Doug Adams

"Lament for Gandalf" is used (briefly) in Guardians of the Three.

Lack of progress is not due to lack of preparation.

My guess -- and this is only a guess, having not seen the contracts -- is that Howe would be able to do a Rarities album, but only WaterTower would be able to do expanded editions.

It would certainly help the lawyers stay afloat.

A friend and I met Randy Newman at a party years and years ago. My friend told Newman that he was his mother's favorite singer. "Oh yeah?" he responded. "How old is she?" My friend answered, then added she'd be older the next week -- her birthday was coming up. "It is?" Newman said. "Give me your phone." He did. He called her, sang Happy Birthday, said, "here's your son," and tossed the phone back to my friend.

The dinosaur stampede was scored and recorded. I believe it was the only island sequence that had enough footage ready at the time ... and even then, it was a significantly different effort. Still, it exists!

Sometimes these things don’t involve fault or blame. The term “creative differences” has sort of become a parody of itself, but it’s not always inaccurate. Sometimes creative parties begin on one path, then divert to others. It happens ... I mean, that’s kind of the ephemeral nature of creativity. And there are times when those creative diversions make it impossible to continue things as planned. And something has to give. I know that’s lamentably anticlimactic. It’s easier to process these things where there’s some cataclysmic event to pin everything on. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself when I was 24 hours away from hopping a flight to New Zealand to attend the recording sessions, and everything fell apart. (I didn’t have any trip insurance.) You’d be out a million quid. The principal themes — which were sort of cantilenas set for 12 cellos and soprano — were, in my opinion, some of the best lyrical work Shore has ever done.

The first third of the film was scored and recorded. The final third of the score was composed but unrecorded (save for mock-ups). The effects-driven middle third of the film -- most of the island stuff -- was unfinished and (largely) unscored. There were also discussions about an end credits song that would have featured a rather well-known band collaborating with Shore. But that never got past he discussion stage. Jackson signs off on theme demos before scoring sessions begin, but due to his editing and effects schedules, individual cues aren't generally locked until they're on the stage. Hence the score proper is not really as pre-approved as one might think. Even the final third of the score, while mocked up, was largely based on script and animatics.

Sorry, I meant '15.

Yeah, that was my thought too. I worked like a madman to write my first draft of Hobbit between January and early May 2015. But alas, it was not to be.

This is the double-edged sword of contracts: 1) hooray you have a contract!, but 2) you're completely at their mercy. I'm not making any noise on social media (does this count?), but I have an Impossible Silence meeting coming up later this week. Hobbit, I'll be honest, haven't heard anything for a while. I get the feeling that everyone is eyeing Amazon and waiting to see where the IP goes and what energy it produces. I'm trying to set up a couple of lectures -- one in the States and one in the UK -- in 2020, so at the very least I could present some of the Hobbit material there. Both would be in the second half of the year ... if they happen. EDIT: I should also point out that my professional life took a sort of drastic left turn four or five years ago, which left me with a little less time to nudge these projects along. So I can't place all the blame on publishers, etc. However, I had some medical stuff going on over the holidays, which allowed me a little more time with the computer. I guess I should be careful what I ask for!

Ironically, 2 is the only one that's already finished! *Sigh*

https://www.slsostories.org/post/john-williams-conducting-the-slso-november-1

The Music of the Hobbit Films was finished over four years ago. I have publisher's block.

The potential concerto was first (I think!) mentioned in a book that came out in June of 2017: Be Your Own Manager: A Career Handbook for Classical Musicians. "Today, Martin Grubinger is probably considered one of the biggest stars in classical music, and not just in percussion. Many great composers have written concertos for him, including Friedrich Cerha, Peter Eötvös, and Tan Dan. Rumors have it that John Williams wants to write a concerto for him."