The Lord of the Rings Symphony - CD Release

[Jay 37,355]

OK, I'll give it a shot.  I think its on Spotify.

[Wojo 2,453]

I don't think I've listened to it more than once though. I saw it live once too. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

2 minutes ago, WojinPA said:

I don't think I've listened to it more than once though. I saw it live once too. 

 

Ditto!

[mstrox 6,651]

It's a nice condensed version of the scores to the three movies, if you don't have the time to listen to the OSTs.  I don't think there's anything notably new, just well selected and arranged, with a good performance.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It a perfectly fine truncation of the OST's with some (at the time) unreleased nuggets thrown in.

But removing the climax from Bridge Of Khazad Dum was a big mistake.

 

[mstrox 6,651]

I would be much more interested in a Hobbit Symphony, only because we've never really been treated to a tight arrangement of the material.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yes, that would be interesting. And Shore would perhaps be able to fix some of the mistakes made in the last score.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Faleel 5,347]

But is necessary for edits

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

I've only heard this a few times, but actually revisited it just last week on recommendation from someone.  It's a fine thing, but I'm unimpressed by the performances, even Shore's own.  

[mstrox 6,651]

What was Shore's performance?  Does he sing the Enya song?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

He plays the triangle.

[Incanus 5,714]

I never bought this as I felt it wasn't necessary for me to have reworked OST material in a symphony form. I wish Shore had reworked his music a bit more for the symphonic setting. It is not a bad performance by any means but does not improve on the original either.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[Incanus 5,714]

Save your Shorepologisms SUH! You know us to be right!

[gkgyver 1,645]

13 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

It was a great opportunity to write concert suites of themes, to play with them, to give us more variations, to develop new musical sequences, even to write music for stuff from the book that didn't end up in the films!

 

Instead, Shore took the lazy road!

 

Concerning Hobbits is a concert Suite for the Shire

Rivendell is a concert Suite

Lothlorien is a concert Suite 

The Black Rider is a concert Suite 

Moria sequence is a concert suite 

Treebeard is a concert Suite 

Isengard Unleashed is a concert Suite for Nature Theme

Amon Hen is a concert Suite for Isengard

There is a Eowyn/Rohan suite 

Breaking of the Fellowship is a Frodo suite 

The Ring Goes South is a Fellowship Suite 

 

The albums were already conceived as concert suites in many ways, so it's no surprise Shore would use many of its concepts.

 

[BloodBoal 7,538]

From a certain point of view, maybe.

 

27 minutes ago, SafeUnderHill said:

Nonsense. It was supposed to be a concert arrangement of the film scores, that's what audiences would want and is what they got.

 

How do you know what audiences want?

 

And these are not really concert arrangements of the film cues. These are basically the track edits from the OSTs slightly tweaked and abridged to make the music from all three films fit in a two-hour symphony. Maybe that's good enough for you, but to me, for something called "the LOTR Symphony", it's disappointing.

 

Had it been called "The Lord Of The Rings Concert" or whatever, I wouldn't have cared that much. But for something called "Symphony", I expect the original material to be reworked in a way that feels like some thought was put into it to create a new experience. I don't expect a simple edit of the OSTs material. But hey, that's just me and my weird expectations.

[Faleel 5,347]

Sadly nowadays symphony = Movements

[mstrox 6,651]

.

1 minute ago, Fennel Ka said:

Sadly nowadays symphony = Movements

 

I create a symphony every day, sometimes twice.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

9 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

From a certain point of view, maybe.

 

 

How do you know what audiences want?

 

And these are not really concert arrangements of the film cues. These are basically the track edits from the OSTs slightly tweaked and abridged to make the music from all three films fit in a two-hour symphony. Maybe that's good enough for you, but to me, for something called "the LOTR Symphony", it's disappointing.

 

Had it been called "The Lord Of The Rings Concert" or whatever, I wouldn't have cared that much. But for something called "Symphony", I expect the original material to be reworked in a way that feels like some thought was put into it to create a new experience. I don't expect a simple edit of the OSTs material. But hey, that's just me and my weird expectations.

 

I agree wholeheartedly.  I was expecting way more out of it based on the title.

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

1 hour ago, mstrox said:

.

 

I create a symphony every day, sometimes twice.

 

Three times usually, the first one right after my morning coffee.

[Jay 37,355]

4 hours ago, mstrox said:

I would be much more interested in a Hobbit Symphony, only because we've never really been treated to a tight arrangement of the material.

 

Did you hear about this?

 

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/26357-the-hobbit-four-movements-for-symphony-orchestra-by-howard-shore/

[mstrox 6,651]

Yeah, if they release that on CD I'd buy it too.

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I want my symphonic suites tight....like a tiger.

 

[Jay 37,355]

Well I didn't end up listening to this this week, was too busy listening to FOTR over and over and TTT once and half of ROTK once.

 

Next week,  for sure!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yeah, right!

[gkgyver 1,645]

On 16.8.2016 at 8:38 PM, BloodBoal said:

From a certain point of view, maybe.

 

 

How do you know what audiences want?

 

And these are not really concert arrangements of the film cues. These are basically the track edits from the OSTs slightly tweaked and abridged to make the music from all three films fit in a two-hour symphony. Maybe that's good enough for you, but to me, for something called "the LOTR Symphony", it's disappointing.

 

Had it been called "The Lord Of The Rings Concert" or whatever, I wouldn't have cared that much. But for something called "Symphony", I expect the original material to be reworked in a way that feels like some thought was put into it to create a new experience. I don't expect a simple edit of the OSTs material. But hey, that's just me and my weird expectations.

 

The CD tracks were already edited as suites mostly, so it's not unusual or lazy to include those edits into the Symphony, if you are hell bent on suites.

 

The only problems the CD release has is in the Performance, which is awkward sometimes.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

2 minutes ago, gkgyver said:

The CD tracks were already edited as suites mostly, so it's not unusual or lazy to include those edits into the Symphony, if you are hell bent on suites.

 

But I don't consider the OST tracks to be some sort of suites of the themes. The only one that comes close to being a theme suite (well, to me at least) is Concerning Hobbits, really. The others still feel very much like cues from the film. When I listen to them, it doesn't feel like Shore was told: "OK, you've got your themes, now you're free to do whatever you want with them. You don't have to match the scenes of the film. There is no film to consider anymore. So play with them, try various things with them, develop them without having the time constraints that goes with having to sync with the action going on onscreen.", which, ultimately, was what I was expecting from the Symphony. I'm not saying he shouldn't have included any cues from the films, because of course, ultimately, this is music based on the films, not the books. Just that I would have liked to have some musical sequences exclusive to the symphony, where Shore would have been able to compose music without having to follow PJ's directions, or having to take into consideration what's happening in the film. I'm convinced hat could have given us some really sweet moments.

 

2 minutes ago, gkgyver said:

The only problems the CD release has is in the Performance, which is awkward sometimes.

 

That we can definitely agree on.

[gkgyver 1,645]

It's not important what anyone considers suites, what matters is what Shore considers suites.

Shore's ideas for characters and places are often not long enough to warrant long concert arrangements, so there are more place or character suites than theme suites.

Riders Of Rohan, The White Rider, Treebeard, The White Tree, and so on.

And if Shore assembled the OSTs already with that in mind, it is no surprise that a Symphony would follow the OSTs. Shore assembled the soundtrack pieces for a reason, and they are often not chronological for that reason.

[Richard Penna 3,687]

On 8/16/2016 at 6:52 PM, Incanus said:

I never bought this as I felt it wasn't necessary for me to have reworked OST material in a symphony form. I wish Shore had reworked his music a bit more for the symphonic setting. It is not a bad performance by any means but does not improve on the original either.

 

This.

 

Although the performance is very lacking compared to the score in places. The Khadad-dum sequence sounds like he was trying to emulate the original cue using 3 singers and a tiny orchestra. It doesn't come close to the uttery badassery that is the OST/CR cue.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

23 hours ago, gkgyver said:

It's not important what anyone considers suites, what matters is what Shore considers suites.

Shore's ideas for characters and places are often not long enough to warrant long concert arrangements, so there are more place or character suites than theme suites.

Riders Of Rohan, The White Rider, Treebeard, The White Tree, and so on.

And if Shore assembled the OSTs already with that in mind, it is no surprise that a Symphony would follow the OSTs. Shore assembled the soundtrack pieces for a reason, and they are often not chronological for that reason.

 

Well, it's important what I consider suites when I try to explain why I thought the symphony was disappointing. I just think the symphony is a missed opportunity, and whether it's because Shore already thought the editing work he did on the OSTs made for a satisfying symphony or because of something else doesn't matter. The end result is the same!

[Jilal 569]

On 16-8-2016 at 8:44 PM, Fennel Ka said:

Sadly nowadays symphony = Movements

 

Is that necessarily a bad thing? I think it's very interesting to hear large-scale musical development that deviates from standard sonata-allegro form. I love a lot of symphonies written within those constraints, but they're almost an anachronism, these days.

[Faleel 5,347]

My point is that there is more to making a symphony than slapping the the term movements on a collection of cues.

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

Is there anyone who has the timestamps of where in the Symphony Movements the different parts start?

[Jurassic Shark 12,073]

On 8/20/2016 at 4:04 AM, Jay said:

Well I didn't end up listening to this this week, was too busy listening to FOTR over and over and TTT once and half of ROTK once.

 

Next week,  for sure!

 

So what do you think of it?

[Jay 37,355]

I don't really like it. I just stick with the original recordings. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,073]

7 minutes ago, Jay said:

I don't really like it. 

 

Are you referring to the recording or the piece itself? I don't like the recording.

[Richard Penna 3,687]

I listened to a few bits of it again a few weeks ago, and it just struck me as a somewhat underwhelming re-recording of parts of the OSTs, glued together.

 

Would have been more interesting had Shore perhaps taken select bits and expanded on them.

[Jay 37,355]

All of it. There's no real merit to it. I can make my own superior shortened version of the score with the original recordings I'd enjoy more 

[bollemanneke 3,346]

I love the choir in the symphony, prefer it to the operatic one in the original versions, but the symphony itself is pretty pointless the way it is now, it's just lazy cut-and-pasting that I could probably do better. Plus, too much time is spent on alternates. When is that Hobbit symphony CD coming anyway? When the complete recordings come out, aka never?