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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
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2003 Regular
2003 Limited
2003 Limited Internet
2003 Trilogy
2007 Complete
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Composed, Orchestrated, Conducted, and Produced by:
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Howard Shore
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Vocals Produced by:
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Paul Broucek
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Performed by:
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The London Philharmonic
Orchestra
The London Voices
The London Oratory School Schola
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Solo Vocals by:
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Annie Lennox
Renée Fleming
Sir James Galway
Ben Del Maestro
Billy Boyd
Viggo Mortensen
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Choral Text by:
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J.R.R. Tolkien
Philippa Boyens
Fran Walsh
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Audio Clips:
2003 Original Album:
8. Twilight and Shadow (0:31), 156K lord_rings03_8.ra
15. The Black Gate Opens (0:30), 150K lord_rings03_15.ra
16. The End of All Things (0:31), 156K lord_rings03_16.ra
19. Into the West (0:32), 160K lord_rings03_19.ra
2007 Complete Set:
CD3, 7. Dernhelm in Battle (0:30), 179K lord_rings03_3-7.ra
CD3, 16. For Frodo (0:31), 179K lord_rings03_3-16.ra
CD4, 3. The Eagles (0:31), 179K lord_rings03_4-3.ra
CD4, 6. Elanor (0:30), 179K lord_rings03_4-6.ra
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Availability:
The original 2003 album between $14 to $16 in
the stores is the regular U.S. release. The 2003 limited release is
indicated by a higher price ($25), dark blue cover, and typically a
sticker indicating its "limited" nature on the front plastic. The
2003 Internet-only release was available through the label's website and has a
red cover and even higher price ($30). The musical contents are the same on
all products.
The 2003 trilogy set is essentially the original three 'limited'
albums from the films combined into one package (with no extra music). The
value of the different cover inserts (on the trading block) is yet to be determined.
They could very well end up useless unless you acquire a whole set of 5 covers.
The 2007 set includes the complete recordings for between $55 and $65, and
features the DVD with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound along with four CDs that offer
230 minutes from the score in 16-bit stereo sound. Other higher resolution
variants on sound quality exist on the DVD (see review for details). For details
about the differences between these releases, see the link in the notes
section of this page.
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Awards:
Winner of the 2003 Golden Globes for 'Best Score' and 'Best Song.'
Winner of the same two Academy Awards, 2003.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... in the complete set if you are an audiophile or keep the
original album in the front row of your collection.
Avoid it... in the complete set if you are satisfied with the
16-bit stereo sound of the original album and see no need for additional
material or sound quality.
Filmtracks Editorial Review of Original 2003 Albums:
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| | Shore | |
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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King:
(Howard Shore) Destined to be one of the most successful trilogies of
films in the history of cinema, The Lord of the Rings finishes
its snapshot succession of yearly sequels with the final chapter, The
Return of the King. Even hardcore fans of Tolkien and his novels
could have a difficult time keeping up with all of the merchandise from
the trilogy on film, including the different cuts of the films
themselves, which are promised with The Return of the King like
the previous two entries. Composer Howard Shore entered this situation
knowing full well that his involvement in this trilogy would extend well
beyond the basic duties of a composer on any normal project. Shore has
seemed well adjusted to the idea of scoring The Lord of the Rings
in bits and pieces, adding new cues to scores as additional scenes are
added, and working closely with director Peter Jackson under a schedule
of additional recordings made to the scores for The Lord of the
Rings long after the meat of the originals was already released in
theatres. In the case of The Return of the King, Shore was
recording the score late in the summer of 2003, but was prepared to
write and record additional material for the film in March of 2004 to
accommodate additional scenes on the DVD release of the film. Over the
course of Shore's adventures, from the original viewing of the shooting
locations in New Zealand several years before to the last DVD release in
2004, Shore has written music with large-scale talents of the London
Philharmonic and London Voices in mind. Criticism about the previous two
recordings had come from audiophiles who were unhappy with the echoing,
wet recording sound of the orchestra; individual instrumental
performances were washed out to make way for a resounding whole,
arguably improving the sheer mass of sound in some sections while also
degrading solo contributions by lesser-powered instruments.
For The Return of the King, the same bass-heavy,
echoing sound has been utilized, although to perhaps a slightly lesser
extent. The epic scale of the first two scores has been continued in the
final chapter, completing Shore and Jackson's notions that the music is
one massive, single score that has simply been divided into three parts.
Upon hearing The Return of the King, however, a case could be
made that this third score in the trilogy has far less in common than
its two predecessors had with each other. The Academy Award-winning
score for The Fellowship of the Ring was naturally expanded upon
in The Two Towers, with the second score clearly restating motifs
and themes from the first one while establishing its own new ideas. This
process does not carry over into The Return of the King; rather,
since the third film's tumultuous events necessitate the awkward,
fragmented merging of many of the themes into less obvious constructs,
you hear the same stylistic motifs and chord progressions of the series
without the satisfyingly steady statements of previous themes. Thus, the
first two films' primary themes are somewhat short-changed. You hear
many hints, adaptations, and faint echoes of the previously established
ideas, but the consistency in The Return of the King is executed
though the use of the same instruments, vocals, and, as mentioned
before, motifs and chord progressions. This could be disheartening for
listeners who enjoyed the bold new themes in The Two Towers and
concurrent, major statements of the original film's themes as well. Even
more interesting is the lack of more than one engrossing, dominant new
theme in The Return of the King. The Gondor theme heard in "Minas
Tirith" and "The White Tree" (with a different versions used in the main
theatrical trailers for the film as well as the film itself) is
integrated well with the rest of the cues. A less developed secondary
theme for Grey Havens is heard in the Annie Lennox song, "The Grey
Havens," and at the end of "The Black Gate Opens" but suffers from few
notable performances in between. Both of these themes were hinted at in
the previous entries, but they mature here. It is a score full of
bombast, choral chants, and beautiful underscore for solo instruments,
but aside from the ending of "The Black Gate Opens," the horns are never
really unleashed on more than that one new thematic idea for Gondor.
Perhaps the thematic table was best set by the end of the previous
score, and that is understandable, but the lack of a natural conclusion
for the previous themes is surprising, if not startling.
Keep in mind, though, that this analysis comes from the
album releases for The Return of the King; Shore could very well
have left some statements of previous themes off of these releases. In
fact, given the vast wealth of material recorded for the trilogy, that's
probable. Still, to not hear any substantial use of Gollum's chilling
song from The Two Towers is puzzling, especially with that
character's integral role in the resolution of the tale. Neither the
"pity" nor "evil" variants of Gollum's song material is heard in the
same form here. As it would unfold, the three songs heard over the end
credits of the three films would not largely appear in the other
chapters of the trilogy. To say that this lack of cross-over isn't
disappointing would be a lie, for the songs, including the Lennox entry
in The Return of the King, would provide distinct character to
all three films. The primary, horn-driven "fellowship" theme,
representing the entire trilogy and swinging in style and with noble
intent, is only referenced two or three times in The Return of the
King, with only one half-hearted full performance in the epilogue
section of the score. This theme is sparingly used, but is offered with
more substantial development along with the various Shire themes as the
post-climax, fluffier character interaction takes place. The most
disturbing absence of power in The Return of the King relates to
the lack of the themes established for the humans in The Two
Towers on album. The Rohan theme, spectacular in its performances
during riding scenes and at the end of the credits, is hinted at in "The
Ride of the Rohirrim," but yields to other, more nebulous ideas during
the cue for the crowning later in the film. Shore's "danger themes" (for
Mordor and the likes) on deep bass strings (heard best at the start of
The Two Towers) is the most commonly reprised element in The
Return of the King, marking the continuing peril for the Hobbits on
their journey to Mount Doom. The more upbeat, faster theme for Gondor
--one could dare say that it has the rhythm of a Western theme-- is
introduced in the latter half of "Minas Tirith," but while it may seem
to be the introduction of this score's primary new theme, it only
achieves similar attention in a few instances.
In The Return of the King, Shore has an
interesting habit of taking pieces, measures, and bars of previous
themes and combining or mutating theme into different themes. The
Shire's themes are the most adapted, with pieces of them heard at the
start of even a new Hobbit motif. Shore does this with the Isengard
theme of evil in the series as well, starting with that quick three-note
opening to the theme, but outside of "Minas Morgul," not making use of
its full form. In the process of this expansion of sound, Shore utilizes
new instrumental and vocal techniques that do bring fantastic moments
specifically to The Return of the King. The danger themes are
provided in the opening flashback cue by a squeaky, old violin; the
woodwinds are featured more prominently in the place of soothing vocals,
and an adult male vocal is used at the king's coronation (differing from
the boys and women's voices typically heard to date). The massive weight
of the music for The Return of the King, with the absence of
magnificent, harmonious thematic placements, falls on the quality of the
straight battle sequences and haunting moments of mystical underscore.
Here, Shore continues to impress. The mainly harmonious action music,
pulsating with full orchestra and chorus to the strong beating of
creative percussion, is not to be missed. The "Fields of the Pelennor"
cue presents action material to rival the activity of the momentous cues
in the latter half of The Two Towers. The "End of all Things" cue
likewise alternates in the same shifts between choral majesty and
unrelenting orchestral bombast (there are sudden shifts from orchestra
to solo vocal in this and the "Minas Tirith" cue that are a tad abrupt
due to the assembly of the album, though). As with the previous scores,
the harmony of these huge cues is occasionally lost, but rarely so much
so as in the horrific "Ash and Smoke." The intimate parts of The
Return of the King may not raise the hair on your arms like similar
cues in The Two Towers, but the flute performances by Sir James
Galway and others in "The Steward of Gondor" and "The Black Gate Opens"
are nevertheless gorgeous. The final two score tracks (before the song)
present the fullest, soft performances of themes from Fellowship of
the Ring, with a slightly matured form of the Shire themes leading
the way. The sendoff after the song is contemplative rather than bold,
yielding perhaps a less satisfying conclusion to the trilogy.
The Annie Lennox song is a well-written piece with
decent lyrics. The songs have gone from a new-age affect (with Enya) to
a dark-musical effect (Gollum) and to a very light pop effect set by
faint guitars for Annie Lennox's "Into the West." The orchestral backing
of the song isn't as impressive as hoped, with some brass counterpoint
halfway through as the only substantial accompaniment. Lennox's voice
works well in her lower ranges, but is perhaps too harsh and
contemporary for the upper ranges. It would have been more effective had
someone with a softer, fairy-tale whisper of tone, such as Natalie
Merchant, or one with operatic grace, such as Sissel, had performed this
finale. Overall, the Lennox performance caps off an album with
spectacular orchestral and vocal recordings, and yet that same Lennox
tone of voice represents a larger feeling of displacement in the score.
As a stand-alone score, The Return of the King would be a superb
effort, but when you pull back and compare it to Fellowship of the
Ring and The Two Towers, you can't help but feel unsatisfied
by the lack of a full circle of themes, or even a continuation of the
development that was heard in the second score. Once again, this
statement comes from the material chosen for inclusion on the commercial
album, so it's possible, if not likely, that the repetition of previous
ideas was not included on the product. That, of course, is an entirely
different matter. Instead of ranting here again about Reprise Records
and Warner's commercial butchering of these album releases, go back and
read the rant about the albums for The Two Towers in that
specific review. The same exact situation applies to The Return of
the King, with Reprise and Warner continuing to suck hard-earned
money right from the wallets of fools. Their routine with buddy icons,
trading cards, different covers, leathery packaging, limited editions,
and other nonsense is especially egregious in the case of The Return
of the King because none of the 'limited albums' include the most
important thing: extra music. Until these greedy corporate
executives figure out that the music is the actual reason for these
albums, there's no reason to purchase anything more than the base,
regular old album in a standard jewel case. Someday, there will likely
be expanded versions of all of these scores released to the public.
Until then, if you were to choose between the existing commercial
albums, The Two Towers would be the best score to buy, followed
by Fellowship of the Ring and then The Return of the King.
All of them, including The Return of the King, are excellent,
diverse scores at a time when such monumental orchestral music is a rare
find for even the grandest of Hollywood adventures.
Music as Heard on the Regular Commercial Album: *****
Music as Heard on all Limited Album Versions: **
Music as Heard in Relation to the Trilogy: ****
Overall: *****
Filmtracks Editorial Review of 2007 Complete Set:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: (Howard Shore) It
would be difficult to provide better treatment of any trilogy of scores
than what Reprise Records and Warner have accomplished with the box sets
of complete recordings for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings
films. It is so rare that film music is both so good and so well treated
that you can unequivocally recommend a set that could set you back $60.
But these sets, released first for The Fellowship of the Ring in
2005 and then for The Two Towers in 2006 before this final entry
for The Return of the King in 2007, are all stunning and
spectacular, compensating for the ridiculously commercialized crap that
Reprise originally offered with each of the films' releases. These sets
are extraordinarily expensive to produce, but strong sales have made
them profitable for the label. Additionally, kudos have to be given to
the label and its producers for offering them within just four years of
each score's original release; anyone who remembers the agony of the
Star Wars trilogy on album can testify that four years is a
snappy turnaround. The set for The Return of the King
specifically has all the same characteristics in presentation and
packaging as the two that came before, but with the exception of a
larger mass of music that requires four CDs and a double-sided DVD. As
such, a significant portion of the technical and background discussion
that you'll read below in this review will be very similar to relevant
information provided in the updated reviews of The Fellowship of the
Ring and The Two Towers. All three films in the trilogy have
experienced extended cuts of the films on DVD, and the original
soundtrack albums, which contained significantly edited and rearranged
snippets of score that often made little sense when compared to what was
heard in the films, continued to suffer from inadequacy. While this
editing of music for the single-CD albums was necessary to give fans
what essentially amounted to a "best of" album for each film, those
edits didn't have the luxury of choosing to include supplemental
material that Shore wrote after the theatrical releases to accommodate
Jackson's longer DVD cuts.
Die-hard fans of the trilogy have often stated that The Fellowship of
the Ring was the most mistreated by its original album edit. While
this is true, The Return of the King suffered on its original
commercial album because so many of the complexities in the integration
of themes were simply edited out of that album, causing the score to
sound somewhat more simplistic than it actually is. There are alternate
takes and small pieces of music that aren't included on these complete
sets, but the remaining notable material is, ironically, provided on the
commercial album. Anyone listening to the Gondor theme performance for
the famed beacon-lighting sequence in The Return of the King will
have learned this by now. On the whole, listeners will be hard-pressed
to find anything substantial missing from these "Complete Recordings"
releases. In fact, the presentation of Shore's music on the three-CD
sets for the first two scores was astonishingly loyal to the films, and
ironically (as to be expected from fickle collectors), the majority of
complaints relating to the music on the first two sets, while few, were
related to the inclusion of music that some people would rather not have
heard. With less source-like material on The Return of the King,
these fans (who still need to get a life) will have far less to complain
about. As to the quality of the score itself, there is little to
critique about Shore's work that hasn't already been mentioned. All
three entries have been recognized as likely being the most popular,
orchestrally robust scores of the digital age, and what the complete
recordings prove is that Shore provided such mastery in great
quantities. As the oldest, The Fellowship of the Ring suffers
from Shore's own restraint, withholding some of the most revealing and
enjoyable incarnations of themes and ideas until the story was further
along. As the middle child, The Two Towers suffers from some of
the structural limitations of accompanying a sequence of events that
neither introduces nor concludes its primary ideas. Finally, The
Return of the King offers resolution, both in concept and in the
simple fact that the last half hour of music from the film comes after
the climax at Mount Doom, leaving a significant amount of pleasantly
harmonic material to be heard.
The commercial album provided most of this beautiful material from late
in the film, as well as the pivotal performance of the Gondor theme
during the beacon-lighting sequence. But this set, seemingly more than
the others, corrects dissatisfaction with the versions heard in the film
as opposed to those on album. Several important cues were presented in
alternate form on the album, and fans were quick to notice. The most
important of these is indeed "The Lighting of the Beacons," which has
been restored to its film version on the set. Additionally, the version
of the Hobbits' ascent up Mount Doom is restored in "The Mouth of
Sauron" (as opposed to its rearrangement in "The Black Gate Opens" on
the first album). The Gray Havens theme is given its proper introduction
in "A Far Green Country," though this is another cue that is provided in
an alternate take, as Shore would have originally preferred. With so
many last minute edits due to the involvement of Jackson at the
recording sessions, many of the cues here have been included in their
original form, so purists who want to hear only the music as presented
in the film should be aware of this choice. The resolution cues "The
Journey to Grey Havens" and "Days of the Ring" are problematic on this
set, though, because it seems that these pieces have been arranged to
fit the film's original needs, which leads to awkward transitions.
People familiar with the earlier album presentations will be somewhat
surprised and disappointed by these strikingly poor transitions.
Specifically, "The Journey to Grey Havens" is extended and Annie
Lennox's vocals in "Days of the Ring" are placed in the proper context
of a suite of ideas from the trilogy. Her voice continues to be mixed
far too heavily at the forefront compared to the wet, echoing vocal
performances by all other contributors. You still have to question
Shore's confidence in choosing Lennox, for her tone simply does not
match the remainder of the score. With the hiring of Sissel to indeed
perform another short piece for the extended DVD cut of The Return of
the King, you can't help but wonder what kind of operatic magic she
could have performed for "Into the West." The lengthy and rewarding "The
Fellowship Reunited" summary cue is remains a highlight of the trilogy
and is mostly unaltered here.
Like the complete sets before this one, there are a handful of cues that
debut on album that are well worth your time. Interestingly, most of
these involve the softer character-driven cues. None of the action cues
in The Return of the King can compete with those heard in The
Two Towers, especially with Shore merging so many ideas into muddy
soups that reflect the total chaos and desperation of the story's
climax. In the corner of the menacing material, you can't argue, though,
with the deliberate statements in the deep bass region that will shake
the floors in "The Foot of Orthanc." Each of the scores has a few bold
ensemble pieces that allow the orchestra to pound away in harmonic
majesty (outside of the major themes, that is), and the set for The
Return of the King reveals two such moments of resounding power; at
the outsets of "Marshalling at Dunharrow" and "Dernhelm in Battle,"
Shore and his crew nail the mix of orchestral sections with extremely
satisfying results. The latter cue has almost a swashbuckling style to
it, rarely heard in the otherwise grim battle cues for the trilogy. The
remaining highlights of the set all come from its more contemplative
side, and most of these owe significantly to Shore's outstanding
incorporation of woodwinds into the ensemble mix. The theme for Faramir
heard in the back to back cues of "Allegiance to Denethor" and "The
Sacrifice of Faramir," leading to the uniting of Gondor, is beautifully
performed by pan flute. Both "The Passing of Theoden" and "Elanor" are
equally graceful, with the latter including a fantastic whistle
performance. As expected, several cues of pure, vocal beauty are also a
selling point of the set. In "The Houses of Healing," Liv Tyler's voice
fits surprisingly well with the others; that cue also closes with an
elegant woodwind performance. In the latter half of "The Last Debate,"
Sissel's voice provides a minute of superior atmosphere. The ensemble
choral performance of "Bilbo's Song" adds to the DVD's extended end
credits with an intelligent adaptation of theme fragments from the
series. Finally, the subtle but gorgeous "The Eagles" is an absolute
must-have; the rescue cue was mixed so prominently in the film that its
absence from the commercial album was a disgrace.
In retrospect, the most curious aspect of these three scores is the
plain fact that Shore never intended for the songs from any of the three
films to mingle with the others. Each song remains rooted in its film;
Enya's "May it Be" doesn't return, nor is "Gollum's Song" clearly
defined in The Return of the King. Despite the integration of
Gollum's pity and evil themes into that song and subsequent use of the
same inspirations, the lack of total continuity for Gollum is perhaps
the trilogy's biggest musical weakness. Shore's combination of motifs
for the character's song in The Two Towers is so captivating, and
despite the lack of the character's continuing aspect of pity, some
semblance of that song in the third score would have been greatly
welcomed. Aside from this small quibble, the structure of the complete
set for The Return of the King, as with The Fellowship of the
Ring and The Two Towers, has few flaws. Spread over four CDs
instead of three, the presentation is chronological and, as previously
mentioned, will cause a frequent listener of the single CDs to take some
time getting accustomed to the rearrangement of the material back into
original order. Once again, an all-new set of track names might make
finding your favorite snippets of music difficult, especially if you're
not significantly knowledgeable about the specific names and places of
the storyline. While the mix of the choir with the orchestra was a
concern of Shore's that was addressed to a certain extent in The
Fellowship of the Ring and perhaps in The Two Towers as well,
there seems little changed about the massive vocal mixing in The
Return of the King. The flow of the set is enhanced by the fact that
unlike The Fellowship of the Ring, the latter two scores feature
very little non-Shore music, so there really is no obnoxious material to
break up the actual Shore score. The transitions between the four CDs
occur at more convenient places on the The Return of the King set
than it did in The Two Towers, due to the luxury of having the
additional CD space to work with.
Aside from the 230 minutes of music available on the four regular audio
CDs (an increase of 50 minutes from the set for The Two Towers),
the set comes with a DVD that features four different tracks of the same
complete score. Due to the quantity of music this time around, the DVD
is double-sided, and one of the set's few weaknesses is that the writing
around the inside label of the DVD doesn't indicate which side you're
about to listen to (you'll have to get creative with your own
identification process). Luckily, the second side has most of the
essential highlights, so you may end up listening to the latter half of
the score far more often if you're a fan of the DVD's superior audio.
Your DVD player or the software on your computer, and their ability to
function with the copy protection of the DVD, will determine which of
the four tracks you can enjoy. From a technical standpoint, the four
tracks are divided into two DVD-audio and two Dolby Digital
presentations. The Dolby Digital options include a 2.0 encoding at 224 Kbps, offering a decent surround
experience, and the 5.1 encoding at 448 Kbps, which will be a vast improvement for the
majority of basic surround sound listeners. Audiophiles, however, will go straight to the
DVD-audio options, which include "Advanced Resolution Stereo Sound" and "Advanced Resolution
Surround Sound," both of which feature 48 kHz, 24-bit encoding. This sampling rate may not
seem much better than that of the regular CDs, but the 8-bit increase to 24-bit overall will
provide a noticeable difference for non-Dolby listeners. The "Advanced Resolution Surround
Sound" DVD-audio presentation is the glorious triumph of the set. If you have the six-speaker
setup and playing capability to truly take advantage of the Dolby Digital 5.1 or DVD-audio
tracks on these DVDs, then beware of their consequences! Once you hear Shore's score in this full surround
sound (essentially not much different from its clarity and scope in the
film itself), it'll take you a while to get used to hearing the plain
old 16-bit stereo recordings on the regular CDs. Many of the borderline
problematic mixing issues on the stereo CDs are solved by the 5.1
spread, and combined with an outstanding source recording, the listening
experience on the DVD, like the two sets before, is simply
mind-blowing.
With the success of the previous sets, and the equally impressive
presentation of this one, we can continue to hope that the entire
industry is headed in this technological direction, despite the
expensive consequence of forcing us to rotate out our old collections
for 5.1+ surround editions. Through the past two years, some fans have
complained about the DVDs in these sets, however, despite their
spectacular presentation for those properly equipped. Some of these
complaints are legitimate and some aren't. People who attack these sets
simply because of the ill-fated rubber knob that keeps the DVD in place,
a flaw that persists on all three sets (and on the set for The Return
of the King, the DVD took a chunk of the knob off with it!), need
some perspective. Additionally, those who claim that that the DVD
unfairly pushed the price of the set to its supposedly "unreasonable"
$60+ are likely lacking the capability to readily play and enjoy it.
Simply put, if they heard the 5.1 mix on the DVD and could listen to it
all day long, the DVD would be the first reason to buy the set. On the
other hand, of more controversy has been the restrictive prohibition of
certain features on the product that have plagued some listeners.
Depending on your equipment and software, scanning within a track may
not be allowed, and unless this prohibition relates to the
copy-protection features (and even there, it's questionable), there's no
good reason for the restriction. Both The Fellowship of the Ring
and The Return of the King have some lengthy tracks, forcing you
to wade through obnoxious parts of the scores to reveal some of their
beauty on the DVDs. Some computer players, like VLC, will allow you to
override the prohibitive limits put on the DVD (such things were
invented mostly to allow people to skip past advertisements at the start
of movies and go straight to the film or menu), but be aware that a few
of these programs cause the 5.1 sound to stutter-step, negating the
gain. As before, the only other flaw that these products have is the
fact that Doug Adams' astoundingly deep and insightful notes in the
45-page booklet will fly over the heads of people without a significant
knowledge of the film's stories. Thankfully, Adams does provide a basic
track-by-track analysis that will considerably assist the average
listener in placing his connections into each context, but these
"annotated notes" need to be downloaded from the Warner web site.
Perhaps the track-by-track analysis should have gone into the product
and the more complicated analysis by theme should have been in the
downloadable form.
At any rate, such issues are trivial. Adams' work on collecting and
presenting all of this information makes for at least an interesting
read, even if it doesn't always connect in memory or terminology. His
efforts to combine all of this information for an eventual book on
Shore's trilogy of scores shows not only the complexity of Shore's
creations for the films (and some could poke a little good-hearted fun
at Adams himself for his devotion to this study), but also the continued
demand for the scores themselves. As with The Fellowship of the
Ring and The Two Towers, this final set raises the same
philosophical questions for collectors to ponder. After the original
album releases catered to mass hysteria with nonsensical trading cards,
we've swung all the way in the opposite direction with the DVD sound and
sensational technical detail of notes in these sets. It does make a
person wonder if there isn't a happy medium ground someplace, and it
also continues to beg questions about when you can actually have too
much of a good thing. Since this complete set caters to demand and hype
from the trilogy's followers, you really can't fault Adams or anyone
else for yielding to the temptation of producing the most technically
perfect and thorough soundtrack products in history. But if you never
bought into the hype in the first place, then will these complete scores
be worth the cost for you? And if you were to purchase just one of them,
then which would it be? That's still hard to say, even after pondering
the same question with the previous sets. For some, the elusive missing
cues will be the attraction. For others, the DVD's 5.1 Dolby Digital
sound or DVD-audio will be key. But for many others, the "best of" albums that were
released from 2001-2003, with their basic 16-bit stereo sound, will
touch on all the basics and provide enough highlights to suffice. In
terms of the extent of improvement over the original albums, the
complete set of The Fellowship of the Ring remains perhaps the
most vital upgrade, followed by The Return of the King. Only you
can make the determination about just how much of a fan of the trilogy
you are (or how much of an audiophile you tend to be), for the answers
to those questions will be the factor that separates you from your $50
(or more) per set. Regardless of your own decision about their value,
these sets are each spectacular in and of themselves. With the true fans
of the trilogy forking out $175 overall for the three beautiful
products, at least we can all rest assured that we will, in all
likelihood, never need to purchase another release of Shore's classic
trilogy again. That alone speaks to the triumph of these phenomenal
products.
Complete Score on CD: *****
Complete Score on DVD: *****
Overall: *****
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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Track Listings (2003 Regular Albums):
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Total Time: 72:05
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• 1. A Storm is Coming (2:52)
• 2. Hope and Memory (1:45)
• 3. Minas Tirith (3:37)
featuring Ben del Maestro
• 4. The White Tree (3:25)
• 5. The Steward of Gondor (3:53)
featuring Billy Boyd
• 6. Minas Morgul (1:58)
• 7. The Ride of the Rohirrim (2:08)
• 8. Twilight and Shadow (3:30)
featuring Renee Fleming
• 9. Cirith Ungol (1:44)
• 10. Andúril (2:35)
• 11. Shelob's Lair (4:07)
• 12. Ash and Smoke (3:25)
• 13. The Fields of the Pelennor (3:26)
• 14. Hope Fails (2:20)
• 15. The Black Gate Opens (4:01)
featuring Sir James Galway
• 16. The End of All Things (5:12)
featuring Renee Fleming
• 17. The Return of the King (10:14)
featuring Sir James Galway, Viggo Mortensen, and Renee Fleming
• 18. The Grey Havens (5:59)
featuring Sir James Galway
• 19. Into the West (5:49)
featuring Annie Lennox
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Track Listings (2007 Complete Set):
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Total Time: 229:15
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CD 1: (57:31)
• 1. Roots and Beginnings (6:31)
• 2. Journey to the Crossroads (2:17)
• 3. The Road to Isengard (2:18)
• 4. The Foot of Orthanc (4:45)
• 5. Return to Edoras (1:51)
• 6. The Chalice Passed (1:51)
• 7. The Green Dragon (0:35)
featuring Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan
• 8. Gollum's Villainy (2:10)
• 9. Eowyn's Dream (1:24)
• 10. The Palantir (3:10)
• 11. Flight from Edoras (2:19)
• 12. The Grace of Undomie (6:21)
featuring Renee Fleming
• 13. The Eyes of the White Tower (4:33)
• 14. A Coronet of Silver (8:27)
• 15. The Lighting of the Beacon (9:03)
CD 2: (66:02)
• 1. Osgilliath Invaded (8:47)
featuring Ben Del Maestro
• 2. The Stairs of Cirith Ungol (2:41)
• 3. Allegiance to Denethor (3:20)
• 4. The Sacrifice of Faramir (4:08)
featuring Billy Boyd performing 'The Edge of Night'
• 5. The Parting of Sam and Frodo (4:04)
• 6. Marshalling at Dunharrow (4:57)
• 7. Anduril - Flame of the West (3:28)
• 8. The Passing of the Grey Company (4:12)
• 9. Dwimorberg - The Haunted Mountain (2:26)
• 10. Master Meriadoc, Swordthain (1:40)
• 11. The Paths of the Dead (6:22)
• 12. The Siege of Gondor (9:01)
• 13. Shelob's Lair (8:53)
• 14. Merry's Simple Courage (2:09)
CD 3: (59:44)
• 1. Grond - The Hammer of the Underworld (1:33)
• 2. Shelob the Great (5:13)
• 3. The Tomb of the Stewards (3:58)
• 4. The Battle of the Pelennor Fields (4:10)
• 5. The Pyre of Denethor (2:59)
• 6. The Mumakil (0:57)
• 7. Dernhelm in Battle (2:06)
• 8. A Far Green Country (1:28)
• 9. Shieldmaiden of Rohan (5:07)
• 10. The Passing of Theoden (2:16)
• 11. The Houses of Healing (2:58)
featuring Liv Tyler
• 12. The Tower of Cirith Ungol (4:41)
• 13. The Last Debate (4:21)
featuring Sissel
• 14. The Land of Shadow (6:29)
• 15. The Mouth of Sauron (8:16)
featuring Sir James Galway
• 16. For Frodo (3:17)
featuring Ben Del Maestro
CD 4: (45:58)
• 1. Mount Doom (4:09)
featuring Renee Fleming
• 2. The Crack of Doom (4:02)
• 3. The Eagles (2:24)
featuring Renee Fleming
• 4. The Fellowship Reunited (12:18)
featuring Sir James Galway, Viggo Mortensen, and Renee Fleming
• 5. The Journey to the Grey Havens (7:35)
featuring Sir James Galway
• 6. Elanor (1:28)
featuring Sir James Galway
• 7. Days of the Ring (11:10)
featuring Annie Lennox
• 8. Bilbo's Song (2:58)
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The original 2003 (regular) album's insert includes notes from
director Peter Jackson and composer Howard Shore. Also featured
are lyrics from each of the ensemble vocal segments from the score, as
well as the Annie Lennox song. Various useless goodies add to the cost of the
2003 limited album. The 2003 set of all three scores includes general notes about
the trilogy. For details about the differences between these releases, see:
http://lordoftherings-soundtrack.com/editions.html.
The 2007 complete set features a 45-page booklet with extraordinary notation
about the music by Film Score Monthly regular Doug Adams. That final set
includes extensive packaging extras, with the four regular audio CDs existing
in a smaller case that can be stored separately from the massive book-like
exterior.
A detailed, track-by-track analysis (a supplement to the notes on
the complete 2007 set) is reportedly to be available in Adobe Acrobat
(PDF) format for download from Warner Brothers' web site at:
http://download.wbr.com/lordoftherings/ROTK/rotk_annotated_score.pdf.
This very attractive additional material, like in the previous score's set, was
not included in the product itself because of cost restrictions due to
the booklet size. There is no guarantee that this file will continue to
exist at that location, so dedicated fans should download it at their
earliest convenience.
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