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The Themes of Howard Shore's The Hobbit


Jay

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Thank you! :)

It was a blast writing this and thanks for the handsome look of the article and sound clips has to go to our editors Karol Krok and Charlie Brigden at Films on Wax and thanks for suggesting to me that I write this in the first place.

Also keep in mind what I say in the caveat, that this is just my interpretation augmented by information from available "official sources" (i.e. Doug Adams' writings over the years) so it is hardly definitive. As for why it does not list every appearance of every theme (especially some of the most prominent ones) the explanation is that it is meant more as a general guide. And I had to leave some things out, e.g. the little Bilbo theme appearing An Unexpected Party and Ironfoot, because I truly couldn't elaborate on their meaning to the story or find other prominent appearances.

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Random thing which was probably mentioned before but which I just noticed today: a fragmented statement of the House Of Durin theme shows up at 01:26 in Battle For The Mountain, as Thorin orders the others not to leave the mountain to help Dain.

People have already mentioned many times over everything you just talked about! Bah!

See how it feels? Crushing isn't it?

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I think you are a real pal for pointing that out BB.

The House of Durin theme I mean.

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Thought I'd post this. Although it's not as relevant here, maybe some of you will enjoy listening to my favourite statements of themes.

http://newboards.theonering.net/forum/gforum/perl/gforum.cgi?post=887020;sb=post_time;so=DESC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;guest=160343758

Needs more Beorn and Goblintown (which could also be said of the films).

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  • 1 month later...
On 12/6/2013 at 4:16 PM, Jay said:

Track-by-Track listing

 

AUJ 1-01 My Dear Frodo

0:00-0:37 House of Durin (History of the Ring combo version)

 

 

;)

 

 

In all seriousness, I had no clue what it represented (I'm sure you know it also returns in A Good Omen), but Doug made a blog post that explained how its related to both HIstory of the Ring and House of Durin, so I categorized it that way instead of treating it as a separate theme.

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

 

 

;)

 

 

In all seriousness, I had no clue what it represented (I'm sure you know it also returns in A Good Omen), but Doug made a blog post that explained how its related to both HIstory of the Ring and House of Durin, so I categorized it that way instead of treating it as a separate theme.

Yeah I would certainly say it is a variation on the House of Durin theme, a masked one to be sure but still. And subtextually makes perfect sense to me as the dwarves are at the centre of the story as much as Bilbo is (or more actually) and at the end of the film the rendition would have coincided with the shots of Thorin being saved from Azog and carried away by the eagle, which earns the theme as the heir of the Durin's line survives.

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  • 6 months later...

I always assumed that was rhythmic accompaniment to Legolas' variation of the Woodland Realm material and not necessarily thematic in itself. Granted it is the only thing employed in To the Death but still I think it as a part of Legolas' theme.

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  • 4 weeks later...
25 minutes ago, Barnald said:

Lol. Perhaps the interviewer actually said 'hugh' and it threw him somewhat. I've always felt there to be a distinct lack of 'Hughs' in The Hobbit.

What, didn't you know The Hobbit was originally going to be a Hugh Grant star vehicle with Renee Zellweger as Gollum?

 

 

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On 7/23/2016 at 3:40 PM, Gollum Cat said:

Jay - will you finish the BOTFA section? This is great stuff.

 

Thanks!

I plan to resume work on both my LOTR and TH theme lists soon.

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Thing is, you might have been able to make the case that Shore, like many other people, includes The Hobbit when he says Lord of the Rings, referring to his time in Middle-earth in general; however, the four years thing at the bottom pretty much invalidates that argument.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, this is going to be more illuminating just by the virtue of us not having read The Annotated Scores/CR liner notes beforehand. So it's going to be mostly uncharted territory. I'm dying to read this.

 

Karol

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I don't know, my nails have quite a bit of surface stuck to them ;)

11 minutes ago, Jay said:

Why did that guy post that question on a 4 year old post on Doug's site instead of a more recent post?

Perhaps that post is what came up when he looked up MusicofLOTR?

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4 hours ago, SafeUnderHill said:

Also, I don't recall Doug letting any theme names slip?

 

He's probably referring to this:

 

http://www.musicoflotr.com/2013/01/bilbo-primer.html

 

Man, what a reminder that is of the glory days when we all assumed Baggins/Took and Bilbo's Adventure were the cornerstones of what the entire trilogy would be based around!  Until the dark times... until the whims of PJ.

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