Jump to content

Bear McCreary's "Rings of Power" Themes


Monoverantus

Recommended Posts

Great work, and I hope you continue it with the rest of the tracks so it makes it easier for the rest of us to identify the thematic connections.

 

I think all the tracks that have a name of a character or the name of a city are suites. I don't know if this is true for all of them,but for example, after "In the Beginning" you have tracks like "Bronwyn and Arondir", "Elendil and Isildur", "Nolwa Mathar" or "Mapat", that I think are theme suites, but I'm not entirely sure, so any correction is welcome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 20/08/2022 at 11:13 AM, Bofur01 said:

Awesome work Mono - has anyone worked out which tracks are suites and which are score cues? I’m guessing all the tracks up to “In the Beginning”?

Someone I know spoke to McCreary about the themes on the album, he said the following:

"Everything with a character name or a place is basically a 'theme statement' and that everything that has a more scene-specific cue title is an in-context variation of that theme"

 

So as my post in another thread noted, themes should be:

 

  • Galadriel
  • Khazad-Dûm
  • Nori Brandyfoot
  • The Stranger
  • Númenor
  • Sauron
  • Valinor
  • Elrond Half-Elven
  • Durin IV
  • Harfoot Life
  • Browyn And Arondir
  • Halbrand
  • Elendil And Isildur
  • White Leaves (Maybe a theme for Telperion or the Two Trees Of Valinor)
  • Nolwa Mahtar
  • Nampat

This are 16 noted. I think one of the final three is not a thematic suite

 

 

 

@Monoverantus

Will you update your first post more everytime you've figured more stuff out??

 

I really appreciate you doing this breakdown. I love the score a lot and with this is helps me appreciate it even more!

So thanks very much

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

So as my post in another thread noted, themes should be:

 

I tried to figure out how to quote someone from another thread, and thought I succeeded, but yeah this works too XD

 

11 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

@Monoverantus

Will you update your first post more everytime you've figured more stuff out??

Yes, the first post will be continuously updated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

Someone I know spoke to McCreary about the themes on the album, he said the following:

"Everything with a character name or a place is basically a 'theme statement' and that everything that has a more scene-specific cue title is an in-context variation of that theme"

 

So as my post in another thread noted, themes should be:

 

  • Galadriel
  • Khazad-Dûm
  • Nori Brandyfoot
  • The Stranger
  • Númenor
  • Sauron
  • Valinor
  • Elrond Half-Elven
  • Durin IV
  • Harfoot Life
  • Browyn And Arondir
  • Halbrand
  • Elendil And Isildur
  • White Leaves (Maybe a theme for Telperion or the Two Trees Of Valinor)
  • Nolwa Mahtar
  • Nampat

This are 16 noted. I think one of the final three is not a thematic suite

 

 

 

@Monoverantus

Will you update your first post more everytime you've figured more stuff out??

 

I really appreciate you doing this breakdown. I love the score a lot and with this is helps me appreciate it even more!

So thanks very much

I think White Leaves it's not a theme suite, as I think I heard statements of Galadriel's theme, Elendil and Isildur's theme and also Numenor's theme, so I think it must be a proper underscore track. The rest I think are suites, but I need a couple more listens to figure it out completely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Knight of Ren said:

I think White Leaves it's not a theme suite

I'm also sceptical towards Nolwa Mahtar and Nampat, because I don't think they appear in any other tracks.

Where The Shadows Lie though...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Monoverantus said:

I'm also sceptical towards Nolwa Mahtar and Nampat, because I don't think they appear in any other tracks.

Where The Shadows Lie though...

Do any of the 2 song melodies return anywhere else?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, JNHFan2000 said:

To me it sounds like Elrond's B Phrase is in a way linked to Galadriel's A Phrase. There is some simalarity in there.

Oh definitely, my first reaction was that it was a reference, before it struck me that having familiar similarities make sense. That we've got nothing to represent Celebrimbor or Gil-Galad though...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Monoverantus said:

Oh definitely, my first reaction was that it was a reference, before it struck me that having familiar similarities make sense. That we've got nothing to represent Celebrimbor or Gil-Galad though...

True. Nothing for them...yet. I'm pretty sure McCreary has hinted on social media about more music coming in the following weeks or months 

 

Celebrimbor is very close with the Dwarves, so maybe there will be a connection there, not sure of course.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Newest update: I've noticed a few recurring things that are not among the established themes, but they're a bit too undefined to establish as such. Also, I did away with the A/B Phrase distinction in all but the suite tracks, since only the A themes appear throughout the score.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Bofur01 said:

Is that the Sauron ostinato at 3:23 in The Boat?

Well spotted! I've updated again, and for the first time, we have a B theme present, in The Secrets of the Mountain!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Phew, it's done! Or, you know, every track has been analysed at least once now, I might still have missed stuff.

 

Now that all that's done, we can conclude that apart from the 13 themes with their own suites (Galadriel, Khazad-Dûm, Nori Brandyfoot, The Stranger, Númenor, Sauron, Valinor, Elrond Half-Elven, Durin IV, Harfoot Life, Browyn And Arondir, Halbrand, Elendil And Isildur) we still have 2 unaccounted for.

Thanks to this deep-dive, I can now confirm one more: what I call the "Final theme" because of it's suite being the last track on the album "Where The Shadows Lie".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, that's such a great work you've done, and after a couple of listens I'm starting to appreciate more and more all the different themes and ideas that Bear has crafted, and it has really make me want to check out the show to see and hear how it works in context.

 

And I hope that also can help clarify what some theme represent, like the "Final theme" or all the chanting tracks like Nolwa Mathar, Nampat or the first part of The Mystics (which at first I thought was going to be another suite).

 

Great work, Mono!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess the first question is, whose is the Final theme? Though I've heard people say the last tracks spoil the villain's identity, I got to be honest, I don't get it. To me, the Final theme seems just as unique as all the others, it doesn't immediately connect to any other. (Also as a side note, the B theme give me real Ring-theme vibes)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Giving my opinion on the plot-twists potentionally hidden in the music, I believe the most common theories about what character will be "secretly Sauron" is 

Spoiler

The Stranger or Halbrand. I'm sure Amazon and Bear know this, because one can find "Sauron" clues in both their themes, apart from being generally ominous. The Stranger often repeats C#-D-E-F, which is the pitch set that forms both Sauron's melody and ostinato. And Halbrand's theme (F#-G-E-D-F#) is almost Sauron's theme (F#-D#-E-G-F#) backwards.

No matter which, I don't see an obvious connection to the Final theme (F-Bb-Bb-F-F-E-E, Db-Bb-Db-C)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So if I could summarize the findings here, it looks to me that:

 

Out of the 36 Bear McCreary OST tracks,

 

15 are theme presentations

  1. 02 Galadriel
  2. 03 Khazad-dûm
  3. 04 Nori Brandyfoot
  4. 05 The Stranger
  5. 06 Númenor
  6. 07 Sauron
  7. 08 Valinor
  8. 10 Elrond Half-elven
  9. 11 Durin IV
  10. 12 Harfoot Life
  11. 13 Bronwyn and Arondir
  12. 14 Halbrand
  13. 18 Elendil and Isildur
  14. 22 Nampat
  15. 37 Where The Shadows Lie

18 tracks are comprised of underscore cues that use those themes in them

  1. 09 In The Beginning (Valinor, Galadriel, Sauron)
  2. 15 The Boat (Valinor, Galadriel, Sauron)
  3. 16 Sundering Seas (Galadriel, Halbrand)
  4. 17 Nobody Goes Off Trail (Harfoot Life, The Stranger, Nori Brandyfoot)
  5. 19 White Leaves (Galadriel, Númenor, Elendil and Isildur)
  6. 20 The Secrets of the Mountain (Khazad-dûm, Where The Shadows Lie)
  7. 25 Scherzo for Violin and Swords (Galadriel)
  8. 26 Sailing into the Dawn (Halbrand, Númenor, Elendil and Isildur, Galadriel)
  9. 27 For the Southlands (Nampat, Halbrand, Sauron, Bronwyn and Arondir)
  10. 28 Cavalry (Númenor, Galadriel, Elendil and Isildur, Bronwyn and Arondir, Halbrand)
  11. 29 Water and Flame (Númenor)
  12. 30 In the Mines (Elrond, Durin IV, Sauron, Khazad-dûm)
  13. 31 The Veil of Smoke (Elendil and Isildur, Bronwyn and Arondir, Galadriel, Númenor)
  14. 32 The Mystics (The Stranger, Sauron, Nori Brandyfoot, Harfoot Life)
  15. 33 Perilous Whisperings (Where The Shadows Lie, Halbrand, Sauron)
  16. 34 The Broken Line (Valinor, Galadriel, Sauron)
  17. 35 Wise One (The Stranger, Nori Brandyfoot, Harfoot Life)
  18. 36 True Creation Requires Sacrifice (Galadriel, Elrond, Where The Shadows Lie)

And then there are 3 tracks that are underscore that doesn't use any themes in them

  1. 21 Nolwa Mahtar
  2. 23 A Plea to the Rocks
  3. 24 This Wandering Day

Does that sound about right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It feels more and more like a 'summary' album of the season in prep for receiving albums for each episode, given there are so many theme presentations. I make it roughly 90 mins (ish) of actual score based on that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Episode by episode albums seem quite unlikely given the length of this album, plus the fact that there are 5 additional tracks not even accounted for in the list here yet (1 only on Amazon MP3, 1 on Amazon MP3 or the physical CD, 3 on the physical CD only)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yea, I was very surprised by the news, didn't see that coming at all, especially given the length of the OST album.

 

Oh how I wish The Orville got the same treatment!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I just assumed it was the Yahoo link, my bad.

 

Does this bit mean the episode scores will be on all platforms, but Amazon Music wll have some exclusive tracks? It seems to be using AM in two contexts.

 

Quote

Amazon Music will release a weekly soundtrack album containing the entirety of the score for each episode, plus additional bonus tracks only available on Amazon Music.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Jay said:

Episode by episode albums seem quite unlikely given the length of this album, plus the fact that there are 5 additional tracks not even accounted for in the list here yet (1 only on Amazon MP3, 1 on Amazon MP3 or the physical CD, 3 on the physical CD only)

Anyone know a way to get them without having to pay?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Monoverantus said:

Anyone know a way to get them without having to pay?

 

You're describing piracy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, legally there's no way to get the Amazon-exclusive track without paying Amazon for it

 

And legally, there's no way to get the CD-exclusive tracks without buying the CD

 

The only way to get them outside of those two means is piracy.

 

Simple as that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the exclusive tracks on Amazon and the CD are score tracks, then we should get them as part of the episode albums.

 

The question is what the Amazon exclusives will be for the episode albums themselves. It would be really silly to release almost complete scores on other platforms and force us to buy the final tidbits but hey... makes them money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

If the exclusive tracks on Amazon and the CD are score tracks, then we should get them as part of the episode albums.

 

Yea, hopefully that is indeed the case!

 

Of course, it makes it all the more stupid that they are bothering to do this kind of stuff now if everything will be sold digitally eventually

 

4 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

The question is what the Amazon exclusives will be for the episode albums themselves. It would be really silly to release almost complete scores on other platforms and force us to buy the final tidbits but hey... makes them money.

 

Great question; the only thing I can think of is alternates!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, TolkienSS said:
  Hide contents

It's obvious to me the final track is the Stranger theme. The Stranger theme also has a percussion pattern underneath reminiscent of Sauron's theme.

 

Okay I've listened and listened and still don't get it. Could you elaborate?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 20/08/2022 at 4:03 PM, Monoverantus said:

I tried to figure out how to quote someone from another thread, and thought I succeeded, but yeah this works too XD

 

To quote a post in one thread in another thread, all you gotta do is

 

- Click Quote on the post in Thread A like always.  It's now in your text editor.

 

- On Desktop? Select All, Cut.  On Mobile?  Click the header of the quote, then click the Scissor icon.  Now it's in your clipboard.

 

-Go to Thread B and Paste it into the text editor.

 

That's it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Monoverantus said:

Okay I've listened and listened and still don't get it. Could you elaborate?

 

I can't tell the exact notation right now, but the percussion figure reminds me of Sauron's brass theme.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No worries, I'm making a video about the themes in the score, for which I've transcribed the melodies in question. I'll post them in the transcriptions thread, then we'll see if it helps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

“Find the Light” is lovely. I mentioned in the other thread how the “Bronwyn and Arondir” track on the digital album reminded me slightly of Goldsmith’s love theme from “The Russia House”- Not sure why? Probably the oboe(?) solo at the beginning sounded slightly like the saxophone from Jerry’s score…Just a tiny bit.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Knight of Ren said:

By the way, I don't know if it has been shared already but I found the two Amazon exclusive tracks uploaded on YouTube, and I think they're also worth checking. 

Great! Expanding the tracklist immediately.

23 minutes ago, WampaRat said:

“Find the Light” is lovely. I mentioned in the other thread how the “Bronwyn and Arondir” track on the digital album reminded me slightly of Goldsmith’s love theme from “The Russia House”

Me? I'm always hearing The Rains of Castamere XD 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Isn't what plays at 0:50 of Find the Light, Bronwyn and Arondir's theme? Those leaps are quite recognizable precisely because they remind me of the Lannister theme. I'm no music expert so perhaps they're not the same notes, but I think it's that theme.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Knight of Ren said:

Isn't what plays at 0:50 of Find the Light, Bronwyn and Arondir's theme? Those leaps are quite recognizable precisely because they remind me of the Lannister theme. I'm no music expert so perhaps they're not the same notes, but I think it's that theme.

I suggest you listen to the Halbrand track again, and you'll find that they have a very similar part. If I put them in the same key, Bronwyn and Arondir would be D-Bb-D-A (The Rains of Castamere intervals), while Halbrand goes G-A-Bb-D-A between 0:50-0:58. I've actually seen people suggest that this is an intentional similarity, because it's supposed to reveal that Halbrand either is from the Southlands, or perhaps even Bronwyn's old lover.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ohh, that's right! I hadn't associated it since most of the statements of Halbrand's theme only play the first 5 notes and not the section that's similar to Bronwyn and Arondir, so thanks for the clarification.

 

And that's one of the reasons I want to watch the show, so we can slowly discover what these connections really mean within the narrative of the show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.