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Howard Shore's The Desolation Of Smaug (Hobbit Part 2)


gkgyver

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I just want to chime in for those of you wondering how good an orchestra are the NZSO, in comparison to say the London Philharmonic.

I have had a piece performed by them a few years back and they are amazing at sight reading, I didn't notice any mistakes the first run through. In fact aside from compositional changes I was racking my brain to give them some constructive criticism. The acoustics in the Michael Fowler Centre and Wellington Town Hall are also insane!! Very Similar to abbey road (a clear sound but not too dry like on some of the Hollywood stages).

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I can't wait for the damn CD to come out so the discussion is about that instead.

Hahaha, how naive! Once the CD is released, all the discussions will be about who composed this cue, who orchestrated that cue... Things like that.

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All the negative expectations and wild speculation in this thread is really off putting.

I can't wait for the damn CD to come out so the discussion is about that instead.

You are sounding more and more like Mark O and Pasi!

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I just want to chime in for those of you wondering how good an orchestra are the NZSO, in comparison to say the London Philharmonic.

I have had a piece performed by them a few years back and they are amazing at sight reading, I didn't notice any mistakes the first run through. In fact aside from compositional changes I was racking my brain to give them some constructive criticism. The acoustics in the Michael Fowler Centre and Wellington Town Hall are also insane!! Very Similar to abbey road (a clear sound but not too dry like on some of the Hollywood stages).

Thank you for this bit of positive info! :)

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That is the NZSO performed early version of the Breaking of the Fellowship recorded in Wellington, NZ.

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That is the NZSO performed early version of the Breaking of the Fellowship recorded in Wellington, NZ.

Kill for that wet sound on DOS score.

You just might get your wish if the above description by lostinspace is accurate. :)

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Meh. Neil Finn's music has always appealed to me far more than Lennox's ever did, so it probably has something to do with that. Plus I find her voice far too harsh on the chorus parts. Ruins the song.

In general circles, it seems there's a lot of love for Finn's song. Just seems to be you bunch of miserable philistines who hate it so much. :pfft:

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Never heard of Neil Finn before or since, but thanks to Lonely Mountain I don't wish to. Banal, MOR, overproduced trainwreck of a song. It's the kind of thing I imagine they play in the waiting room of hell.

No a big fan of Lennox's solo career, but she did some decent stuff back with the Eurythmics along with the score for 1984, so that counts for something. That said, I thought Into the West was maudlin and schmaltzy.

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I would prefer a proper end credits suite over a song at this point. It feels almost too obligatory now to try to come up with a song and artist for every end credits. Of course obsessive compulsives want to complete series so that every movie has a song at the end. ;)

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Never heard of Neil Finn before or since, but thanks to Lonely Mountain I don't wish to. Banal, MOR, overproduced trainwreck of a song. It's the kind of thing I imagine they play in the waiting room of hell.

No a big fan of Lennox's solo career, but she did some decent stuff back with the Eurythmics along with the score for 1984, so that counts for something. That said, I thought Into the West was maudlin and schmaltzy.

Hey, this is pretty groovy to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2-Tn_w5E1w

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Also Pineapple Head, Weather With You, Distant Sun, Into Temptation, Four Seasons In One Day, Not The Girl You Think You Are, Better Be Home Soon, It's Only Natural, Fall at Your Feet, Locked Out, World Where You Live, Private Universe - many great songs. Whatever you think of his song for AUJ, there's no denying the man's talents as a (pop) songwriter.

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It surprises me that so many people haven't heard of them, but I suppose they're probably not as well known outside of Australiasia and the UK/Ireland. I think a couple of their albums did pretty well in the US though.

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Yeah I had no idea who Neil Finn was before the Hobbit nor have I heard of Crowded House. I have nothing against him as an artist but I didn't exactly jump for joy when I heard his song for the AUJ. It just wasn't my kind of piece.

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I didn't love it, but at the same time a more folk-like quality to it is not exactly out of place given the context.

Karol

But at the same time the anvils and ya-ya-ya brought it down a notch. ;)

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Here in the US, Don't Dream It's Over was a big hit and has been heard in cover versions, etc. since its first release. I think the first time I heard it was when Sixpence None the Richer had a version on the radio some years back. The band's name isn't so well known here as the song, though.

Crowded House had very pop-oriented sensibilities, which I love about them, though it may not endear them to all film music fans equally.

I liked Neil Finn's song in AUJ, even though I would have been curious to hear a new melody from him rather than the Plan 9 music again. I've never been much of an Enya fan, and didn't like Gollum's Song much (apart from the tune, which was very cool), so the AUJ song actually has more appeal for me than some of the LotR ones. When all is said and done, though, I think the scores could get along just fine without any end credits songs. I'd be happy to hear a nice end credits suite from Shore with robust readings of some of the main themes. Those short theme arrangements at the end of the AUJ album were really nice.

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