Taikomochi

The original Nomi Abadi civil suit is still pending and in fact a separate defamation suit was filed last month about the information he and his team put out to Rolling Stone.
 
https://www.nme.com/news/music/danny-elfman-sued-for-defamation-by-sexual-misconduct-accuser-3774041
 
The case that was dismissed was the older Jane Doe civil suit.
 
I’m also unclear on how the status of civil litigation would play into how one would feel about a composer allegedly jacking off at their employees, but you do you.

This one was always film music junk food. Probably not very good for you, not much substance, but sometimes you want to hear an egg travel.
One of my earliest soundtrack acquirements, so I was a basic bitch even back then.

Gonna strongly disagree with you there. There are actual melodies. Counterpoint. Tonalities beyond basic triads. There's restraint and subtlety in the quieter passages. Good mixture of music that hits the action and music that plays through. Maybe my standards have just been lowered by the blandness of the contemporary film score landscape, but I'd hardly call it junk food.

It's a really good thing for Amazon that J.R.R. Tolkien doesn't have a blog.

Here's my chronological breakdown of the music from the episodic albums from all the released episodes so far, and will be updated when the following episodes are released.
 
Overall, the albums are arranged to present the different storylines and their respective themes as a cohesive listening experience, rather than a fully chronological one, so in some episodes, there might be a really long track that in fact appears all over the episode, interspersed with other tracks, so here's how every track is broken down in the episodes themselves. Note that sometimes the episode have some additional material not present on the albums, as well as clean openings/endings of each individual cue, and sometimes also feature a different mix.
 
SEASON 1
Episode 1 - A Shadow from the Past
 
Episode 2 - Adrift
 
Episode 3 - Adar
 
Episode 4 - The Great Wave
 
Episode 5 - Partings
 
Episode 6 - Udûn
 
Episode 7 - The Eye
 
Episode 8 - Alloyed
 
 
SEASON 2
Episode 1 - Elven Kings Under the Sky
 
Episode 2 - Where the Stars Are Strange
 
Episode 3 - The Eagle and the Sceptre
 
Episode 4 - Eldest
 
Also interesting to note is the fact that the episodic albums feature many segments that ended up being unused in the actual show. Sometimes it's just a couple of seconds but other times it extends for one or two minutes. Also, tracks like Caras Gaer or Concerning Stoors in S2 present music that was directly cut out from the episode, perhaps corresponding to a longer/extended scene? What are your thoughts on this?
 
I'll try to do some videos bringing back these fragments of music into their respective scenes to see how they would work differently.

https://gizmodo.com/bear-mccreary-rings-of-power-orc-songs-lord-of-the-rings-2000495743

I saw this thread was bumped thinking there was an update on the upcoming book and instead @BB-8 posts...an attempt at a bad joke. Why? Just...why?
 
 

Here's a much more lowkey attempt with bits from Círdan's Perfection:

 
 
Here ya go, I was a bit naughty:

 
 

Okay, I quickly threw this together, using the S1 overture over the S2 opening credits. The editing is a bit rough but it gives the overall feeling the titles would have with Bear's music. I think it works starting with Galadriel's theme, and just like Shore's piece turns darker in the second half, the Sauron theme enters to finish the titles. I tried to add the Rings motif at the end but since it's not in the same key it doesn't flow as well, but I think works nice once the title card dissolves into the directing credits at the very end. What do you guys think?

 

To be entirely fair to Bear, if we give the same treatment to Bear's score because he often uses just the Ostinato of a theme, or A part of a theme, or the B part of the theme and accompaniment etc. in all sorts of different ways and combos - then he has also created a tapestry of easily over 70-80 motifs for Rings of Power if not more. 
 
One thing we also need to commend Bear on which is honestly quite extraordinary is that with 2 seasons he has manage to conjure up two dozen concert presentation of his themes which is remarkable to me - it is perhaps as many as Willaims managed in 9 Star Wars scores, and Shore obviously did not write many (or any) concert suites for individual theme presentations. 
 
Whatever terms we use, I think it is worth acknowledging that Bear's score is kinda unprecedented and extraordinary for its ambition alone (to my knowledge that is I haven't trafficked much in television scores at all).

I actually love the Damrod material. Bear’s willingness to mix unconventional sounds with conventional orchestra is what drew me to his work back in the BSG days. Admittedly, the first time I heard it, I was so taken aback that I did not like it, but, after spending more time with the season album, I think it kicks ass. 

I actually love the Damrod material. Bear’s willingness to mix unconventional sounds with conventional orchestra is what drew me to his work back in the BSG days. Admittedly, the first time I heard it, I was so taken aback that I did not like it, but, after spending more time with the season album, I think it kicks ass. 

I actually love the Damrod material. Bear’s willingness to mix unconventional sounds with conventional orchestra is what drew me to his work back in the BSG days. Admittedly, the first time I heard it, I was so taken aback that I did not like it, but, after spending more time with the season album, I think it kicks ass. 

I actually love the Damrod material. Bear’s willingness to mix unconventional sounds with conventional orchestra is what drew me to his work back in the BSG days. Admittedly, the first time I heard it, I was so taken aback that I did not like it, but, after spending more time with the season album, I think it kicks ass. 

Many of the individual cues are fine in and of themselves. It's the disparate style of the music, especially in the film, that sticks out in a negative way (as I touch on in the previously mentioned review). But I've made a playlist of 34 minutes that I think works pretty well.

I finally saw Ep 3 last night and there are some stunning highlights, always helps to hear the music in context.
 
The music for Miriel's Coronation is absolutely spectacular. No wonder he put it on the Season album.
 
From 0:00 to 1:10 in this cue.
 
 
I think he does something superb with the Numenor theme here. Notice from 0:13 onwards the strings (?) start playing the Numenor Finale while at 0:25 the brass picks up the Numenor A theme, so in essence Bear uses a different part of the Numenor theme as counterpoint to the Numenor theme. It lends enormous depth to the sound and is quite sophisticated. It's like Indy's B theme was used as Counterpoint to Indy's A theme.
 
Now I dunno if Bear did this in Season 1 and I missed it but I thought it was quite stunning.
 
Also the vocal version of Arondir theme for the funeral pyre is great. And of course the new Estrid theme.
 
So Ep 3 does have some highlights to treasure - but it makes sense all 3 of these were featured on the Season album.

Yes TolkienSS is willfully twisting himself to misinterpret everything Bear says in as negative a light as possible

That whole interview is a composer thrilled at the assignment they got and the freedom they had to compose. If someone is going to criticise them for being enthusiastic, excited and proud of their work, merely because you don't like what they did, then you're the child in this conversation.
 
I interpreted his 'that's on me' comments not as 'my score's perfect' but rather as the conditions under which he composed and mixed were so unusually good that if people don't like something he did, then it's not a producer or director's fault - it would be a decision he made.

It's actually kind of impressive how utterly determined you are to dislike this show and its music. McCreary could write the literal Ainulindalë and you'd still find some way to trash it.

Yes, specially for those living outside the US. Shipping costs are higher than ever and a few years ago, a package with a cd could quite often not be picked up by customs, while now, every single package, no matter how small or the value, always gets taxed.
 
So yeah, it's more expensive than it was, say, 10 years ago

From Roger:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/wJQPQggGDQqQc6Tn/?mibextid=K35XfP

In regards to Peter Jackson's films viz a viz Amazon series, I have made my peace and I think it is wise for the general fandom to do so too. When we first saw the Amazon series, the quibbles were expected, because it was the first non-PJ Tolkein media that we were interacting with. There was the shock of it being different and for many of us honestly, not as good in a number of a ways. 
 
And yet that shock has faded in the TWO YEARS since Season 1 has been out. All the quibles have been aired and litigated. The reality that the Amazon series in not PJ is accepted and baked in and priced in at this point. So those quibbles don't yield any meaningful discussion now. 
 
Yes, the Amazon show is different. At this point, the move forward is not lamenting why it isn't like PJ's stuff, but looking ahead to see how we can get some pleasure to the extent possible out of these stories that we love. 

Honestly, this is a bizzare post. You acknowledge that literally legally under threat of skull crushing financial liability and reputational and brand damage and utter financial and profession ruin, Amazon had absolutely no chance in hell, not even the barest possibility of using Shore's Jackson music for their series. Yet you find fault with Amazon? I don't understand.
 
 It's like saying, this man would have 100% drowned and killed himself had he swum to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve the penny i dropped and i absolutely hate him that he didn't get me the penny and he's a terrible person.
 
 

1:08

Obviously, AOTC was composed months earlier (October 2001-January 2002). The film had already been released by the time Williams started composing for COS.
 
The "same year" thing is really arbitrary IMO. Clones was composed much closer to the first Harry Potter film, rather than the second, for example.