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


gkgyver

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Actually his review is quite solid.

As usual! Give him some credit!

Most of his M-E reviews are not half bad.

Not half bad? They're excellent! Where else do you find such in depth reviews of these scores?

Sure I may not entirely agree with all his assessments (RotK is NOT the weakest of the OT, and DOS deserves more credit than it seems to be getting) but that's irrelevant to the quality if the reviews!

I would say Christian's output varies quite a bit but on the whole I find his reviews well written although his arguments can be a bit strange at times.

From the filmtracks review:

Also gone are the original Mirkwood theme (the downbeat version)

To what does this refer exactly? The bit heard in 'Radagast the Brown' and 'The White Council' that Doug confirmed is Radagast material?

I guess so.

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What you don't understand is that there is no "main theme" in a score that treats all three films as three acts in one story, and applies themes to its story elements.

In all honesty, I don't see why that would rule out a main theme.

Can we at least agree that the Ring is the main element of the story, the element everything revolves around?

Yes, of course. There are numerous thematic spin-offs.

I was just trying to make the point that in thematic logic and application, the Hobbit is no different from LotR (in Shore's original intentions), and that this application rules out a central main theme by definition.

You can look at it that way, but it's not really true.

A lot of it has to do with the nature of he film really.

The overall focus of the LOTR trilogy is the ring. It's what is driving nearly everything in the film. And so Shore brilliantly utilizes this theme as the connective tissue of the vast array of his many leitmotives. What's the main focus of the Hobbit trilogy? You'd think it'd be Bilbo, but the film disagrees. The Hobbit films act more as a compilation of Tolkien lore and fan fiction with poor Bilbo being almost cast off to the side. DOS, reflects this attitude the most, and unfortunately translates to the music with a lack of an "overarching theme", something that bridges everything together.

And you may disagree but Shore did this with each of the individual OT films. The Fellowship theme held FOTR together, because the film revolved around the fellowship. TTT Had the Rohan theme and ROTK had the Gondor theme. Each of those themes served as an independent overarching thematic identity of the different films, to help bridge this complex tale together with an overall sense of goal and purpose. Again, Shore owes this to the films, because they were all written that way.

With something like DOS, PJ really fails to instill any sense of purpose. It's a hodgepodge of action scenes, and fantastical CG spectacle. And in return, Shore provides brilliant underscore for individual parts. But as a whole there is no overarching idea to bridge it all together. No ring theme, no fellowship, no Rohan or Gondor. CC brings up a good point.

Of course what he fails to point out is that much of the fault lies in the film. There is no main point to it. So as it is, it's a brilliant work of thematic storytelling, but the story itself doesn't have as driving a purpose as the OT did.

EDIT: Turns out BloodBoal already said everything I had to say....curses!

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Does the first glimp of the Laketown politicians theme heard in 'Bard, A Man of Laketown' feature in the film? I don't remember hearing it, and thinking back I can't think of what part it might score. Does Bard mention political matters when talking to Balin?

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From the filmtracks review:

Also gone are the original Mirkwood theme (the downbeat version)

To what does this refer exactly? The bit heard in 'Radagast the Brown' and 'The White Council' that Doug confirmed is Radagast material?

Let's face it the lack of Radagast's music from Shore's AUJ score in this is hardly surprising because A) it was barely present in the AUJ film and B) Radagast is barely in this, and the music probably wouldn't have been appropriate for the High Fells bit.

Yeah, he doesn't quite mention that if PJ doesn't like it, it gets the boot.

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Given that we'll surely see more of Radagast in TABA, including his (probable) fumbling attempts to tell the White Council what has happened, plus a seeming bunny sled escape with Gandalf, it will be interesting to see how Shore scores these sections. You'd think he'd draw on the Radagast material heard in the AUJ film, but you never know - we might have another spider theme situation where Jackson takes a liking to it second time round.

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LOL

Damn! I didn't read anything on this page and just responded to GKs comment. But reading it now, we're talking about exactly the same things!! I guess great minds think alike eh? ;)

Now delete your post so I can look good!

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Now delete your post so I can look good!

Oh we know BB is magnanimous but not THAT magnanimous!

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(I can't hear them).

You did not notice the bad fadeout of Gollum's theme in A Conspiracy Unmasked? or the obvious looping in Pass of Caradhras?

And its really the principal of the thing, its NOT economic to include the EXACT SAME music more thaan once at the expense of the true composition, it does not help with musical flow and feel (I found the tracked Ring theme enhanced my boredom when watching FOTR after a while.)

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(I can't hear them).

You did not notice the bad fadeout of Gollum's theme in A Conspiracy Unmasked? or the obvious looping in Pass of Caradhras?

Call me deaf and roll me in tar and feathers but I did not. Only thing that really irritated me in CRs was the small mixing issues with the balancing of choirs and the orchestra and two instances where the mix is too quiet for soloist moments (Pass of Caradhras with the Seduction of the Ring choral rendition in FotR and solo horn for the Way to Mordor motif in My Precious in TTT).

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Those last two are not really mixing issues, thats just that the CR's have a huge amount of Dynamix Range unlike most scores are today.

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On 17/01/2014 at 7:40 PM, Incanus said:
On 17/01/2014 at 7:28 PM, KK. said:

Now delete your post so I can look good!

Oh we know BB is magnanimous but not THAT magnanimous!

Indeed! You're the Merciful One, KK, not I!

On 17/01/2014 at 7:58 PM, Incanus said:
On 17/01/2014 at 7:51 PM, Faleel said:
On 17/01/2014 at 6:09 PM, Incanus said:
On 17/01/2014 at 6:08 PM, Faleel said:
(I can't hear them).

You did not notice the bad fadeout of Gollum's theme in A Conspiracy Unmasked? or the obvious looping in Pass of Caradhras?

Call me deaf and roll me in tar and feathers but I did not.

That makes two of us. Frankly, they're not that noticeable.

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I'm with Incanus on this one. I never noticed the bits you pointed Faleel, nor do I wish to. I'm perfectly content with the CR presentation of the music, with some quibbles (largely the choral mix). Sometimes, we've got to be less picky and just enjoy the music!

Speaking of the mix, I think DOS has the worst choral mix of the whole saga so far.

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Now delete your post so I can look good!

Oh we know BB is magnanimous but not THAT magnanimous!

In-fucking-deed! You're the Merciful One, KK, not I!

I was hoping you'd return the favour! :(

I think DOS has the worst choral mix of the whole saga so far.

Sometimes, we've got to be less picky and just enjoy the music!

Haha, you got me. But the faults and edits you point out don't hinder the listening experience. Had the choral mix been like it was in AUJ or the OT, it would have definitely help lift some great moments.

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But the faults and edits you point out don't hinder the listening experience.

When you start to listen to those scores daily (as I have) it becomes one, I don't get how you can listen to a whole cue twice and obviously tracked, and not find it distasteful.

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Does the first glimp of the Laketown politicians theme heard in 'Bard, A Man of Laketown' feature in the film? I don't remember hearing it, and thinking back I can't think of what part it might score. Does Bard mention political matters when talking to Balin?

I am pretty sure that segment, along with the other final 70 seconds of the track, went unused in the movie

Bard did speak about the Master not letting anyone in, but I dont think the timing would fit if the music was put back in there

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Does the first glimp of the Laketown politicians theme heard in 'Bard, A Man of Laketown' feature in the film? I don't remember hearing it, and thinking back I can't think of what part it might score. Does Bard mention political matters when talking to Balin?

I am pretty sure that segment, along with the other final 70 seconds of the track, went unused in the movie

Bard did speak about the Master not letting anyone in, but I dont think the timing would fit if the music was put back in there

Thanks for that. I was wondering if it might have scored a deleted scene, but people on here have said that the part in 'House of Beorn' is the only bit that seems to have scored deleted footage.

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There is no big deal at the moment. But when it comes, The Messenger shall be on top of it!

Besides, my own review of it is coming up soon ;)

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Who said it was a big deal? Is there some legal obligation to only talk about big deals?

Is it way to kill time between now and TABA?

Its so people now what was dialed out, so they can restore it with an editing program.

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What else is there to talk about? The endlessly fascinating Academy Awards?

The trillionth speculation about Star Wars VII: Revenge of the Cash Cow?

Ponies? (No offense to any person alive or dead who has, is going to have, or ever had, a pony)

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There is no big deal at the moment. But when it comes, The Messenger shall be on top of it!

Besides, my own review of it is coming up soon ;)

Good, good! I am looking forward to it KK. Make us proud!

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Certainly it has the most fanfare-like statements of the two, but I'm not sure that it's more prominent overall. Its full statements are used quite sparingly, whereas there are lengthy sections saturated in Shire music and lots of other small references throughout. I also think that the Fellowship theme has a sort of clumsiness or awkwardness to it (one of the things that makes it so interesting), especially given that it's the main heroic theme, whereas the Shire theme has a rather straightforward and easily remembered form. That's why I don't think the issue is quite so clear cut...

(For the record, I'm not a big fan of The Shire theme.)

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If you pressed someone with general familiarity to choose a main theme for the trilogy, I don't doubt they would choose the fellowship theme. No, it doesn't appear with the frequency of some others, no, it doesn't open each film like the history theme, but by and large it's what people probably most readily associate with the films musically.

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