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

[crocodile 8,006]

It would be cool if La-La Land announced the physical album box set as one of their Black Friday titles. One can dream. 

 

Karol

[Jay 37,352]

I see no reason to not assume it will be Mondo putting them out

[crocodile 8,006]

It will probably also cost arm and a leg.

 

Karol

[Jay 37,352]

On 07/10/2022 at 3:58 PM, Jay said:

Mondo is charging $25 for the double-CD season album; I could see them charging $60 for a box set of the 8 episode albums

 

[crocodile 8,006]

Mmm that would be really cheap.

 

Karol

[MaxMovieMan 271]

Man why the hell did Howard Shore not score the whole thing I will never get over this. The fact that he scored the main title theme is even more infuriating considering it meant he was apart of the project. And McCreary used no themes from Shore. So disappointing and one of the biggest missed opportunities in score history. Also where are my Hobbit extended scores.

[LaloCoyoacan 46]

Why is this cd still unavailable from amazon if that is the streaming platform that launched the series?

[Jay 37,352]

Amazon themselves have released the music album in every country on every digital / streaming platform

 

The physical CD edition is a product sold by Mondo Records.

CDs are a niche item in 2022.

[Chen G. 3,949]

On 18/11/2022 at 8:50 AM, MaxMovieMan said:

And McCreary used no themes from Shore.

 

McCreary was very clear he was legally forbidden from reprising any melodic ideas from Shore: the show is ultimately separate from the films.

[TolkienSS 407]

I think I actually prefer Shore's music not being spoilt by including it in this awful awful Tolkien counterfeit.

[MaxMovieMan 271]

7 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

McCreary was very clear he was legally forbidden from reprising any melodic ideas from Shore: the show is ultimately separate from the films.

Then why even have Shore on to compose at all.

[TolkienSS 407]

2 minutes ago, MaxMovieMan said:

Then why even have Shore on to compose at all.

 

Good name to get points from the LotR fans, who knew what this would turn into.

[Richard Penna 3,686]

On 18/11/2022 at 6:50 AM, MaxMovieMan said:

Man why the hell did Howard Shore not score the whole thing

 

Can you imagine Shore writing 8-9 hours of music in around the same time he wrote one LotR/Hobbit score? McCreary is used to the pressures of TV scoring and it nearly wiped him out.

[MaxMovieMan 271]

Just feels a little strange to have Shore come on when you’re legally not even allowed to use his old music. Cock-tease to the max.

[Richard Penna 3,686]

I don't think we'll ever agree on the qualitative aspects because Shore's main title was merely 'good' in my book. I think I'd have been disappointed in the score had he done it, because I'm not a huge fan of his Hobbit material.

[MaxMovieMan 271]

6 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

I don't think we'll ever agree on the qualitative aspects because Shore's main title was merely 'good' in my book. I think I'd have been disappointed in the score had he done it, because I'm not a huge fan of his Hobbit material.

I disagree but personal preference I suppose. I really liked the Hobbit scores and I get that they weren’t as intricate or connective as LOTR but I still think the music and the themes were very good and enjoyable to listen to. I feel that if Shore did a score on the second age and the fact that it isn’t nearly as connected to the original movies besides their prologue then he’d create a much more original score than the Hobbit.

 

He’d reuse a few themes related to the Elves and Sauron but he could break those down to their bare levels and make them unique for the show. It would be cool to see how they grow to become the themes in the original trilogy (Moreso than the Hobbit movies). Also he would have so many opportunities for new themes. A Shore theme for Númenor or Valinor would’ve been amazing to hear.

[Chen G. 3,949]

17 hours ago, MaxMovieMan said:

Then why even have Shore on to compose at all.

 

I do think the overall direction for the show is deceptive insofar as its trying to fool people into thinking its part of the same audiovisual "continuity" as the films: the design aesthetic is vaguely similar, New Zealand and even the individual shooting locations are familiar, the score recalls the timbres of Shore's score, Dwarves are Scotsmen who live in geometric halls and Elves are willowy actors speaking in RP and wafting through vaguely art nouveau indoor-outdoor sets, its why Benjamin Walker looks like Mark Ferguson, etc... Hiring Shore for some token composition (which I nevertheless really enjoy) is in-keeping with that.

 

What makes it feel deceptive is that its not until the closing moments of the final episode do we actually see a major prop from The Lord of the Rings that actually looks different: that being the three Elven Rings:

 

 

Prior to that moment, there was a seemingly deliberate avoidance to feature props or locales that we would know from the films and could see are not the same: so the Grey Havens are mentioned but never shown. Elendil is given a sword that he carries on his person, but which is never described as Narsil (we do see the Jackson Narsil, but that was probably something they could pass for a homage). We never see the Ring of Barahir, as such. Sauron's prologue appearance is intentionaly cast into sillhuette so as to make it harder to tell that its not actually the same armour.

 

The show is activelly trying to make its audiences believe its something that its not. Its a really peculiar approach. Its as if Tod Philipps Joker had spent 90 minutes of its runtime trying to fool audiences into thinking it was a prequel to Nolan's The Dark Knight: it feels deceptive and certainly very cynical.

[TolkienSS 407]

To quote legal reasons for why Howard Shore shouldn't score Rings Of Power at all is one of the most awful and transparent strawman arguments I've ever heard.

[Richard Penna 3,686]

Legal reasons were stated for why Shore's themes couldn't appear, not why Shore couldn't/didnt score the show.

 

The sooner you accept the situation and just ignore McCreary's score the better. We all have scoring assignments that were disappointing to us but we don't repeatedly post offensive sentiments towards the composer.

[Marc 768]

I think Galadriel's theme is quite possibly one of the most magnificent I've ever heard in a TV show !
I just had to transcribe and record it 😀
 

 

[artguy360 1,843]

On 29/11/2022 at 2:43 AM, Marc said:

I think Galadriel's theme is quite possibly one of the most magnificent I've ever heard in a TV show !
I just had to transcribe and record it 😀
 

 

Galadriel's Theme is a wonderful composition and should win some kind of award. It is a satisfying listen without getting overly repetitive or boring. Bear did a great job.

[GerateWohl 4,357]

Whatever bad or sceptical I said about this score in the very beginning, I have to take it back. The double album is really an enormous musical pleasure.

With the pictures it might be a little bit over the top. But as a score album for a film music lover it is wonderful. Great themes. Great arrangements. Just beautiful. Never thought, I would ever say this about a score from 2022.

[Marc 768]

One of the most breathtaking pieces of music I've ever heard in a TV show.
 

 

[JNHFan2000 2,959]

It's here!! The first one

 

 

[Jay 37,352]

That's funny, I was going to ask yesterday what happened to the promised blogs, and here they are!

 

Here's a direct link to it

 

https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-101/

[Jay 37,352]

Huh, it says he wrote this in October 2022.    Why wait until now to publish it?

 

And it offers a nice explanation of the Valinor theme being sung on screen; Pretty impressive they went through dailies to find alternate takes to match the mouth movements, sheesh!  Still not sure why the Plan 9 guys get co-composing credit on GEMA though, since it sounds like their song was entirely junked.

[Monoverantus 363]

19 minutes ago, Jay said:

Huh, it says he wrote this in October 2022.    Why wait until now to publish it?

He's been very keen on knowing what the fans want to know about the score, so I think at least part of the reason is that he really didn't want to drop them and then later realize there was some tidbit he forgot to include.

[Jay 37,352]

I was hoping each episode article would include at the end a full list of cues recorded for that episode with reel and part numbers

[JNHFan2000 2,959]

Very interesting read. A few of my favourite things:

• That the showrunners extended the opening black screen to 17 seconds.
• That he mentions that Gil-Galad is getting his own theme in future seasons.
• How Elrond's theme came together
• And the boat scene

[Stark 312]

I’m not surprised the Elrond theme was challenging, it’s a very unique theme. Glad to hear Gilgalad will get his own theme.

 

Using editing and VFX to make the shot fit the music? That’s some musical dedication from this show, splendid.

[Faleel 5,346]

Rings of Power is Movie Music UK (Jon Broxton) Score of the Year:

 

https://moviemusicuk.us/2023/01/28/movie-music-uk-awards-2022/

[Stark 312]

It should be everyone’s score of the year!

[JNHFan2000 2,959]

Blog for

 

https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-102/

[Jay 37,352]

4 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

Blog for Ephttps://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-102/ode 2

 

https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-102/

 

Often you submit your posts too fast and don't notice the errors in them.

[JNHFan2000 2,959]

Sorry, I'm aware of it. Mostly was because my phone didn't work like it should

[Faleel 5,346]

Yeah, looks like you were trying replace the words "episode 2" with copy paste, and it just sandwiched it between "epis" and "ode" instead.

 

Happens to me quite a bit

[Jay 37,352]

Yea no apologies necessary or anything, just letting you know in case you want to slow down and check what you've submitted before moving on because I've noticed it happening often lately

[Monoverantus 363]

Curious. Bear's said several times that he's tried to keep the lyrics more faithful to the vocabularies of Tolkien than to go the Jackson-movies route of inventing new words, but all 3 of the lyric texts he's shared has several new words (especially the Khuzdul one). When asked, he specifically denied having collaborated with the people responsible for expanding the languages for the dialogue in the show. So where do they come from???

[JNHFan2000 2,959]

I love the reason behind Bear composing culture themes and character themes.

 

The culture represent a culture in it's entirety of course, and certain impprtant characters from that culture.

And the character themes are for 'outliers' so to speak. These people kind of live outside what the rest of the culture does and that's the reason why they get a seperate theme. It's really a clever idea and beautifully excecuted

[JNHFan2000 2,959]

Blog for Episode 3

 

https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-103/

[Chen G. 3,949]

Its funny how some of the orchestral colours Bear had assigned to some of his cultures have actually cropped-up in Shore's score for other cultures: so the Ceng Cengs he used for Numenore and the Gamelan he used for the Stranger? both part of Smaug's music.

 

Its like, many of the building blocks - melodic and timbral - are similar but they've been shuffled in a game of, dare I say it, musical chairs to other cultures. Funny.

[TolkienSS 407]

Chalk up another reason why I haven't listened to this in four months: disconnect through, dare I say it, cultural appropriation Middle-Earth style.

[artguy360 1,843]

This score (mostly the soundtrack album, not the individual episode releases) is one of the few modern soundtracks I regularly listen to. It's a real feat and stands fairly unique in this current age of film and television music.

[Chen G. 3,949]

16 hours ago, TolkienSS said:

disconnect through, dare I say it, cultural appropriation Middle-Earth style.

 

What do you mean by this?

[Faleel 5,346]

On 16/02/2023 at 12:05 PM, Chen G. said:

 

What do you mean by this?

 

On 13/02/2023 at 4:59 PM, Chen G. said:

some of the orchestral colours Bear assigned to some of his cultures [sic] cropped-up in Shore's score for other cultures:

 

...like, many of the building blocks - melodic and timbral - are similar but they've been shuffled... to other cultures.

 

[Chen G. 3,949]

Yeah, that's one possibility, although calling it "cultural appropriation" is a little much...  Using that term would suggest that one thinks Bear's use of "ethnic" instruments is tokenistic and "picture postcard"-like which is, of course, true of almost all uses of "exotic" instruments in film music.

 

As ofr the point I made, I think the fact that some of the same basic musical ideas crop-up in both scores is not much of a statement unto itself: there are only so many basic musical intervals and since each score is so large, some of them were bound to reappear in a new context.

 

The instrumental choices are a little more in the nose, because using whistles for Hobbits and male vocals for Dwarves is certainly an allusion to Shore's orchestrations.

[Faleel 5,346]

9 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 male vocals for Dwarves is certainly an allusion to Shore's orchestrations.

I would argue it would possibly be the case even if the Shore didn't exist.

[Chen G. 3,949]

In isolation, maybe. But looking across the board, I think - in fact, I don't think, I know because Bear said so numerous times - he was trying to emulate the sound of Shore's score: so Dwarves get male vocals, Elves get female, the ineffable (Valinor in this case) gets boys, Hobbits get celtic instruments, Men get Hardinfelle, etc...

 

The oddities are Numenore getting timbres that, in Shore's vocabulary, would be more fit for Elves and the Stranger getting timbres that remind one of Smaug. But those outliers aside, there's a clear attempt to model the orchestrations on Shore which is all fine and well, except it only deepens the show's identity crisis.

[Faleel 5,346]

To be fair, Numenor has Elvish influence in its backstory.

[Chen G. 3,949]

18 minutes ago, Clockwork Angel said:

To be fair, Numenor has Elvish influence in its backstory.

 

Sure, but McCreary's Elven music is absent those exotic hues (orchestrationally and otherwise), so the connection is not there to be made.