Rings of Power LotR: The Rings of Power - Music Transcriptions

[michael_grig 471]

Please correct any errors we make!

@MonoverantusPlease post your transcriptions here too so we have a single place to go!

 

 

A  quick transcription of Shore's theme.

Does anyone see any mistakes or would notate anything differently?

I'm pretty unsure about the 2/4 time signature right now, but it looks and feels better than 4/4!

 

 

 

 

 

[Monoverantus 363]

42 minutes ago, Michael Grigorowitsch said:

@MonoverantusPlease post your transcriptions here too so we have a single place to go!

 

 

 

 

 

So, please help me with this! I'm not sure about the chords in the mark D!

Good initiative, I've just been working on Númenor!

Here's my Main Titles, anyway

And guess what, I was almost done with Númenor, but struggled to figure out if it suddenly went to E, until I saw your transcription and realised Bear is using the same Db-Dbm-Ab progression as in Galadriel! Thank you for solving that puzzle!

[michael_grig 471]

thanks for the numenor! I just saw that and realized that I was completely wrong with the chords and the melody in bar 10 (mark d)!

[Monoverantus 363]

8 minutes ago, Michael Grigorowitsch said:

I just saw that and realized that I was completely wrong with the chords and the melody in bar 10 (mark d)!

Then you should've seen my first attempt, I was waaay off X D

[michael_grig 471]

Where does the first line of your Númenor transcription come from?

 

 

So, IV-iv-I seems to be a favoured chord progression of Bear, it appears in the themes of Galdariel, Númenor and Valinor! Since I love this progression, I love his work too!

[Monoverantus 363]

30 minutes ago, Michael Grigorowitsch said:

Where does the first line of your Númenor transcription come from?

Listen to the Númenor track, this is basically 2:59-4:03

[michael_grig 471]

Interesting. Could you mention the use of the A theme in another track? I did not even notice it yesterday while listening!

[Monoverantus 363]

Just now, Michael Grigorowitsch said:

Could you mention the use of the A theme in another track?

No idea, since I've just started to listen to the album. It appeared in one of the teasers though

[Monoverantus 363]

This is the closest the score gets to an actual thematic reference

[Monoverantus 363]

On 19/08/2022 at 4:32 PM, Michael Grigorowitsch said:

Interesting. Could you mention the use of the A theme in another track? I did not even notice it yesterday while listening!

I've changed my designation now, Númenor B is clearly A, and A is B. Also, I've catalogued B themes in all the character/culture suites, and they never appear in the rest of the score.

[Monoverantus 363]

Working on a new look, any opinions?

Edit: oops, probably should've included that it's The Stranger's theme

[TolkienSS 405]

Any Galadriel transcripts? Too busy to make one.

[Knight of Ren 789]

This one is not mine, but was done by Frank Lehman when the single was released, and he shared it on his twitter, so I got it from there. No idea if he is around this forum, but all credit goes to him.

 

 

Twitter Post

[Monoverantus 363]

53 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

Any Galadriel transcripts? Too busy to make one.

I, on the other hand, got way too much time

Here's also the other themes we've discussed:

15 minutes ago, Knight of Ren said:

This one is not mine, but was done by Frank Lehman when the single was released, and he shared it on his twitter, so I got it from there. No idea if he is around this forum, but all credit goes to him.

Ah crap I didn't see this. Tell the truth, my transcription of Galadriel borrowed heavily from Frank too.

[Jay 37,336]

Why do you call it "Final Theme" instead of the name of its suite track ("Where The Shadows Lie"), like all the other themes? 

[TolkienSS 405]

The chord progression of Galadriel is as boring as they come. Basically nothing but moving in thirds. 

[Monoverantus 363]

24 minutes ago, Jay said:

Why do you call it "Final Theme" instead of the name of its suite track ("Where The Shadows Lie"), like all the other themes? 

The straight answer is that it's a long title. I really wanna jot it down as "Annatar", but that would be pure speculation.

9 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

The chord progression of Galadriel is as boring as they come. Basically nothing but moving in thirds. 

What's boring about that?

[TolkienSS 405]

29 minutes ago, Monoverantus said:

The straight answer is that it's a long title. I really wanna jot it down as "Annatar", but that would be pure speculation.

What's boring about that?

 

Well because it's mostly on key.

[Monoverantus 363]

32 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

Well because it's mostly on key.

Ok I don't think we'll get anything productive from this. Not only do almost all of Bear's themes (including Galadriel) break out of key, I don't even get why "staying in key" automatically makes anything boring.

I'm still more interested in your comparison between The Stranger and Sauron. Apart from the melodies and harmonies I've provided, I can also add the accompaniments.

The Stranger: G-Bb-D-E-D-Bb, B-D-F#-G-F#-D, A-D-E-F-E-D, B-D-F#-G-F#-D over and over

Sauron: (in D) rapid lines running through D-Eb-F-Gb in stepwise motion.

What's the connection?

[TolkienSS 405]

Where does the primary Galadriel theme break from the key of F minor except that Gb once or twice?

 

Staying in key makes it just predictable.

[Monoverantus 363]

19 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

Where does the primary Galadriel theme break from the key of F minor except that Gb once or twice?

Literally a third of all the chords in Galadriel break out of key.

19 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

Staying in key makes it just predictable.

Like the vast majority of Shore's LotR themes?

 

I'll ask one last time, can you actually point out one tangible connection between The Stranger and Sauron?

[Jay 37,336]

11 hours ago, Monoverantus said:

The straight answer is that it's a long title. I really wanna jot it down as "Annatar", but that would be pure speculation.

 

I think it's just confusing to assign one theme your own unique name, and then use Bear's names for all the rest.  I'd recommend jut using Bear's track names uniformly for all the themes.

[Monoverantus 363]

59 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

I think it's just confusing to assign one theme your own unique name, and then use Bear's names for all the rest.  I'd recommend jut using Bear's track names uniformly for all the themes.

I've already changed it though

Edit: uhh, I thought I had changed it. Hang on a sec.

Edit Edit: ok now it should be done. Added in all the "IV" and "Brandyfoot" too that I originally couldn't be bothered with.

[Jay 37,336]

Nice!

[TolkienSS 405]

On 24/08/2022 at 6:05 AM, Monoverantus said:

Literally a third of all the chords in Galadriel break out of key.

Like the vast majority of Shore's LotR themes?

 

Again, I didn't say the entire *track* was on key, I said the THEME was entirely on key.

And YES, there are quite a few Shore themes who are on key, but this is an elven theme, and the elven music lives on modal tones and scales.

Making a point beyond that, the chord progression in Galadriel's THEME deviates from F minor only in that the G is sometimes Gb out of convenience of avoiding the diminished ii chord.

So Bear McCreary is not only not interested in making elven music sound elvish, he's actively avoiding breaking out of a pleasant sounding formula.

 

About Sauron, what's the matter with you? Why are you so mad? I said it sounded very Sauron-like to me, I didn't say it's 100%. I'm not writing a thesis paper on it for Christ sake.

 

Why do people here turn so toxic so rapidly?

[Monoverantus 363]

5 hours ago, TolkienSS said:

Again, I didn't say the entire *track* was on key, I said the THEME was entirely on key.

Making a point beyond that, the chord progression in Galadriel's THEME deviates from F minor only in that the G is sometimes Gb out of convenience of avoiding the diminished ii chord.

So Bear McCreary is not only not interested in making elven music sound elvish, he's actively avoiding breaking out of a pleasant sounding formula.

 

Nobody said anything about the whole track. This is the theme: 21 chords, 7 of which don't belong in F minor. Literally a third.

5 hours ago, TolkienSS said:

And YES, there are quite a few Shore themes who are on key, but this is an elven theme, and the elven music lives on modal tones and scales.

Then you're not actually against "staying is key", are you?

5 hours ago, TolkienSS said:

About Sauron, what's the matter with you? Why are you so mad? I said it sounded very Sauron-like to me, I didn't say it's 100%. I'm not writing a thesis paper on it for Christ sake.

 

Why do people here turn so toxic so rapidly?

I told you I wouldn't find this sort of discussion productive and tried to steer you back to one I actually wanted to have. Don't accuse me of being toxic when you disregarded that twice to double down on a uninformed opinion even when proven wrong. If there's someone being toxic here, it's you.

[TolkienSS 405]

Uh, literally every chord you say doesn't belong to F minor is in fact in the F minor scale, either natural, harmonic, or melodic F minor.

The lonely Gb is only there to avoid the diminished ii.

It's as diatonic as it gets.

[Monoverantus 363]

2 hours ago, TolkienSS said:

Uh, literally every chord you say doesn't belong to F minor is in fact in the F minor scale, either natural, harmonic, or melodic F minor.

The lonely Gb is only there to avoid the diminished ii.

It's as diatonic as it gets.

This is what I mean about nothing productive coming from these sorts of discussions. Every time you get pushback on your opinion you move the goal posts. Even though I don't agree with "songs that only stay in one key are boring" at least I get where you're coming from. Now this definition includes songs that mix natural, harmonic and melodic minor? (Which by the way aren't diatonic, what are you talking about?) This includes all Shore's Elf themes too. Lothlórien plays over a static F drone, for goodness sake.

See, I'm not an elitist. You don't have to be good at music theory to have an opinion on music. But if you just want to lean on music theory to prove why something you don't like is bad, I don't have the patience for it. Anyone can pick a random fact and make it the most important. "Galadriel has 21 chords, but Shore's Elf themes have 5 at the most, therefore Galadriel is better." See how easy it is, and how little is gained from it?

[blondheim 1,157]

https://piano-music-theory.com/2016/07/03/diatonic-chords-of-f-minor-scale/

[Monoverantus 363]

4 hours ago, blondheim said:

https://piano-music-theory.com/2016/07/03/diatonic-chords-of-f-minor-scale/

Though to be fair, this has led me to read a bit further, and it turns out this is not a settled debate.

[michael_grig 471]

5 minutes ago, Monoverantus said:

Though to be fair, this has led me to read a bit further, and it turns out this is not a settled debate.

This is actually interesting!

[blondheim 1,157]

I guess I am more familiar with what that definition calls inclusive usage. I was not aware of the differences. Applying it to Galadriel (and to much of the rest of the score, most especially the themes and suites), there is still a sense of “just doing enough” here when it comes to the shifting of chords and harmonics. Maybe it’s the lack of any clustered notes or density? Shore, even in the beautiful passages, loves to build up notes that are normally spaced too closely to harmonize and then lets them build into big organ-like chords. That is something that is unmistakably LOTR-sounding that could have helped bridge the gap and made Bear’s melodies seem less hollow

[Monoverantus 363]

4 minutes ago, blondheim said:

I guess I am more familiar with what that definition calls inclusive usage. I was not aware of the differences. Applying it to Galadriel (and to much of the rest of the score, most especially the themes and suites), there is still a sense of “just doing enough” here when it comes to the shifting of chords and harmonics. Maybe it’s the lack of any clustered notes or density? Shore, even in the beautiful passages, loves to build up notes that are normally spaced too closely to harmonize and then lets them build into big organ-like chords. That is something that is unmistakably LOTR-sounding that could have helped bridge the gap and made Bear’s melodies seem less hollow

That's fair, I don't have such sharp ears as to determine what chord spacings Shore or Bear uses, but they do certainly sound different.

[TolkienSS 405]

16 hours ago, Monoverantus said:

This is what I mean about nothing productive coming from these sorts of discussions. Every time you get pushback on your opinion you move the goal posts.

 

What the hell are you talking about?

 

What goalposts? I literally only ever said Galadriel is firmly on key, which I find boring, and that the Stranger track sounded somewhat like Sauron to me.

 

That's literally all.

 

Yet, you come onto me like Bear McCreary's attorney accusing me of diffamation or something.

 

"Dear sir, you claimed the Stranger theme is Sauron's theme, please supply proof of this or I will see you in court. Your claim Mr. McCreary's theme is boring for being on key presents diffamation. Furthermore, you did not specify a F minor scale, please publish a clarification immediately."

 

Yet, you tell ME not to prolong this discussion.

 

Everyone knows "F minor" can mean any version of the minor scale. 

Please don't pretend you don't know what it means.

The melody is purely diatonic.

An F minor scale is not "an opinion". Get ahold of yourself please.

 

It's more like me finding it boring is a pushback on your opinion, so YOU move the goalposts in order to demand Something from me I never intended; and allow me to say you're not taking it very well.

 

Please stop this.

[Monoverantus 363]

14 hours ago, TolkienSS said:

Please stop this.

I've been trying to ever since the start. All I ever wanted, was to have a discussion about a possible link between the Stranger and Sauron. I've seen you talk in other threads, you're clearly musically literate. Therefore, I asked you to clarify what you meant several times. But every time, you brought it back to this pointless debate. Look back on the whole thread and you'll see it.

1: You say in another thread that there's a clear link between the themes, I suggest we discuss it here, with the aid of my transcriptions.

2: You make a comment on Galadriel instead. I try to steer the discussion back to the link, adding even more helpful information.

3: You ignore it again to keep up the discussion I suggested we stopped. In exasperation I ask if you actually had any link between the themes to point out at all.

4: You take that personally, and accuse me of suggesting you're wrong or dumb for thinking that there's a link between the themes (which I never have or will).

 

A part of that is my fault for being too autistic to let go of said pointless discussion (which I am now). But surely you can see now that my irritation was justified?

[TolkienSS 405]

Oh god ...

 

[Monoverantus 363]

5: To absolutely no one's surprise, you once again drag the dialogue back to the meaningless "debate", instead of admitting any fault of your own, like I have. Great. At least nobody can say I didn't try.

[Monoverantus 363]

Anyways, since this thread was actually supposed to be about transcriptions, here's the ones I used for my video (take the chords with a grain of salt, I've already noticed some errors)

[DangerMotif 1,037]

On 29/8/2022 at 6:10 AM, Monoverantus said:

Anyways, since this thread was actually supposed to be about transcriptions, here's the ones I used for my video (take the chords with a grain of salt, I've already noticed some errors)

These are beautiful, what software did you use?

[Monoverantus 363]

3 hours ago, Gibster said:

These are beautiful, what software did you use?

Finale for the notation, then Photoshop for the design

[Monoverantus 363]

I made this in anticipation of episode 3, may have posted it elsewhere:

We don't yet know exactly what part of "The Mystics" is gonna turn out to be the recurring motif, but here's my guess:

Hope this will help you who scan the episodic scores more carefully than me to locate it.

[Monoverantus 363]

I've noticed how many separate parts that make up the Númenor theme, and tried to visualizing their interplay.

Dunno if this is a bit too over-the-top.

[Jay 37,336]

That is not over the top at all!  I would love more analysis like this on JWFan - this is amazing!!

[Monoverantus 363]

While working on Ep 6, I realized I've kind of slept on the Adar/Orcs theme. I only list when the melody plays, but it also has a chant, a bass portamento and a drum beat. 

[Jay 37,336]

Man I love these helpful, colorized charts!

 

It reminds me of the one @Jean-Baptiste Martin put together for Glory, here:

 

https://www.patreon.com/posts/glory-evolution-56157322

[Monoverantus 363]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

It reminds me of the one @Jean-Baptiste Martin put together for Glory, here:

 

https://www.patreon.com/posts/glory-evolution-56157322

Dang, that's a damn handy chart. James Horner is on the interview research list.

[TolkienSS 405]

16 hours ago, Monoverantus said:

While working on Ep 6, I realized I've kind of slept on the Adar/Orcs theme. I only list when the melody plays, but it also has a chant, a bass portamento and a drum beat. 

 

Are these used individually in cues? 

[Monoverantus 363]

53 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

Are these used individually in cues? 

Not really "individually" per se, but they appear in several Adar-related tracks (Only Blood Can Bind, Destined for Darkness, March of Orcs), often as a build-up to the Adar/Orcs theme or the Nampat chant (hence why I'm conflicted on labelling them in the tracklists). So far, the only accompaniments that I can say for certain appear independent from its theme is the Sauron ostinato, and (arguably) the Rings of Power chords.

[TolkienSS 405]

6 hours ago, Monoverantus said:

Not really "individually" per se, but they appear in several Adar-related tracks (Only Blood Can Bind, Destined for Darkness, March of Orcs), often as a build-up to the Adar/Orcs theme or the Nampat chant (hence why I'm conflicted on labelling them in the tracklists). So far, the only accompaniments that I can say for certain appear independent from its theme is the Sauron ostinato, and (arguably) the Rings of Power chords.

 

So it's not individually a thematic representation of the orcs, like the 5/4 beat pattern appearing individually and the Isengard theme appearing individually.

[Monoverantus 363]

26 minutes ago, TolkienSS said:

So it's not individually a thematic representation of the orcs, like the 5/4 beat pattern appearing individually and the Isengard theme appearing individually.

No, doesn't seem so.