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Yes, Corellian should have been happy back then. No further happiness is permitted now.

Ere iron was found or tree was hewn When young was mountain under moon; Ere ring was made, or wrought was woe, It posed in forests long ago. And as this might have been inundated in some of the myriad Tolkien threads on this board, I repost it here: In other (old) news, remember how John Howe was set to provide an original piece of art for The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films book but it in the end the idea fell through. Doug Adams mentions this in 2009 on his blog. Well I found the piece titled Melkor's Theme (it is the genuine John Howe piece if you are wondering) in the boundless seas of internet and it looked like this: In retrospect as fine a sketch as it is (it was released if I remember correctly alongside one of the map of Middle Earth illustrated by Howe) Melkor's Theme would have very little connection to the book apart from the fact that it does depict Morgoth's part in the creation of the world, which was done through music and discord he sew into it. And as nice it would have been to have original art work for The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films I personally might have preferred something closer to the actual story. The book already features dozens of sketches by both Alan Lee and John Howe but something done specifically for the book relating to Lord of the Rings would have been fantastic, perhaps even in the similar vein as that sketch above but with moments and characters from LotR.

Thank you, Mari! Caption Contest of the Year:

Reviews: LA Times- Ellen Olivier LA Times - Mark Swed Orange County Register Variety

Here's a YouTube version of the (half) Randy Newman concert: http://youtu.be/TYWdNwixu_o?t=1h28m55s Shortened, unfortunately, and missing the highlight (Newman's encore performance of Feels Like Home), but it has his magnificent award speech (I've linked directly to that bit). (Actually, the speech has been shortened as well, sadly)

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Gary-Kurtz-Blasts-Star-Wars-Myths/topic/17080/page/1/

That'd be utterly badass if HBO made it.

I want a Master & Commander TV show!

Undoubtedly it feels much too cloying, familiar and hagiographically soothing for Alex, too predictable. JW should have gone with some challenging stuff to evoke the dark recesses of Lincoln's psyche instead of offering us comfort food. Silence of the Lambs by Howard Shore: Quite a monochrome piece of writing, typical of Shore in his early 90's mode but somehow succeeds in sustaining aural interest through most of the album's running time. Grim, brooding and at times even morose the score weaves a subtle effect with its prototypical Shore motifs (which pop up in many of his later scores) and long lined murky melodies that seem to wind ever on without finding resolution or repeating quite the same. Apart from few thunderous moments of higher melodrama the tone of the score remains in the midrange and at times Shore's orchestrations blend the sections perhaps a little too effectively for details to come out and grace the soundscape. Still there is some highly effective writing here both in terms of mood, suspense and drama and the composer provides few glimmers of musical light and variety in dynamics at suitable intervals that stop the score from being too monotone and as I said above thus sustains the listening experience throughout. Atmospheric and moody but quite impressive.

Hook is hardly considered to be a classic either.

Never saw Jaws 2?! You can't give someone shit for not seeing Hook and then admit this!

There is certainly no going back after watching Hook.

For some reason, I don't listen to too many JW scores that I've never seen the film for, and I've tried to see as many JW scored films as I can. I guess I'd have to say Dracula, The Accidental Tourist, Jane Eyre, or Heidi. No wait - Jaws 2! That's my answer. I should see that film someday... Great score!

I'm happy about the inclusion of those episodes. I hope we also get Dreams in Darkness and specially The Man Who Killed Batman

To give credit where credit is due, the co-producer, with Neil S. Bulk. But many thanks! It's been a fantastic experience.

There's a heck of a lot of meandering in Shore's Complete Recordings too, gkgyver.

Two Socks theme is a lovely, lovely melody

So I decided to vote after all. The way I interpret it, the question is asking about both how these two groups of scores work in the films and how they stand on their own. Both work well in the films (even though LotR are, needless to say, superior films) but away from the films, I find the prequels more satisfying as a listening experience. Yes, LotR is more thematically rich and more ingenious for the way the themes seem to express perfectly their association in the films. (What did Williams have to work with anyway, empty shells like Qui-Gon and Padme?). But Williams is always more unpredictable and, for me, forms a more enthralling dramatic arc. As music, that is. For those reasons, my vote goes to the prequels. Williams wins! (for now)

But that's the thing, you CAN trace the arc to LotR with Howard Shore. Traces of Middle-Earth are all over in Shore's oeuvre before LOTR. You can hear the roots of the choral writing and the structural motifs in scores like The Fly, Looking for Richard, Dogma, etc. You hear how his aleatoric stylistic devices evolved from something like Naked Lunch to something as elaborate as The Cell to a very effective medium in LotR. You can even hear the harmonic language he uses in his melodicism in scores like Dead Ringers. LOTR just gave him the ultimate medium and resources to express all these facets of his compositional style at the peak of their potential. Before that, he never had an orchestra and choir of that size at his disposal, or the amount of time to delve into that level of thematic structure (which has always been a key component in his work). So in a way, his whole career has been leading to his magnum opus. I'm always a bit confused when people say LotR is completely unlike the Shore that came before it, when really, LotR is just Shore's sound, but done louder and in a more refined way.

That's why I want a documentary style series with a narrator. I think you could compensate a lot of unevenness that way. You may have just completely reversed my complete disinterest in ever writing an opera. It reminds me of how Strauss and his librettists took stories from Greek mythology and told most of the actual action in flashbacks and inner monologues. An Akallabêth libretto could focus mostly on the eve of departure from Elendil's and Ar-Pharazôn's view. The opera could end with an orchestral finale for the reshaping of Middle-earth (somewhat like Wagner's finale to Götterdämmerung).