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

[Monoverantus 312]

6 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

Why is Galadriel's theme completely orchestral? At least follow the approach of Shore if not using the themes.

 

I think all elven material has to be choral to some degree. Without that, it just doesn't sound elven to me. Surely this has been established by now. 

 

Again, I am not saying use Shore's themes. But use his texture. You gotta make the elves feel ethereal.

Uh, did we listen to the same track?

[Holko 8026]

Galadriel's okay, Sauron's more meh, just sounds like what I've heard from GoW so far. Nothing special at all, but at least it's a Bear level generally above the qualityless trash or even the throwaway filler level.

[Chen G. 2942]

8 hours ago, Bilbo said:

it has been reported that Amazon have no rights to any material from the PJ films.

I’m not so sure it’s that clear-cut.

[Richard Penna 2506]

I'm not a very big fan of the Sauron piece - it doesn't seem to have that memorable aspect that Bear displays in Outlander. But at least one person has said they now have no interest in the show based entirely on the composer, and unfounded assumptions about what they will write. That's what I meant by closed-mindedness.

 

Apologies to Nick, but I'm just stating what I see, which is generally a negative attitude towards franchises going into the hands of new composers before anyone can fairly judge what they've done.

[Monoverantus 312]

Made a transcription of the main theme in "Sauron". The lyrics are definitely Black Speech, but they are probably jumbled gibberish.

[Chen G. 2942]

 

[JNHFan2000 1374]

More snippets from Comic Con

 

 

 

 

 

[Jay 31006]

Anything good?

[JNHFan2000 1374]

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

Anything good?

The choor sounds great. I like it a lot.

[mstrox 5680]

Glad Sandy Cameron is getting work!

[Bellosh 1718]

Sauron's Theme straight up sounds like trailer music. I don't dislike it though.

 

It almost gets interesting at the end. But I would have loved some of Shore's theme in there.

 

[p0llux 293]

I like Bear McCreary. He's slightly above the RCP people. He writes decently well for orchestra and I enjoyed his scores for Godzilla: KOTM and God of War. I'm confident this score will not follow in the disastrous footsteps of Obi-Wan. That said, it doesn't mean this will be a Howard Shore level score or anywhere near it. It just means it'll probably be better than the average RCP treatment.

[Arpy 4072]

I would say after listening to Bear's scores for other TV series, like Outlander and The Walking Dead, he's particularly good at textural work - which is promising for Rings. Clearly, there's been some attempt to evoke Shore's approach in the two tracks that were released, but I'm still reeling that Shore didn't get to write for the series or provide more themes. I don't think we've heard a TV score as richly thematic as what he could've provided.

 

I wonder if Shore wanted to do more, but out of the tremendous costs to the rest of the show, they relegated him to the single theme. 

[Bilbo 3622]

4 hours ago, Arpy said:

I would say after listening to Bear's scores for other TV series, like Outlander and The Walking Dead, he's particularly good at textural work - which is promising for Rings. Clearly, there's been some attempt to evoke Shore's approach in the two tracks that were released, but I'm still reeling that Shore didn't get to write for the series or provide more themes. I don't think we've heard a TV score as richly thematic as what he could've provided.

 

I wonder if Shore wanted to do more, but out of the tremendous costs to the rest of the show, they relegated him to the single theme. 

I dunno. Based on what we’ve seen they obviously saved a fortune on writers.

[KK 3251]

I never expected Shore to take on the whole show. I just doubt that would have been remotely within his current working capacity and the needs of the show.

 

But these snippets really sound like generic EPIC video game fantasy music.

[DarthDementous 873]

I am admittedly not very well-versed in Howard Shore’s music but those comic-con snippets sound good, and they sound fairly close to the LOTR sound

[Bilbo 3622]

6 hours ago, DarthDementous said:

 

I am admittedly not very well-versed in Howard Shore’s music

 

Well. You’re telling the truth anyway.

[Monoverantus 312]

9 hours ago, DarthDementous said:

I am admittedly not very well-versed in Howard Shore’s music

If you wanna be, check out my Youtube channel  

[DarthDementous 873]

To clarify I’ve heard his Hobbit and LOTR scores, but haven’t listened to them a lot outside their original context. I don’t have a honed sense of what LOTR’s soundscape is apart from a blend of traditional orchestral , heavy choir-use with unique languages, and folk influence on some of the orchestration

 

So I can’t really pin-point what makes the music in the sample clip not fit as a LOTR soundtrack, can someone clarify in a way that isn’t just ‘it sounds generic’ because that’s a completely meaningless statement

[Chen G. 2942]

On 24/07/2022 at 1:40 PM, DarthDementous said:

I don’t have a honed sense of what LOTR’s soundscape is apart from a blend of traditional orchestral , heavy choir-use with unique languages, and folk influence on some of the orchestration

 

Beyond the choral aspect and the ample use of folk instruments, Shore has a very specific sound orchestration-wise: he tends to have a lot of different instruments in the same register doubling lines. That alone sets him apart from most film and TV composers: his way of thinking of the orchestra in "ranges" rather than in "colours", resulting a rather heavy, "rough" sound; which is to say nothing of his fondness for aleatorics and clusters and other modernist techniques. I actually think that was the thing that most readily hit audiences when they first heard it: that it wasn't yet another late-Romantic-styled score. It has its own unique soundscape.

 

Ontop of that - and this is absolutely where you should watch Monoverantus' channel - structurally his use of the leitmotif technique is much more thorough than what you see in other scores: its not a quilt of repeated musical reminiscences, which is what I expect of Bear's score, but rather a network of connected leitmotives that change their associations, their musical character, their connections to other motives and indeed their function within the piece and, in changing, relate to each other. By The Return of the King, it becomes difficult to tell individual themes apart anymore: they blur into each other completely, which is certainly not something I expect of any TV score.

[Monoverantus 312]

27 minutes ago, DarthDementous said:

I can’t really pin-point what makes the music in the sample clip not fit as a LOTR soundtrack, can someone clarify in a way that isn’t just ‘it sounds generic’ because that’s a completely meaningless statement

I think McCreary's tracks are great on their own, but have no idea how well they'll work in the show to come. But the reason a lot of people don't associate his tracks with the soundscape of LotR can be mostly chalked up to orchestration. Shore was very deliberate when he crafted the culturally distinct sounds of LotR, while McCreary's tracks are more conventional.

"Galadriel" begins with female voices, harp, strings and flutes (which does fit very well with Shore's "Elf sound"), but the melody itself is presented with horns, evoking a melancholic, graceful character with an inner strength. Problem is, Shore associates horns with the world of Men, and none of the instruments he specifically associates with Galadriel, such as the monochord or sarangi are used.

"Sauron"... sounds evil. It has some fittingly harsh instrumentations and dynamics (the 7/8 rhythm is a nice touch), but Shore has only used deep male voices for Dwarves. And once again, the rhaita that Shore would have used for Sauron is nowhere to be heard.

This might be a bit nit-picky. I wouldn't even say it's impossible for McCreary to start from his sound and gradually approach Shore's over the series. But it explains why a lot of people don't feel like these themes fit Shore's Middle-earth.

[Chen G. 2942]

It also just - correct me if I'm wrong - doesn't seem to use the kind of intervallic and chordal progressions that we associate, respectivelly, with the Elves or with Sauron. Beyond just the orchestration, the music in "Galadriel" reminds me of the kind of music Shore writes for the worlds of mankind rather than his Elven harmonic language.

[Monoverantus 312]

I don't know about you, but my mind immediately goes to Star Wars when I hear a seventh interval X D Edit: scratch that, was thinking about a sixth.

Give "Sauron" some credit for it's chomaticism though, it nudges at the contour of the Descending Thirds.

[Chen G. 2942]

I also don't think they're necessarily the most malleable of melodic ideas: they're kind of complete melodies - not necessarily something you can mutate very freely across the expanse of the show.

[Monoverantus 312]

I guess I'm a bit more of a moderate here, because I really don't think we can tell before we've seen the show.

[DarthDementous 873]

Thank you for the insights, I think I understand more now

 

Ultimately I share the opinion that I need to wait to see it used in the show to make any definitive judgments

[JNHFan2000 1374]

The whole performance

 

 

[blondheim 1020]

I'm not sure what she thinks playing the violin like that does for her...

[Chen G. 2942]

Its to violinists what the crooning was for Glenn Gould at the piano!

[Michael Grigorowitsch 367]

German influencers about the music for the series:

Translation: "If it's not Hans Zimmer, then I'm really pissed, [...] Lord of the Rings [...] is the most awesome soundtrack a movie has ever had." - Speech-disturbed influencer on the music of Howard Shore

 

GOD

 

[Richard Penna 2506]

That theme is nice, although I think the richer orchestration of the 'A' part towards the end serves it better. It overall comes across slightly as a standard video game theme towards the start.

 

Slightly surprising that it sounds so 'standard', as his themes for Outlander, and a couple of Walking Dead melodies are very complex and memorable.

[Brónach 492]

On 22/07/2022 at 2:26 AM, TheUlyssesian said:

 

 

 

I am guessing they felt if they had a "pretty, choral" theme for Galadriel, it might be thought of as feminizing her and not allowing her to be a badass or whatever.

 

to me, pretty choral music combined with badass Galadriel in armor sounds too awesome a posibility to ignore

[Bofur01 244]

I’m sure I saw Bear McCreary (or possibly someone else) announce that the full album would be out next month i.e. August. Am I going barmy or did anyone else see that too?

[Positivatee 323]

If Bear's Lord of the Rings music is half as good as his He-Man music, we're in for a treat. 

[Servant of Morgoth 14]

3 hours ago, Bofur01 said:

I’m sure I saw Bear McCreary (or possibly someone else) announce that the full album would be out next month i.e. August. Am I going barmy or did anyone else see that too?

I saw the reply of Mr. McCreary too but I don't find the tweet anymore. 

[Monoverantus 312]

 

[Chen G. 2942]

Any chance the Shore theme should be a track on the McCreary album?

[Monoverantus 312]

15 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Any chance the Shore theme should be a track on the McCreary album?

I'd say there is, he didn't specify "his" album, but "LOTRonPrime's album.

[Edmilson 4505]

Why is there an ad for Bear McCreary's music for the show on the Times Square?

[Dcole4 11]

When is this getting released? I'm excited for the show (Which, unlike many, I remain optimistic about)... but I'm probably more curious about this music. On first listen I haaaaated the two tracks but I think that was my initial rejection to it not being Shore. Upon re-listening it I've decided to keep an open mind and see how Bear weaves together the greater tapestry of the soundtrack. 

[Disco Stu 15468]

On 29/07/2022 at 8:12 PM, Edmilson said:

Why is there an ad for Bear McCreary's music for the show on the Times Square?

 

Because if you're gonna be the poster child of streaming era profligacy, you might as well go all in.

[Chen G. 2942]

One does wonder if, in terms of expenses, we're looking at a Heaven's Gate/Cleopatra/Greatest Story Ever Told scenario.

[Brónach 492]

On 30/07/2022 at 2:12 AM, Edmilson said:

Why is there an ad for Bear McCreary's music for the show on the Times Square?

 

oh my god who's in charge of this marketing budget

[JNHFan2000 1374]

 

I believe this has McCreary's music in it

[Monoverantus 312]

3 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

 

I believe this has McCreary's music in it

0:00-0:14 SDCC Panel choral intro

0:18-0:37 McCreary's Galadriel theme

0:37-0:51 McCreary's Sauron theme

0:55-1:49 music from Main Teaser from July 14th

1:49-2:00 "Away I must wander this wandering day" from Main Teaser from July 14th

[WampaRat 1095]

Short clip here. (I feel like it might be edited some? Seems a bit rushed?) The music isn’t super noticeable. But it reminds me of the music when the White Council Discusses the Witch King.

 

 

[Monoverantus 312]

They're really pushing the Galadriel and Sauron themes huh?

Someone pointed out that the SDCC choral intro could be from Shore's song. I had to make a transcription, and it does have an undeniable resemblance (the whole-step/half-step supremacy), though, as with all music we've heard so far, a more Bearish style.

 

[JNHFan2000 1374]

I see a lot of rumours (and McCreary said it himself) that a score album iwill be released in August, before the series will premiere in September.

 

Anyone know more about this?

[Bilbo 3622]

I hope Shore’s theme is included off the bat because that’s all I want from this. 

[Chen G. 2942]

The real disappointing aspect for me is that Bear seemingly composed his entire score before hearing Shore's theme and there's little chance it will be incorporated into any part of the underscore. Hoping it proves popular enough that Bear feels compelled to incorporate it into the score come Season Two.