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When you listen to Shore’s LOTR scores, which version do you listen to?


WampaRat

How do you prefer to listen to Shore’s LOTR scores?  

51 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you normally listen to Shore’s LOTR scores?

    • The OSTs
      9
    • The Complete Recordings
      32
    • Shore’s LOTR symphony
      0
    • The rarities archive
      0
    • A personal edit of all available recordings
      7
    • Yes!
      3


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This time of year is usually when I bust out the mammoth work of Shore’s LOTR scores. Thankfully there’s a number of different ways to enjoy them. What’s your preferred listening experience? The OSTs? The Complete Recordings? The Symphony? A personal edit of all available resources? Or just anything and everything involving this masterpiece?

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@Thor can I ask, have you listened to the CRs at all? I understand you have a deep appreciation for the composers initial selection on the OST as far as “listening experience”. But there’s some incredible stuff that unfolds in the complete recordings. 
 

Granted, there’s also some stuff that kinda slows things down (in the case of RotK and a few spots in Two Towers at least). 

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The OSTs are good, but a few tracks here or there in FOTR could be neatly replaced by CR tracks. Seems like they went for a few less punchy alternates in the OST. Otherwise those CRs are too damn long and exhaustive. They try my patience.

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Its a combination of the CR (predominantly), the OST and other bits and pieces.

 

I actually really, really appreciate that the CR is not a replacement to the OST: sometimes, its nice to just have a 70-minute distillation of the score to hand, and its nice that that shorter presentation is peppered with some unique alternates that make it distinct. 

 

That some of these alternates are among the best pieces of music in the whole cycle is just the icing in the cake.

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I never went back to the OSTs after CR came out. I tend to listen to them in their entirety. Sometimes, occasionally, I listen to the TTT album as it was my favourite of the three initial discs. I never listen to the symphony.

 

Karol

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I love some of the OST arrangements also. I am still very used to, and fond of, Bridge of Khazad-dum and Minas Tirith. Let's not forget the album Pelennor either

 

Shore's LOTR: the gift that keeps on giving.

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1 hour ago, WampaRat said:

@Thor can I ask, have you listened to the CRs at all? I understand you have a deep appreciation for the composers initial selection on the OST as far as “listening experience”. But there’s some incredible stuff that unfolds in the complete recordings. 
 

Granted, there’s also some stuff that kinda slows things down (in the case of RotK and a few spots in Two Towers at least). 

 

And Fellowship is so repetitive!

 

1 hour ago, Thor said:

The OSTs. They are the only ones I own, and will ever own.

 

The Fellowship OST is enough for me.

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10 minutes ago, crocodile said:

I never went back to the OST's after CR came out. I tend to listen to them in their entirety. Sometimes, occasionally, I listen to the TTT album as it was my favourite of the three initial discs. I never listen to the symphony.

 

Karol

 

This.

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I like the variety of The Two Towers. Even though it is mostly a non-chronological presentation it flows really nicely musically. I agree that Fellowship is bit repetitive and I never really liked The Return of the King. There's just way too much missing.

 

Karol

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1 minute ago, blondheim said:

Is it?

 

A little bit with all the Ringwraith music. The OSTs are not without flaw, but they're some damn fine OSTs.

 

This thread has me listening to the Return of the King OST. Damn, The White Tree is something else, and the transition to the sad Gondor music in the next track is enough to draw tears.

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2 minutes ago, blondheim said:

 

Is it?

 

There are a lot of Nazgul theme renditions. But if you're able to put that aside, the CR has so much richer content over the OST. For instance, I've always thought the Lothlorien material is criminally (though understandably) cut short on the OST.

 

1 minute ago, crocodile said:

I like the variety of The Two Towers. Even though it is mostly a non-chronological presentation it flows really nicely musically. I agree that Fellowship is bit repetitive and I never really liked The Return of the King. There's just way too much missing.

 

Karol

 

Stop reading my mind.

 

The ROTK is perhaps the most highlights/action-driven of the OSTs, but it still feels like a loosely edited playlist. The CRs just make more sense musically.

 

TTT feels like the best 1 hour showcase of the score.

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2 minutes ago, KK said:

There are a lot of Nazgul theme renditions. But if you're able to put that aside, the CR has so much richer content over the OST. For instance, I've always thought the Lothlorien material is criminally (though understandably) cut short on the OST.

I guess if I think about it, the Ringwraith music is a little repetitive but it's just so satisfying, I've never thought of it that way.

 

There is definitely more variety in Towers and King.

 

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Yeah, it is the Ringwraith material that creates that sense. I suppose that's one element of the score I don't quite buy. When I read the book these creatures felt more to me like a very silent horror-like presence. Think the initial encounter scene from the film. It's a fine composition but I wouldn't have done that. Feels like bit too much. I actually much prefer the proto-Nazgul music from The Hobbit.

 

Karol

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3 hours ago, blondheim said:

I guess if I think about it, the Ringwraith music is a little repetitive but it's just so satisfying, I've never thought of it that way.

 

There is definitely more variety in Towers and King.

 

 

Oh yea, the Ringwraith stuff has always been my guilty pleasure listen, so I've never complained.

 

But I would argue FOTR is still the most diverse and varied in musical palette and colour, just by necessity of the story. The other scores start to double-down on more singular tones (especially TTT).

 

Each score has its own thing going for it.

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1 minute ago, blondheim said:

I was always a huge fan of Orff so I feel differently. Even as a kid I thought, "Nazi... Nazgul...? The man's a genius."

That is an interesting way to look at it.

 

Karol

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One funny aspect of the Nazgul music for me is that - compared to both in At the Sign of The Prancing Pony on the OST and The Nazgul on the CR - I found the piece so much more effective in the scene because the choir peaks and then is allowed the reverberate into silence.

 

On album, the music almost immediately continues to churn, so some of the effectiveness of that moment is undone. One almost wishes they'd add an extra moment of quiet into the album at that point.

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I count 5 or 6 tracks that feature it in the first half, one is the prologue, Keep It Secret only has a short quote, The Nazgúl only leans on it early on... Overall it's a nice presence, a constant threat, growing and growing in intensity.

8 minutes ago, crocodile said:

I suppose that's one element of the score I don't quite buy. When I read the book these creatures felt more to me like a very silent horror-like presence. Think the initial encounter scene from the film. It's a fine composition but I wouldn't have done that. Feels like bit too much.

I guess part of it might be what they say in the Appendices: initially the Wraiths just weren't scary at all, more ridiculous, until they really leaned into the sound design. They talk mostly about the shrieks but I suspect their music being a more overt kind of ancient dramatic threat could be the result of that too.

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20 minutes ago, WampaRat said:

Anyone happen to have a 70-75 min playlist made from the CRs? (Is that even possible without chopping them up?)

 

Are you asking for 75 minute playlists for EACH CR, or a 75 minute best of culled from all three CRs?

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1 hour ago, WampaRat said:

@Thor can I ask, have you listened to the CRs at all? I understand you have a deep appreciation for the composers initial selection on the OST as far as “listening experience”. But there’s some incredible stuff that unfolds in the complete recordings. 

 

I have, yes. I totally agree with you that there are some beautiful pieces of music not on the OST in those sets. But I've never been into 'individual pieces' that way; what matters most is how the the whole thing plays from I press 'play' untill it finishes. And I'm not sure the existing OSTs would have been any better as a listening experience if certain tracks from the expanded sets had replaced, or added to those that are already there.

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I listen to the Symphony more often these days because I like the performances and choice of pieces, but for the past six years, whether it was by public transport or just personal listening, I religiously listened to the CRs in and out. Now I'm working my way through the OSTs for those sweet alternates!

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Fellowship is largely a beautifully arranged album, and will forever have nostalgic importance (it was the first time I left a cinema wanting to hear the music), but I've always felt it has too much Ringwraith material early on. That's got nothing to do with missing music at all - purely from an 'experience' perspective - it has 6 tracks in a row with the same chanting and ostinatos. Now don't get me wrong, that material is haunting and effective, but I really think that about 2/3 of it should've been dropped, and a bit more time given to later in the score.

 

I do listen to it now and again, but having a strong attachment to the film means that all the microedits stick out like a sore thumb.

 

I listen to the RotK CR the least - it's got by far the most padding, which the album sort of rectifies, although the amount of music not composed when the album was made makes it feel like it's missing something.

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This is why Thor's attitude is ridiculous. 

If you have a 70 minute OST, and a 100 minute score, and you say the OST is all that's necessary, that's understandable. 

If you have a 70 minute OST, and a 180-200 minute score, and you say the OST is all that's necessary, that's fundamentalism. 

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I also happen to think that the listening experience of each disc in the Complete Recordings has a well-defined narrative. Opens nicely, closes nicely, etc. Like Thor, I also just press play and go. The Lord of the Rings books are each divided into smaller books so while I think splitting discs is sometimes frustrating with other scores, with LOTR it echoes the novel. If you think about it. It makes the experience even more genuine for me.

 

I don't always go in for expanded releases but I cannot in this case prefer the OST. I will keep both because they are separate experiences but I don't consider them equal.

 

(Sidebar: I even like the Balin's Tomb/Khazad-dum split, although I can understand why someone wouldn't. However the set comes with a DVD or Blu-ray so it doesn't deny you that experience.)

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Not a lot of love for the Symphony it seems. Just finished listening to it since it had been a while. I think it’s a fantastic suite of all three score highlights. But the performance is a bit ...different...than the actual film scores. 
 

Has anyone tried to recreate the symphony’s selection of cues by cutting together the ost/CRs for the sake of better performances?

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The only thing I dislike about the Symphony is that it cuts out Three is Company to go straight into A Shortcut to Mushrooms. I guess it gets straight to the action, but I love that cue too much to let it go.

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30 minutes ago, WampaRat said:

Has anyone tried to recreate the symphony’s selection of cues by cutting together the ost/CRs for the sake of better performances?

 

I thought about doing that, but hadn't gotten around to it.

 

Ideally, you'd also want the presentation that goes with the Symphony.

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On 12/1/2020 at 12:40 AM, Chen G. said:

 

I thought about doing that, but hadn't gotten around to it.

 

Ideally, you'd also want the presentation that goes with the Symphony.

 

What kind of presentation would that be? PowerPoint?

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On 11/30/2020 at 9:10 PM, gkgyver said:

This is why Thor's attitude is ridiculous. 

If you have a 70 minute OST, and a 100 minute score, and you say the OST is all that's necessary, that's understandable. 

If you have a 70 minute OST, and a 180-200 minute score, and you say the OST is all that's necessary, that's fundamentalism. 

 

 

There's nothing wrong with only wanting a CD of material from the average 'epic' score. As I said earlier, I think the OST and CRs satisfy different audience and moods.

 

But I think it's very unreasonable to continually insist that for for a project with hours and hours of music, with tapestries of themes, that only (say) an hour of music is ever needed, and that nothing should ever be added to it.

 

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On 11/30/2020 at 4:26 PM, The Big Man said:

The OSTs are good, but a few tracks here or there in FOTR could be neatly replaced by CR tracks. Seems like they went for a few less punchy alternates in the OST. Otherwise those CRs are too damn long and exhaustive. They try my patience.

 

The trick is to know which tracks and sections of the score to skip wholesale. Most of the Fangorn material for example, can be passed over, because bar a handful of (really good) highlights buried within the cues, they're absolutely boring tracks overall. 

 

Thor will have acutely erroneous notions about the releases by and large: the CRs absolutely blow the rudimentary OST releases away, it's not even funny how thoroughly superior the more lavishly expansive later releases are. In fact there's so much great music absent on the OST that one could quite effortlessly compile an alternative OST album just out of that originally unincluded cue content. Possibly even a third alternate, such is the sheer wealth of fine musical storytelling in the myriad of cues written for the film. 

 

I wonder if the same could be said about the Star Wars soundtracks? 

 

The only part I replaced on my car USB was the beginning Hobbiton EE music. I much prefer the original OST version of Concerning Hobbits, because I think it flows better, and it reminds me more of the theatrical cut of the film. 

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On 11/30/2020 at 12:33 PM, Chen G. said:

 

A little bit with all the Ringwraith music. The OSTs are not without flaw, but they're some damn fine OSTs.

 

This thread has me listening to the Return of the King OST. Damn, The White Tree is something else, and the transition to the sad Gondor music in the next track is enough to draw tears.


I’d say The White Tree singlehandedly won Shore his second Oscar for scoring - it is that impactful in the cinemas. 

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