Popular Post VenomVeVenom 196 Posted November 8, 2024 Popular Post Share Posted November 8, 2024 20 minutes ago, Taikomochi said: There’s having a view and then there’s trolling, constantly bumping these threads with the same off base complaints over and over and over and over. Plenty of good faith criticisms of this show and score, but what TolkienSS is doing is not that. No one is entitled to that. This. 40 minutes ago, Chen G. said: But at the same time, it is a very admirable effort. It is. You can see how the guy put his heart into it. Sometimes we talk on Twitter, and the way he just starts explaining his themes out of nowhere and how he put this detail here and this other detail there shows how he is actually trying. This incessant negative criticism (or trolling) by TolkienSS is unfair in my opinion. Most TV show composers wouldn't even try to write more than 3 themes, let alone more than 20. Yavar Moradi, Stark and Richard P 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 9,051 Posted November 21, 2024 Share Posted November 21, 2024 Just got a shipping notification from Made by Mutant for the CD OST album. Karol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 41,825 Posted November 21, 2024 Share Posted November 21, 2024 Interesting. Nothing here yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post crocodile 9,051 Posted November 23, 2024 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2024 Karol Taikomochi, enderdrag64, AlejandroGO and 3 others 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 41,825 Posted November 26, 2024 Share Posted November 26, 2024 My physical CD edition arrived today from Mutant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Knight of Ren 1,244 Posted December 3, 2024 Popular Post Share Posted December 3, 2024 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! Tydirium, Yavar Moradi and DannySinatra 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jay 41,825 Posted December 29, 2024 Popular Post Share Posted December 29, 2024 Holy shit I completely forgot I saw that post and still haven't read the blog! I'll do that shortly. Was just coming in here to say that I opened up my physical copy of the season 2 OST album today and am listening to it now. It was so strange to put in the first disc into my player and see that it's only 46 minutes long. This score is SO GOOD, I don't know WHY he didn't craft a longer season-album. Why in the world is it so much shorter than season 1's album? I swear this hobby has as much frustration as it has joy Anyways, what spurned me to come here is listening to the track "Estrid". WOW! What a great concert arrangement track; I think I kinda forgot about it, since once the episode albums came out it was mostly those that I listened to when I had any jonesing for this score. But this track is really wonderful, and really makes it seem like the character is an important one! In the end, she was barely in the show, right? Did she have a lot of scenes cut or something? I'm always curious to see where composers get inspiration sometimes for things that don't pop on screen, at least in what we get to see. Yavar Moradi, DannySinatra, Tom Guernsey and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jay 41,825 Posted December 29, 2024 Popular Post Share Posted December 29, 2024 OK I finished the 2-CD set. The first disc is 46 minutes, the second disc is 54 minutes. Both should be so much longer. The first disc should have had another 30 minutes of music from the first 3 episodes (the disc split is between episodes 3 and 4 for some reason), and the second disc needs another 20 minutes of all the amazing highlights from the second half of the season. The second disc is already reaching the ending battle music by track 4, there's just so much missing. And boy. By far my least-played track of the season is the Ballad of Damrod track. I love this season's score (overall) so much, could write a lot about how great so many different aspects are, but this one track I just cannot get into. It's not a style of music I like anyway, but it also just doesn't gel well with the rest of the score, or the show itself. It feels like an indulgence Bear got to have, and that's great for him, but I just can't enjoy it. The variant of that idea in the actual episodes is fine, though. Overall, I'm bummed all over again at the missed opportunity this album was to really showcase the highlights of this great score as a fully fleshed out album, but also reminded again of how much I love the score overall; I hadn't actually heard it in a while. The episodic albums are SUCH a blessing, I wish every show did that! The physical release is very nice. There's some more info in the booklet that you can't get from the digital release, like some more named solosits for certain tracks and stuff. I'll go through it more later. Gotta read that blog post, too! Knight of Ren, Tydirium, AlejandroGO and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DangerMotif 1,263 Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 The season 2 prologue should have been on the season album tomsmoviemadness and Tydirium 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomsmoviemadness 4,035 Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 9,051 Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 To be honest, it would be good to have the reharmonised Khazad-Dum theme for Ring-corrupted king on there as well. Karol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 41,825 Posted January 2 Share Posted January 2 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. Yavar Moradi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 41,825 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 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. AlejandroGO 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chen G. 5,080 Posted January 5 Author Share Posted January 5 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: 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsaenz24 0 Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 Does anyone know if there are plans for a 10 CD set for Rings of Power S1, like Mondo did doe S1? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 41,825 Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 I do not recall Bear hinting at that this time, like he did last time for season 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DangerMotif 1,263 Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 30 minutes ago, Jay said: I do not recall Bear hinting at that this time, like he did last time for season 1. He mentioned it on an Instagram live Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 41,825 Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 What did he say? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomsmoviemadness 4,035 Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 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/ Yavar Moradi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 41,825 Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Oh great! That will be nice to read with my morning coffee Yavar Moradi and tomsmoviemadness 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 9,051 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 I finally managed to watch your in-depth interview with Bear @Monoverantus. Really enjoyed it. Would be cool to have one per season. Karol Monoverantus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monoverantus 566 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 3 hours ago, crocodile said: I finally managed to watch your in-depth interview with Bear @Monoverantus. Really enjoyed it. Would be cool to have one per season. Karol Many thanks! Yeah, I've been meaning to have another chat with him for a while, about both TRoP and GoW, but been a bit otherwise pre-occupied. I'm actually surprised to see none of the other guys (Nerd of the Rings, In Deep Geek, Corey Olsen) have had him back either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post tomsmoviemadness 4,035 Posted February 11 Popular Post Share Posted February 11 New blog on S2 Ep. 4 https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-204/ VenomVeVenom, Jay, Knight of Ren and 2 others 1 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 9,051 Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 Entwives theme (0:05-1:43). 😍 Karol Yavar Moradi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jay 41,825 Posted February 13 Popular Post Share Posted February 13 Season 2 is nominated for SCORE OF THE YEAR, BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR TELEVISION, and both "Battle For Eregion" and "The Sun Yet Shines" are nominated for COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR, at this year's IFMCA Awards! Yavar Moradi, VenomVeVenom, Sylvan and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post crocodile 9,051 Posted March 3 Popular Post Share Posted March 3 Episode 5 blog entry. Karol Knight of Ren, VenomVeVenom and Yavar Moradi 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 41,825 Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 I still haven't found time to read the last two! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Yavar Moradi 3,459 Posted April 7 Popular Post Share Posted April 7 Season 2 CD box set coming from Mutant!! From Kev McGann at FSM board: Quote Some splendid breaking news from Mutant. A follow up 10 disc CD set for series 2 (just like the first season) is currently with Bear's team for proofing and they hope to have it up for pre-order while Mr Mc is on his tour this summer. WOOT!! I asked him to clarify his source since I couldn't find anything on their website, and he replied: Quote Yes Yavar, an email response from Mo Shafeek in answer to a query from me. I can't wait. Amazing news! Yavar JWMike, Sylvan, crocodile and 1 other 1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 9,051 Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Amazing! Karol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard P 4,684 Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Great news! I've been in a perpetual purchase delay under the assumption that this would happen. 'Summer' is a wide berth though for a release window. I'd be crushed if I missed this after getting the first one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stark 653 Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 I missed the first one and now I'd feel weird getting just this one! But in all fairness, I don't need really this release as much as many OOP other things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert 566 Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 I hope they at least match the design of the first box. Yavar Moradi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crocodile 9,051 Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 12 hours ago, Laserschwert said: I hope they at least match the design of the first box. The season album CD looked very similar so I bet this will be the case as well, save for the label logo. Karol Yavar Moradi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 41,825 Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 Old Tom Bombadil and Last Ballad of Damrod live in concert TolkienSS and JWMike 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard P 4,684 Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 Nice rendition of Bombadil - it suits the singer. Damrod.... eww. That performance amplifies the heavy metal aspect completely beyond the concert version. I don't like it at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VenomVeVenom 196 Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 Hmm... I like the Damrod performance. It's a metal concert after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exar Xan 1 Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 I am guessing this was posted somewhere, but I cannot find it (found two Excel cue sheets but they do not cover this), but where/how do the tracks from the Mondo Disc 9 and 10 fit between the episodes of Season 1? I am about to finally start the series and would like my music to be chronological. https://mondoshop.com/products/lotr-rop-10cd-box-set Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jay 41,825 Posted April 29 Popular Post Share Posted April 29 That's covered in my google doc https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iPZSq84CsDwNeyokPVDh4adCyagChXIEW9X_-sYu5sc (Note there are multiple tabs) Can always look for my docs here: https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29073-jays-score-information-collection-non-williams-edition & https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29072-jays-score-information-collection-john-williams-edition/ Yavar Moradi, Chen G., VenomVeVenom and 1 other 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post tomsmoviemadness 4,035 Posted May 6 Popular Post Share Posted May 6 Blog for Episode 6: Where Is He? https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-206/ crocodile, Jay, Monoverantus and 3 others 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay 41,825 Posted May 10 Share Posted May 10 Bear discussed the score at a panel run by Deadline, some quotes from it in the article https://deadline.com/2025/05/lotr-the-rings-of-power-composer-bear-mccreary-interview-1236390339/ Video coming Monday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monoverantus 566 Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 On 06/05/2025 at 9:38 PM, tomsmoviemadness said: Blog for Episode 6: Where Is He? https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-206/ I'm not sure if Bear's underselling himself here, because he never mentions that the chords used to make Annatar appear so angelic are all exclusively picked from the Eregion theme: VenomVeVenom 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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