nearly four years on the composition, compared to the 6–8 weeks per film, and a week or two of recording, typical for film composers. For the recording process, which extended over four weeks per film, he arranged the music in long suite-like pieces for the orchestra to go through during a day of playing, rather than short cues, making the score more cohesive. Only a few minutes of finalized music were recorded each day, to allow for input from director Peter Jackson and revisions to the music and performance. Shore began his work on the music early in the production of
The Fellowship of the Ring, in late 2000. He recorded the first pieces of music, the
Moria sequence, early in 2001. Shore's orchestration called for an immense ensemble: a core 96-piece orchestra and 100-piece choir, as well as additional instruments for select sections of the score, onstage instrumental "bands" and additional choirs: overall, over 330 players. Among the less-usual instruments are
contrabass clarinet in B for Gollum's theme,
horns doubling on
Wagner tubas and
trumpets in C, F, B and with
rotary valves.
Use of Middle-earth languages The film score for
The Lord of the Rings incorporates extensive vocal music blended with the orchestral arrangements. The great majority of the lyrics used in the libretto are in the invented
languages of Middle-earth, representing the various cultures and races in Tolkien's writings. These languages include
Quenya and
Sindarin for the Elves,
Adûnaic and
Rohirric for Men, and
Khuzdul for the Dwarves. The score follows Tolkien's use of
Old English as an analogue for Rohirric, while English is used as an analogue for the Common Tongue. Some of these languages had been developed extensively by Tolkien, while others were extrapolated by the linguist David Salo based on the limited samples of vocabulary and linguistic style available. For example, the "Footsteps of Doom" song, in Sindarin, is heard in the "Prologue: One Ring to Rule Them All" introductory chapter of the film trilogy, at the start of
The Fellowship of the Ring. To a spoken narration by
Cate Blanchett as the Elf-lady
Galadriel, scenes of a long and violent history unfurl on screen, overlaid with several of Shore's themes, including "Lothlórien" for the Elves, "Threat of Mordor", "Sauron", "Evil of the Ring", "Ringwraith", and "Footsteps of Doom" for the forces of the Dark Lord; "Fall of Men", "Gondor in Decline", and "Minas Tirith" for the human allies of the Elves; and throughout the Prologue, the "History of the Ring" theme as the
One Ring passes from one owner to another. The libretto was derived from several sources, including songs and poems written by Tolkien, phrases from the screenplay (often sung against the corresponding dialogue or recitation) as well as original and adapted material from Shore and from screenwriters
Fran Walsh,
Philippa Boyens, and others, all translated by Salo while stressing good choral sounds.
Songs and diegetic music The score includes a series of songs, some
diegetic, some not. A selection of them, with the associated underscore, were released as single CD releases and music videos featuring footage from the film and the production, prior to the release of the entire soundtracks. by Plan 9, ostensibly being played by the musicians visible at the top right of the image. Some of the diegetic songs were not composed by Shore, but he orchestrated and conducted the orchestral accompaniment and even reprised some of them in his symphony. Thus,
Bilbo's farewell party sees the hobbits celebrating and dancing vigorously to music by Plan 9, a group who had long worked with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. Shore commented that their music had "the right feel" for the scene, and liked the difference from his own music. A few of the diegetic songs are settings of
poems by Tolkien, interspersed in the text of
The Lord of the Rings. Among these is "
The Road Goes Ever On", sung softly by
Ian McKellen playing
Gandalf arriving in Hobbiton in his farm cart, to a melody by Walsh. Some of the non-diegetic songs, too, were by other composers; for instance, "
May It Be" and
Aníron (the theme for
Aragorn and
Arwen) were composed and sung by the Irish singer and songwriter of modern
Celtic music Enya. "The Funeral of Théodred" in
The Two Towers was composed by Plan 9 and performed by the actor Miranda Otto, playing
Éowyn; the words are not Tolkien's.
Symphony For the music to be played as the six-movement
The Lord of the Rings Symphony, over 200 musicians and singers are required on stage. To suit the complex narrative, with its contrasting cultures, Shore wrote music in different styles for each of the peoples of Middle-earth. For the Elves, the music is mainly women's voices,
Rivendell designed to appear as
a timeless place of learning, while
Lothlórien was by intention "mystical and exotic". In contrast, the Orcs of
Isengard were accompanied by a 5-beat rhythm on steel plates, Japanese drums, and metal chains, giving a harsh industrial effect. For
Gollum, a corrupted Hobbit in two minds with a strange way of moving, Shore used the
cimbalom, an instrument like a medieval
hammered dulcimer, giving a trembling feeling. For some concerts conducted by Shore, images of Middle-earth by the films' concept artists
Alan Lee and
John Howe were projected while the music was played. There are over 50 leitmotifs in the music; the symphony begins with the rising and falling "The History of the Ring" theme with a "breathlike pattern to give the Ring a sense of consciousness and purpose". Shore comments that this could be taken as the central theme of the score. The "Fellowship" theme appears when the nine heroes, the
Fellowship of the Ring, first come together at
the Council of Elrond at Rivendell; the theme splinters when the Fellowship breaks apart, and gradually reassembles as the Fellowship makes progress with its task. The symphony is edited to concert length from over 11 hours of film music. The symphony has a 19th century structure to give the audience a sense of history, hinting at the great lapse of time since the
Third Age of Middle-earth. Shore, with Jackson and Walsh, wanted it to feel like opera. To represent the evolution of characters, the themes change; thus, the Hobbits'
tin whistle is replaced by a
flute when they return to
the Shire. That return,
to save the Shire, is a central theme of the story, accompanied by the Hobbits' theme.
Live to Projection is a series where
The Lord of the Rings films (their soundtrack limited to dialogue and sound effects) are projected while the music is performed live in sync with the films. It is conducted by and Erik Eino Ochsner and was performed around the world, including Switzerland, Australia and the United States. The concerts, which consist of multiple movements, restore unused or alternate sections of the soundtrack (where other concerts of this kind for other films repeat the final film music) and even required Shore to edit several bars of the music, including a feature entr'acte suite. == Analysis ==