“I Roderyn” (The Noble Wood) by Howard Shore (Based on themes from "The Hobbit" trilogy)

[SUH 65]

I came across this interesting concert work on Shore’s official website.

 

 

https://www.howardshore.com/rentals/i-roderyn/

 

Does anyone know what this piece is? From tabla in the instrumentation and the word ‘Wood’ in the title I am thinking it could be Woodland Realm theme related, however with the year being 2012 and the picture being the ‘An Unexpected Journey’ soundtrack, it seems it’s based on music from the first Hobbit score.

 

It seems odd that there’s barely any information about it online and the title seems unfamilar (with no relation to any of the OST track titles). A google search for ‘I Roderyn’ and ‘The Noble Wood’ returns few results, and they don’t appear to come from the source novel. I wonder if ’I Roderyn’ is an original Elvish translation by David Salo, it sounds like it could be from the translated lyrics to ‘The Feast of Starlight’.

 

The piece can be rented from Lucks Music and appears to have been performed by the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra in 2016 and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra in 2017.

[TolkienSS 488]

That's very wierd.

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

Perhaps it is related to Radagast?

[Edmilson 10,474]

Maybe @Doug Adams knows something and may help us?

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

Or @Jim Ware

[Doug Adams 530]

15 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Maybe @Doug Adams knows something and may help us?

Woodland Realm material, I believe 

[TolkienSS 488]

Is this related to the piano book version of The Woodland Realm? There's a theme suite in there that's not on the OST.

 

Maybe Shore wrote this for a version of An Unexpected Journey which still included the Mirkwood stuff, before it was three movies.

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

It's basically The Woodland Realm + Beyond the Forest + Feast of Starlight

 

https://www.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/podcasts/le-concert-du-soir/week-end-howard-shore-compositeur-du-seigneur-des-anneaux-8958467

 

 

[crocodile 9,181]

It is a nice piece. And great concert programme, too.

 

Karol

[Jim Ware 586]

It's a fun little tenth anniversary piece. Shore was writing the Tauriel and Kili material almost ten years ago to the day on May 19th 2013. He started writing the score proper on May 28th 2013, beginning with the entrance to the Woodland Realm.

 

[Gnome in Plaid 219]

Here's a recording of the Berklee performance that someone posted to Soundcloud:

It's a really lovely piece.

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

This is getting released March 21st 2025:

 

https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/howard-shore-anthology-the-paris-concerts-13652

[Chen G. 5,148]

[Incanus 5,858]

14 hours ago, Doo_liss said:

This is getting released March 21st 2025:

 

https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/howard-shore-anthology-the-paris-concerts-13652

Sweet!  

[Edmilson 10,474]

"The Noble Wood"?

 

Shore does seem to think quite highly of his junk huh 

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

2 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

"The Noble Wood"?

 

Shore does seem to think quite highly of his junk huh 

In decent times it was called Green Wood the great, but in recent times some have taken to calling it Mirk Wood...

[Cerebral Cortex 3,362]

 

 

[Jim Ware 586]

This was performed in London on Saturday night by the LPO and Ben Palmer (along with a bunch of other Shore stuff), with Shore in attendance.

[Monoverantus 567]

On 23/03/2025 at 10:37 PM, Cerebral Cortex said:

 

 

This reminds me a lot of Gabriel's Oboe.

[artguy360 2,013]

Listening to it now, it's nice. Definitely has a lot of Shore's Middle Earth sound. It's his LOTR music written for the concert stage instead of for film. Halfway thru the piece it starts giving big time Gabriel's Oboe similarities.

[Meredith McKay 7,859]

13 hours ago, artguy360 said:

Listening to it now, it's nice. Definitely has a lot of Shore's Middle Earth sound. It's his LOTR music written for the concert stage instead of for film. Halfway thru the piece it starts giving big time Gabriel's Oboe similarities.

Well, it's actually an arrangement combining the Desolation of Smaug compositions Feast of Starlight and Beyond the Forest; but without the choir.

[artguy360 2,013]

14 hours ago, Meredith McKay said:

Well, it's actually an arrangement combining the Desolation of Smaug compositions Feast of Starlight and Beyond the Forest; but without the choir.

Oh, I had no idea. I didn't pay much attention to the Hobbit scores.

[Jay 42,389]

 

 

[crocodile 9,181]

On 25/03/2025 at 12:50 PM, Monoverantus said:

This reminds me a lot of Gabriel's Oboe.

It's Thranduil's Oboe.

 

Karol

[Arpy 4,201]

On 26/03/2025 at 4:09 PM, artguy360 said:

Listening to it now, it's nice. Definitely has a lot of Shore's Middle Earth sound. It's his LOTR music written for the concert stage instead of for film. Halfway thru the piece it starts giving big time Gabriel's Oboe similarities.

Is it strange you haven't heard the Hobbit scores?

[artguy360 2,013]

On 29/03/2025 at 5:20 PM, Arpy said:

Is it strange you haven't heard the Hobbit scores?

Is it strange to who? Me? You? Howard Shore?