Howard Shore's The Battle of the Five Armies (Hobbit Part 3)

[Faleel 5,365]

Two pieces of sheet music are in the liner notes:

46 br The Destruction of Laketown [sic] (Wednesday, April 9, 2014).

and

11 br Dain 510 (or s10) (Saturday, May 10, 2014) .

[Jay 37,376]

BTW, Doug comfirms that the Bred for War motif is the Gundabad motif

I don't know why anyone would have thought otherwise.

[Incanus 5,716]

Well, then we shall call it the Burgeoning Leader theme!

Bard the Leader, Bard the King!

[Barnald 365]

So according to this, Neil Finn wrote 'There and Back Again' around the same time as 'Song of the Lonely Mountain', with the intention of it being used for film 3. It would be a real shame not to hear it. One person says they recorded it, but no one seems to have uploaded it anywhere. If Finn doesn't perform it elsewhere it could become quite a rarity:

http://www.frenzforum.com/topic/new-hobbit-song

[KK 3,307]

Did he develop the ya ya yas for the song?

[Barnald 365]

Can we leave ya ya ya's out of this please? This is serious business!

[Incanus 5,716]

Neil Finn is never serious business!

[Barnald 365]

Neil Finn is never serious business!

Don't make me have to launch my impassioned defence of Neil Finn again

[Incanus 5,716]

Neil Finn is never serious business!

Don't make me have to launch my impassioned defence of Neil Finn again

Oh yeah I keep forgetting, you are one of his acolytes. Alright, I won't say anything else against him.

[KK 3,307]

Can we leave ya ya ya's out of this please? This is serious business!

Nah nah nah nah

[Barnald 365]

Me and Finn go way back. I was the one who suggested he put the 'ya ya ya's' in there

[KK 3,307]

So you're the one we must crucify then!

You think the Journey theme is weak? Blasphemy! It's my favorite theme of the trilogy!

Its weary in the ears after a while. Its a nice melody, but not a very malleable one I'm afraid. It sounds meh in action mode.

Huh? This is the Journey theme:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxQSwI5aPja9cWZ1ZEZDNmFFMk0/view?usp=sharing

Where'd you get that from? The music that is.

Production Diaries.

Cool! It's a shame we never got any of those for this film...

[Barnald 365]

Alongside Ed Sheeran yes

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Barnald 365]

Nice try

[Faleel 5,365]

Oh, BTW this is what to expect on the SE BB:

More detuned stringed Dragon Sickness in Beyond Sorrow and Grief.

An almost sad version of the Threat of Dol Guldur motif at the end of Guardians of the Three.

Awesome twisted Brass variations of Erebor, Thorin and The House of Durin in The Gathering of the Clouds.

Woodland Realm, and Azog/Bolg themes in To The Death.

Hobbity material, Bard/Lake-town material (brassy Lake-town theme) in Ironfoot.

Smaug, Arkenstone, Bard, and Gundabad, and Lake-town Material in Dragon Sickness.

Gandalf vs. Thrain, Evil of the Ring, Mordor Skip-beat, Descending Third, and the "No One Must Enter That Mountain!" music in Thrain.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Faleel 5,365]

Why, Shore, why?!

Probably because its the same six notes played again (not saying I like the choice).

[Barnald 365]

First Shore teases us enough by including in the track badass music for a very intriguing-sounding scene we'll probably never see, and now this?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Faleel 5,365]

First Shore teases us enough by including in the track badass music for a very intriguing-sounding scene we'll probably never see.

I hope the EE of BOFA will either have the scene in the film somehow (not likely at all), or in the appendice docs, like Bilbo looking out his door in AUJ, or the Dwarves before Thranduil in DOS.

[Faleel 5,365]

BTW, not that anyone cares, the music video version of The Last Goodbye is slightly longer (a longer opening for one).

[Jay 37,376]

My copy of the standard OST is here!

[Taikomochi 1,136]

I'm sure it's been mentioned elsewhere in the thread, but I couldn't find it - Where in the score do "Dragon/Sickness" and "Thrain" go? Is my understanding correct that "Thrain" belongs to DOS?

[Faleel 5,365]

Is my understanding correct that "Thrain" belongs to DOS?

Look in the chronological score thread.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Jay 37,376]

I'm sure it's been mentioned elsewhere in the thread, but I couldn't find it - Where in the score do "Dragon/Sickness" and "Thrain" go? Is my understanding correct that "Thrain" belongs to DOS?

It's funny. Anybody who asks about a track called "Dragon/Sickness" makes it immediately apparent they illegally downloaded for a place that worships an RPG.

Anyways, the answers you seek are right here:

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23304&p=1067130

[Taikomochi 1,136]

Is my understanding correct that "Thrain" belongs to DOS?

Look in the chronological score thread.

Ah, that answers one question. Thank you.

Anyone know where "Dragon/Sickness" goes, then?

EDIT: Just saw that was answered too. Thanks.

[Jay 37,376]

It's funny. Anybody who asks about a track called "Dragon/Sickness" makes it immediately apparent they illegally downloaded for a place that worships an RPG.

Anyways, the answers you seek are right here:

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23304&p=1067130

[Faleel 5,365]

It's a concert version.

[Jay 37,376]

WaterTower US actually put the OST on Spotify today!

Standard OST:

http://open.spotify.com/album/1C0QqevwLY9VQCfEKQ6fla

Special Edition OST:

http://open.spotify.com/album/3aOTswEMoklceLNTmQj78j

(WaterTower still hasn't put DOS on Spotify US)

[Faleel 5,365]

So, what theme is the liner notes talking about here?

As Bilbo’s fear for Thorin’s sanity grows, the Hobbit makes a last-ditch effort
to dissuade his friend from his course, and the stepwise pitches of the Shire theme are
transformed into a minor-mode figure that motif [sic] climbs nervously over string harmonics.

[KK 3,307]

The ''new'' burglar motif!

[Faleel 5,365]

The ''new'' burglar motif!

r u shore?

[KK 3,307]

I am the Horse.

[MedigoScan 325]

Okay just got back

have to get in my memories before I forget during sleep

I didnt notice a lot of music absent

every track may have something extra that was removed from the album, but it cant have been more than a minute

the biggest absences are that music from the Bilbo clip posted earlier, instances of alfrids theme (the one which was muted from Protector of the Folk),

the funeral brass fanfare for Thorin

,

and a lot of bombastic material from Fire&Water, the full version of that theme is gonna be hell to wait for

on the flipside, PJ has gone mad with 'silence' again. Its not very noticeable at first, and a lot of times the silences are actual silences (where the album just cuts out the pauses)

But some of the heavier parts of 'Bred for War' 'Ravenhill' and 'To the Death' are cut short. The troll theme also seemed to be removed entirely

then people might remember how the music was switched around for 'Durins Folk'

well that happens a lot in this movie (with 'Mythril' and 'Sons of Durin' for instance)

and finally, Ironfoot is not the end credits suite

at least it wasnt for me

the end credits had music from the entire album, and some material the album didnt have

[Faleel 5,365]

then people might remember how the music was switched around for 'Durins Folk'

well that happens a lot in this movie (with 'Mythril' and 'Sons of Durin' for instance)

Do you remember know the order?

Doug:

Putting on my old interviewer hat to chat with #HowardShore tomorrow night. Unlikely to ask about pizza toppings. #eyeroll #ama

[KK 3,307]

[gkgyver 1,646]

Ok, the verdict's in.

First things first, to all my fellow Shore lovers, who so desperately want the music to shine in these films: do NOT get your hopes up a third time! You may crucify me for saying it, but this is the movie where the music is least noticeable, and a LOT is drowned by sound effects. For a guy who likes his music loud and unsubtle, PJ sure has a love for silence.

I doubt Shore intended so much silence during Smaug's attack on Lake-Town. The choral reprisal of the Golden statue theme from DoS is completely drowned by sound. As is Dain's theme in Battle for the Mountain, as is the choral orgasm from Sons Of Durin.

The eagles music .... is there (bet you had a heart attack now), BUT the order from the album is switched, and it is almost exclusively reduced to the choir, without the awesome martial orchestration. Gandalf's theme from the end of The Ruins Of Dale is cut, and left with just the percussion. My guess is that after recording the finale of DoS in stems, they recorded almost all the score in stems this time, so that Jackson and Co. could fuck around with it according to their needs, without having to do rescores.

Another section of the film that i misterioso to me is Guardians Of The Three. The pieces of that CD track are moved around heavily, with the beginning popping up in the middle, the Rivendell/Gandalf hybrid lacking completely, and the "Nuclear Galadriel" reference being cut. The choral crescendo at the beginning is missing, too. The Sauron theme on organ is mixed very quietly in the film, and the rest of the track is basically covered up by Wraith fighting sounds. The actual expelling of Sauron from Dol Guldur is not scored I think (at least not audibly), and at the very end,

when Sauron appears in fiery form together with the Nine one last time

, the "The Nine" theme from DoS reappears on boy soprano, followed by a statement of the "Sauron Appears" theme, though I'm 95% certain both of these were actually tracked from "The High Fells" and "A Spell Of Concealment". Though it's hard to hear really, because the SFX are just so loud.

The aftermath, however is almost perfectly scored

[Faleel 5,365]

Sauron Appears?

Ben Burtt?

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

The eagles music is switched as in the part from the end of AUJ appears before the actual nature theme? Like that inexplicable swapping of phrases in Tauriel's theme during the river sequence? Bloody hell. What sort of logic leads to these choices?

[gkgyver 1,646]

Sauron Appears?

Ben Burtt?

With Sauron Appears I mean the music from RotK that was reused in DoS, the fierce motif that plays when the witch king rises from Minas Morgul in RotK.

The eagles music is switched as in the part from the end of AUJ appears before the actual nature theme? Like that inexplicable swapping of phrases in Tauriel's theme during the river sequence? Bloody hell. What sort of logic leads to these choices?

Actually,

the appearance of the eagles is really odd because it happens when Thorin confronts Azog on the frozen lake, and is treated like a really bypassing thought, no punch to it whatsoever. And the sight of Radagst riding an eagle will give fans nightmares for years to come no doubt.

[KK 3,307]

Oh boy...film kinda sounds awful...

[gkgyver 1,646]

Oh boy...film kinda sounds awful...

It isn't if you set the bar of expectations to the quality level of the previous two.

[KK 3,307]

That depends on whether it's more like AUJ or DoS, and something tells me it's the latter...

How would you rank the films?

[Jay 37,376]

Sounds like this score has a ton of unreleased music...

[gkgyver 1,646]

Sounds like this score has a ton of unreleased music...

Not that I heard much of it in the film, actually. Fire And Water is longer of course, but not by much, and I'm not even sure if the second statement of Bard's family theme in the film isn't looped or not. There is some Fire and Water music in the end credits, which I think (!) is unreleased.

There are one or two unreleased versions of the descending third, most notably one when Azog is leading his army to Erebor, and the second one when Bolg's army leaves Gundabad. I'm sure there is more music in the last third of the film, but I honestly couldn't tell if it was new or if the soundtrack cues were just cut apart and reassembled. I can't remember a good part of To The Death being in the film, though.

That depends on whether it's more like AUJ or DoS, and something tells me it's the latter...

How would you rank the films?

It's tough for me to not let my feelings about score abusing influence my judgement of the films, but regardless, it would be:

1. Desolation of Smaug

2. An Unexpected Journey

3. Battle of the Five Armies

[Jay 37,376]

Is there any unreleased music between the end of the battle and the start of the end credits?

[gkgyver 1,646]

Is there any unreleased music between the end of the battle and the start of the end credits?

You mean after Thorin and Azog squash each other? Yes, but brief stuff. There is more of Tauriel and Kili's theme at the end of Courage and Wisdom, two or three bars of the A theme on gentle flute. And at the end of The Return Journey (which is just wonderful in the film btw), there are a few bars of music I didn't immediately recognise. The ring theme statement in There And Back Again is cut short for effect. But aside from that, it's all pretty much like the OST.

[KK 3,307]

There is more of Tauriel and Kili's theme at the end of Courage and Wisdom, two or three bars of the A theme on gentle flute.

A theme of Tauriel and Kili? As in the opening of this?