Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... on the 2007 complete set if you seek one of the best scores of the digital age of film music in a DVD-quality presentation that will, if you are properly equipped, stun both you and the people living down the street. Avoid it... on the 2007 complete set if you do not use a surround sound system for your regular listening enjoyment and would prefer, in terms of content, the 72-minute 2003 album of highlights from the score. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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 finished its snapshot succession of yearly sequels with its final chapter, The Return of the King, in 2003. The film piled on monumental grosses worldwide and overwhelmed the Academy Awards just a few months later with one of the best showings by a single film in history. The frenzied buzz surrounding the films, even in a mainstream population not usually attracted to the fantasy genre, had defeated strong competition from both the Harry Potter and The Matrix franchises. Even hardcore fans of J.R.R. Tolkien and his novels could have had a difficult time keeping up with all of the merchandise from the trilogy, including the different cuts of the films themselves, which, like the previous two entries, were promised with The Return of the King. Composer Howard Shore had entered this situation many years prior, knowing full well that his involvement in this trilogy would extend far beyond the basic duties of a composer on any normal project. Shore seemed well adjusted to the idea of scoring The Lord of the Rings in bits and pieces, writing new cues to the scores as additional scenes were added to the films; he worked closely with director Peter Jackson under a rambling schedule of additional recording sessions appended to the scores for the films long after the meat of the originals was already heard in theatres. In the case of The Return of the King, Shore recorded the score late in the summer of 2003 but was prepared to write and record additional material for the production 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 in 2000 to the last DVD release in 2004, Shore wrote music with large-scale talents of the London Philharmonic and London Voices in mind, not to mention his hand-chosen selection of instrumental and vocal soloists to accentuate certain concepts along the way with specific tones. Careful planning led to a score for The Return of the King that merged countless fragments of ideas hinted at in the previous two scores with the maturation of old favorites, requiring more patience and attention to detail than its predecessors. With the music for The Return of the King, however, came a higher level of discontent from some listeners, many of whom pointing to aspects of the third score's production that reduced its status compared to The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Criticism about the previous two recordings had come from audiophiles who were unhappy with the echoing, wet recording sound of the final mix of the orchestra and voices; 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 elements. For The Return of the King, the same bass-heavy, echoing sound was utilized, though to perhaps a slightly lesser extent. Additionally, hardcore fans of the franchise noticed that with this final entry, more of Shore's score was either cut from the final version of the film or altered with an additional take in performance. Many of the score's most prominent cues in the film did not match the versions heard on the original soundtrack albums of 2003. Pieces of Shore's most intriguing and thoughtful cues were often dropped by Jackson or moved into places Shore had not intended them to be. Some took aim at the voice of Annie Lennox and the style and instrumental backing of her song. Finally, with the situation in Middle-earth in near chaos for much of this story, Shore's music refrains from the kind of singular statements of theme heard in the first two scores, instead developing them as necessary to represent their maturation and destinies. Such meticulous devotion to thematic integration and manipulation is a great study for keenly aware musical minds, but in terms of basic satisfaction in and apart from the film, Shore's final score doesn't shine with quite as clearly delineated ideas. The album presentation also, aside from the obvious existence of different versions of several cues, was forced to condense a much longer score (30 to 40 minutes longer than the previous entries) into a 72-minute presentation, casting aside not only the film edits and relying on Shore's earlier recordings in the process, but not providing anything close to complete picture of the score. All of these concerns carry some legitimacy, though The Return of the King also suffered the disadvantage of aiming to satisfy unrealistic expectations for most fans, a circumstance that has waned over the years. The epic scale of the first two scores was obviously continued in the final chapter, completing Shore and Jackson's notions that the music was meant to be one massive, single score that had simply been divided into three parts. With The Return of the King, however, a case could be made that this third score in the trilogy has far less in common with its two predecessors than they 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 for Rohan, among others. 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. Rhythms from one theme are combined with thematic progressions from another, and themes overlap each other to form almost dissonant mosaics. The themes commonly considered the identity of the previous scores merge with others to create new ideas for the next age of Middle-earth, thus short-changing their original incarnations. You hear many hints, adaptations, and faint echoes of the previously established ideas, but the consistency in The Return of the King is executed through the use of the same instruments, vocals, and, as mentioned before, basic and common motifs and chord progressions shared by many of the themes. This technique proved to be potentially disheartening for listeners who enjoyed the bold new theme for Rohan in The Two Towers and the concurrent, major statements of the first film's themes as well. Shore does offer major new themes for two concepts in The Return of the King, though their relative infrequency in performance diminishes their attempts to define the new score. The realm of Gondor receives a theme that is often inverted or otherwise manipulated to represent its fight, and a sub-theme for Minas Tirith manages to steal the show with its few monumental performances. A final theme for Grey Havens, translated into the Annie Lennox song, arrives too late to truly take the helm of the score. All three of these major new themes for The Return of the King existed in faint hints in previous entries, though nearly any listener to the scores in 2001 and 2002 could not have known the extent to which Howard would apply these ideas in the last film. The Gondor fanfare was the most often heard before, developing into its final trumpet variation in The Two Towers. Its progressions are often intentionally manipulated by Shore to represent the peril of the culture as the armies of Mordor approach, though this theme still receives the most frequent applications of bombast as any in the score. The specific idea for the city of Minas Tirith is a superior idea that moves at an accelerated, almost Western-like rhythm as Gandalf rides up its heights and, most memorably, gloriously accompanies the beacon lighting sequence. By necessity, of course, this theme is not heard for much of the second half of the film. The Grey Havens theme makes its first and surprisingly stunning appearance in full at the end of "The Mouth of Sauron," as Sam physically carries Frodo to his destiny; it's arguably the turning point of the score, heralding the beginning of the end of the tale. The theme then occupies significant time in the departure scene before closing out the score in the end credits. While technically the Gondor theme is meant to be the heart of The Return of the King, it's hard not to be lured back to the Minas Tirith theme, despite its lesser role. This lack of clear dominance by one new theme in the score is indeed one of the aforementioned weaknesses of the work from a listenability standpoint, though one that Shore likely could (and should) have done nothing about. Almost all of the significant themes from previous scores do return, despite their transformations. Among the most adapted elements in The Return of the King are those for the Shire and the hobbits. The four main themes are tortured throughout much of the score but receive their salvation in the epilogue sequence following Sam and Frodo's rescue by the eagles. For the most part, Shore returns to the original spirit of these themes, and even conjures a new one for Sam's future. The lovely whistle and flute performances have lost some of their gleaming shine, but they do exist. Most interesting, though, is Shore's tragic manipulations of the concepts for the prologue involving Smeagol and his first encounter with the ring. The primary, horn-driven fellowship theme, representing the entire trilogy and swinging in style and noble intent, is referenced frequently enough in The Return of the King, maintaining its overarching status and always following the remainder of the original fellowship (the three hunters). It develops into a surprisingly massive choral rendition over the film's final battle sequence. The most intellectually stimulating developments in The Return of the King involve the eventual blending of the three themes for the ring itself, though Shore does continue to allow the ring's history theme to open the film and guide the narrative while marking the continuing peril for the hobbits on their journey to Mount Doom. The concepts for Mordor have overwhelmed the clearly separate music (originally) for Isengard and the Orcs, though they do cannibalize from each other to such an extent that some casual listeners may not notice the difference. The domination of Gollum over Smeagol in the waning moments of the tale cause the character's pity theme to become only faintly referenced, replaced by Gollum's menace theme and an even closer tie to the ring's three themes as he comes closer to achieving his goal. To hear no substantial use of Gollum's chilling song from The Two Towers remains puzzling, especially with that character's integral role in the resolution of the tale. As was apparent by this point, the melodies of the songs heard over the end credits of the three films were not intended for use in the other chapters of the trilogy. To say that this lack of crossover isn't disappointing in the case of "Gollum's Song" would be a lie, because of the three song melodies, that is really the only one that could have been applied accurately to all three stories. There was some initial disappointment about the diminished role for the Rohan fanfare and Eowyn's sub-themes, though their themes have little to accomplish after the conclusion of the battle at Minas Tirith. In an interesting move, the Rohan material, after its few full statements after their peoples' return to Edoras, combines with the nature's reclamation theme later in the film. One of the most significantly missed opportunities by Shore in the trilogy is the substandard theme for the Army of the Dead, failing to thematically or instrumentally create a truly memorable identity for them. On the whole, the massive weight of the music for The Return of the King, with the absence of as many 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 tonal, rhythmically pleasing action music, pulsating with full orchestra and chorus to the strong beating of creative percussion, may not be as strong in a cue to cue comparison with the Helm's Deep material from The Two Towers, but it still eclipses nearly anything written in the recent history of film music. Some of the action pieces were forcefully combined on the first commercial albums for The Return of the King, causing some awkward cuts and fades (there are sudden shifts from orchestra to solo vocal in "The End of All Things" and "Minas Tirith" that are a tad abrupt due to the assembly of the product). As with the previous scores, the harmony of these huge cues is occasionally lost, especially with the Mordor, Orc, Ringwraith, and new Witch King material adopting increasingly brutal tones in the film's latter half. 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 are nevertheless gorgeous. The use of pan flutes to entail Faramir's sense of doom and gloom for Gondor under Denethor's rule is very memorable. For listeners who attach themselves to the extended sequences of softer material, The Return of the King concludes with over half an hour of music that is pleasantly harmonic in every second, including the most noble variants of the Shire music to be heard in the trilogy. The fact that the film rambles on for far too long in these closing scenes actually works to the benefit of the score; Sam's final epilogic scene, for instance, offers a new hobbit theme that ends on a remarkably beautiful descending progression that definitively closes the book on the story. Also for your compilations, consider the opening few minutes of the score; the way Shore reverts his music back to an earlier century and throws in extremely faint hints of Mordor and Smeagol's pity theme are remarkable, and the use of a singular, creaky old violin to depict the origins of the ring's history theme is brilliant. The Annie Lennox song, "Into the West," is a well-written piece with decent lyrics. The songs have gone from a new-age affect (with Enya) and a dark-musical effect (Gollum) to finally a very light pop-effect set by faint guitars for this entry. 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 ones. It may 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 a score with spectacular orchestral and vocal recordings, and yet that same Lennox tone of voice represents a larger feeling of displacement in the score. Not even the half hour of resolution can compensate for this intangible problem. As a stand-alone score, The Return of the King has always been 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 distinct highlights that made the previous two entries so consistently attractive. Those highlights are less frequent in The Return of the King, and for the sake of listeners interested in a quick summary of the cues, the following analysis will assist in illuminating these parts. The following track titles refer to those found on the superior, complete score offering of The Return of the King in 2007, and, more specifically, the set's 24-bit DVD presentation. The opening "Roots and Beginnings," as mentioned already, offers the genesis of the ring's themes and is frightfully tragic in its gracious, humble beginning and terrifying conclusion. The ring's history theme continues to haunt "Journey to the Crossroads," with the hobbits' primary pensive theme struggling to assert itself on woodwinds. Another cue of little consequence is the conversational "The Road to Isengard," which explores a slightly more upbeat variation on the hobbits' material for Merry and Pippin, as well as few fellowship theme statements. The music of Isengard dies with resounding bass region resilience in "The Foot of Orthanc," a tense, but satisfying and melodramatic cue. The Hardanger fiddle's conveyance of the glory of Rohan is resurrected briefly in "Return to Edoras," while Eowyn's material is delicately explored in the subdued "The Chalice Passed" before the source singing of "The Green Dragon" abruptly interrupts with a burst of obnoxious hobbit enthusiasm. The familiar tones of the cimbalom performing Gollum's menace theme open a harrowing tone that continues the battle between this idea, the creature's pity theme, and those of the ring. Shore goes back to the Eowyn music in the brief and uneventful "Eowyn's Dream." For Pippin's terrifying vision sequence, Shore tumbles through extremely metallic and grating Mordor variants and mutations of the ring's themes. After a slow start, the pace of the score picks up finally in "Flight from Edoras," concluded by resolute performances of the Gandalf the White and fellowship themes. The first truly stunning cue in the score, and a must-have on any compilation from the work, is "The Grace of Undomiel," which opens with a gorgeous, lower-pitched voice performing the Elves' Evenstar theme. The transferring of this theme to the orchestra represents a shift for Arwen and her mortality, and the ensemble takes up the theme in conjunction with a mechanical brass performance of the Minas Tirith theme as the sword of the King of Gondor is reshaped. The Gondor theme, in two different inversions, follows with galloping urgency, and this is one of the theme's two grand performances in the score that are not to be missed. The Minas Tirith theme whimpers by comparison as Gandalf and Pippin prepare to meet with Denethor. A battle within the brass section to regain the heroism of the Gondor theme is a highlight in the second half of "The Eyes of the White Tower." Fragments of the hobbit and Gondor themes struggle in "A Coronet of Silver and Gold" until the combined force of the Mordor, Isengard, Orc, and ring's evil themes explodes as Sam, Frodo, and Gollum come upon Minas Morgul. The choral and brass tones of this relentless evil is more difficult to grasp than the original mutation of the same idea in "The Caves of Isengard" in the first score; the tone is more dissonant, shrieking, and horrifying here, making for a difficult listening experience. The cue does earn some of the score's best style points in terms of potentially awakening an entire city block of your neighbors in the middle of the night. Undoubtedly, the second half of "The Lighting of the Beacons," as with "The Grace of Undomiel," is a necessary piece for compilations. As Pippin lights the fire of the beacon at Minas Tirith, Shore unleashes an orchestral crescendo of unparalleled heroism that culminates in the score's most prominent use of the Gondor theme. The response by Rohan prompts the score's most buoyant performance of that theme late in the same cue, though shortly it has merged with the nature's reclamation theme to form a remarkable pairing. The lengthy battle music of "Osgilliath Invaded" does not compete favorably with the material from the previous two scores, despite some ballsy low brass for the Nazgul and a boy soprano performance of the Gandalf the White theme at the end. The suspense of "The Stairs of Cirith Ungol" and lament of "Allegiance to Denethor" would be unremarkable if not for the brief and solemn pan flute performances in the latter. These performances extend into "The Sacrifice of Faramir," though the source singing in this piece intrudes into the growing panic of the remainder of the cue. The cimbalom once again announces Gollum's menace theme in "The Parting of Sam and Frodo" and the confrontation is served the expected pieces of ring themes before closing with soft sadness in the Shire material for Sam. Forceful Rohan theme performances, alternating on brass and fiddle, are the only highlight of "Marshalling at Dunharrow." The same combination of Rivendell and Minas Tirith material heard in Arwen's fateful scene earlier returns with greater strength in "Anduril - Flame of the West." Hints of the fellowship, Rohan, and Eowyn themes tangle without resolve in "The Passing of the Grey Company," and the deep male voices of the Army of the Dead add depth to "Dwimorberg - The Haunted Mountain," though the cue is otherwise not as foreboding as it could have been. The short "Master Meriadoc, Swordthain" concludes with a pulsating brass tribute to Rohan that offers the first excitement in quite a while. Unfortunately, the dull and dissonant tones for the dead army in "The Paths of the Dead" breaks the mood. "The Siege of Gondor" attempts to repeat the glory of The Two Towers action material, though without the same harmonious gravity, the cue is a disappointment. While the tone of the extremely harsh brass is appropriate, there is little cohesiveness to grasp onto in the listening experience. That same disappointment extends to the material involving Shelob the spider in both "Shelob's Lair" and "Shelob the Great," marking a large hole in the appeal of the album's middle portion (despite Shore's creative nod to the eight-legged beast by representing her with an eight-note theme). In between the two scenes of Frodo's encounters with Shelob, "Merry's Simple Courage" and "Grond - The Hammer of the Underworld" do little to pull the score out of its lapse. A choral confluence of the ring's history and evil themes accompanies the madness of Denethor in "The Tomb of the Stewards," though once again there is little in the cue to recall. Shore finally summons the cohesiveness of the action material from the previous film in "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields," when the Rohan theme formally yields to the nature's reclamation theme as they arrive for the fight; the Hardanger and brass form a strong duet for the initial clash of Rohirrim and Orcs. Following the fiery demise of Denethor in "The Pyre of Denethor," the score returns to the battle with glorious choral layers of harmony, and after the singular and unimpressive "The Mumakil," Shore launches into a rhythmic burst of energy at the start of "Dernhelm in Battle" that deserves repeat enjoyment. A respite from the action is provided in "A Far Green Country," which softly foreshadows the Grey Havens theme for the first time in this score. The battle at Minas Tirith comes to a climax in "Shieldmaiden of Rohan," a piece that, while featuring some of the treacherous brass tones of Mordor, transforms into a heroic piece representing some of the most attractive action music in The Return of the King. The material for Eowyn and the next age receive compelling treatment in "The Passing of Theoden," and choir graces both this and "The Houses of Healing" with a breath of fresh air after all the dense, less harmonious material heard in the previous half hour. Aside from the transformation of the hobbit material into a heroic fanfare in its mid-section, the action of "The Tower of Cirith Ungol" is again somewhat anonymous in the larger canvas. As the decision to march to the Black Gate is made in "The Last Debate," Shore combines phrases of the Gondor and Rohan themes to create a new identity for the world of men. Soft woodwinds and Sissel's always incredible voice finish the cue on a contemplative note. The final, darkest chapter of the journey in The Return of the King begins with the ultra low-register performances of the Mordor and Orc material in "The Land of Shadow," though the latter half of the cue is surprisingly subdued given the gravity of what is about the happen; it plays like the calm before a storm. The same ominous pauses apply to the start of "The Mouth of Sauron," with only Aragorn's heroics leading a rhythmic charge that stirs life into the ensemble. Lines of the Gondor and fellowship themes accompany the attempts to distract Sauron's eye while solo whistle helps drive the hobbits on the final leg of their journey. With a slow choral crescendo meant to represent Sam's loyalty to Frodo, Shore unleashes the score's only heroic performance of the Grey Havens theme, passed between brass members with resolve. Both this cue and "For Frodo" are necessary inclusions in any compilation of music from The Return of the King, for the latter cue contains a massively religious, choral rendition of the fellowship theme that announces the battle at the Black Gate. The appearance of the eagles is greeted with a short performance of the nature's reclamation theme as well. Tension in dissonant string layers defines the beginning of "Mount Doom," and as Frodo finally succumbs to the ring, Shore overlaps all of the ring themes into one dizzying frenzy. The monumental Mount Doom theme explodes in full ensemble and chorus when this happens, extending for several minutes as Gollum returns to the equation. As the creature succeeds in finally reacquiring his precious ring, a solo voice gives the ring one last, elegant chance at survival. As Gollum is pitched over the edge, the Mount Doom chant is given one last burst. The strongly harmonic theme of victory (for the destruction of the ring) in "The Crack of Doom" is another highlight of the score, ushering in Shore's most noble statements of fourth-age themes over several minutes as Mordor and his armies are destroyed. The cue closes with a mournful return to the beautiful Gandalf's Farewells theme as the wizard worries about the fate of the hobbits, though even at this moment of hope, the ring's history theme makes one last appearance on violins as counterpoint. The subsequent "The Eagles" is an extension of the Gandalf's Farewells theme, resulting in a solo vocal performance that will indeed send chills up your spine. And thus begins the long suite of epilogue music in The Return of the King. The score's major positive themes are all explored in redemptive fashion in "The Fellowship Reunited," offering lengthy resolution to the hobbit and fellowship themes in what is easily the most appealing cue (in terms of easy harmony) in the score. Viggo Mortensen's capable, though mumbled vocal performance in this scene is perhaps the most memorable of the similar source-like songs throughout the three films. Fans of the early Shire music are even treated to late performances of the rural and hymn settings of the theme. The Shire themes become solemn in "The Journey to the Grey Havens" as the Gandalf's Farewells theme and Grey Havens themes mark the end of the saga. Once again, the unfortunate fact that the film runs far too long in these sequences is to the benefit of the score, which extends the pretty and undemanding music of these sequences to almost half an hour in length. A new hobbit theme, one for the hopeful future of Sam and the Shire, is heard in the brief "Elanor," concluding the score as innocently and graciously as Shore possibly could accomplish. The "Days of the Ring" suite of end credits music exists in a curious arrangement. After a very subtle tribute to the world of men at the start, the Lennox song follows. Thereafter, the suite shifts between hobbit and Elf music with poorly edited shifts that betray the fact that the music was assembled after the recordings. Interestingly, instead of closing the score with one last burst of the fellowship theme (the franchise's primary identity), Shore chose to finish with a minute of tribute to Richard Wagner's concluding opera from "Der Ring des Nibelungen." This thoughtful extension of the style of "Gotterdammerung" perhaps addresses the early thoughts that Shore's music for this franchise would be heavily inspired, in opera form, by Wagner's famous work for another ring-related tale. Shore refuted those expectations early, which is why the tribute heard here is somewhat curious. The complete set for The Return of the King ends with the light choral rendition of "Bilbo's Song," a piece that was recorded for the extended DVD version of the film and appended to its end credits. It's a pretty song, certainly, but not worth much excitement. 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. 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. 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, 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 things like 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. If any scores of the 2000's deserve such treatment, it would be these. 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 highlight albums that were released from 2001 to 2003, with their basic 16-bit stereo sound, will touch on all the basics and provide enough of the most pertinent material to suffice. 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. 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 Two Towers (this differs slightly from the order in which a person should investigate the regular albums, as discussed above). This isn't meant to diminish The Return of the King, but the third score, though adding the most quantity of material in its set form, does not feature enough high quality in that extra music to recommend it over the other two. The sets did become successively more expensive, further pointing to the first one as the most necessary. Regardless of your own decision about their comparative values, 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 ever again. That alone speaks to the triumph of these phenomenal products. As for 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. The original introduction, 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 had ventured to its maturity. 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 suffers a belated 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, but it leaves you with a significant amount of pleasantly harmonic material in its farewell. All of them, including the slightly weaker 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. As said at the conclusion the reviews of the previous two entries, open your wallets for the complete set and don't worry about looking back.
Music as Heard on 2003 Albums: **** Music as Heard on 2007 Complete Set: ***** Overall: ***** Track Listings (2003 Regular Albums):
Total Time: 72:05
Track Listings (2007 Complete Set):
Total Time: 229:15
All artwork and sound clips from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King are Copyright © 2003, 2007, Reprise Records (Regular), Reprise Records (Limited, Internet, and Trilogy), Reprise Records (Complete Set). The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 11/23/03, updated 12/14/08. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2003-2005, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
2003 Regular
