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Howard Shore's An Unexpected Journey (Hobbit Part 1)


Jay

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Does a composer(Shore) this caliber, need a supporting speech?

Shore may be a multiple oscar winner, but he's hardly a competition for big orchestral guys like Williams, Horner or Broughton. If i compare WILLOW (composing time around 5,5 weeks) and LAND BEFORE TIME (composing time 3,5 weeks), and then i listen to THE HOBBIT, roughly a year in the making...oh boy.

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At any rate, I find Bilbo's two-part principal theme is what I walk away from the score humming. This is The Hobbit after all! It's also key to understanding the musical connection between Bilbo, Thorin, and Erebor.

Doug

It's a great theme but for me it rather seems to function like the Shire theme of the LotR trilogy. It's a beautiful character/setting theme in the veins of for example Princess Leia's theme from Starwars or Anakin's theme from TPM.

The hummable main theme in FotR always was the Fellowship theme, in TTT the Rohan theme and in RotK the Mina's Tirith theme. Continuing in that vein the main theme seems to be the combined Shore/Plan 9 Misty Mountains-Thorin's Company theme in the Hobbit.

But i really dig the Erebor and Dwarf-Lords themes ;). They also appear in very small quantities throughout the other tracks...

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Does a composer(Shore) this caliber, need a supporting speech?

Shore may be a multiple oscar winner, but he's hardly a competition for big orchestral guys like Williams, Horner or Broughton. If i compare WILLOW (composing time around 5,5 weeks) and LAND BEFORE TIME (composing time 3,5 weeks), and then i listen to THE HOBBIT, roughly a year in the making...oh boy.

Oh boy our resident Horner sposkesperson just chimed in. You just love recycled music don't you. Keeping the world green, one score at a time. :mrgreen:
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KM: Williams Spokesperson

Incanus: Shore Spokesperson

Bloodboal: Andy Price Spokesperson

Jason: Hook Spokesperson

Me: Annoying Spokesperson

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KM: Williams Spokesperson

Incanus: Shore Spokesperson

Bloodboal: Andy Price Spokesperson

Jason: Hook Spokesperson

Me: Annoying Spokesperson

I would like to apply for a position as the second Williams spokesperson. I feel my fanboyish tendencies are stronger for his than for Shore's entire ouvre. Isn't my fawning over things like Always, Terminal and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull enough of prove of my blind devotion?
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If i compare...LAND BEFORE TIME

Funny you say that. I turned on the Hobbit this morning in the car, and my 2 yr old son though it was The Land Before Time ("Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs!")

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At any rate, I find Bilbo's two-part principal theme is what I walk away from the score humming.

Could someone please tell me where I can find this theme. I haven't had a chance to properly analyse the score and its new themes yet, but I want to be able to quickly identify this theme.

Thanks

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Whats the really annoying string theme that pops up in almost every track in the beginning?

Are you referring to the theme that opens the first track? I don't like that one much.

I'm slightly concerned that I'm not finding any of Shore's new themes memorable. Plan 9's theme is, by a mile, the most memorable thing in the score for me.

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Oh boy our resident Horner sposkesperson just chimed in. You just love recycled music don't you. Keeping the world green, one score at a time. :mrgreen:

Me and Greenpeace are about to bestow the eco-award for resource-conserving achievements in film music to...ta da da da (cue danger motif)...James Roy Horner!

Clap with me.

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Just came back from the future and Howard Shore has announced that he's not coming back to score the third film, because (here's an actual quote) "Peter Jackson and Plan 9 developed such a chemistry and ideal working relationship that he doesn't want to be a fifth wheel".

Forgive me, I had too much to drink...

Karol

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:lol:

I'm sure Shore's got the boot from the 2nd film by now. Plan 9 will be tackling the 2nd score solo, and then James Newton Howard will be reeled into help out for the 3rd film.

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The OST cover for the second film just leaked!

thedesolationofshore.jpg

Scary funny BloodBoal. Scary funny! :lol:
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Well having listened to the score only once I have to go on that memory but Shore uses different variations and new developments of the Mordor and Orc material in the score quite a lot, also in the action finale if I remember correctly.

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He uses the Mordor Descending Third quite often along with variations of other Mordor and Orc motifs. I was surprised and delighted to see so many of them employed into the fabric of this new score.

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He uses the Mordor Descending Third quite often along with variations of other Mordor and Orc motifs. I was surprised and delighted to see so many of them employed into the fabric of this new score.

I think it is a case of employing truncated versions to represent the still secret threat of Sauron but also Shore often constructs these ancillary motifs from fragments of other themes, e.g. The Way to Mordor is an offshoot of the Threat of Mordor.
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Do you mean the idea that is reprised quite a few times early on in the score and also along the way? Sounds like an extension of the Dwarf music to me although it is impossible to say what it might represent in the end.

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I think it'll be used to represent Thorin's honour or the legacy of the dwarves (some sort of flashback like theme). Just speculation.

But I have a feeling we won't hear the motif develop fully until later in the trilogy (almost like the nature theme).

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I think it'll be used to represent Thorin's honour or the legacy of the dwarves (some sort of flashback like theme). Just speculation.

But I have a feeling we won't hear the motif develop fully until later in the trilogy (almost like the nature theme).

Speaking of Nature's Theme, the appearance in the finale of the score is such a teasing moment as Shore does give us a glimpse but alas it does not appear in full glory at this point of the story. One of my favourites themes and I would have welcomed a full choral and soloist development of it. :)

And I think you might be onto something on that ascending Dwarven motif.

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it's my favourite too. I was also disappointed to hear such a brief statement of the theme, but I have a feeling he's saving its big moment for The Battle of the Five Armies.

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it's my favourite too. I was also disappointed to hear such a brief statement of the theme, but I have a feeling he's saving its big moment for The Battle of the Five Armies.

I can actually picture that short thematic segment in the Unfinished Journey underscoring how the Eagles first spot the heroes in their plight, shot from the above angle in the night sky.

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The nature theme underscored all my favourite parts in LOTR. I wonder if that'll be the case here.

The final Eagles climax of RotK is always fresh in my memory.

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The nature theme underscored all my favourite parts in LOTR. I wonder if that'll be the case here.

The final Eagles climax of RotK is always fresh in my memory.

For Frodo is pure film scoring gold through and through. The scope, flow and momentum of the piece is just brilliant. I'll forever remember the audio-visual coupling of the music and the arrival of the moth and the Eagles and the french horns annoucing the History/Evil of the Ring theme hybrid as Frodo races to the gate of Sammath Naur. Just beautiful.
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That choral rendition of the Fellowship theme is one of the greatest moments (if not the greatest) of Shore's magnum opus. Brilliant! That whole CD in the CR is pure gold.

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That choral rendition of the Fellowship theme is one of the greatest moments (if not the greatest) of Shore's magnum opus. Brilliant! That whole CD in the CR is pure gold.

I've been thinking about this today, actually. The greatest for me is the return of the music after René Fleming's (I think) solo, when Frodo is walking towards Gollum in an embellishment over the book (I'm still unsure about which version of the moment I prefer!). The musical lead up to this expresses everything perfectly: it's been a constant now! oops... now! oops... and suddenly, the music indicates "now is the real deal". And goosembumps. This bit is one of the moments in the history of of film perfectly embody "climax" to me. But I'm usually just lost of the intensiity of the music from the later part of The Return of the King.

And narratively as well as musically, although there they're one and the same. It's one of the most perfectly set up climaxes ever. It's like... "The Ring is mine!!" SHIT :mellow: And then cue of bif choir and doom and gloom, but it sounds strangely alluring instead of repetitive.

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