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

[Chen G. 3,949]

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/rings-of-powers-bear-mccreary-sauron-season-2-exclusive/

 

Quote

"Going into Season 2, all I can say is that there's some really great twists and turns and his theme is going to continue to evolve," McCreary continued. "Sauron is a shape-shifter. As he changes shape to manipulate in the surroundings to his own ends, his music is going to have to adapt. What I think is really cool is I've already conditioned the audience to expect that. I've already conditioned the audience. Whether you know it or not

 

I feel pretty confident to say now that Sauron will appear to Celebrimbor in another guise - all while we watch the Charlie Vickers Sauron made order of Mordor - and I don't think the audience will be in on it until some later point in the narrative. Because the showrunners appearantly didn't have enough "Gotcha!" moments...

 

Oi gevalt.

[Bilbo 3,709]

It all makes sense 

 

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-jj-abrams-game-of-thrones

[Chen G. 3,949]

This isn't new. McPayne were a pair of many prospective showrunners auditioning for the role, and they asked JJ Abrams, with whom they'd worked, to put in a good word. I doubt that's why they landed the gig: I just think the Amazon higher-ups (and the Tolkien Estate, who had to agree) liked their pitch the most.

 

It does seem they share a lot of Abrams' sensibilities.

[Bilbo 3,709]

5 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

It does seem they share a lot of Abrams' sensibilities.

Mystery box ☑️ 

Style over substance ☑️ 

Bad writing ☑️ 

Talking a good game to try and fool your audience ☑️ 

 

I’d say they were grown from the leftovers of one of JJ’s tissues or something.

[Chen G. 3,949]

24 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

Talking a good game to try and fool your audience

 

At the risk of being too ad hominem, I think this is a big point.

 

Early on, Amazon threw a little fan event in London where they showed glimpses of the season: stuff like Galadriel killing the Troll, Elrond meeting the Durins, Poppy and Nori arguing over the Stranger in the cart, etc...

 

McPayne had a Q and A with the fans, and the tenor that emerged overwhelmingly from the event was what big fans of Tolkien's works McPayne were, how they could cite from Tolkien and his letters on the spot, etc...

 

Then we got Harfoots, Gandalf, Mithrichlorians, and all the scientification around the Rings, and the Rings themselves being an afterthought. Now, I'm by no means a stickler for the text - my critique of those points was that they'd be dumb in any fantasy film or show - but it just cast a pall on their fanhood.

 

Slowly but surely, I had the sneaking suspicion that these two are better actors then half their cast.

[Servant of Morgoth 20]

3 hours ago, Chen G. said:

This isn't new. McPayne were a pair of many prospective showrunners auditioning for the role, and they asked JJ Abrams, with whom they'd worked, to put in a good word. I doubt that's why they landed the gig: I just think the Amazon higher-ups (and the Tolkien Estate, who had to agree) liked their pitch the most.

 

It does seem they share a lot of Abrams' sensibilities.

I mean if Amazon bosses and the Tolkien Estate like the showrunners pitch the most we can only imagine how bad should have been the pitches of the other applicants

2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

At the risk of being too ad hominem, I think this is a big point.

 

Early on, Amazon threw a little fan event in London where they showed glimpses of the season: stuff like Galadriel killing the Troll, Elrond meeting the Durins, Poppy and Nori arguing over the Stranger in the cart, etc...

 

McPayne had a Q and A with the fans, and the tenor that emerged overwhelmingly from the event was what big fans of Tolkien's works McPayne were, how they could cite from Tolkien and his letters on the spot, etc...

 

Then we got Harfoots, Gandalf, Mithrichlorians, and all the scientification around the Rings, and the Rings themselves being an afterthought. Now, I'm by no means a stickler for the text - my critique of those points was that they'd be dumb in any fantasy film or show - but it just cast a pall on their fanhood.

 

Slowly but surely, I had the sneaking suspicion that these two are better actors then half their cast.

And last but not least the creation of Mordor, with all the scientification around the hilt of a random Morgul blade and so on

To be fair and intellectuallly  honest Tolkien Estate must be blamed too for this mess. Not only the showrunners, the rest of the writing room or Amazon Studios or Bezos for give me the next Game of Thrones. They wanted to make money. Fine totally understandable. The problem is they didn't give enought rights to Amazon and they just let do the writing room do as they please without putting some damn boundaries..

[Chen G. 3,949]

3 hours ago, Servant of Morgoth said:

I mean if Amazon bosses and the Tolkien Estate like the showrunners pitch the most we can only imagine how bad should have been the pitches of the other applicants

 

Well, some of the pitches were for Young Aragorn, which I think is pretty...its not lame so much as its too much of a low-hanging fruit. I know at least one other pitch that was very similar to McPayne, but didn't compress the timeline as much, so it basically played like an anthology, which I think isn't the best idea, either.

 

3 hours ago, Servant of Morgoth said:

To be fair and intellectuallly  honest Tolkien Estate must be blamed too for this mess.

 

I really don't know the inner workings enough. Honestly, its on McPayne for suggesting an adaptation the Second Age based just on the appendices: that's like adapting The Hobbit from the foreword of The Lord of the Rings!  At the point where they came in, the rights situation had already been agreed upon.

 

And it is deeply ironic that all previous adaptations had naught to do with the Tolkien Estate, and now that we one that is, its probably the least accurate of all adaptations.

[Servant of Morgoth 20]

2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

Well, some of the pitches were for Young Aragorn, which I think is pretty...its not lame so much as its too much of a low-hanging fruit. I know at least one other pitch that was very similar to McPayne, but didn't compress the timeline as much, so it basically played like an anthology, which I think isn't the best idea, either.

 

 

I really don't know the inner workings enough. Honestly, its on McPayne for suggesting an adaptation the Second Age based just on the appendices: that's like adapting The Hobbit from the foreword of The Lord of the Rings!  At the point where they came in, the rights situation had already been agreed upon.

 

And it is deeply ironic that all previous adaptations had naught to do with the Tolkien Estate, and now that we one that is, its probably the least accurate of all adaptations.

This

[Bilbo 3,709]

It wouldn’t have happened if Christopher was still alive.

 

I think Simon is very keen on this stuff but his father or grandfather he is not.

[Barnald 365]

10 hours ago, Bilbo said:

It wouldn’t have happened if Christopher was still alive.

 

So you're saying he's to blame for all this? I knew it.

[Chen G. 3,949]

Christopher was still alive at the very early stages of development, I'm told. He made his distaste for the project known, but didn't try to stop it. 

[Jay 37,369]

Episode 7 blog

 

https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-107/

[Monoverantus 363]

And finally, Episode 8 blog:

https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-108/

 

Check this out:

 

I gotta hand it to @TheUlyssesian, you magnificent bastard, you f*cking called it:

 

 

 

[TolkienSS 407]

Is that what this is? Calling every basic musical building block and the most basic scoring devices "themes", so McCreary can have his, uh, "magnum opus"?

[Monoverantus 363]

Jesus Christ

[Faleel 5,355]

1 hour ago, TolkienSS said:

Is that what this is? Calling every basic musical building block and the most basic scoring devices "themes", so McCreary can have his, uh, "magnum opus"?

Welcome... to Musicology Park.

[Chen G. 3,949]

10 hours ago, TolkienSS said:

Is that what this is? Calling every basic musical building block and the most basic scoring devices "themes", so McCreary can have his, uh, "magnum opus"?

 

I don't see anything too wrong with the analysis here: when the analysis of, say, "Nori's theme", gets to the kind of ridiculous granularity of Ring analyses, where Loge's music is somehow divided into ten different motives, then I might share your sentiments.

 

There are two basic approaches to analysing leitmotives: reducing them as much as possible to "main themes", or listing every new variant or any component of any longer tune as its own motif: its why "guides" to The Ring vary between 68 motives and 261. Ultimately, both the far extremes are wrong and reductive, but its hard to know exactly which middle-ground to tread.

 

What I really find ridiculous are all these theme names. Even in a score like this where the semantic meaning of the leitmoif is much more stable, and much more one-to-one, and where the names come from the composer himself, I think its better to treat the names as "nickanmes" rather than as designations.

[Jay 37,369]

The physical CD edition has an "ALMOST GONE" notification up now

 

https://mondoshop.com/products/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-season-one-original-soundtrack-2xcd

[Richard Penna 3,694]

Meh, I was never in danger of ordering that from some overseas company. I'm unlikely to progress beyond digital copies unless a miracle happens and they come up with an unexpected box set.

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

Not sure if this has been posted, but great interview with Bear...really thoughtful guy. And it's inspiring to hear him talk about how film music impacted him as a kid. And I especially enjoyed hearing what's on his mixtapes (Basil's Conan the Barbarian! March of the Slave Children!), how he felt buying the BTTF soundtrack..and finding out soundtracks were even a thing (I was there myself as a kid).

 

Quote

 

McCreary’s lifelong passion began with Back to the Future. He cites Alan Silvestri’s “brassy, adventurous tone” for stirring something in him. “I made my mom bring me back the next night and I had a little Fisher Price recorder,” he says. “I held it over my head to record the movie. Every time my mom laughed, because it was a funny movie, I scowled at her. She was getting on my audio!”

 

A few weeks later on an errand to the local pharmacy, McCreary saw something otherworldly: A cassette tape section that sported the logos of movies like Star Wars, Beetlejuice, and of course, Back to the Future. “I went, ‘Wait, what? You can buy a cassette of the music without the dialogue?’ That was it. That was the beginning of the end for me.”

 

 

[Chen G. 3,949]

1 hour ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Basil's Conan the Barbarian!

 

You can hear that one in his Khazad Dum music!

 

Although I stumbled upon this bit in his blog:

 

Quote

King Durin has a heartfelt conversation with his son. He begins by recalling the prince’s sickly infancy. Here, the score supports actor Peter Mullan’s gravelly reminiscing with slow parallel fifths in the orchestral celli and basses. Parallel fifths have an intrinsically Gregorian quality and have long been a staple of The Khazad-dûm Theme. They usually function only as a supportive layer, but here, in this intimate moment, the score is built entirely of these parallel fifths for nearly fifty seconds.

 

Oh Bear, you sneaky man! I see what you did there! 

[TheUlyssesian 2,478]

On 23/05/2023 at 6:30 PM, Monoverantus said:

And finally, Episode 8 blog:

https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-108/

 

Check this out:

 

I gotta hand it to @TheUlyssesian, you magnificent bastard, you f*cking called it:

 

 

 

 

I'd missed your post and his blog post - it came soo late! 

 

But good to finally have confirmation of the new theme.

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

Really enjoyed this video. Bear seems so enthusiastic. And it's been a couple months since I last heard anything of the score, so when I heard the themes again it reminded me of how great the score is.

Gonna revisit it soon.

 

 

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

 

[iamleyeti 114]

As anyone seen a complete chronological order for the different albums? I know the episode albums are in order, but I want to make sure the principal soundtrack is ordered correctly into it.

[Jay 37,369]

3 hours ago, iamleyeti said:

As anyone seen a complete chronological order for the different albums? I know the episode albums are in order, but I want to make sure the principal soundtrack is ordered correctly into it.

 

On 13/10/2022 at 12:30 PM, Jay said:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iPZSq84CsDwNeyokPVDh4adCyagChXIEW9X_-sYu5sc

[Faleel 5,355]

9 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

 

Article that goes with the video

 

http://filmmusiccritics.org/2023/07/bear-mccreary-receives-ifmca-awards-for-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power/

[blondheim 1,157]

The day the IFMCA awarded this Score of the Year was a sad day.

[Faleel 5,355]

4 hours ago, blondheim said:

The day the IFMCA awarded this Score of the Year was a sad day.

Yeah, for you.

[Edmilson 7,466]

5 hours ago, blondheim said:

The day the IFMCA awarded this Score of the Year was a sad day.

Its competitors in the Score of the Year category weren't much better.

[TolkienSS 407]

23 hours ago, blondheim said:

The day the IFMCA awarded this Score of the Year was a sad day.

 

It feels like this score got awards because it had big production value and "he tried so hard".

[A. A. Ron 1,742]

No, it got awards because most people recognize it as a fantastic score.

[iamleyeti 114]

On 18/07/2023 at 1:39 PM, Jay said:

 

Incredible, Jay ! (as always)

[blondheim 1,157]

On 18/7/2023 at 10:04 PM, Edmilson said:

Its competitors in the Score of the Year category weren't much better.

I love The Fabelmans and would have happily seen it go there.

 

 

This is merely the only time I’ve ever felt they gave the award to an undeserving score. On any other year, I can agree to disagree at least. 

[Dr. Rick 1,157]

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Season One - 10CD Box Set

 

Looks like a really well done set, and $150 isn't too bad at all.

 

https://mondoshop.com/products/lotr-rop-10cd-box-set

 

Mondo, in partnership with Amazon Studios and Sparks and Shadows, is proud to present the Complete Soundtrack Collection from the Amazon Original Series THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER - Season One.

An expanded version of our previous 2xCD soundtrack, this 10xCD box set is presented as a numbered edition of 1000, comes housed in a 
gold-embossed, leatherette-bound slipcase and includes the 136-page booklet “A Composer’s Journey” by Bear McCreary. (Packaging Design by Jordan Christianson.)

And as a special thank you from Bear and his team, 200 copies from this numbered run are offered with an exclusive Bear McCreary autograph card inside... only at MondoShop.com.

Official Release Date: April 26, 2024.

 

[Chen G. 3,949]

I think the kind of "connections" this guy makes are so academically "musicologistic" as to be practically nonexistent:

 

 

[Monoverantus 363]

14 hours ago, Chen G. said:

I think the kind of "connections" this guy makes are so academically "musicologistic" as to be practically nonexistent:

 

 

Eh, I think it's fine. Though I probably wouldn't make the same connections, it's a solidly argued fan-theory, and really at its core, a great lesson on chromatic mediants. It's far better than another video I've seen which tried to claim the highest note in the Weakness and Redemption theme is a chord note (making Rivendell's A major - F major chords into F augmented maj7 - Bb augmented maj7).

Also, it's beautiful and I'm not at all envious of their video editing skills.

[mstrox 6,651]

Just got a shipping notice for the 10-disc set.