Most composers spend just 10-12ish weeks working on a film’s music. John Williams spent around 14 weeks on each Star Wars movie, 40ish weeks total for the whole OT……but composing the LOTR trilogy’s soundtrack took four years
The vocals you hear in the soundtrack are usually in one of Tolkien’s languages (esp. Elvish). The English translations of the lyrics are all poems, or quotes from the book, or occasionally even quotes from other parts of the films that are relevant to the scene
When there were no finished scenes for him to score, Howard Shore would develop musical themes inspired by the scripts or passages from the book. That’s how he got all Middle-Earth locations have their own unique sound: he was able to compose drafts of “what Gondor would sound like” and “what Lorien would sound like” long before any scenes in those places were filmed
Shore has said his favorite parts to score were always the little heartfelt moments between Frodo and Sam
Shore wrote over 100 unique leitmotifs/musical themes to represent specific people, places, and things in Middle Earth (over 160 if you count The Hobbit)
The ones we all talk about are the Fellowship theme, the main Shire Theme, and the themes for places like Gondor, Mordor, Rohan, and Rivendell…but a lot of the more subtle ones get overlooked and underappreciated
Like Aragorn’s theme. It’s a lot less “obvious” than the others because, like Aragorn himself, it adapts to take on the color of whatever place Aragorn is in: it’s played on dramatic broody stringed instruments in Bree, on horns in battle scenes, softly on the flute with Arwen in Rivendell….
Eowyn has not just one but three different leitmotifs to represent her
Gollum and Smeagol both have their own leitmotifs! Whose theme music is playing in the scene can often tell you whether the Gollum or Smeagol side is “winning” at the moment
The melody for Gollum’s Song in the end credits of the The Two Towers is the Smeagol and Gollum themes smushed together (it’s Symbolic)
And then there’s the really obscure ones. Like there’s a melody that plays at Boromir’s death that shows up again in ROTK in scenes that foreshadow a major death or loss
Shore wanted the theme music to grow alongside the characters– so that as the characters changed, their theme music would change with them.
You can hear that most clearly in the Shire theme. Like the hobbits, it goes through A Lot
Like compare the childish lil penny whistle theme you hear in Concerning Hobbits/the beginning of FOTR with (throws a dart at random Beautiful Tragic Hobbit Character Development scene because there WAY TOO MANY to choose from) the scene when Pippin finds Merry on the battlefield, where you hear a kind of shattered and broken but more mature version of that same theme in the background
I could write you a book on how much I love the way the Shire theme grows across the course of these films
Unlike the hero’s themes, which constantly change and grow, the villain’s themes (The One Ring theme, the Isengard theme, etc) remain basically the same from the very beginning of FOTR to the end of ROTK. Shore said this was an intentional choice: to emphasize that evil is static, while good is capable of change
Shore has said that between all the music that made into the movies and the music that didn’t, he composed enough for “a month of continuous listening”……..where can I sign up
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT
The care that Shore put into the music makes such a difference. The score is an inseparable core part of the film, unlike some others where you could cut out the soundtrack and you wouldn’t lose more than some heroic but forgettable trumpets in the background.
In all of LotR’s most moving scenes, the music is so much of what makes them iconic. The charge of the Rohirrim at Pelennor Fields, the last march of the Ents, the Nazgûl in Bree, I could go on and on…
They’re also (along with the HTTYD soundtrack) the best OSTs to listen to who or writing.
My first couple of auditions were very lucky, but I was thrilled to act. I wanted to act in the worst way, and I studied with Sandy Meisner for a year – I knew nothing, I was not very good besides whatever flair I might have had, you know?
She was trying to adjust to the new feeling and most likely the girth that was now inside her and he waited till he had the okay to move and felt himself lusting for her more as she gave an experimental rock of her hips and she urged him to move once more. Bronn gave a relieved nod and moved his hips once more thrusting into her as his teeth nipped at her breasts just enough until his lips wanted to meet hers once more and his hips thrusted at a harder pace keeping it slowed down enough so she could feel every single move he made.
“I won’t–” He promised giving a groan as he tilted his head back for a moment as he felt her body and his own synchronizing with every move they made. Her sounds spurred him on until he felt his pace quickening and he tried to remain steady but he found himself slipping as hands moved over her skin, nails digging into her skin ever so lightly. “Meryll…” He could feel the pressure building up inside and the heat from their bodies and he wanted to feel the release, but he also wanted to give it time, to let Meryll experience more than a few moments of time so he slowed down even more, his thrusts easing for a minute before his hips bucked once more, his length sliding back inside Meryll. “Fuck, you’re beautiful..”
I love the lowkey implication in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (especially in the Gene Wilder movie) that Willy Wonka was minding his own business one day and he just saw this skinny looking kid staring up at his factory, licking his lips, and he was just like, “Shit, that kid needs some chocolate, but he’s clearly too poor to afford any and there’s no way I can run outside right now and reveal my existence to the world, right? Damn. Okay. I can send an Oompa Loompa. No, that’ll scare the kid. What candy does he even like anyway? What if I give him the wrong one? All right, we need to get this kid into the factory so that he can pick his favorite treat. But what happens when he leaves? Shit, shit, shit, okay, we’ll just give him the factory. Give him the whole factory. That’s the only way. But how? Come on, Wonka, be inconspicuous here. I’ve got it. A nationwide contest inviting multiple kids into the factory where I’ll reveal that the winner gets the factory. Crap, no, then there will be four other kids in the factory. Okay, no problem, we’ll just kill them all until he’s the only one left. Yeeeah, that’s a good plan. Okay, everyone, places. We’ve got literally one shot at this.”
You don’t think Willy Wonka had connections with what seems to be the only candy store in the entire town?
And what, we’re supposed to believe that after years of starving with no money, all of a sudden, Charlie conveniently finds some money right in front of said candy store?
And remember, in the movie (which is honestly one of the few movie adaptations that’s better than the books), the worker picks the chocolate bars that he hands to Charlie.
Wonka and the workers knew exactly what they were doing.
Chaotic good at its best.
this was an interesting read and all but i just read the second last line as “wonka and the wonkers” and now i feel…… strange
Goldnwulf 