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


Chen G.

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Yeah that's a pretty good track.

 

I realized the other day that while the season 1 album was 2 hours, 32 minutes in total length, the season 2 album is only 1 hour 40 minutes!  I wish he had included another 45-60 minutes of episode cues on it!  There's SO much good music that's only on the episode albums!  And it would have been neat to see other ways that he condensed highlights down into shorter tracks.

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I had the same thought. It’s going to be fun (and sad) to think of other cues that could have been included to fill out the album to the same length as S1. If I had to speculate, I wonder if maybe part of the reason he went with a shorter album this time is because a good chunk of the S1 album was dedicated to concert arrangement theme tracks. This season has far fewer new themes, so maybe he felt that it was less interesting (or more tiring) for the casual listener if he filled that time back up with standard score material.

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Maybe this Friday the season album will get updated with new stuff like how the season 1 album eventually got updated with the Fiona Apple song :)

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50 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Bear just typed "Bulgarian choir" on Youtube and clicked on this exact video lol

 

But personally I find this kind of choir too weird, somewhat annoying but also unintentionally funny. It's appropriate for representing exotic mystical stuff in fantasy/sci-fi but not my favorite though. 

You probably find it annoying because it's basically just all high register, with a bit of "twang"

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How do the overall lengths compare between seasons when just looking at episode albums? I get the impression season 2 is much shorter, but I haven’t checked

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Does anyone else think the score sounds strange starting at 0:33 in this new clip from the finale? (Corresponds to 4:46 in “The White Flame” or 3:09 in “Army of Orcs.”) It’s like the strings were totally dialed out, so pretty much only the choral Eregion theme is heard. It gets really weird when the strings stay dialed out when the Elvish action motif kicks in, and the actual tune in the violins is nowhere to be found, with just the rhythmic French horn interjections taking center stage… I can maybe understand a choice to make the Eregion theme more obvious (since I think many of us here didn’t even notice that’s what it was, at first!), but it feels like a mistake to not bring the strings back in once that theme is over.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/LOTR_on_Prime/comments/1fubrtd/s2_finale_sneak_peek/

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13 hours ago, Jay said:

 

Nah.

 

The Season 1 album is 55 minutes of concert arrangements, and 1 hour, 37 minutes of episode cues.

 

The Season 2 album is 24 minutes of concert arrangements, and 1 hour, 16 minutes of episode cues.

 

 

 

 

 

Season 2's score is A LOT shorter than season 1's score, indeed.

 

Season 1 albums were:

  • Episode 1: 56 minutes
  • Episode 2: 49 1/2 minutes
  • Episode 3: 51 1/2 minutes
  • Episode 4: 55 minutes
  • Episode 5: 55 minutes
  • Episode 6: 49 minutes
  • Episode 7: 55 minutes
  • Episode 8: 1 hour

TOTAL: 7 hours, 10 minutes

TOTAL with concert arrangements & alternates on the season album added: 8 hours

 

Season 2 albums were:

  • Episode 1: 45 1/2 minutes
  • Episode 2: 40 minutes
  • Episode 3: 41 minutes
  • Episode 4: 40 minutes
  • Episode 5: 40 minutes
  • Episode 6: 40 minutes
  • Episode 7: 45 minutes
  • Episode 8: 55 minutes

TOTAL: 5 hours, 48 minutes

TOTAL with concert arrangements from the season 2 album added: 6 hours, 12 minutes

I wonder if we ever get to hear the remaining 2 hours of music from season 2. Bear teased a couple of months ago he wrote 8 hours.

 

Unless, of course, he meant that he wrote music for 8 hours of show.

 

Perhaps someone on social media should ask him to claarify. :)

 

Karol

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3 minutes ago, Jay said:

That makes no sense

How does it not?

 

There is 8 episodes, there is surely a couple little bits not on the OST's, possibly some alternates not included (though I could see there being none), and of course some stuff could wild performances, improv etc.

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Of course. But there's no way all of that adds up to another TWO HOURS of music. I think he just remembered wrong.

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I really hate the snipping in the episode albums. The cut in True Wealth of the Mountain is particularly egregious, squashing such a beautiful passage. It can be easily fixed, but these albums shouldn’t be “some assembly required”. Why even bother? There is unused music elsewhere on the albums.
 

Also, oof, that echo at the end of the singing in Shadow and Flame… That’s rough

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10 minutes ago, Taikomochi said:

Also, oof, that echo at the end of the singing in Shadow and Flame… That’s rough

 

Yup. No idea why he didn't end the track gracefully there, then have the Rhûn music kick off a new track.

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36 minutes ago, TheUlyssesian said:

 

He isn't going to remember he composed 6 hour 23 mins and 47 seconds of music.

 

 For his purposes, he thinks of it as an 8 hour show that almost (ALMOST) has wall to wall music. Hence he thinks of it as 8 hours. 

 

People speak colloquially generally, not accurately. 🙂

 

exactly!

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The first seven episode soundtracks are on the Qobuz NZ site, but no sign of the eighth… Strange, as the eighth is on Apple Music. I really hope this isn’t a Qobuz screw-up in the opposite direction, after they released episode two so early.

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43 minutes ago, Tydirium said:

The first seven episode soundtracks are on the Qobuz NZ site, but no sign of the eighth… Strange, as the eighth is on Apple Music. I really hope this isn’t a Qobuz screw-up in the opposite direction, after they released episode two so early.

I also noticed the absence of episode 8. We shall see what turns up here tomorrow morning.

 

Karol

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6 hours ago, Jay said:

Of course. But there's no way all of that adds up to another TWO HOURS of music. I think he just remembered wrong.

It's obviously just two hours of Jens Kidman vocals. ;)

5 hours ago, tomsmoviemadness said:

The fading out of the voices is like that because it's like that in the episode and the decision was made to leave it like that on the album as well.

It also seems like an intentional production choice for some reason.

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29 minutes ago, The Great Gonzales said:

It's obviously just two hours of Jens Kidman vocals. ;)

 

Bear actually already released the extra music earlier this year; he called it “The Singularity”… 😛

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Just watched the episode and heard the score in it for the first time: holy hell that was amazing! I'm so glad I did it this way round for the last episode because there's one moment in particular that was soooo effective in the show (Adar variation).

 

The first half is really good with some great Khazad-dum material, but it's the last four tracks that really excelled - Estrid in No Passage for Low Men and Adar's theme completely twisted to give him a fitting send-off Wounds That Have Endured. It took me a few moments to realise it was his theme - Bear went slightly into Walking Dead territory there, as it has a very similar sound to a cue from the pilot episode.

 

I didn't mind the segue from Bombadil to Rhun too much, although I haven't listened to it standalone so I'll soon see whether it works on album. It was a wonderful summation of all the themes - the segue into the first part of The Staff worked for me particularly well, and Nori's statement is gorgeous, as is the mournful Stoors.

 

Also they finally did a really good cover for the album.

 

The sooner they put out a box with this lot the better - another career-best achievement for Bear.

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"The Sun Yet Shines" is my easy top contender for track of the year.  What a brilliant piece of film music that accomplishes so much and has such an epic feel, and make a glorious finale!

 

Listening to the version at the end of "Shadow and Flame" is disappointing  because when it builds to that cool choir-free Nolwa Mahtar passage we hear in the "Sun Yet Shines" version, instead of getting that it going right into the huge powerful choral version feels so abrupt.  The extra build-up with the choir-free passage coming in first is essential part of making the whole track flow perfectly.

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So I just watched the season finale and....

 

On 13/09/2024 at 12:26 PM, Jay said:

I just had another epiphany!

 

I bet that "The Sun Yet Shines" is another track like "Sauron's Design", where it is partly the final cue of the episode, and partly the end credits cue.

 

I think that 0:00-2:08 is the final cue of the episode, and then 2:08-end is the end credits.

 

Nailed it.

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1 hour ago, The Great Gonzales said:

Also, I was right about the Arondir theme in "No Passage...", it was used for Theo.

 

I think that was a good usage. Using his mother's theme for him. So that theme has now represented 3 people. I think it's a good idea as it musically shows the connections between characters.

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I wonder why episode 8 album is still missing from Qobuz or any if the high-res retailers? 🤔 It is available to stream elsewhere.

 

Karol

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Since he's answering questions on twitter maybe someone can ask what the unknown theme represents

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I still think it's the dumbest thing from the viewpoint of a purchaser, to make these exclusive while it airs. If they dropped weekly to the retailers, people could spread out their album purchases, whereas now they suddenly have 8 albums, costing £60-70 and it feels so much worse, financially.

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Sure but Amazon thinks they'll make more money getting people to sign up to Amazon Music to hear them, than they will from the percentage of the sales they get from digital music stores and streamers.

 

Of course they're wrong, and most people who really wanted to hear them before the all-services drop simply pirated them, but that's a giant corporation for you

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Well yes, of course they're hoping people will sign up to AM to hear them. I think they're wrong for more than just what you said -  even if all those early listeners did pay to sign up, I struggle to see that making any noticeable difference in long-term sign-ups.

 

Maybe Amazon has data that proves us wrong, but I don't see it.

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It's either being held until next Friday or some glitch preventing it from going out to all the retailers as planned

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1 hour ago, Tydirium said:

Seems like it's a glitch:

 

 

Well, they are streaming everywhere. So what he's saying is correct. What you cannot do is purchase the last one.

 

Karol

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53 minutes ago, crocodile said:

Well, they are streaming everywhere. So what he's saying is correct. What you cannot do is purchase the last one.

 

Karol

 

The last one is streaming on Qobuz? Other streaming-only albums on Qobuz still have a page, but they simply say “Download not available.” I’m not even finding a page for Episode 8, which makes it seem like it’s just not on Qobuz, period.

 

EDIT: For example:

 

https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/star-wars-the-acolyte-vol-1-episodes-1-4-michael-abels/z6wps1gf90dmb

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8 hours ago, Tydirium said:

 

The last one is streaming on Qobuz? Other streaming-only albums on Qobuz still have a page, but they simply say “Download not available.” I’m not even finding a page for Episode 8, which makes it seem like it’s just not on Qobuz, period.

 

EDIT: For example:

 

https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/star-wars-the-acolyte-vol-1-episodes-1-4-michael-abels/z6wps1gf90dmb

Ah yes, I see what you mean.

 

Karol

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Well,the episode 8 album comes up in search on Qobuz but you can't actually access its page at all. Nothing happens when you click on it.

 

Screenshot_20241005_214659_Chrome.jpg

 

Karol

 

 

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1 hour ago, crocodile said:

Well,the episode 8 album comes up in search on Qobuz but you can't actually access its page at all. Nothing happens when you click on it.

 

Screenshot_20241005_214659_Chrome.jpg

 

Karol

 

 

 

Interesting! I just checked on the desktop site and it mentions the release date as being Oct. 6, so maybe it will show up sometime tomorrow…? Hopefully there will also be a hi-res option available.

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4 hours ago, Tydirium said:

Fantastic, now I can use my gift discount voucher. :)

 

Karol

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Kemen/Numenor wasn't really a surprise to me, as the appendices say that Numenorians start building outposts around this time.

One thing that was interesting, because of the "drip feed" of having one album at time, the themes can grow on you, almost like characters in a show.

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