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


Chen G.

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Agree.

 

Pieces that I would've (at least) put on the season album that weren't would probably be:

  • Dawn Of The Second Age (even an edited version like the prologue of S1 would've been great)
  • Eldest
  • Sauron's Design
  • The Secret Fire

Maybe some others, but these are just from the top of my head.

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To be honest, it would be good to have the reharmonised Khazad-Dum theme for Ring-corrupted king on there as well.

 

Karol

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I wonder if some of the decisions made were to not spoil things, but they already extended the original season 1 album after the fact with the Fiona Apple song the first time around, so they could have extended this one too.  The physical editions didn't ship until well after the season ended so it was totally doable.  Real missed opportunity.

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On 03/12/2024 at 6:25 PM, Knight of Ren said:

The blog post for the third episode was finally shared!

https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-203/

 

I hope the rest of them now don't take as long as this one did!

 

Finally reading this now!

 

So he says the 8-note motif in the opening track is a theme for Shelob.  I hesitate to list it as a full theme since it only appears in one cue!

 

He says he didn't come up with the idea to use Jens for the Damrod theme until he was working on episode 7, and he had to make a specific request to quickly record a cue that could go into episode 3, which was in its final dubbing stages at the time.  Crazy!

 

For the track "Mithril For Rings", he says it has "a luscious variant of “Where the Shadows Lie.” The mysterious melody is still the same, but the harmonies around it have changed, carrying a completely different emotional message. This uniquely warm, new variation of this theme represents Sauron’s desire to forge new rings as presented through Celebrimbor’s positive outlook, which is itself a result of Sauron’s manipulative influence."

 

Did anybody here point out this "new variation" before?

 

Talking about the Ents theme in "WIld Men" (that will return in episode 5's "Mud Beast" and "Sanggleroot and WInterbloom") he says "This sequence is scored with aggressive orchestral horror writing, punctuated by relentless wooden percussion, including log drums, claves, and bamboo sticks. As Theo is whisked off his feet and lifted into the air, an ascending phrase in the choir bursts forth with the Quenya words “Rikila sundor,” meaning “Twisting roots.”"

 

Very cool!

 

Huh, he says that "The Great Eagle (and the Forging)" contains the "last time this season that the rousing march of the Númenor theme is presented in a wholly positive light."  I guess I hadn't noticed / thought of things that way!  Wow!

 

OK, huh.  He says starting with the end of this episode, he turns two foundational major chords of the theme and turns them into minor chords, and refers to the minor version of the theme as the "The King's Men" theme.  Fascinating!

 

I don't remember anyone talking about this either!

 

Finally he says that the "The Rings of Power – London Premiere Season One Fanfare" track is the very last music he composed for season 1.

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39 minutes ago, Jay said:

OK, huh.  He says starting with the end of this episode, he turns two foundational major chords of the theme and turns them into minor chords, and refers to the minor version of the theme as the "The King's Men" theme.  Fascinating!

 

When we start saying "Oh, but this is a different theme because its in the minor" it can get pretty funky pretty fast. A good example from the way people analyse the Ring:

 

image.png

 

I mean, sure, that's a way to look at it, and in the context some of these pass muster. But, having said that...they're all the same music!:lol:

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I do not recall Bear hinting at that this time, like he did last time for season 1.

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Thought this was already posted, but it wasn't.

Bear wrote a blog just about the Old Tom Bombadil song and his collaboration with Wainwright & Yarbrough.

 

https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-old-tom-bombadil/

 

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