Jay 37,323 Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 What are people here's thoughts on this? I had never heard of it before today; I was looking on Spotify for Shore's symphony, only to find it wasn't there But several versions of THIS symphony are! The movements are: 1 Gandalf (The Wizard) 2 Lothlórien (The Elvenwood) 3 Gollum (Sméagol) 4 Journey in the Dark a. The Mines of Moria b. The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm 5 Hobbits And I've found these performances on Spotify by the Dutch Royal Military Band By the London Symphony Orchestra By the Amsterdam Wind Orchestra By the United States Air Force Band (cool cover!) By the Quebec Wind and Percussion Ensemble There might be others too.... must be a popular piece to have so many recorded versions of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SafeUnderHill 205 Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 I like it. I heard a version of it years ago live in concert, narrated by Christopher Lee no less. And I own the LSO version. I havent heard the original band arrangement though. This was probably the most well known and respected musical interpretation of Lord Of The Rings up until Shore came in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 37,323 Posted August 23, 2016 Author Share Posted August 23, 2016 Interesting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 I've never come across the version with narration, which has a different track order so it's more chronological. Since the narrator is telling the story. Dunno if it was just a one-off for Christopher Lee or if its been performed more. Marian might know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon Hill 4,233 Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 It's a neat piece. Played it in high school band one year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gkgyver 1,645 Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Never liked it very much. Feels very generic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon McBride 113 Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 One of my favorite symphonies. We played Hobbits in my high school band when I was was freshman and later during my senior year. I find the other movements superior to Hobbits though. When I first got to college I went and checked out the score for fun. 2 hours ago, Stefancos said: I like it. I heard a version of it years ago live in concert, narrated by Christopher Lee no less. And I own the LSO version. I havent heard the original band arrangement though. This was probably the most well known and respected musical interpretation of Lord Of The Rings up until Shore came in. The original band arrangement is far superior in my opinion. Not that the LSO version is bad, just not as good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KK 3,307 Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 It's not bad. Sometimes falls on the bland side, other times, has some rather inspired moments. The orchestral arrangement does it more justice. Performed it once back in high school as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incanus 5,713 Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 I have the LSO version somewhere but haven't listened to it in ages. It is big, splashy, very cinematic in construction but overall I am not terribly impressed with it. I should take another listen. It has been years since I did that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maglorfin 196 Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 Earlier this year, de Meij himself conducted his LotR symphony in performance with 'The President's Own" US Marine Band. Overall, it's a solid performance, technically on a very high level but not quite as inspired as I would have expected. That aside, it certainly was a memorable experience for both the orchestra and the composer himself; I suppose it is an honor to be able to conduct this band. ChrisAfonso 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schilkeman 957 Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 I still like it better than the scores for the films. It's less literal, and more imaginative, and I just think the music is more interesting. Jurassic Shark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chen G. 3,944 Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 A programmatic symphony is less literal than a score to a film? O say it is not so! bored and Tallguy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schilkeman 957 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 7 hours ago, Chen G. said: A programmatic symphony is less literal than a score to a film? O say it is not so! Look at that. We disagree about something. Only the Moria movement is narratively programmatic. The rest have a share of tone painting, but are more traditional in form, and are more about the idea of the subject than musical translations. It’s closer to Beethoven’s 6th than Strauss. Shore uses the orchestra as a blunt instrument of monotonous description. It works fine in the film, but I’ve never made it through any of the complete recordings in one sitting. His harmonies are the most interesting thing about the scores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick1Ø66 4,689 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Shore Rosenman de Meij RUSH Led Zeppelin Chen G. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chen G. 3,944 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 I never found Shore's score all that literal-minded. There's little by way of genuinely "descriptive" music, almost no "mickey mousing" to speak of or "hitting" beats in the action, the musical style is often archaic but not so archaic that you can say its a genuine attempt to reconstruct what Middle Earth's own music would have sounded like, the diegetic music is somewhat different to the mimetic music, and cliches of "period" orchestration are either avoided or done a different way (the cliche thing would have been to do the Middle Eastern thing for Mordor, and while there's some of that, ultimately Shore uses Middle Eastern scales and instruments predominantly for the Elves, and when it crosses over to Mordor its an expression of their shared kind of auestere exoticism). The score is leitmotivic - these large-form cycles (The Ring, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings) lend themselves to that: you can't score The Lord of the Rings like Parsifal. But the use of the leitmotives here is really not that literal. There are relatively few motives that really unequivocally relate just to a specific character, artefact, place or so forth: they tend to have slightly broader, more flexible associations, and they become more flexible still as the cycle winds on. Of course its going to be more "literal minded" than a symphony, though! bored and Monoverantus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,342 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 17 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said: Shore Rosenman de Meij RUSH Led Zeppelin What about Shuki Levy, Maury Laws, David Cain, David Munrow, Stephen Oliver? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick1Ø66 4,689 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 7 hours ago, Presto said: What about Shuki Levy, Maury Laws, David Cain, David Munrow, Stephen Oliver? None of those clowns are better than Juno-award winning RUSH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bored 306 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 I didn't realize Rush had their music used in Juno. 🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artguy360 1,843 Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 I never knew this existed! Listening now. Very interesting to hear different musical interpretations of Gandalf and Gollum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 7,990 Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 6 hours ago, artguy360 said: I never knew this existed! Listening now. Very interesting to hear different musical interpretations of Gandalf and Gollum. Which version are you listening two. The original brass, wind and percussion? Or the adaptation for the full symphony orchestra? Karol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artguy360 1,843 Posted February 28 Share Posted February 28 4 hours ago, crocodile said: Which version are you listening two. The original brass, wind and percussion? Or the adaptation for the full symphony orchestra? Karol I was listening to the album by the Amsterdam Wind Orchestra. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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