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The Themes of Howard Shore's The Hobbit


Jay

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One of these days I'm going to find out what an arpeggio actually is.

Music that goes up, down, up, down....

Like most music!

Some music goes left to right!

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Way to Mordor doesn't show up in The Hobbit does it?

0:35 and 0:53 of Warg-scouts reminds me of 1:19 of My Precious (TTT CR), it may not actually be the same, but sounds similar to me at least.

BTW has anyone else noticed that the motif I have been calling the Threat of Dol Guldur (Radagast The Brown at 6:09) is actually more of a slowed down Mordor Skip Beat (6:38 of Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe)?

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Way to Mordor doesn't show up in The Hobbit does it?

0:35 and 0:53 of Warg-scouts reminds me of 1:19 of My Precious (TTT CR), it may not actually be the same, but sounds similar to me at least.

BTW has anyone else noticed that the motif I have been calling the Threat of Dol Guldur (Radagast The Brown at 6:09) is actually more of a slowed down Mordor Skip Beat (6:38 of Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe)?

I always knew that part was from LOTR, but is The Hobbit the first time it appears in that slower form?

There is similar music in The Eyes of the White Tower (at 3:40) while Pippin and Gandalf discuss Mordor.

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LR70 is "An Ancient Enemy" on the OST.

Interesting...

Any other tidbits you're learnt?

What would you like to know?

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LR70 is "An Ancient Enemy" on the OST.

Interesting...

Any other tidbits you're learnt?

What would you like to know?

Is the material in Riddles in the Dark in chronological order?

Are the alternate versions of Old Friends (from the Standard Edition) and Moon Runes (from the Special Edition) placed in the correct spots as BB thinks, or have they been moved for listening experience as I believe?

;)

LR70 is "An Ancient Enemy" on the OST.

Interesting...

Any other tidbits you're learnt?

What would you like to know?

Any cool music that wasn't recorded/released? Like that House of Durin/Azog at Moria hybrid you mentioned (this needs to be released as part of Complete Recordings!).

That was recorded, and partially used in the EE.

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Yes but we thought the statement in the film was tracked from later on?

Yes, but BB pointed out that the statement we thought it was tracked from was different (humming instead of words etc.), so it is clear that if there was any tracking, it was layering the orchestra from that statement over the choir from the original, and cutting out the first part of the first phrase (and of course cutting out the middle of the cue covering Thrain's charge and shifting it back a bit ).

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Yes but we thought the statement in the film was tracked from later on?

Yes, but BB pointed out that the statement we thought it was tracked from was different (humming instead of words etc.)

I pointed that out? I thought it was you. :P

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Yes but we thought the statement in the film was tracked from later on?

Yes, but BB pointed out that the statement we thought it was tracked from was different (humming instead of words etc.)

I pointed that out? I thought it was you. :P

Nope, I thought it was tracked, then you pointed out that the ending of the statement had some descending low notes in it.

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Well, to be fair, Doug only said "music examples". Doesn't necessarily means themes.

Exactly.

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If LotR didn't have 116 leitmotifs, I doubt the Hobbit films would have that many, unless we have missed a whole lot of them along the way.

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You are still 40 odd motifs short with that list. But who knows, perhaps there are ways to get to 116 by counting parts of themes as separate ideas.

Even 71 is very impressive, should I say insanely impressive, for a film trilogy considering The Hobbit is a scanter novel than LotR in terms of subtext, even if the adaptation adds things here and there.

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If there is a Way To Mordor motif, is there a "Way To Go, PJ" motif too?

There must be!

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  • 3 months later...

I've been thinking about Bilbo's themes of late, in particular those of the Adventure and Baggins/Took variety. The more I listen, the more I realize Shore worked more of these into the films than I initially thought. It's subtle sure. The variations with the Adventure theme are fairly abundant, a few not appearing on the albums (the bit from AUJ where Bilbo appears from behind the tree, which we now think was intended for the hug, that part where Bilbo tells Gandalf he's going to Ravenhill in BotFA). The Baggins/Took theme obviously fares worse, though I think I hear nods to the B-section in 0:27-0:34 of 'The Darkest Hour' and 0:11-0:16, 1:28-1:36 and the last bit of 'The Return Journey', which would make sense given that they are (or at least should be) Bilbo moments. Do we agree on this or am I wrong again? I know Doug said Bilbo's theme were woven into the scores more than we assumed.

Also a question Jay - you have AUJ 2-11 3:41-3:50 down as the Baggins-Took theme (B Section). Did we all agree on this? I know someone thought it was a hint of The Dwarf Lords, but I just had it down as a nod to the music for the eagles heard at the beginning of A Good Omen, as they're flying away at this moment. I suppose they must be pretty similar musically anyway (as I said before, I couldn't tell a musical note from a bank note).

With regard to Bilbo's Adventure, I believe the list is also missing a bit from 'Flies and Spiders' (DoS 1-06, 4:29-4:35). But again, I can't remember if we decided against this being this theme.

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Allow me to muse please! This thread is clearly dead so I thought I'd try and revive it with some bollocks. You couldn't possibly have been expecting new revelations from me? You know full well I never have anything useful to say.

As for the Bilbo/Gandalf bit, about 0:36-0:43 here:

We're feeding on scraps here, mere scraps!

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Yes sounds like the Shire theme, a bit like the moment when Bilbo and Gandalf say farewell in FotR.

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