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The Howard Shore Middle Earth Score Showdown Poll! (An Unexpected Journey vs Fellowship of the Ring, musically)


Jay

Vote for your favorite comparable track  

34 members have voted

  1. 1. A long time ago....

    • My Dear Frodo
    • Prologue: One Ring To Rule Them All
  2. 2. The Shire is a quite lovely place!

    • Old Friends
    • Bag End / Concerning Hobbits
  3. 3. Discussions in Bag End

    • Axe or Sword?
    • Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe / The Shadow Of The Past
  4. 4. Leaving Hobbiton

    • The Adventure Begins
    • A Conspiracy Unmaskted (first 2 minutes) / Treason of Isengard (fist 2 minutes)
  5. 5. Early trouble!

    • Roast Mutton
    • The Black Rider / Shortcut To Mushrooms
  6. 6. Chased to Rivendell

    • Warg-scouts
    • Give Up The Halfling / Flight To The Ford
  7. 7. Rivendell is a quite lovely place...

    • The Hidden Valley
    • Rivendell / Many Meetings
  8. 8. A Council at Rivendell

    • The White Council
    • The Council Of Elrond Assembles/The Great Eye / The Council of Elrond
  9. 9. Leaving Rivendell

    • Over Hill
    • Gilraen's Memorial (after the first 2 minutes) / The Ring Goes South
  10. 10. Trouble on the Misty Mountains

    • A Thunder Battle
    • The Pass Of Caradhras
  11. 11. Trouble below the Misty Mountains

    • Under Hill
    • Balin's Tomb (once the action starts)
  12. 12. Underground showdown

    • Brass Buttons
    • The Bridge Of Khazad-Dun / Khazad-Dun
  13. 13. Climactic action

    • Out Of The Frying-Pan
    • Parth Galen / Amon Hen
  14. 14. Wrap-up

    • A Good Omen
      0
    • The Road Goes Ever On... (part 1) / The Breaking Of The Fellowship
  15. 15. End Credits song

    • Song Of the Lonely Mountain
    • May It Be


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I'm sure many have noticed the structural similarity between the first part of Bilbo's adventure and the first part of Frodo's. But what about the music?

For each of the 15 choices, vote for your favorite piece of music from the Peter Jackson movies. Ignore OST vs SE differences for AUJ pieces and OST vs CR vs Rarities differences for LOTR stuff, just vote by whatever your favorite version of each piece of music is.

Have fun!

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It was hard voting for this, because I think some of the choices equivalents of eachother (Leaving Hobbiton for example, I would chose Shortcut To Mushrooms for FOTR or The World is Ahead for The Hobbit AUJ)

But I did it.

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BTW, I picked Many Meetings because the mix of the choir on The Hidden Valley is mixed a little too low for my taste (it seems it was louder in the film?)

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I thought about doing this poll a while ago, but then forgot. Blooboal's recent poll for just the prologue reminded me to get off my ass and do this.

I think it's interesting. I find An Unexpected Journey to be an absolutely fantastic score, easily the best of 2012, and one that I enjoy each time I listen to it again. But Fellowship of the Ring is an instant classic, and one of the best film scores of all time.

Also, we have the benefit of having both album and film versions of FOTR pieces, not to mention theatrical and Extended Edition pieces. So far we only have 1 version of An Unexpected Journey pieces (apart from the 2 minutes of exclusive stuff on the standard OST).

Still, I think its interesting to vote how we feel now! After AUJ, the Hobbit films should go off in a different direction for Film 2 and Film 3 that will make them rather hard to compare to TTT and ROTK, I think. But it isn't it interesting how similar AUJ and FOTR really are?

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So I can't vote, cause I don't know all the pieces.

I would have voted "My Dear Frodo" over the"Prologue: One Ring To Rule Them All"

And "Song of the Lonely Mountain" over "May It Be". The first one kinda captured the atmosphere of the film, the latter

ruined the otherwise decent film with that pop/New Age style. One of the biggest mistakes in film's history.

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Well it's about terms, SOTLM( :lol: ) sounds more folk song(before it goes to that stupid yeah yeah) and MIB( :lol: ) more poppish new-age crap.

Folk song fits better to the Middle Earth than the music stolen from Tommy Cruise.

I still think this is the case: people can't take the fact it is the best theme in the Hobbit...

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The two songs in question are EASILY my least favorite of the 4 end credits songs that have been released.

For me the LOTR end credits songs got better and better with each movie.

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I still think this is the case: people can't take the fact it is the best theme in the Hobbit...

Hum, no, that's just not it. The theme is great (most people say it is), the song is just noise. End of story. Deal with it or go back to abyss from whence you came!

Fixed.

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I don't hate the song. It's strangely produced and the vocals are far cry from standards set by other films, but there is something about its folksy quality that makes it somewhat appropriate for this film. In other words: I get the intention, it's just the awkward execution that leaves much to be desired.

Karol

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Not sure why that is, but I have a stronger emotional reaction from the new score than I ever had from the LOTR trilogy. Maybe because I really warmed up to some of Howard Shore's music over the years (I really enjoy most of his works he composed ever since) and maybe because I find the album to be the best presentation of any score in this series. Not so much in terms of content (what it includes/doesn't include), but rather how well it flows from track to track and is over in no time. Rare for a 2+ hour work.

Karol

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Over familiarity with LotR, probably. I'm sort of the same, but I still objectively consider it to be superior to The Hobbit in pretty much every way. Not that I don't enjoy the new score, because I do. But I'd be lying if I said I'm not ultimately disappointed with how it eventually turned out. I don't think Shore delivered say in the way Williams did with Phantom Menace.

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Oh you see here we differ, because I think The Phantom Menace gets worse and worse with each listen, with few brilliant moments and waaaaaaaaay tooooo much aimless filler. Unlike most of you, I think Williams caught prequelitis right from the start. But that's another discussion altogether.

Karol

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Oh yes, back in 1999 I was too.

Either way, I get you. But then again, it's hard to get impressed by even the most amazing thing as you get older. Second, third, fourth love just doesn't taste the same. ;)

Karol

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Not sure why that is, but I have a stronger emotional reaction from the new score than I ever had from the LOTR trilogy. Maybe because I really warmed up to some of Howard Shore's music over the years (I really enjoy most of his works he composed ever since) and maybe because I find the album to be the best presentation of any score in this series. Not so much in terms of content (what it includes/doesn't include), but rather how well it flows from track to track and is over in no time. Rare for a 2+ hour work.

Karol

I agree, but it's not surprising to me.

I have always maintained that "Fellowship of the Ring" is the most emotionally neutral and subtle film and score of the Rings series.

I think it's what makes it so great. The emotions are all still there, just carefully woven in rather than proudly displayed. It very aptly captures the sense of newness that we the audience have to Jackson's Middle Earth, as well as the newness and associated detachment the characters feel going off to these new places for the first time. Wonderfully done.

So yes, The Hobbit makes a stronger emotional connection, because it's more emotionally colored.

I think I said something to this effect in an old post: http://www.jwfan.com...750#entry755075

Nothing in the series would go on to capture the feel of The Fellowship of the Ring, film or music wise. They may have gotten better, but there is something very unique in how The Fellowship of the Ring presents itself that vanishes by the next two films. I would liken it to that feeling you get when it's overcast and foggy outside. The world seems very small, the eery fog has an almost cozy feel and yet as you move about in it, you realize there's much much more to this world. I think the mixing of the Shire material form the beginning with the darker stuff lends to this feel.

The fog seems gone by the Two Towers, and it's much clearer. You get a full view of your immediate world.

The emotional punch of FotR is wrapped up and hidden in that fog. But it's very much there.

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My big problem with the song as presented on the album, is that without the intro, there is no flow into the song, like with the other scores, which makes for a terrible listening experience...

and is Warg-scouts the first Middle-Earth cue, with a hard opening?

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Nope. One example off the top of my head is Grond: Hammer of the Underworld.

I mostly voted FotR, with some exceptions. The Hobbit's a great score, and certainly best of the year for me. But LotR still remains as one of those untouchable classics. And as Quint said, its probably due to my over-familiarity with the music that led to my choices.

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Where it sounds like it could have been intended to have another cue overlapped over it, sort of like Dance Orchestra from temple of doom.

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I always felt that "Warg Scouts" feels somewhat odd, like parts were dialed out or something. Like in the film version of the warg attack in TTT, where the choir was dropped.

Just somewhat "empty".

It feels even wierder in the film, when the pace never really picks up.

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He's referring to the beautiful choral music for when the eagles arrive at the Carrock. And that is quite a piece!

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  • 7 months later...

Resurrecting this old poll because I was thinking again recently about just how similarly structured An Unexpected Journey is to FOTR.... and enjoyed reading the discussion here again. Any other thoughts?

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I was just thinking how Versatile the Descending Third and the other Mordor Accompaniments are, they were almost the main themes in the first part of FOTR.

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There will always be people who like the six Star Wars scores more, or Barry's run of James Bond scores.

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Oh, right. Yea, it's an amazingly impressive feat. And even more frustrating when PJ undermines his thematic integrity by wanting themes used for other reasons in the final cut of the newest films

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I was thinking again about how the Hobbit score was marred on film. So many scenes were deprived of the nuances on the OST and replaced with stock music to superficially convey the mood on screen (like replacing subtle statements of Bilbo's theme with atypical Shire music). FotR had its problems too, but so many of the details were still intact and still brilliantly told the story.

As great a score as The Hobbit was, I feel like PJ's hectic production schedule kind of spoiled things.

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