Jump to content

Howard Shore's The Desolation Of Smaug (Hobbit Part 2)


gkgyver

Recommended Posts

Yes. Get piss drunk and scribble on a piece of paper.

I knew it! I knew it! I would of course invent some guff about getting inspired by nature, long walks on my estates I bought after composing LotR, reading extensively and meditating upon the unfolding of the world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is not easy to be an artiste. You really have to suffer for your art.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The interviewer clearly doesn't know shit about film music. Of all the themes, he asks him AGAIN abou the Ring theme.

Hey it is the same as with John Williams and the Jaws Theme or Theme for E.T. or Star Wars. They always ask the same stock questions, which is why there is a stock answer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure whether this has preciously been posted but this is an interview with Shore about the score to DOS.

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/12/13/howard-shore-hobbit

"This is a very special dragon (...)"

As opposed to, what, all the dragons that aren't special? Oh Howard, never change. :biglaugh:

Yes Christian. Smaug is something of a blue print to so many later dragons in fantasy literature lore just as Gandalf is an archetypical wizard. Tolkien certainly didn't invent either archetype but brought them to the modern fantasy literature with such conviction and vividness that they have enjoyed well earned longevity in the collective imagination of the world. So Smaug is a very special dragon (with four legs).

Which makes PJ changes even sadder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

are we going back to that again

When the seas and mountains fall

And we come to end of days

In the dark I hear a call

Calling me there

I will go there and back again...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Doug Adams mentioned that the little bit of rather Shire theme sounding music when the dwarves enter Bard's home through the lavatory and we meet his children (I do not mean the Bilbo's Antics music) was the only passage of the Bard and his family music that survived on the soundtrack album. I guess this thematic idea was either scrapped or will gain prominence in the final film perhaps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Concert band arrangements of big films are very common, and most not very good at all - I wouldn't expect much from this one, especially based on the arranger. Bocook or Lavender would give you a more accurate/difficult arrangement. Lopez is much closer to the music education market.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Understandably quiet round here of late. That said, Doug's twitter is providing interesting reading. Firstly, recent tweets suggests he's been spending time in the company of Howard Shore, presumably filming something for the DoS: EE. Secondly he posted a few notable words today. I'm not sure what might have provoked this:

Doug Adams @DougAdamsMusic · 43m

The toughest part of my #Hobbit job is resisting the urge to correct the inaccurate assumptions and analyses that crop up on the internet.

Doug Adams @DougAdamsMusic · 43m

Be careful what you read about the score out there … and remember, unless someone has a direct quote from me, I probably didn't say it!

Doug Adams @DougAdamsMusic · 43m

Happened on #LOTR, too. I still get emails that reference the "well known fact" that #HowardShore quoted the "Die Irae" …

Doug Adams @DougAdamsMusic · 43m

The #Hobbit scores will be in my crosshairs full-time beginning later this year. Hang tight!

In any case this seemed like the best place to discuss them in the absence of a Battle of the Five Armies score thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The scores are 'in his crosshairs', eh? Complete Recordings, maybe?

That or a book I'd say. Or maybe both?

I think he is probably referring to the book but let's hope CRs are also in the works! :)

And a pre-emptive, yes they probably are, Jason! ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any thoughts on the Doe Irae connection here?

:whistle: Doe, a deer, a female deer... :whistle:

I thought that might be what Homer Simpson calls the old chant tune.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The main figure (about the first seven seconds) has clear similarities with the "Descending Thirds" motif. If not this, then I'd guess someone has mistaken the "Ringwraiths" theme for the "Dies Irae" from some requiem.

I once read an online comment about what a nice touch it was, in The Two Towers, to have Legolas's shield-surfing act accompanied with the Back to the Future theme...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of people have been making claims about the Descending Thirds referencing Dies Irae for a while now. But I've always thought it was a bit of a stretch, and just a structural coincidence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember the rather obscure (but rather good) 80s horror Superstition sneaking a bit of Dies Irae in somewhere. But I never really saw the link between that the Descending Thirds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to the piano sheet music, the lyrics for "Beyond The Forest" are the following:

A, meleth nin, û naedhathog hûn ni'n.

A trehil i'alad 'Iân uir tri 'wilith nín.

Kûr yamsi tân yamarsibiyê?

Ankakizi ní adâlimê.

Ah!

A, meleth nin, û naedhathog

A, meleth nin, û Îmiri.

Am na dhû ias fîr i ambar

A, meleth nín, û nín.

Can anyone make some sense of it and provide a rough translation?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to the piano sheet music, the lyrics for "Beyond The Forest" are the following:

A, meleth nin, û naedhathog hûn ni'n.

A trehil i'alad 'Iân uir tri 'wilith nín.

Kûr yamsi tân yamarsibiyê?

Ankakizi ní adâlimê.

Ah!

A, meleth nin, û naedhathog

A, meleth nin, û Îmiri.

Am na dhû ias fîr i ambar

A, meleth nín, û nín.

Can anyone make some sense of it and provide a rough translation?

You're just asking for trouble there. I'm sure BB will oblige.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to the piano sheet music, the lyrics for "Beyond The Forest" are the following:

A, meleth nin, û naedhathog hûn ni'n.

A trehil i'alad 'Iân uir tri 'wilith nín.

Kûr yamsi tân yamarsibiyê?

Ankakizi ní adâlimê.

Ah!

A, meleth nin, û naedhathog

A, meleth nin, û Îmiri.

Am na dhû ias fîr i ambar

A, meleth nín, û nín.

Can anyone make some sense of it and provide a rough translation?

I am afraid we don't have David Salo's Khuzdûl primer so I think anyone would be hard pressed to translate those Dwarvish lines. The lyrics seem to mix Sindarin and Khuzdûl together here (it is some kind of sappy reference to Kili & Tauriel relationship I am sure).

It begins with words "O my love û naedhathog my heart"

Someone more fluent in Sindarin could perhaps translate this better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The lyrics are partly provided by Doug Adams in his liner notes for the Desolation of Smaug soundtrack Special Edition where he discusses the Tauriel/Kili theme.

A ephaderon theri thaur / I go walking beyond the forest

Am na dhû ias fîr i ambar / Up towards the nightfall, where mortal world [falls away]

A trehil i'alad 'Iân uir tri 'wilith nín. And the white light of forever fills the air

So the lyrics more or less mean:

A, meleth nin, û naedhathog hûn nín. Oh my love, [û naedhathog (could be Khuzdûl)] my heart.


A trehil i'alad 'Iân uir tri 'wilith nín. And the white light of forever fills the air

Kûr yamsi tân yamarsibiyê? [Khuzdûl]

Ankakizi ní adâlimê. [Khuzdûl]

Ah!

A, meleth nin, û naedhathog Oh my love, not [again not a word found in Sindarin dictionary]

A, meleth nin, û Îmiri. Oh, my love....

Am na dhû ias fîr i ambar / Up towards the nightfall, where mortal world [falls away]

A, meleth nín, û nín. / Oh my love...

Here is some parsing of the lyrics as found on a Tolkien language forum

II. Tauriel and Kili [sindarin]

Tauriel also yearns to understand more of the outside world, for there is also softness and kindness outside

the seclusion of Mirkwood—and its light can shine in the least-suspected places. Philippa Boyens’ text

“The White Light of Forever” acknowledges this openness in Tauriel’s character by combining Khuzdul and

Sindarin lyrics with probing harmonic progressions.”

Hae ephadron
theri thaur
am na dhû
ias fîr i ambar
A tre hil i ‘alad ‘ân uir tri ‘wilith

‘I go walking / Beyond the forest / Where the world falls away/ And the white light / Of forever fills the air.’

hae adj. ‘far, further’ [David Salo, GtS, p. 262]
*ephadron v. ‘I am going walking’ from *ephadra- ‘to go/walk out’ from ed- + padra-
*theri ‘across the’, pl. form of thar ‘across, beyond, on the other side’ + in ‘the’ (GtS, p. 146)
thaur n. pl. (?), nasal mutation of taur (3) ‘great wood, forest’ (GtS, p. 75, 287)
am prep. ‘up, above, over, high’ (GtS, p. 140)
na prep. ‘to, toward, at; of; with, by’ (GtS 144)
dhû n., soft mutation of ‘night, nightfall, dusk, late evening, darkness’ (GtS 249)
*ias adv. ‘in which; cf. Quenya yassen ‘in which’
*fîr v. 3rd p. sg. form of *fir- ‘to die’, cf. Q fir-
i ambar n. ‘the world’
a conj. ‘and’ (2) (GtS, p. 236)
tre prep. ‘completely, utterly, all the way through’ (GtS, p. 146)
*hil n., soft mutation of sil (?)
i ‘alad n. soft mutation of galad ‘light, bright light, sunlight, brilliance, radiance, glittering reflection’ (GtS, p. 255)
‘ân v. (?) soft mutation of gân
uir n. ‘eternity’ (GtS, p. 292)
tri prep. ‘through’ (GtS, p. 146)
‘wilith n. soft mutation of gwilith ‘air as a region’ (GtS, p. 262)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You never run out, do you? :D

According to the piano sheet music, the lyrics for "Beyond The Forest" are the following:

A, meleth nin, û naedhathog hûn ni'n.

A trehil i'alad 'Iân uir tri 'wilith nín.

Kûr yamsi tân yamarsibiyê?

Ankakizi ní adâlimê.

Ah!

A, meleth nin, û naedhathog

A, meleth nin, û Îmiri.

Am na dhû ias fîr i ambar

A, meleth nín, û nín.

Can anyone make some sense of it and provide a rough translation?

Have you got the music for Bard and Family? Anything new we've not heard before?

I've ordered the piano book, it hasn't arrived yet. The lyrics above can also be found in the digital sheet music. Only BtF is available digitally.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh ye of little faith. You forget how much WB likes to make money!

Didn't Doug say the CRs aren't making significant profit? After all, it's a huge amount of work, and LotR ain't exactly a Bieber album, The Hobbit even less so.

Doug never said that they weren't making a profit…at least not publicly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hm, I distinctly remember him saying something along the lines that the CRs weren't made for profit (because the double-dip argument came up), and that in fact, Mr. Shore invested a good amount of his own money into the project. Must have been on the old MovieMusic forum years and years ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You never run out, do you? :D

Juice? Witticisms? Tolkien lore? Extremely sage advice?

Hobbit_GandalfpngCROPrectangle3-large_zp

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If there are any more lyrics, you are more than welcome to share them! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember asking HS about the use of Elvish lyrics when I met him in 2003. He appeared perplexed that somebody was that into this kind of thing...

Yeah it is kind of kinky I admit. And I think fans keep composers continually perplexed with their strange little demands and quirks and the most obsessively compulsive compiling of their music down to the tiniest detail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.