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

[Chen G. 3,943]

1 hour ago, Gollum Cat said:

@Chen G. - this is interesting. Your description of reminiscence themes is actually what I have had in my head before when it comes to leitmotif. What makes up this more mature technique you mention?

 

Colloquially, we use the term "leitmotif" to refer to reminiscence themes, but in most literature there is a distinction drawn between the reminiscene technique - which is about as old as programmatic music - and the mature leitmotif technique which really only starts with Das Rheingold. It can seem rather an academic distinction, but you know the difference when you hear it.

 

There are a couple of main distinctions: one is as I said that the motives undergo significant change both in musical character and in dramatic associations. Another distinction is that the themes subdivide into multiple sets and subsets of related and opposing themes: all of Shore's themes that are related to the Shire and the Hobbits are connected musically, and they oppose all the themes associated with Sauron, Mordor, the Orcs and the Ring, which are connected musically.

 

This is an important point in connection to the issue of development because, as the leitmotives develop and change, motives from different "families" may well become closer to one another: rather than the musical "worlds" of the piece merely standing in stark juxtaposition to each other, they intermingle and effect each other. This is most appearant in concluding scores like The Return of the King or Gotterdamerung, where a lot of the time you can't really tell which theme you're hearing: is it Gondor music or is Mordor music? is it Valhalla music or is it Ring music? It becomes all but impossible to tell.

 

Another important point is that, at least in theory, in scores like this - ALL THE MUSIC IS THEMATIC. With every single new measure we hear either an leitmotif we've heard before coming back in new forms, a new leitmotif being introduced that will reappear later, or music that may not be repeated later, but which is nevertheless derived from a leitmotif that's heard thereabouts.

 

There isn't really a lot of music quite like that: even the later Wagnerian music-dramas don't hold-up to this either because their themes don't develop any specific associations or because the basic musical worlds don't actually "infect" one another. Some other composers like Strauss and Debussi used leitmotives, but across the span of a single score there's only so much you can do compared to a lengthy cycle like The Ring, Shore's Middle Earth scores of Williams' Star Wars scores. There are other film series with several scores by the same composer - Williams Indy scores, John Barry's Bond scores - but they tend to follow more episodic storylines that don't allow to develop material right through multiple evenings.

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

42 minutes ago, blondheim said:

We? Not over here. Some of us are still less than impressed.

 

I completely agree with Chen G. here. Reminiscence scoring as he puts it does nothing for me and this is basically just that on steroids. Which isn’t admirable or skilled to me. Competent is the word, I think

 

I would say having 15 or more fairly distinct, clear themes that are fairly memorable and have A/B parts, counter point etc. for a TV show is more than what you get from most of TV. 

[Monoverantus 363]

I think it's good to remember that the term "leitmotif" (a short, recurring musical phrase associated with a particular person, place, or idea) was coined a long time ago, and the term has changed a bit since it came into the public vocabulary.

For example, in both video games and TV, you usually compose a handful of tracks that are just replayed over and over. Play through Final Fantasy VII or watch LOST, and you'll find the tracks "Aerith's theme" and "Jack's Theme" play in scenes where Aerith or Jack has important roles. If you call that a leitmotif, it's technically right and people will get what you mean, but Wagner would skewer you on a spear.

[Nick1Ø66 4,688]

 

[blondheim 1,157]

8 minutes ago, TheUlyssesian said:

 

I would say having 15 or more fairly distinct, clear themes that are fairly memorable and have A/B parts, counter point etc. for a TV show is more than what you get from most of TV. 

Yeah but I don’t believe in always having to “be realistic” about our musical expectations. This is the most expensive show ever made. They shouldn’t have to succumb to “television” standards, even if we accept that reality. Nothing will change if everyone just does enough and we all continue to temper expectations. This was the opportunity to do more

 

And a lot of the theme suites are full of material that is never quoted in the score proper. They make up more of a concept album at this point which is not the kind of score I truly enjoy. All of the themes are also built with the same formula and sound dullsville to me. 

[Chen G. 3,943]

On 01/09/2022 at 8:57 PM, Monoverantus said:

Wagner would skewer you on a spear.

 

Wagner actually never used that term. In Oper Und Drama and some other pieces of writing he refers to "plastiche naturmotiven" (malleable natural motives), "Urmotiven" (basic motives), "Grundthemen" ("fundemental themes"), "Hauptmotiv" (main motif), "melodische Momente" (melodic moments) and "Gefühlswegweisern" ("conduits of feeling"). Only in the much later Über die Anwendung der Musik auf das Drama (on the application of music to drama) does he refer to "what he [Hans von Wolzogen, who wrote the first "leitmotif catalogue" for the Ring] calls 'leitmotives.'" Its unclear how much Wagner approved or disapproved of Wolzogen's findings or naming conventions.

 

And, again, the leitmotif technique is really only appearant in The Ring: its not in his earlier works nor in his later ones. Tristan and Parsifal don't really follow the leitmotif technique as such, and Meistersinger is kinda in between.

[Monoverantus 363]

16 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Wagner actually never used that term.

That''s funny, I did stop and think "hang on did he even use the word himself" but couldn't be bothered to change it. Now it seems Hans von Wolzogen would've been a better candidate.

[Gollum Cat 24]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

 

Colloquially, we use the term "leitmotif" to refer to reminiscence themes, but in most literature there is a distinction drawn between the reminiscene technique - which is about as old as programmatic music - and the mature leitmotif technique which really only starts with Das Rheingold. It can seem rather an academic distinction, but you know the difference when you hear it.

 

There are a couple of main distinctions: one is as I said that the motives undergo significant change both in musical character and in dramatic associations. Another distinction is that the themes subdivide into multiple sets and subsets of related and opposing themes: all of Shore's themes that are related to the Shire and the Hobbits are connected musically, and they oppose all the themes associated with Sauron, Mordor, the Orcs and the Ring, which are connected musically.

 

This is an important point in connection to the issue of development because, as the leitmotives develop and change, motives from different "families" may well become closer to one another: rather than the musical "worlds" of the piece merely standing in stark juxtaposition to each other, they intermingle and effect each other. This is most appearant in concluding scores like The Return of the King or Gotterdamerung, where a lot of the time you can't really tell which theme you're hearing: is it Gondor music or is Mordor music? is it Valhalla music or is it Ring music? It becomes all but impossible to tell.

 

Another important point is that, at least in theory, in scores like this - ALL THE MUSIC IS THEMATIC. With every single new measure we hear either an leitmotif we've heard before coming back in new forms, a new leitmotif being introduced that will reappear later, or music that may not be repeated later, but which is nevertheless derived from a leitmotif that's heard thereabouts.

 

There isn't really a lot of music quite like that: even the later Wagnerian music-dramas don't hold-up to this either because their themes don't develop any specific associations or because the basic musical worlds don't actually "infect" one another. Some other composers like Strauss and Debussi used leitmotives, but across the span of a single score there's only so much you can do compared to a lengthy cycle like The Ring, Shore's Middle Earth scores of Williams' Star Wars scores. There are other film series with several scores by the same composer - Williams Indy scores, John Barry's Bond scores - but they tend to follow more episodic storylines that don't allow to develop material right through multiple evenings.

 

Wow, this is super interesting Chen. I appreciate you writing that out. So I guess then, for example, this means that the first 15-20 seconds of "Dernhelm in Battle" (what a great opening) is actually very purposefully tied to a specific theme?

 

I really should break out my copy of Doug's book and read it page by page, cover to cover,listening to the Complete Score as I go . . .

[Chen G. 3,943]

58 minutes ago, Gollum Cat said:

So I guess then, for example, this means that the first 15-20 seconds of "Dernhelm in Battle" (what a great opening) is actually very purposefully tied to a specific theme?

 

Yes and no. Like I said, this idea that "there's scarcely a measure that's not connected to some other measure through related motives", to quote Wagner, is more of an ideal. Already in Die Walküre, in Sieglinde's nightmare, there's a melody that we never hear anywhere else in the cycle because its actually believed to be an homage to Liszt's Faust.

 

But - BUT! - even the music that opens Derhelm in Battle (and we’re still talking about a tiny transitional passage) at least sounds vaguely Rohirric, in timbre if nothing else, just like how Wagner makes us hear some vague semblence between the music of Sieglinde's nightmare and his main love theme. Its a semblence that's not really there, but by playing them next to one another, by using orchestral colours that we associate with the one for the other, etc... he can make connections that may be very loose, but which we are made to hear.

 

At any rate, the overwhelming majority of the score both in the Wagner case and the Shore case (and still so, although somewhat less, the Williams case) is either leitmotives or music that derived from them.

[TolkienSS 405]

3 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

 

I would say having 15 or more fairly distinct, clear themes that are fairly memorable and have A/B parts, counter point etc. for a TV show is more than what you get from most of TV. 

 

But that's not an ideal to strive for. No great artist hewing away at his work has ever said "okay that's just about enough".

The saying that as an artist you don't ever finish a work, you just leave it, points at the central problem here.

You don't work to measure yourself against the bland masses, you work to measure yourself against your own ideal.

 

McCreary already has about 15 hours of Middle-Earth music as a foundation to bed his music in. Writing a dozen basic themes, in front of this background, with the inspiration Tolkien is able to give, is not a hard job if you are a sought after composer.

[Richard Penna 3,670]

We're never going to agree on the central basis of your argument, which is that McCreary did an insufficient job given the budget and profile of the show.

 

I love this score, and the fact that I don't know anything about music may or may not be helping me there, but it means that any sermons you give about composers hewing away at their art just come across sadly as 'I'm a composer.... I know why this music sucks'.

 

And whatever musical/notation-based reasoning you have... I don't care about any of them.

[blondheim 1,157]

Believe me, I want to like it as a listener. I don’t enjoy being the stick in the mud. But someone has to make a case for the other side, because regardless of the musical theory of it all, which some people aren’t ignorant of and is still a perfectly valid way to judge the music, but even placing the theory aside: it just isn’t that great. It will probably breeze by as mostly not annoying when I watch the show but I am still disappointed and I still feel the need to express that, otherwise this score is going to get nothing but endless praise it doesn’t really deserve.

 

Just because some TV music sucks and just because it could have been worse and just because he wrote fifteen themes and used a choir sort of (loosely) like Shore, none of these facts make the actual music sound any more elevated. I still think this was the one time we could reasonably expect a show to not have to skimp on their music budget and yet they still did, proving that the kind of intellectual, operatic music-making that some of us love very much was not a priority. I would think more people would be sad about that. It’s not a death-knell, but it’s close. I mean, if this billion dollar Middle Earth adaptation didn’t want to spend the money to do it right, when will anyone, ever again?

 

I’m happy for those that don’t feel like they are settling by enjoying this. Truly, the correct word is envious. I would love to have ten more hours of Middle Earth music to enjoy. But instead I have ninety seconds. I’d also love to see more people grieving the loss of such a great opportunity because if any group of people should care about that, shouldn’t it be some of us?

[HunterTech 987]

There's already enough grieving on this forum with how much RCP has taken over nearly every facet of Hollywood scoring, severely limiting the opportunities of many talented composers of old and new. Is that all you want this forum to be after more of the long established guard inevitably leave us?

[Richard Penna 3,670]

39 minutes ago, blondheim said:

I mean, if this billion dollar Middle Earth adaptation didn’t want to spend the money to do it right, when will anyone, ever again?

 

Where are you getting this baseless notion that they didn't spend money on the music or didn't care about it?

 

And how does spending more money get a more Shore-like score unless you're implying that he wanted more money or that it would get them a 'better' composer. Your whole tone is very disrespectful to McCreary.

[Monoverantus 363]

4 hours ago, Gollum Cat said:

I really should break out my copy of Doug's book and read it page by page, cover to cover,listening to the Complete Score as I go . . .

It's always awkward to toot my own horn, but I did make my whole YouTube channel just for people like you : )

 

[blondheim 1,157]

50 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

 

Where are you getting this baseless notion that they didn't spend money on the music or didn't care about it?

 

And how does spending more money get a more Shore-like score unless you're implying that he wanted more money or that it would get them a 'better' composer. Your whole tone is very disrespectful to McCreary.

If I don’t like his work, I don’t have to respect it in the way I phrase my dislike. I only said they didn’t care enough to let someone do it the good oldfashioned way. They just slightly elevated the norm. Which is a tragedy

1 hour ago, HunterTech said:

There's already enough grieving on this forum with how much RCP has taken over nearly every facet of Hollywood scoring, severely limiting the opportunities of many talented composers of old and new. Is that all you want this forum to be after more of the long established guard inevitably leave us?

If the quality of the music is average, I’m going to call it average. I’ve been careful to call it this score average and make it clear that I personally, hate three star efforts. I’m just seeing so much love for this score everywhere, there’s got to be someone else who thinks about this music and gets a gut punch of disappointment over what could have been. I understand that it isn’t what some of you are feeling but just like the people gushing about it, I’m obviously just hoping to commiserate 

[Richard Penna 3,670]

The first two albums are now on Amazon Music, and playable this time, but only on there and not purchasable.

 

The first episode is 1:05 and the album is 55 mins which is a good omen for it being complete - 10 mins unscored sounds reasonable. Oh, and the last track plays over the end credits - I skimmed through a few clips.

 

Edit - ah:

 

 

[MedigoScan 324]

Based on what I heard in episode 01 it seems almost complete barring some silence cuts which also cut some minor underscore in between to smooth the transition out.

The order of that episode's scenes could also rearranged a bit, given how track 4 is wedged in between track 3 now.

 

There's also a lot more tracks that are Suites it looks like.

I only recognized 5 album tracks in the 2 episodes so far.

[Tydirium 1,166]

On 19/8/2022 at 12:11 PM, Richard Penna said:

What sort of fucked up new age release strategy is this? Drop a new album but only allow streaming, and then announce a CD is coming in a few months with a few more tracks....

 

I mean either they've droppped it early and something's gone wrong with distribution, or these marketing people really are idiots.

 

Just wait until the day when we can only stream things, and they never get released for purchase...

[Disco Stu 15,495]

41 minutes ago, Tydirium said:

 

Just wait until the day when we can only stream things, and they never get released for purchase...

 

Sadly, for music from these major corporations that time is probably coming.  Thankfully for independent artists/labels there will always be a choice.

[Drawgoon 100]

44 minutes ago, Tydirium said:

Just wait until the day when we can only stream things, and they never get released for purchase...

 

I am more concerned about the not-so-distant future when concepts like personal computers, or even local storage are no more - when everything digital is in the "cloud", behind a subscription wall; a future where everything is service that is streamed via a web browser or whatever the future of web browsers might be. The technology is already here and the industry is pushing for it - quite heavily so as a matter of fact. Fortunately these remain optional for now.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

No way, there will always be local, user-controlled storage available.  It might not always be the default option when buying computers, but the option will be there for the foreseeable future.

[crumbs 14,300]

Late to the party but I adore what McCreery has done here, after some initial skepticism. More than happy to be proven wrong though; he's done as good a job as anyone, outside Shore himself.

 

Surprised anyone could be down on what he's achieved. The same series in 10 alternate universes ends up with 9 scored by RCP trash; it's frankly miraculous we ended up with a score as thematically rich and orchestral as this.

 

And if any of the creatively bankrupt peanuts at Lucasfilm are paying attention, they might learn a thing or two. Their obsession with reinventing the wheel musically surely reached its crescendo with Obi Wan. You can allow composers the creative freedom to explore their musical sensibilities while staying true to an established framework. They seem almost desperate to escape Williams' sound, while the filmmakers here have wholeheartedly embraced Shore's aesthetic.

[blondheim 1,157]

7 minutes ago, crumbs said:

Late to the party but I adore what McCreery has done here, after initially having doubts. More than happy to be proven wrong on this one; he's done as good a job as anyone, outside Shore himself.

 

Surprised anyone could be down on what he's achieved. The same series in 10 alternate universes ends up with 9 scored by RCP trash; it's frankly miraculous we ended up with a score as thematically rich and symphonic as this.

 

If any of the peanuts at Lucasfilm are paying attention, they might learn a thing or two. Their moronic obsession with reinventing the wheel musically for every series surely reached its crescendo with the Obi Wan mess. You can still allow composers creative freedom to explore with their own musical sensibilities while staying true to an established framework. They seem desperate to escape Williams' sound while the filmmakers here have wholeheartedly embraced Shore's achievements.

 I find the themes and suites especially plain. It’s probably just a taste thing. I was just really hoping for more intelligent musicality. In theory, he’s done a lot of things right. I just don’t enjoy the execution. I wanted more specificity and intellectuality. More Boulez, less Bernstein.

 

When he was announced, I was thrilled. I was upset it wasn’t Shore because I thought the budget would have allowed him to do brilliant things but I thought Bear would do fine. I expected it to be closer in sound world to his Cloverfield efforts, which I enjoy and find intellectually stimulating. I don’t hear that kind of “head” in this and that is another reason I am disappointed, I guess

 

I also just hate hearing “it could be worse” dressed up in different outfits all the time. About anything, really. Not just this specific score. I mean, does complacency really evoke change? In any industry?

[crumbs 14,300]

3 minutes ago, blondheim said:

When he was announced, I was thrilled. I was upset it wasn’t Shore because I thought the budget would have allowed him to do brilliant things but I thought Bear would do fine. I expected it to be closer in sound world to his Cloverfield efforts, which I enjoy and find intellectually stimulating. I don’t hear that kind of “head” in this and that is another reason I am disappointed, I guess

 

I know very little of McCreery's other work so I can't compare, but I suspect budget was irrelevant when it came to Shore's involvement.

 

It's possible no amount of money could have convinced him to write more than he did. He's 75 and it sounds like the Hobbit films were a nightmarish experience; he was probably more than happy to hand over the baton to a younger composer.

[blondheim 1,157]

3 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

I know very little of McCreery's other work so I can't compare, but I do think the budget was irrelevant when it came to Shore. It's possible no amount of money could have convinced him to write more than he did.

Oh for sure. He might have turned down the project. That’s why I wasn’t mad at the Bear announcement; I don’t know all the facts and don’t presume to. I suspect he would have been happy to return, though but I’m not ever going to say for sure one way or the other until it can be confirmed

 

but I suspect choosing Bear had something to do with him being able to work in a more “modern” way, quickly and more akin to regular television scoring. I just wish this huge budget had been used to assemble a project of the same might and majesty of the original Trilogy’s scores. Or even The Hobbits. I had hoped Bear would use this opportunity to show us he could write a grand opera and not just a better than average television score

[Jay 37,285]

I just finished the Episode 1 OST album and wasn't very impressed with it.  The initial score album is a much better listening experience, which of course makes sense because its curated from all the episodes and suites.

 

I'm sure I'll find more to appreciate about the episode 1 OST album after I see the episodes next week

[crumbs 14,300]

9 minutes ago, blondheim said:

I also just hate hearing “it could be worse” dressed up in different outfits all the time. About anything, really. Not just this specific score. I mean, does complacency really evoke change? In any industry?

 

I hope that's not the main takeaway from my comment. I certainly don't think his score is mediocre, I think it's quite excellent actually!

 

My point was that the obvious modern choice, depressingly, was going with a Zimmer/RCP score instead of continuing the Shore aesthetic. Not even Star Wars has been safe from that trend, as painfully evidenced in the last few years.

 

The last word I would use to describe McCreery's score is complacent, if that's you're meaning.

[blondheim 1,157]

3 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

I hope that's not the main takeaway from my comment. I certainly don't think his score is mediocre, I think it's quite excellent actually!

 

The point I was making is that the obvious modern choice (depressingly) was going for the Zimmer/RCP-style score instead of continuing the Shore aesthetic. Not even Star Wars has been safe from this trend, as painfully evidenced of late.

It wasn’t all I took, I didn’t mean to imply that. But I do think saying “it could have been RCP-style” is just a nicer way of saying “it could be worse”

 

I don’t refute the statement, I just find it complacent. Someone has to say “yeah but it could have been better, too” and since no one else really is, I guess that responsibility falls on me 

 

Because I do think it’s mediocre. Very much so.

[crumbs 14,300]

16 minutes ago, blondheim said:

It wasn’t all I took, I didn’t mean to imply that. But I do think saying “it could have been RCP-style” is just a nicer way of saying “it could be worse”

 

Definitely not what I was implying.

 

All things considered, I can't imagine many scenarios where the score ends up better than this. It's frankly miraculous it ended up being this good.

[blondheim 1,157]

7 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

Definitely not what I was implying.

 

All things considered, I can't imagine many scenarios where the score ends up better than this. It's frankly miraculous it ended up being this good.

What were you trying to say? I’m just trying to understand. Because I understand that you actually like the music and find it excellent. I understand that you feel Bear did the best he could have done. I don’t (I have musical reasons somewhere back in this thread) but either way: what is the point of bringing up RCP, except to imply a worse scenario for this score than what we got

30 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

I hope that's not the main takeaway from my comment. I certainly don't think his score is mediocre, I think it's quite excellent actually!

 

The last word I would use to describe McCreery's score is complacent, if that's you're meaning.

 I have used average and complacent to describe this score. I do feel exactly that way. Maybe he wanted to do more and they wouldn’t let him? That would be a different thing. But I doubt it; he seems pretty pleased with himself. 

[Chen G. 3,943]

On 01/09/2022 at 9:24 PM, Monoverantus said:

Now it seems Hans von Wolzogen would've been a better candidate.

 

The term actually preceeds von Wolzogen (who is believed to have had only rudimentary musicological knowledge) and has been used to describe Wagner's works and, by extension, those of Liszt and Weber (generally, without listing the motives or naming them) since 1860.

 

Wolzogen himself may have derived some of his list from studies of Das Rheingold and Die Walkure conducted in previous years by Gottlieb Federlein, who coined some leitmotif names that we find later in Wolzogen. He actually prefaces his "Leitfaden" saying he doesn't want to "conform to that bad habit" of naming the themes.

[crumbs 14,300]

20 minutes ago, blondheim said:

I understand that you feel Bear did the best he could have done.

 

That's a weird takeaway from my comments. I think his work here is excellent, probably as good as anyone could have hoped for!

 

20 minutes ago, blondheim said:

what is the point of bringing up RCP, except to imply a worse scenario for this score than what we got

 

Simply being realistic about how many bullets were dodged to get the score we did. Not a reflection on my thoughts of the score; just the reality of modern film and TV scoring.

 

20 minutes ago, blondheim said:

 I have used average and complacent to describe this score. I do feel exactly that way. Maybe he wanted to do more and they wouldn’t let him? That would be a different thing. But I doubt it; he seems pretty pleased with himself. 

 

Genuinely curious what more you were expecting, beyond Shore himself writing a 10 hour score for the entire series (which is a fanciful dream)?

 

And Bear has every right to be pleased with himself! He's done a fantastic job.

[Faleel 5,335]

He was expecting a score that resonated with him, he didnt get one.

[Chen G. 3,943]

12 minutes ago, crumbs said:

Genuinely curious what more you were expecting, beyond Shore himself writing a 10 hour score for the entire series

 

Maybe a score that paid more than lip service to Shore's compositional practices?

[Richard Penna 3,670]

Just had a look through the first 10 mins and there's one microedited section, so I think the whole spiel about this being the entirety of the score was sadly not quite 100% accurate. It's the complete score with some alterations for listening.

[blondheim 1,157]

It’s not hard to put into words just taxing to do it again. I feel like I’ve said a lot of it over and over. I’m not trying to dodge the question, my phone just doesn’t use the Quote function well or easily or I would go back and just grab my previous comments and expand on them. I know I made a comment where I went into some of the basic theory and thoughts I have as to why my ear isn’t as happy with it as everyone else.

 

Using just the theme suites as reference, I hear a lot of similar chord progressions like I-IV-VI. I also hear all the themes constructed the same way: intro ostinato, main melody, interlude, return of A but without a lot of melodic or harmonic innovation and very little counterpoint or complexity. It makes what melodic material that is there seem hollow. The chords are spaced out nice and regular, like pop music. Shore had much denser textures, where notes were sometimes only a step or even half a step apart. This made the music feel organ-like in the way he could build up massive textures that would be dissonant if played all at once but he would slowly build and stagger, so the end result could remain dissonant but also harmonic. There’s another example

 

I feel there was a lot more he could have done if his intention was to honor his predecessor and not just please his boss. I am aware that he is only required to do the latter but I think he was capable of more. I wanted to see more respect for what came before

[MedigoScan 324]

13 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

Just had a look through the first 10 mins and there's one microedited section, so I think the whole spiel about this being the entirety of the score was sadly not quite 100% accurate. It's the complete score with some alterations for listening.

I noticed a whole minute of music missing from episode 2 as well.

Still its more complete than those releases for shows like The Mandalorian or Wandavision.

[Richard Penna 3,670]

Yeah on the grand scale of things, we really shouldn't complain about the odd bit missing given that most TV shows would kill for anything resembling this. It's not like McCreary will leave off any highlights.

[Jay 37,285]

I just finished the episode 2 OST album and found it more engaging than the episode 1 OST album, for whatever reason.  I really liked some stuff I heard in "Adrift" and "From Under The Floorboards" that I don't think I recognized from the season album.

[Knight of Ren 785]

I'm doing a spreadsheet to compare all the different tracks from the complete albums and the original release, if anyone is interested.

 

The Rings of Power

 

It's obviously still a work in progress, and I will go over both albums again to try to find out if I missed out on something, and when I'm able to watch both episodes, I will definitely go over all of it again, in case I missed something. Any correction or addition is more than welcome!

[MedigoScan 324]

So far your notes line up with mine.

I feel like the Elrond/Harfoot and Bronwyn/Arindor Suites got material directly quoted in the first episode. But I cant be sure if its tracking or just similar sounding music.

 

1 hour ago, Jay said:

I just finished the episode 2 OST album and found it more engaging than the episode 1 OST album, for whatever reason.  I really liked some stuff I heard in "Adrift" and "From Under The Floorboards" that I don't think I recognized from the season album.

 

Yeah. I also think the 2nd episode got to have more fun with its music. (Plus I just like the Durin and Stranger themes a lot)

Episode 1 just introduced a lot of themes from the suites all at once. The album also did the right thing trimming a lot of underscore from the opening prologue sections.

[michael_grig 464]

This score is certainly one of the best I've heard so far in a series and also in general.

 

The way McCreary handles the orchestra is just fantastic!

I'm so glad that the creators of the series obviously paid attention to the music and really gave it a place to shine.

Just imagine how often you can hear Woodwinds in this (for example), in a modern series, and not just 12 epic horns and 30 marcato violins! 

 

I also like how, following the Jaws principle, Sauron's theme is played, even though he is not seen, but it is about him. It puts a nice shadow over the scenes....

 

So far the score is 10 out of 10 for me and the series itself 9 out of 10! 

[WampaRat 1,105]

Is the plan for each of the “episode albums” to be exclusively on Amazon music? 

[michael_grig 464]

10 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

 

 

3 minutes ago, WampaRat said:

Is the plan for each of the “episode albums” to be exclusively on Amazon music? 

 

[Richard Penna 3,670]

No: (edit: Michael beat me to it, hah)

 

 

[Richard Penna 3,670]

More from Bear - long thread. He reckons 'virtually every second of score is here'. Hmmmm. 

 

TLDR:

 

- Similar material combined into suites, i.e. it's not chronological.

- Much of the initial album is re-recorded

- Track names indicate how much material is shared with the S1 album

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Cool thread from Bear

[Mr. Who 919]

That’s really cool. I wish more scores for TV were released in this form!

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

So the main album is indeed a concept album more or less.