Approach Following the style of
his music for The Lord of the Rings film series,
Howard Shore constructed the
score for
The Hobbit using many strong recognisable musical themes. The musicologist
Doug Adams described these as "an encyclopedic network of
leitmotifs: dozens of themes that represented cultures, characters, objects, and dramatic concepts in
Middle-earth." Individual themes change and evolve to signal the evolution of characters in the story. For example, Adams writes, the home-loving
Bilbo's "
Shire" theme starts out with "safe, warm harmonies and cozy melodic contours." The theme then "moves into a new key and exposes Bilbo’s emerging thirst for excitement with leaping intervals and a stout, confident tone" This included
Neil Finn, who performed "Song of the Lonely Mountain" in
An Unexpected Journey, and later
Ed Sheeran and
Billy Boyd.
Richard Armitage appears as a cast performer in the film itself.
James Nesbitt performs a song of his own composition in the extended edition of
An Unexpected Journey, while
Barry Humphries performs two songs (one of them only in the Extended Edition). Within the underscore, Shore utilized soprano voices, featuring Clara Sanabras and Grace Davidson, often in conjunction with the music of nature or the Elves. Unlike in
The Lord of the Rings, no boy sopranos or young girls were called for in the score.
Songs As with
The Lord of the Rings, the scores from
The Hobbit were largely vocal works, including choirs and soloists, as well as diegetic music, and songs for the end-credits of each film.
Source songs • "Blunt the Knives": lyrics by
J. R. R. Tolkien, musical setting by Stephen Gallagher. Performed by the Dwarf cast. • "Misty Mountains": lyrics by J. R. R. Tolkien, musical setting by Plan 9 and David Long. It is transformed into a theme that appears in Shore's underscore. • "The man in the Moon": Composed and performed by James Nesbitt. • "Down in Goblin Town": Composed by Stephen Gallagher. • "The Torture Song": Composed by Stephen Gallagher and Fran Walsh.
End-credits songs • : Composed by David Long, Plan 9 and Neil Finn. Orchestrated and arranged by Victoria Kelly under the supervision of Howard Shore and performed by Neil Finn and sons and the
London Metropolitan Orchestra. It is another setting of the "Misty Mountains" melody. • "I See Fire": Composed and performed by Ed Sheeran. • "The Last Goodbye": Composed by Billy Boyd. Orchestrated and arranged by Victoria Kelly under Shore's supervision. Performed by Billy Boyd and the London Metropolitan Orchestra.
Diegetic music Shore composed "The Valley of Imladris" - a
diegetic piece (heard by the characters) for lute, lyre, wood flute and harp performed in
Rivendell. It is a recapitulation of a piece of music introduced in the underscore previously as
Elrond rides into Rivendell to meet the
Dwarves. Shore also composed the horn-call at the end of the Battle of the Five Armies, a statement of the Erebor theme. Sound effects used in Mirkwood and the Treasure Hoard scene, while non-diegetic, were performed by the orchestra and feature on the album. Other diegetic music was composed by The Elvish Impersonators, Stephen Gallaghar and members of the cast, including the source songs and a "trumpet fanfare" that sends the Dwarves off to the
Lonely Mountain.
Concert suites In
The Lord of the Rings original soundtrack releases, several pieces of music were edited out of their film order to create a concert-like program, with concert suites of various themes. With
The Hobbit, the original release has been expanded and features most of the music from the film in its chronological order. Some of the pieces of music were edited or even conceived as concert suites: • "Dreaming of Bag End" (Bilbo's Baggins/Took themes) • "A Very Respectable Hobbit" (Bilbo's Adventure, Baggins and Fussy themes) • "Erebor" (The secondary company theme) • "The Dwarf Lords" • "Beyond the Forest" (The various Woodland Realm themes) • "Ironfoot" (Dain's theme and the new Laketown material) "The Hobbit in Four Movements" is a symphony program constructed from "A Very Respectable Hobbit", "Beyond the Forest", "Smaug" and "Ironfoot". == Recordings ==