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


gkgyver

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Oh yes, I remember that. Are we sure that's an alternate? It almost sounds like there's an edit there. I certainly prefer how its done on album.

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Likely not intended. Just Shore playing with familiar textures he used for the dwarf music in the past.

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Just listened to Balins Tomb at 4:57. I hear what you mean. But I meant the part from 7:08, the whimsy string figure.

And the House of Durin theme is based on the Dwarrowdelf theme as heard for example at 5:55.

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Has anyone noticed the strange musical distortion that can be heard in the strings at about 35 seconds into A Liar and A Thief? The strings are bright and clear for the first 30 seconds of the track, and then suddenly they get very muddy and distorted, almost like going from stereo sound to mono. Perhaps it has something to do with the mixing? It is easily heard again around the 50 second mark. Other sections of the orchestra sound clear, but that entire tremolo string phrase remains muddied. It then clears up and sounds normal again at the 1:52 mark. Am I crazy?

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Just listened to Balins Tomb at 4:57. I hear what you mean. But I meant the part from 7:08, the whimsy string figure.

Very vaguely similar phrases that are based on common Shore techniques. Little more than coincidence I say.

And the House of Durin theme is based on the Dwarrowdelf theme as heard for example at 5:55.

Yes, that's true.

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Just listened to Balins Tomb at 4:57. I hear what you mean. But I meant the part from 7:08, the whimsy string figure.

Very vaguely similar phrases that are based on common Shore techniques. Little more than coincidence I say.

There is no such thing as coincidences in Shore's scores!

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Just listened to Balins Tomb at 4:57. I hear what you mean. But I meant the part from 7:08, the whimsy string figure.

Very vaguely similar phrases that are based on common Shore techniques. Little more than coincidence I say.

There is no such thing as coincidences in Shore's scores!

Oh, you're right! This "variation" must have been written for the rock patterns of the pillars. That's why the Erebor theme is so similar, because of their halls.

This new theme shall be called Pillars of Erebor! Brilliant!

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Has anyone noticed the strange musical distortion that can be heard in the strings at about 35 seconds into A Liar and A Thief? The strings are bright and clear for the first 30 seconds of the track, and then suddenly they get very muddy and distorted, almost like going from stereo sound to mono. Perhaps it has something to do with the mixing? It is easily heard again around the 50 second mark. Other sections of the orchestra sound clear, but that entire tremolo string phrase remains muddied. It then clears up and sounds normal again at the 1:52 mark. Am I crazy?

Another curiosity is what the motif from Kingsfoil that is reprised by the strings around the 35 minute mark. Is it played to that effect or was that added later after it was distorted or something? Sounded strange.

Doesn't sound distorted to me. Is that flautando?

Are we sure it isn't con sord sul pont?

To me it sounds like the strings are being manipulated with a band-pass filter from the console (lo-pass + hi-pass).

Whatever it it is, it's something Doug could really enlighten us on once the NDAs pass.

Another thought that came to me is that the engineer might being using the distant mikes to pick up the string section in that passage. Maybe woodwind or choir mikes, or ambients up in Wellington Town Hall's gallery.

That's how Bernard Herrmann recorded the 8 female singers (4 altos, 4 sopranos) in OBSESSION - placing them in the organ loft of St Giles-without-Cripplegate Church. Their sound that came down from the organ loft was recorded by the string mike, giving a certain eerie, muted quality.

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23304&p=956517

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Um, I think the melody is there as well, when it is talking about Thror taking it as a sign that his right to rule is divine.

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Yeah that is new to DOS. It doesn't appear in the AUJ prologue. There's a slightly similar gesture after the cluster/reveal of the Arkenstone, but that's it.


Ah ha, wait. That string line from AUJ appears again at the end of On The Doorstep as a sort of second phrase to the choral melody, which is new.

3:12 in My Dear Frodo, 7:20 in On The Doorstep.


Looking at Jason's theme list, ya'll already knew that. I'll see myself out.

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