And now we have another continuation of the truly outstanding Lord of the Rings scores. Again, the introductions for Fellowship of the Ring were saved for the first review. This time, I'll just focus on reviewing the pieces themselves.
Anyways, we're now at the final stages of reviewing Fellowship of the Ring's score! It's the last disc - and what a disc it is, containing all the longest tracks yet (and all the best ones).
Khaza-Dum: *****
Caras Galadhon: *****
The Mirror of Galadriel: *****
The Fighting Uruk-Hai: *****
Parth Galen: *****
The Departure of Boromir: *****
The Road Goes Ever On and On Pt. 1: *****
May it Be: *****
The Road Goes Ever On and On Pt. 2: *****
Khaza-Dum opens in a frightening and rather strange cult-like chant. It is an interesting beginning, and is featured in the album version at "The Bridge of Khaza-Dum," after the initial burst of brass in the Fellowship theme. It isn't the best of ways to begin a track, but it later enters the usual Shore action mode: Lots of brass, with lots of foreboding choral work and frightening string work inside. That's a good thing; Shore's work is both original and powerful, and epic. A false climax at 2:05 again segues into more cultish chants, but this time with the brass and strings intact. This continues to build up, with the cultish chant reaching feverish levels and the brass escalating into yet another false climax, this time with drums and more choral work. All of the power inside - the brass, the string, the choral work - are all astoundingly intense, and convey a frantic atmosphere. At 3:17, the fellowship theme gets a brilliant statement, with the brass spilling out the theme brilliantly and the strings providing terrific backup. After this, the track returns to usual Shore stile - the great orchestral harmony, the power, the intensity - and the lack of a real tune. It's unfortunate, but Shore's signature stile for intense moments seem to lack an actual tune during moments like this. The music relies almost completely on the power conveyed by the hectic instrumentation, and it succeeds almost completely. At 5:53 or so, the track becomes much quieter, and much more somber. It's truly amazing stuff, and I must say it jerks the tears right out of you. I loved it. On this beautiful note, the track concludes - and it reminds you just how expansive Shore's skillset is. Not only is he very much capable of writing action beats - he also knows how to write contemplative and emotional music. Instead of resorting to Hans Zimmer's methods of loud and obvious themes bursting with masculinity and percussion, Shore prefers a more orchestral method, and it works just as well, if not better.
Caras Galadhon opens with the score's first true statement of the elves' theme. After a minute or so of this beautifully dark theme, the strings and woodwind emerge for some contemplative, emotional work. Again, Shore's amazingly consistent work is apparent; it's just remarkable how consistent he is through the score, how there are rarely any moments that don't fit and how the incredible quality stays apparent almost the entire time. You get the usual ambient meandering for a while, until 3:00, where some cohesive themes start to emerge. At 3:14, the elven theme emerges once again, played on a lower key. From there, one of the score's highlights emerges: A mystical, choral theme beginning from 3:38. The mysterious and emergent feeling of the piece is truly remarkable, and shows yet another side to Shore's incredible music. 1:55 has a female vocal singing the elven theme yet again, albeit slightly butchered. It's impressive use of one theme over and over again, and it works well.
It truly is impressive how easily Shore plays around with his themes; he sticks to the same themes, but often utilizes them in different instrumentations, different tempos, and different feelings to suit different moments with the same characters. As a result, you often hear the same theme apparent in the movie several times - just rarely in the same way. That is truly intelligent use of music.
The track segues directly into The Mirror of Galadriel, in an impressive opening with a mild sounding french horn playing one of the new themes, here to be referred to as the Anduril theme. The elven theme then kicks in again, more mystic than ever. It continues until about 2:10. After some more string filled meandering, the track enters into the dark aspect of it, with Sauron's theme playing. It ends at 3:38. At around 4:40 or so comes another powerful buildup, that ends with a series of descending notes. In spite of its simplicity its surprisingly powerful. The Mirror of Galadriel then concludes on a slower, more peaceful mood that more aptly fits Galadriel than loud, bombastic fanfares of the fellowship and of Sauron's minions.
Not a half bad track.
The Fighting Uruk-Hai opens with Isengard's theme blaring powerfully. After the initial give or take 50 seconds of this, it immediately segues into the elven theme, and it does so surprisingly well in spite of its abruptness. This then segues into a modified hobbit theme, that works well as well. It's incredible how many themes the opening 2 minutes hold; three of the most prominent and memorable somehow worm their ways in here without the listener even noticing. The theme then becomes even more emotionally evocative, with the strings and choral effects becoming truly mesmerizing at 3 minutes. It's truly beautiful, and is yet another one of the highlights of this near flawless score. The music then becomes even more emotionally investing, with the strings providing lots of touching and peaceful music; it truly impresses. More choral work at 5:20 impresses even further, and cements this track's role as one of the greatest in the score. The choral work's incredible theme is just so gorgeous it's incredible. The strings dovetail perfectly here and lift the theme so much higher than what it was already, and it's sad to see the theme go at 6:05 or so. The fellowship theme then gets a good statement at 6:20. At 7 minutes, the track at last lives up to its name with the Isengard theme dominating. Sadly, it dissipates again at 8:00, though this isn't too much of an issue because the part it segues into is beautiful, containing highlights as the Shire's theme. At 10:10, yet another incredible theme is introduced. It's a truly awe-inspiring choral theme, that segues into the Prologue theme, and it sounds incredible here in orchestral form.
Parth Galen reprises the Prologue theme yet again in the first 30 seconds or so. The track starts escalating around 1 minute 50 or so, and becomes yet another false climax - something truly infuriating that Mr. Shore loves to do. The prologue theme is reprised again at 3:10, with the Orc theme's bass line in the background. This then segues into the Nazgul theme, slowed down and played with brass instead. The elven theme is reprised yet again at 4:05, this time in a calm fashion albeit with foreshadowing strings in the background. This time, the strings in the bass line include a false climax. It's ridiculous just how many false climaxes Shore uses. At 4:50, a brass theme kicks in, and it reminds a lot of the Minas Tirith theme at first. At 5:10, the brass battle themes begin, in stunning fashion, with the brass, percussion, and strings all playing powerfully and authoritatively. At 6:20, you even hear the Ents' themes hinted at, and it even gets a statement at 6:35, another shock. Shore really though these themes through before starting work. The track continues with its powerful brass statements, before launching into choral work at 7:15 or so. The powerful and the sense of escalation is overpowering here, as themes are meshed together - you hear the brass power and emotion of the action themes, with Isengard's percussive beats pounding out in the background, until it leads up to a performance of Isengard's main theme. Choral work in the last 40 seconds is also truly amazing, meshing perfectly with the percussive beats of Isengard's theme, and constantly rising, until yet another false climax. It then continues to the end of the track, culminating in a false climax to round off the track. Another highlight, no doubt about it. This tie it's simply because of how many themes are incorporated.
The Departure of Boromir opens in a stunning string and choir mix. The hesitant string bass line is truly beautiful and impresses. The stunning emotion in the piece is incredible, and you feel a sense of loss and sadness in the piece. At 2 minutes, the score suddenly picks up power, with brass intensity and powerful percussive blasts sounding out. It's rather out of place considering the peaceful, contemplative opening, but it ends after 44 seconds, a good choice. From there, a quiet elven theme begins, which even segues into a great string bass line followed by the brass echoing the strings. The piece is excellent, and can again be considered another highlight of the score. At 4:23, you get a brief solo vocalist that reminds me of James Newton Howard's work in Lady in the Water. It's a brief flash, and it quickly transforms into other themes, though it was nice while it lasted. At 5:05, the Fellowship theme makes another reappearance, though this time in a more subdued manner.
The Road Goes Ever On and On is one of those pieces I don't really even need to describe, because you've probably heard it before. It was the piece The Breaking of the Fellowship, and it's been overexposed by today. It's appeared in various forms and remixes, but that doesn't stop it from being one of today's greatest film compositions ever written - it's truly incredible. Its themes are variations on the fellowship theme and the Shire theme put together. Simply put, it's beautiful, and it's absolutely excellent. Unexpected bass lines with percussion begin around 4:15, and though it's unexpected it works well as well. The whole track is simply stunning, with the strings spilling out such a beautiful theme. It's hard not to love. It has driven many listeners to tears; I would not be surprised if you did.
May it Be is a wonderful piece by Enya, and it can be easily debated if it's the best of the concluding songs for the Lord of the Rings movies. I personally found it to be my favorite one; it's theme suits the movies well, and the instrumentation is great too. Enya's voice is also quite wonderful.
The Road Goes Ever On and On part 2 is slightly less impressive, but still wonderful. The solo boy vocalist has a wonderful voice, and he carries the tune on well enough. Originally, it was part of The Breaking of the Fellowship; I personally found it a great idea to separate the instrumental and choral portions. I appreciate both, but both were quite different.
Spliced into it are the fellowship theme, and the Rivendell theme as well. All in all, I can only call this another highlight of the score due to its wonderful theme and great vocals. The fact that it ends on one last exposition of the Rivendell theme only cements its position as a highlight of the score.
It ends in one last explosion for the fellowship theme - a fitting end to a wonderful score.
The Good:
- Incredible ending
- Highlights are all in the last disc
- Truly beautiful vocals
- Intensely brilliant peaceful moments
- Great pacing
- Every track here
The Bad:
- One too many false climaxes.
Generally, this is an amazing score. The only reason The Mirror Galadriel doesn't get a highlight rating from me is because it doesn't really introduce any truly amazing material. It still is a great piece, but not one of the highlights.
All in all, disc 3 is amazing. It has all the power and energy of the second disc, the peaceful themes of the first disc, and its own beautiful vocal energy.
The score as a whole is perfectly paced; the first disc is introductory. The second is expository, and the third concludes the score in a spectacular way. You have a slow opening, which speeds up and accelerates towards the middle and tones down eventually for a slow ending to help the listener catch his breath.
Simply put, Fellowship of the Ring has a terrific score. It's hard not to love it; its mature themes, and intelligent use of them are excellent, and Shore's incredible effort cements him as one of the greatest composers of the twenty-first century.
Disc 3 Overall: 10/10
Entire score for Fellowship of the Ring: 10/10