Richard Penna

Actually that bit surprised me a little too, but if they're not including the OST assembly then as long as the full score plus alternates is under 2 1/2 hours then two CDs would be fine. Same goes for Gladiator actually.

Or he's starting on RoP again and this one will have to be done primarily by his team.

Already done that I made versions of both tracks eliminating the vocals and they're near perfect.

We'll never know because it already has a good score!

He's certainly good at making good concept albums for these shows. I love all the GoT scores and HotD and never seen more than a few YT clips of either.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001qtnh From about 35 mins in until 40, MM talking about a few elements, mostly Christopher Plummer. Credit to FSM for the find.

Completely this. I have an occasional 'anti-high horse' with pure orchestral music because I strongly believe that sweeping orchestra isn't always the best or only way to score a film in all cases. A good application of electronics or other unusual sounds can be very effective in the right place. But when it does come to orchestra, the only elements that come to mind that I'm not a fan of are saxophones or anything overly jazzy. That's just purely a taste thing for me. Aside from that I tend to get turned off by orchestration which strongly dates a score. Most of the older (i.e. 80s) ones I'm into feel relatively timeless - Last Crusade, BTTF. It's those that scream (usually by instrumentation) 60s/70s/80s that I'll rarely get into.

Should be exactly my thing but Thor invaded my head long ago - I find the whole score far too loud and annoying. The four sections I think are really good are the San Fran chase, the rocket sequence at the end, the beautiful 'Jade' cue, and the Fort Walton bit. A nice, compact summation of the score's ideas plus a couple, of minor incidental cues I liked when watching the film. (although which one of them thought putting The Chase *after* the Fort Walton wrap-up on the album was a good idea? Doesn't make any musical or narrative sense)

This is where we're not going to agree on the nature of the cast contributions to LotR in general. Note that I haven't read the books so I'm not familiar with the Tom Bombadil stuff or the much more song-based nature of the source. When Gandalf/Bilbo singing a little ditty to themselves within the filmic world, and Shore composes a cue where he knows those vocals will be there, and makes sure they don't clash, it doesn't mean that when we listen to it from an instrumental score perspective, we should be listening to those vocals as well. I'd actually suggest that the woodwind ending of Bag End clashes quite badly on the CR set with the vocals - they even included it vocal-free on the DVD extras. Including both versions would be a perfect compromise. I'm just not going to be made to feel guilty in any way by just wanting Shore's music, and not what the actors are doing - it's a preference.

I want, but based on MV's comments about having a couple of 60s Universal titles this year, I fear we may be waiting a bit longer. However, I so badly hope he wasn't being completely literal. There couldn't conceivbly be a better time to put it out than now.

I'd have no issue with versions being available on a set which contain the vocals. But we should be able to hear Shore's orchestral cues on their own, without cast performances on top. People always seem to be after orchestra-only or percussion-only versions of cues around here. Why, suddenly with Tolkien are we banished from any idea of hearing the music by itself? Utterly ridiculous argument.

I don't understand what's controversial about this. We're not talking about actual songs with a specific underscore and vocal, such as Houses of Healing. This is about tracks such as the opening of Bag End or (worse) Keep It Secret where you have Gandalf or Bilbo doing some ditty in the background which is clearly a part of the diegetic sound, then you have Shore's cue as a separate entity. Same for Two Towers where Eowyn 'sings' during that funeral scene. The performances are clearly not a part of the score and therefore shouldn't be there on a soundtrack album. By that logic we would never get instrumental versions of songs in musicals because you're removing parts of the 'soundtrack'.

JWFan lesson: never get hyped. And never say it will be SW.

Nah, a RoP box wouldn't come anywhere near the level of importance MM implies. I reckon Bear's comment at the time was a strangely worded reference to Mondo's release - I personally don't get a sense now that a box of the episodes was ever on the table. That Doug got into the cryptic tweeting action lends potential credence to something Tolkien going on though.

I don't think his comments make sense for any sort of score release. Just something significant of 'its type' - some series or collection being restored and released for the first time perhaps.