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Bear McCreary's The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)


Chen G.

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I've listened to lots of Bear's music, but haven't actually seen much of the content his scores are written for, so really have no idea about that stuff.  I did watch all of Battlestar Galactica as it aired, so before each of those OST albums came out, and I think those are largely chronological and only comprised of cues directly written for scenes of the show?

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The only way to hear it currently is piracy

 

The OST album will legally drop sometime soon otherwise

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Given that the whole point of this endeavour is to draw subscribers to Prime Video, I wonder if they'll (initially at least) make the score a Prime/Amazon Music exclusive?

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1 hour ago, Doctor Faust said:

Also the Khazad Dum theme and rhythms reminds me so much of Basil Paledoris's "Riddle of Steel" Conan.

Oh fun! Wasn’t Poledouris supposedly one of the names being kicked around to score the original LOTR trilogy? (I know Shore was the only one they called officially) I seem to remember Doug Adams mentioning something to that effect in one of his interviews…

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5 hours ago, Gibster said:

Has anyone picked up on Mccreary using Shores theme?

 

No. Plus, McCreary said he only heard Shore's piece while he was wrapping up his composition...

 

Maybe in Season Two!

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6 hours ago, Doctor Faust said:

Also the Khazad Dum theme and rhythms reminds me so much of Basil Paledoris's "Riddle of Steel" Conan.

 

I guess thats why it sounded so familiar to me.

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7 hours ago, Gibster said:

Has anyone picked up on Mccreary using Shores theme?

Not the Main Titles, but I've gotten the chance to listen to the whole This Wandering Day, and if the first six pitches isn't an intentional reference to LotR material it's an astounding coincidence.

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I listened to the album yesterday and am very pleased. I love McCreary's work, these tracks are my favorites:

image.png

They have so much power. A really impressive work!

 

The themes of Valiinor and Númenor will definitely find a place in my all-time favorite film music playlist!

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8 hours ago, Doctor Faust said:

Also the Khazad Dum theme and rhythms reminds me so much of Basil Paledoris's "Riddle of Steel" Conan.

 

Reminds me the MORIA mock up from the Rarities Archive...

 

 

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Seems to be a new trend; I first noticed it with the Dr Strange 2 OST.  Basically it's streaming-only for a few weeks, then the digital purchase option comes later.

 

Why?  I have no idea.

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4 minutes ago, Jay said:

Seems to be a new trend; I first noticed it with the Dr Strange OST.  Basically it's streaming-only for a few weeks, then the digital purchase option comes later.

 

Why?  I have no idea.

Maybe the digital purchase option has even more music, like with Doctor Strange. I highly doubt it, but who knows

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Just now, Jay said:

Seems to be a new trend; I first noticed it with the Dr Strange OST.  Basically it's streaming-only for a few weeks, then the digital purchase option comes later.

 

Why?  I have no idea.

What the hell?!!!

 

2 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:
Quote

He spent two months just writing themes, based primarily on reading the scripts. “Each of the themes had an A section, a B section, an intro, a development,” he explains. “It was like writing a symphony. I planned all this out so that when I could dive into the footage, I would have the pieces I needed in place.”

Wait, composers are still allowed to do that? That's great! I like the Galadriel theme very much, especially the B part with celli and oboe in octaves. "Numenor" sounded like I'm in Egypt upon the first listen...

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26 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

Oh god, I thought we were past this 'itunes exclusive' tracks shit.

 

So I've got to buy the album in lossless and then those two tracks in mp3. Fuck you Amazon.

 

Well what did you expect? The whole reason this show (and album) even exists is to draw in subscribers to Prime!  I'm frankly surprised they made it available to other streamers (at least initially) at all.

 

Amazon's gotta Amazon.

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Well, listened to the first 8 tracks. Sad to say the Shore piece felt among the weaker half... but happy to say the stronger half is really strong! Memorable and motivating, if I divorce it from the show which I don't care about, and from Tolkien's world which I don't think tracks like Númenor fit into well at all, this might end up a kickass collection of music I'll really like.

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19 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

Weird, the YouTube music (which is the music streamer I use) link comes up empty. It goes to YTM, but I'm only getting a black screen. 

 

It's coming up fine on my Prime Music though, making it the first time I've ever used it, given I didn't even know I had it until now. 

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2 minutes ago, Holko said:

Well, listened to the first 8 tracks. Sad to say the Shore piece felt among the weaker half... but happy to say the stronger half is really strong! 

 

Won't be the first time the score far outdoes the source material. Rosenman once complained this his brilliant LOTR score (his words) was brought down by the Bakshi film.

 

4 minutes ago, Holko said:

Memorable and motivating, if I divorce it from the show which I don't care about, and from Tolkien's world which I don't think tracks like Númenor fit into well at all, this might end up a kickass collection of music I'll really like.

 

Maybe listen to it whilst reading the Appendices, Unfinished Tales or The Silmarillion? ;) 

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2 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Maybe listen to it whilst reading the Appendices, Unfinished Tales or The Silmarillion? ;)

 

2 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

if I divorce it [...] from Tolkien's world which I don't think tracks like Númenor fit into well at all

 

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Rosenman once complained this his brilliant LOTR score (his words) was brought down by the Bakshi film.

He's not wrong. Where's an expansion goddammit? I want the film version credits!!!

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I assume In The Beginning covers a sort of intro with a quick recap of Valinor and the Darkening of Valinor with the stealing of light?

In this case, not knowing the actual footage, it would be clever IF McCreary used Galadriel's theme for the trees of the Valar, since their light was allegedly crafted after Galadriel's hair.

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Given the replies to this tweet, Shore probably shouldn't have bothered:

 

I mean, it's an 80-second piece for the opening titles (which no one's yet seen) of a crap show he's not otherwise involved in, for which, it seems, he can't lean too heavily into his old material. What exactly were people expecting?

 

I take back my earlier comments about people realizing the importance of Shore's music to Middle-earth on screen. With all due respect to Bear - this isn't a criticism of him, but rather the general public's tastes and viewing habits in general - I think people aren't that discerning these days, so for Amazon's purposes it will hardly matter.

 

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54 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

The texts are in two Elvish languages, Sindarin and Quenya; the Dwarvish language Khuzdûl; Black Speech, the language of Sauron, creator of the rings; and Adûnaic, the language of the people of Númenor.

Would be great to see the division in Númenor symbolised by use of either Elvish or Adûnaic lyrics...

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If McCreary's 15 themes are on this album. I think the following tracks might be suites.

 

These are the most obvious

  • Galadriel
  • Khazad-Dûm
  • Nori Brandyfoot
  • The Stranger
  • Númenor
  • Sauron
  • Valinor
  • Elrond Half-Elven
  • Durin IV
  • Harfoot Life
  • Browyn And Arondir
  • Halbrand
  • Elendil And Isildur

 

Not sure about these

  • White Leaves (Maybe a theme for Telperion or the Two Trees Of Valinor)
  • Nolwa Mahtar?
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