PRINTER FRIENDLY VIEW
(inverts site colors)

•	2010 Rarities Archive

•	2005 Complete Set

•	2003 Trilogy Set

•	2001 Limited

•	2001 Regular

•	2018 Re-Issue Set

•	2010 Rarities Archive

•	2005 Complete Set

•	2003 Trilogy Set

•	2001 Limited

•	2001 Regular

Film music collectors will recognize many of the instrumental colors used by Shore for this trilogy of scores from other works. The penny whistle, fiddle, mandolin, celesta, and bodhran drums for the hobbits are familiar and appropriately touching in an innocent sense. An anvil and taiko drums lend forcefulness to the bass of the marching Orcs. The vocal tones were also very carefully chosen, with the often beautiful performances by soloists in the trilogy surprisingly specific in their application and therefore often fleetingly brief in their roles in the listening experience. Key to the success of Shore's writing for all three of the scores in the franchise is the mixing of these elements with the two performing ensembles (The London Philharmonic Orchestra and The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra). Shore's engineers very effectively accentuated the soloists, especially in the case of the reeds and pipes, by placing them prominently above the orchestra without leaving the listener yearning for more emphasis on either. The presentation of the whistle and other woodwinds in the hobbit material near the start of The Fellowship of the Ring, as well as the soprano and alto voices littered through the latter half of the score, are particularly striking. Some listeners of the music have heavily criticized the engineering choice of adding a significant amount of reverberation back into the mix during post-production. This is a particularly interesting debate, because there is no doubt that the three scores in this franchise offer some of the most echoing, wet ambience of any epic scores in memory. The two London vocal ensembles are particularly affected by this ethereal mix. Detractors of the idea claim that the move inhibits the contributions of soloists and masks some of the finer subtleties of the music. This is especially true on the initial commercial albums for the three scores, each of which seemingly featuring a heavier dose of reverb. But in general, the idea of cranking up the reverb in the final mix is very appropriate for The Lord of the Rings. This is, after all, a fantasy tale of the highest order, and the echoing atmosphere of the mix serves to enhance the other-worldly aspects of Middle-Earth very effectively. The fact that the scores are almost completely harmonious also helps in forgiving the wet mix. Hearing the scores in 5.1 channel format in the film or on DVD-audio compensates, too.

Reviewing Shore's work for The Lord of the Rings is a difficult prospect because an analysis about the music can extend for volumes (and Film Score Monthly's Doug Adams proved that by writing an entire book about the music). For the purposes of this Filmtracks review for The Fellowship of the Ring, a few general notes about the major themes and their applications on a track-by-track basis are merited, as well as some general observations about the best parts of the score on the various albums. It is vital to separate Shore's music from the disgracefully commercialized products released by Reprise Records at the debut of the film, because a fair amount of ranting and venting about the evils of those products is definitely in order. What you read here refers to the track titles of the far superior, complete score offering of The Fellowship of the Ring in 2005, and, more specifically, the set's 24-bit DVD presentation (be aware, though, that some of Shore's original compositions can only be heard on the original 2001 album). Each of the three scores in the trilogy does indeed have a small set of themes that it emphasizes over others in frequency, depending on the circumstances in each script. These themes shift gradually from extensive representation of the hobbits and the fellowship early in the saga to large-scale performances for the world of men as their leadership role in Middle-Earth is realized. The themes for evil, whether for the forces of Isengard, Sauron, or the ring itself, remain relatively consistent throughout. There is no doubt that the heart of The Fellowship of the Ring, however, exists in the growing balance between the hobbits and the strong fellowship to which they eventually belong by the end of the film. The fellowship theme is generally considered the title theme of not only The Fellowship of the Ring, but arguably the entire trilogy, for there really is no strong candidate to challenge it in that role by the time the fellowship is honored at the conclusion of the third film. The noble brass fanfare was also used extensively in the marketing for The Fellowship of the Ring, arguably confirming the intent of the theme. The four themes for the hobbits have so many similar rhythmic and chord progressions, especially by the end of this score, that you can classify them as one overarching idea for their tender, well-meaning nature. Dominating both the early and late portions of The Fellowship of the Ring, their lovely themes are often considered the score's main attraction.

Aside from the themes for the hobbits and the fellowship, Shore also conveys a handful of identities that stand above the massive collection of ideas he conjured for The Fellowship of the Ring, both in frequency and appeal. The theme he wrote for the "History of the Ring" is particularly vital in binding the three scores together, playing an important role in the first cue of the saga and never far from its next performance. Of the other two themes for the ring, the "Seduction of the Ring" theme does not have a major impact on the narrative until the subsequent films, which also technically applies to the theme for the "Evil of the Ring," doubling for Mordor and Sauron, though the latter devilish idea has more of an immediate impact in its few performances in The Fellowship of the Ring. Separate from the elements that follow Mordor specifically through the film, Isengard and the Orcs receive the only other major thematic identity in the first film, an identity that stays very consistent in its pounding, five beat rhythm and the nasty brass and percussion theme that, in its original form, often accompanies the movements of Isengard and its armies early in the trilogy. A rambunctious performance of the five beat rhythm often precedes the Orc theme in its full statements, building a sense of momentum (and inevitability) that the story often ties to their endeavors. The other themes in The Fellowship of the Ring, whether they represent specific beasts, sub-cultures, or the foreshadowing of future usage, are less pronounced; the (ever-decreasing) presence of material for the Elves does experience lengthy development in the score, though its relatively nebulous choral renderings (for the Rivendell and Lothlorien concepts) add more to the score in terms of ambience during their performances than a distinctly memorable progression to their own. With the technical aspects of the themes set aside, the more important question for those who don't consider themselves fans of Tolkien or devoted to any great degree to these films is this: what parts of the score are the most entertaining on album, and on which albums can these parts be found? The following discussion of each cue in the film, albeit quite brief compared to all the activity that exists in those cues, will help illuminate the answer. This analysis is not comprehensive by any means, and there are better sources (Doug Adams, namely) for extraordinary detail on the score.

In "Prologue: One Ring to Rule Them All," Shore covers much musical ground, though the ring's history theme receives compelling treatment throughout the cue as the pending, dire situation in Middle-Earth is revealed. The performances of the ring's history theme here are as elegant on strings as they would be as an introduction to "Gollum's Song" in The Two Towers. The Lothlorien theme actually opens the score with a religiously hymnal take on the Elves' music, and the cue eventually covers the bombast of the Ringwraiths' theme and touches on the solemn despair of Smeagol's theme. The highlight of the score for many listeners not interested in full ensemble banging and other loud ruckus is the trio of hobbit-related cues that follow. The main hobbit themes are formally introduced in "The Shire," with the primary "pensive setting" theme immediately opening the cue. The fate of the hobbits is foretold in the first use of the fellowship theme early in the piece. Beautiful hints of the awesome "nature's reclamation" theme exist in the cue as well. The playful fiddle performances of the "rural setting" variant of the hobbits' material are joined by stunningly crisp and tonally innocent capitulations of the pensive theme on a variety of woodwinds throughout all three cues, though those that conclude both "Bag End" and "Very Old Friends" are not to be missed. The obnoxious hobbit source music in "Flaming Red Hair" is really the only truly unlistenable cue in the entire score, though in context, its purpose is forgivable. The remaining two major thematic guises for the hobbits are heard at the start of "Farewell Dear Bilbo," both of which more contemplative but still attractively pretty. The tone turns strikingly darker in the lengthy "Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe," in which the theme for the ring's evil (and Sauron) is eventually belted out in snarling progressions that serve, at least in this score, as the most obvious and general representation of Mordor. The narrative from the prologue is continued in "A Conspiracy Unmasked," with Smeagol's theme and the ring's history theme continuing to appropriately intertwine ominously. Along with the short reprise of hobbit material at the end, most of this cue's music is redundant with previous thematic statements. The highlight of the short "Three is Company" is the ring's seduction theme hummed by boys choir; this idea would gain more attention in the two subsequent scores.

The somewhat source-like cue "The Passing of the Elves" gives the species' procession an exotic tilt. Shore once again unleashes another glimpse at impending darkness in "Saruman the White," and the sinister atmosphere culminates in a melodramatic, full choir and timpani crescendo of power. The last of the truly playful renditions of the hobbits' themes is heard in "A Shortcut to Mushrooms," and outstanding acoustics in the orchestra hits in this cue punctuate the enthusiasm. The trio of "Strider," "The Nazgul," and "Weathertop" (about eleven minutes in sum), offers some of the score's least engaging action and suspense-oriented fright, causing a hole in the material of interest on album. That situation changes dramatically with "The Caverns of Isengard," however, as the themes for Isengard and the Orcs are introduced over a lengthy prelude for the five beat rhythm. Of particular note in this cue is the gorgeous performance of the nature's reclamation theme on lead voice in the middle of the rowdy Orc music, confined to a role similar to that the theme would receive near the climax of The Two Towers. The beginning of "Give Up the Halfling" provides Shore's soft and lovely theme for Arwen, with much the same relaxing tone as the other Elf material. Impressive, resolute brass figures punctuate the end of that cue and the short "Orthanc." A fleeting, but pleasant statement of the hobbits' music in "Rivendell" flows into Shore's primary Elf theme in extended length, and a non-choral rendition of the same theme is extended to "The Sword That Was Broken." Enya's love theme for Aragorn and Arwen is surrounded by strong harmonics in "The Council of Elrond Assembles," whereas the conversational scene that follows allows Shore to foreshadow the world of men. In "The Great Eye," the Gondor theme meanders in lonely contemplation for over a minute at the start of that cue. After a subsequent blast of the ring's evil theme, a lovely mingling of the hobbit and fellowship themes in extremely upbeat, heroic fashion begins to exhibit traits to be heard at the end of the score. In the underwhelming "Gilraen's Memorial," a solemn performance of Elves' diminishment theme is featured with great choral resonance, and the cue becomes the second consecutive piece to offer a magnificent flourish of the fellowship theme to conclude matters. Dynamic string writing in "The Pass of Caradhras" yields to a typically clanging Orc interruption.

As "The Doors of Durin" ushers in a sense of dread, the material for Moria dwells deep and almost silently in the bass region. The easy, slow acceleration of choral rhythms and thematic fragments in "Moria" moves gracefully into another darkly attractive cue and, though short, "Gollum" contains dramatic chord progressions that lead to Smeagol's thematic variants in the cue's middle passages. The listener is rewarded with an extremely subdued, but hopeful performance of the hobbits' understanding theme on a throaty alto flute to close out the cue. This last minute of "Gollum" is not to be missed. The dwarfs finally make a significant thematic impact at the start of "Balin's Tomb," and the outstanding performance of the Dwarrowdelf theme in first minute of that cue is a prideful and expansive tribute to accomplishment of the dwarfs. Its dramatic strings and noble choir over brooding brass is Middle-Earth at its best, and this minute of music is a singular highlight of the entire trilogy. Action material on strings fills the remainder of the lengthy "Balin's Tomb," though thematic usage is limited until the heroics of the fellowship theme near the end. The action kicks into its highest gear in "Khazad-Dum," and this, along with all subsequent cues in the film, are both lengthy and filled with key thematic references. There are two important parts to this cue; the first is battle material in the opening half, starting with great, chanting vocal effects. The significant rhythmic pounding that follows includes some of the score's most challenging dissonance. As Gandalf falls into the deep chasm and is presumed dead, the cue suddenly changes gears and a solo female voice and choral lament present arguably the most beautiful two minutes of The Fellowship of the Ring. The performance of the "Gandalf's Farewells" theme from the third film may not be complete here, but its usage is a distinctly painful false alarm that exists in a stunning film mix that features the music without distraction from other elements. The grieving of the Elves in "Caras Galadhon" contains interesting textures added to the usual choral singing, and hints of the ring's history theme pull the scene back to reality. The choral material continues to meander for the remainder of the long, soft cue and includes an extremely creative version of Isengard/Orc theme in a deceivingly lovely choral form... a slight, but intelligent mutation that remains a subtle favorite.

Once again, Shore allows a glimpse into the later scores with the solemn performance of the Minas Tirith theme barely rendered over the first minute of "The Mirror of Galadriel." Quiet Elf singing in this cue is followed by another sobering performance of the ring's evil theme, cementing it as one of the four major thematic constructs of the film. Much transpires in the 11+ minute "The Fighting Uruk-hai," though the slamming Orc music that explodes at the start in full glory largely establishes the mood of the cue. A snippet of the Lothlorien theme opens a pretty interlude of choral exploration with resounding bass strings that perform minor third alternations of great depth. A short statement of the fellowship theme precedes another blast of the Orc rhythms and theme. Hidden in the movements is a brief return to the hobbits' music, though the tenderness is too short to enjoy. A strong performance of ring's history theme closes out the long cue and provides continuity with the first two minutes of "Parth Galen," which extends the theme's usage during that time. As the cue stutters in its mid-section, slight hints of the nature's reclamation theme struggle to shine and the Orc/Isengard theme literally slams the cue to a close with help of choir. Led by the fellowship theme, "The Departure of Boromir" is mostly a pleasant prelude to the closing suite of journey music that finishes the film. The most interesting aspect of this cue is an overlapping of harmonic elements from the fellowship theme with the Orc/Isengard theme in the middle. The aforementioned suite of the final three cues from The Fellowship of the Ring presents the score's most listenable merging of the two primary thematic concepts. The hobbit material becomes more heroic at the start of "The Road Goes Ever On... Pt. 1," utilizing a slower tempo and a woodwind statement of their main (pensive) theme to signal their arrival, of sorts, to the scheme of Middle-Earth. A single, bold brass statement of the fellowship theme leads to an extremely memorable merging of the four hobbit themes to form the percussive journey sequence. Final woodwind and choral statements of the hobbits' main theme close the book on their innocence (as mostly less obvious thematic fragments would assist them in subsequent scores). For these and other many reasons, "The Road Goes Ever On... Pt. 1" is the single cue that most casual listeners will recall from the film.

Although Enya's involvement in the score was controversial at the time of the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, her song over the end credits, "May It Be," earned her Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. Enya was, of course, the primary reason why the album sold as well as it did before audiences realized the quality of Shore's surrounding material. Unlike Shore, Enya obviously needed no introduction, even to soundtrack collectors; her songs had been appearing in films steadily since the early 1990's. The problem with Enya (and this is said from an affectionate perspective on her contribution to new age music in that decade) is that she and writer Nicky Ryan had exhausted their own compositional and performance skills to such an extent that her songs all eventually sounded alike. When "Orinoco Flow" and "Book of Days" (otherwise known as "Far and Away" for some film score collectors) were introduced a decade prior, it was easy to be enthralled by her voice. That voice was still strong in 2001, but even on her newest album at the time, "A Day Without Rain," the driving force was the song "Only Time," a piece with contents that were essentially the same as everything she had produced before. In general, her themes are all a variation of each other, the repetition of each phrase is consistent, and her instrumentation never changes. What was truly needed for The Fellowship of the Ring was for Enya to perform Howard Shore's material. Shore admittedly did a fine job of attempting to incorporate some instrumental backing into her first contribution to help ease the transition (and treat her as just one other vocalist in the ensemble). The score would still have been an outstanding success without her, and even with her rather bland songs, the two styles are close enough to merge (quite literally) with Shore's recordings without much interruption in mood. Ultimately, Enya still had a lovely voice, but her involvement with this project was the beginning of a disaster for the album release of The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack in 2001. Reprise Records was the label for Enya, and they thus handled the score as well. Given Reprise's mind-boggling commercialization of the soundtrack (and the promotion of Enya's small contribution to the overall effort), it was hard not to imagine that Frank Sinatra (the original Reprise artist back in the good ol' days) would burst out singing about Gotham City at some point on this album.

After Enya's piece launches the closing credits, "The Road Goes Ever On... Pt. 2" completes Shore's ideas from "The Road Goes Ever On... Pt. 1." He once again alternates between the main hobbit and fellowship themes before the song "In Dreams" combines all of the hobbit themes over the chords of their hymn setting. A short performance of the Rivendell theme precedes one final burst of both the hobbit and fellowship material to conclude the score. Overall, Shore's work quickly became a modern classic and won the composer his first Oscar despite competition from a field of very strong nominees. Because of Shore's dutiful style of intelligent musical design, you can't point at one or two momentous blasts of theme or action that will exemplify the reasons why this score pushes all the right buttons. With Williams and Horner, such identification is as simple as pointing to a concert suite. Shore, however, uses the solid, four-star personality of each cue culminate in a five star whole. The massive and gothic choral passages, so deeply dominated by the male singers, provide cues that are genuinely frightening, both religiously and otherwise. Lighter moments, such as those in the early scenes with the hobbits, offer a break from the awe without resorting to silliness. The fellowship theme on brass is appropriately lyrical and heroic. The woodwinds make several pointed appearances to perform the ethnic and natural representations of location. The string layers are well executed at each turn and the resounding percussion makes the Isengard material come alive. With so many interesting solo vocal textures, worked into the score in a way that resembles only Jerry Goldsmith's rejected score for Legend, it's a wonder that Enya was needed at all. Most of the themes are presented in the kind of subtlety that glorifies Tolkien's vision while breaking above a moderate volume only for explicit action scenes. There is no Williams-like density of hyperactive sixteenth notes here, which is refreshing. Some originally considered this score to be a darkly introverted version of Horner's Willow; the same elements are all there, with large orchestral and choral ensembles performing in a heightened sense of importance and urgency. But Shore's choral, orchestral, and accented performances are so deeply woven into a superior, comprehensive fabric that the music provides all the necessary magic that the Tolkien world demands and deserves.

The album situation concerning The Fellowship of the Ring was originally extremely frustrating. Not only was a 3-hour score (with about 2.5 hours of essential, satisfying music) cut down to 70 minutes in length, but Reprise's treatment of the product was disgraceful. First, the extensive promotion of Enya was uncalled for; her performances amount to five or so minutes on the album and are clearly outclassed by Shore's score. Second, the label created mass confusion over the "limited version" of the product versus the regular version, tricking some into believing that there was additional music to be found on one. Essentially, there's no difference, and stores used the opportunity to elevate the initial asking price for both products to $20 or above without any reason (even at obesity-choked Wal-Marts). Third, the limited edition product "auto loads" if you put it in your computer (which was a pain at the time for operating systems that didn't allow you to squash that function) and shoots up an advertisement for the soundtrack CD. Is this smart? No. Who needs to see an ad for the product he or she just bought? Fourth, if you went to access the touted special features, you discovered that they existed only on the label's website, and some fans were greeted by blank "HTTP/1.1 501 Not Implemented" messages upon entry. Pounding the site with reload attempts eventually proved successful in accessing the content. Fifth, in order access the special features, you had to divulge an e-mail address. Some people, unfortunately, aren't savvy enough about the Internet to know that such situations call for the entry of a false address (without the need for a confirmation reply from it, there's no reason to provide a real address). Other, more malicious types, repeatedly entered the addresses of previous bosses, troublesome in-laws, or the perpetually difficult soundtrack record producer Ford A. Thaxton. A test e-mail address entered by Filmtracks into the Reprise site was spammed (within twelve hours) with e-mails pushing an advertisement for the CD (which once again doesn't make sense). Sixth, as though the situation wasn't enough of an irritation already, once you got into the special features, you were presented with a small handful of trailers and other film-related items. Over 90% of the special features, however, were Enya related. Surprise! Equal information about Howard Shore or his score, meanwhile, was no place to be found.

Luckily, after the immense success of Shore's score for The Fellowship of the Ring, Reprise Records eventually heavily emphasized that work over Enya's contribution. In retrospect, as infuriating as it was to witness Reprise's attempts to use the score and film to push one of their own artists, you have to laugh at the ridiculous lengths to which they resorted to that end. The Enya trading cards in various copies of the product (and advertised on the "special features" site) were a particular amusement. Did people actually trade these things? Were they any more popular than an average set of "Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" trading cards? The lesson to be learned is as follows. When it comes to trading cards, Ichiro: Yes. Enya: No. In any case, back on the subject of the albums, there has never been a reason to waste any money on the "limited edition" version of the 2001 products. Reprise's attempt to transform the albums into a sort of collector's item failed anyway. They included several different covers on the limited editions, each featuring a different character from the film, and, as it turned out, these covers were actually a trading card in and of themselves, slipped in front of the real insert cover (which is the universal one you see on this page). It's not rare in the trading card industry (Topps, Upper Deck, etc), since the mid-1990's, to pull these kind of insert stunts, but to see Reprise Records do it with an otherwise fabulous film score was a sickening, obvious attempt to bleed the wallets of foolish Tolkien fans. For film music collectors, the best option in 2001 was to find the cheapest version of the album on which to enjoy Shore's monumental work. Upon the release of The Return of the King two years later, Reprise repressed the regular commercial albums for all three films into a trilogy package that again offered nothing new in terms of musical contents. With the vast success of the franchise (including the inevitable extended cuts of the films on DVD), a better treatment than the original score albums for each of the three films had been in the works for a while. Those original albums contained significantly edited and rearranged snippets of score material that often made little sense when compared to what was heard in the films, though this editing was necessary to give fans what essentially amounted to a highlights album for each film.


Discussion of the 2005 and 2018 Complete Sets:

Although the original, single-CD score albums were competent enough presentations to satisfy casual listeners, they only offered under 30% of all the music that Shore wrote for the franchise. Those early album edits also didn't have the luxury of choosing to include supplemental material that Shore wrote after the theatrical releases to accommodate Peter Jackson's longer DVD cuts. Four years later, in 2005, the first of the expanded CD releases hit commercial store shelves for a whopping $50 (or more), causing fans of the trilogy to salivate in anticipation. The two sequel scores' sets, while initially on hold to confirm the sales numbers of the first set, were prepared for release over the two following years. Of all three films, it could be argued that The Fellowship of the Ring was the most mistreated by its original album edit, and anyone who owns and cherishes the three original albums will greatly appreciate this first entry in the "Complete Recordings" releases. While some fans of the trilogy, individuals who must have an insane amount of free time on their hands, have noticed that there are small pieces of music here or there in the film that aren't included on the set (usually just seconds in length), 99.9% of listeners will be hard-pressed to find anything substantial missing from it. In fact, the presentation of Shore's score on this three-CD set is astonishingly loyal to the film, and, ironically (as to be expected from fickle collectors), the majority of complaints relating to the music on this set, while few, are related to the inclusion of music that some people would rather not have heard. Such grumpy folks need to be rounded up, flogged in public, and forced to recognize that score fans are almost never treated to such a product and should very well be appreciative of the offering. The complete recordings proved that Shore provided mastery in great quantities that were not known by most listeners, and the overall work thus towers over the competing scores of 2001 despite the year being very strong in competitive material. It's easy to point to the latter two scores as superior representatives of the entire trilogy, because they offer a more rounded inclusion of themes from the trilogy, but the complete presentation of The Fellowship of the Ring is more diverse in its emotional range and especially remarkable in its instrumental solos.

For owners of only the single-CD product for the score, there are several interesting discoveries that will be made when hearing the complete version. For instance, fans can now clearly notice the foreshadowing of the Gondor theme ("The Great Eye" and "The Mirror of Galadriel") prevalent in The Return of the King. One surprising aspect of The Fellowship of the Ring is how some of the better themes from the following films were initially completely absent. Despite several dozen themes and smaller motifs created and intricately developed in The Fellowship of the Ring, not a single, subtle nod towards Rohan, Gollum, or Grey Havens is anywhere to be heard. Looking back at the trilogy, it's become more evident that Shore never intended to utilize the end title songs' themes outside of the films for which they were written. Enya's "May It Be" doesn't return, nor does "Gollum's Song" appear in The Return of the King. The lack of clear continuity for Gollum is perhaps the trilogy's biggest musical weakness, for Shore's lyrical theme for the character in The Two Towers is very captivating compared to the Smeagol theme that boils softly in the first score (as his official thematic representation). The "Gollum" cue in The Fellowship of the Ring curiously never references the later theme. Nevertheless, the complete set offers several opportunities to hear Shore adapt his existing themes into strikingly enjoyable variants; the "Shortcut to Mushrooms" cue, for instance, remains a dazzling comedic manipulation of the hobbits' material. The structure of the complete set itself has few flaws. Spread over three CDs, the chronological presentation does leave you with a cliffhanger at the end of the second CD, though the arrangement was meant to spread the music equally in length between each CD. The rearrangement of music might take a frequent listener of the original CD some time getting accustomed to. For example, if you're seeking Miriam Stockley's slightly Arabic vocals in "Lothlorien," you'll find that track from the previous album split into sections and the vocals appearing here in "Caras Galadhon." The only cue edit to truly miss from the original album versions is "The Breaking of the Fellowship," which was very well adapted from the "The Road Goes Ever On" tracks before and after Enya's song placement in the film.

The vocals and choral ensemble performances of The Fellowship of the Ring, along with a few prominent instrumental solos, were remixed for the collector's set, compensating for some of the complaints about too much reverberation added to the original albums. Other fans expressed disappointment over what they viewed as the diminishment of the fantasy element that the echoing mix of the music offered on the previous CDs, though it should be noted that the DVD presentation of the music on the set is what you hear in the film, so it's hard quibble with that. As with Miriam Stockley and Edward Ross' performances, the massive choir has been set a bit further back in the mix, allowing the orchestra a more clearly defined role. On the other hand, a few cues better accentuate solos that reach out and grab your attention, including the resounding flute performance at the end of "Very Old Friends." Also given a somewhat generous mix on the set are the most controversial elements of the score: the non-Shore pieces. Many of the snippets of character-performed music in The Fellowship of the Ring aren't from Shore's pen, whether concocted by Enya and Nicky Ryan or even the actors themselves. Ian McKellen's mumbling of "The Road Goes Ever On" at the beginning of "Bag End" and Viggo Mortensen's performance of his own "The Song of Luthien" in "The Nazgul" stirred up a certain level of discontent, but in the age of easy digital editing at home, you have to forgive the set for doing its best to be truly complete (complaints would have resulted, of course, had such interludes not been included). The McKellen performance has to be commended, especially with the beautiful penny whistle counterpoint at the end. On the whole, you can listen to the full presentation of The Fellowship of the Ring without even noticing most of the other character vocals; their placement is often hidden in the middle of cues and their duration is often short. None have the impact on the flow of the music like the Aragorn performance at the ceremony concluding The Return of the King. The only piece that will likely make many listeners' hair stand on end is the "Flaming Red Hair" hobbit party music, a track that is definitely mixed at volumes that will snap you out of a slumber.

Aside from the 180+ minutes of music available on the three regular audio CDs, the set comes with a DVD that features four different tracks of the same complete score. 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, which is a plus given that it likely allowed all of the variants to fit on one DVD, 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 the consequences! Once you hear Shore's score in this full surround sound (which is essentially not any different from its clarity and scope in the film itself), it'll take you a while to get used to hearing the plain old, flat 16-bit stereo recordings on the regular CDs. The same could be said about any dynamic orchestral recording, but in the case of these three scores, it's really difficult to revert to the lesser sound quality. 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 is simply mind-blowing. The aforementioned solo concluding "Very Old Friends," for instance, will knock you off your feet. The slamming anvil of the Orcs, with a wash of harsh brass ripping between speakers, will appropriately terrify your neighbors. We can only 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.

Many fans have complained about the DVD, however, despite its spectacular presentation for those properly equipped. Some of these complaints are legitimate and some aren't. Those who viciously attacked the set simply because of the ill-fated rubber knob that was meant to hold the DVD in place in the packaging (and yes, it doesn't really work that well) need some perspective. And those who claim that that the DVD unfairly pushed the price of the set to its supposedly "unreasonable" $50+ 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 their primary reason for buying the set. One very valid complaint has been made about the DVD, however, and that involves the restrictive prohibition of certain features on the product. Unless it relates to the copy-protection features (and even there, it's questionable), there's no reason to disallow scanning within a track. There are some long cues in this score, and if you want to hear the impressive, softer choral work in the middle of "The Fighting Uruk-hai," then you have to sit through a minute or two of rowdy, banging Isengard/Orc music to do so. Some computer players, a tricky prospect for any DVD like this in the mid-2000's, especially with 5.1 sound cards and digital output jacks not readily available on non-Macs, 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). Tests run on the ever-popular VLC program allowed scanning, but also caused the 5.1 sound to stutter-step at times, negating the gain. Even later in the 2000's, there was no easy way to copy the highlights of the DVD's presentation onto a drive for compilation enjoyment. Also, while the work that Doug Adams does for the 40+ page booklet (not quite the advertised length; they apparently included covers in the tally) is astounding in its depth and knowledge, the content will likely fly a few levels over the heads of most regular collectors. By tackling the score by theme and character-type, Adams never provides a basic track-by-track analysis that could have considerably assisted the average listener in placing his connections into each context. You also have to be very familiar with the films or stories to understand the location references.

Still, the 2005 album's devotion to the sanctity of Shore's work is commendable, and it somewhat excuses Reprise for their nutty commercial transgressions in the years prior. Adams' work on collecting and presenting all of his information about the score makes for at least an interesting read, even if it doesn't always connect in memory or terminology. After the original album releases catered to mass hysteria with nonsensical trading cards, it seems that we've swung all the way in the opposite direction with the DVD sound and sensational technical detail of notes. It does make a person wonder if there isn't a happy medium ground someplace, and it also begs questions about when you can actually have too much of a good thing. Since the three complete sets for the franchise cater to the demand and hype of 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 set 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 this complete set for The Fellowship of the Ring be worth the cost for you? That's hard to say. For some, the elusive missing cues will be the attraction. For others, the DVD's 5.1 Dolby Digital or DVD-audio sound will be key. But for many others, the highlight album that was released in 2001, with its basic 16-bit stereo sound, will touch on all the basics and provide enough of the best 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). Regardless of that answer, the set for The Fellowship of the Ring is spectacular in and of itself, and for the reasons outlined in this review, it is arguably more essential for film score collectors than the subsequent sets for The Two Towers and The Return of the King. For such collectors, the DVDs' audio in any of these sets is a sonic marvel that shames regular 16-bit listening experiences (not to mention the sampled-down mp3's that most people enjoy nowadays), and it'll be a guaranteed joy to revisit them frequently. This is especially the case with The Fellowship of the Ring, which benefits the most from this format.

By the 2010's, the 2005 complete set for The Fellowship of the Ring had been out of print for years and fetched astronomical sums on the secondary market, some approaching $1,000. The Rhino, Reprise, and WaterTower family of labels resurrected the set in 2018 for an additional run, offering the same musical contents and packaging, flaws and all, but replacing the DVD with a Blu-ray alternative. This re-pressing of the CD and DVD garnered less press attention than the concurrent, all-new vinyl version of the set, which commanded ridiculous prices immediately and was the subject of some dissatisfaction from fans over flimsy packaging. The replacement of the DVD with a Blu-ray disc potentially ensures a longer-term relevancy for the product, though do not expect significant differences to be heard between the two encodings. A technical comparison between the DVD MLP and Blu-ray DTS versions of the same tracks yielded slightly more treble definition on the Blu-ray version but not enough to be readily discernable. Since Blu-ray players tend to be backwards-compatible, owners of the 2005 DVD audio will be served just as well by retaining that product instead. More important for fans was the opportunity to acquire the set for reasonable prices another time. That said, the 2018 set for The Fellowship of the Ring was initially priced at $80, a considerable increase over the 2005 product. Fortunately, unlike the 2018 sets that followed shortly for the two sequels in the trilogy, this one didn't go out of print as quickly, remaining in commercial circulation for two years after its release and eventually retailing for under $60. It's rare that collectors get a second chance at a supremely outstanding product such as this set, so be sure not to miss it. These The Lord of the Rings offerings, while not truly complete, are among the few soundtrack collectibles that are worth premium pricing, and they are bound to disappear into the insanity of the secondary market once more.


Discussion of the 2010 "Rarities Archive":

Those most familiar with the music of The Lord of the Rings have always known that there exist alternate versions and unreleased supplemental materials from Howard Shore's endeavors. A long rumored additional CD containing these recordings was eventually incorporated as part of a comprehensive book by Doug Adams titled The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of Howard Shore's Scores and released in large hardcover form in late 2010. The book itself is undoubtedly the most detailed analysis of every aspect of a single piece of film music (assuming you consider the trilogy as one whole) ever to be assembled, taking all of Adams' information from the extensive booklets of the previously released complete album sets and expanding upon it for over 400 pages. It's a beautiful book, including color stills, sketches, studio photography, and samples of the score sheets. For casual listeners and non-music majors, however, the amount of discussion (and its technical nature) will be overwhelming and perhaps unsustainable, especially if you already considered yourself somewhat lost in the minutia presented in Adams' booklet notes for those aforementioned sets. The section about the recording process is the most intriguing, the controversial issue of the wet, concert hall-like sound of the recording clearly addressed as the stated intent of the crew. Without question, however, no matter your level of interest in the background and nitty gritty of these compositions, it can be said with certainty that no franchise of music better deserves such a treatment on written page, and its debut coincided with reports that Shore would collaborate once again with director Peter Jackson to score the pair of The Hobbit films long overdue because of legal wrangling involving the studio. Some of those who purchased the book for roughly $40 did so specifically for the CD of additional music from the trilogy stowed away in a pocket glued to the back cover. This, "The Rarities Archive," includes a variety of alternate performances, initial synthetic mock-ups, a trailer cue, and different edits of cues for scenes that were altered in post-production. The music is followed by about ten minutes of a recorded interview of Shore (conducted by Adams). For enthusiasts of the franchise's music, this overall collection of goodies is both fascinating and entertaining, though none of the inclusions is particularly Earth-shattering.

Seven tracks of music comprise the material from The Fellowship of the Ring on "The Rarities Archive." The most notable aspects of the alternate recordings are the adjustments made to both the Orc/Isengard identities and the foreshadowing of the Gondor material in the third film. While in 2003 it seemed as though Gondor's theme had never been introduced thoroughly in the prior films, Shore did originally intend for it to receive two prominent placements in The Fellowship of the Ring. The first of these is a resounding performance a couple of minutes into "Prologue: One Ring to Rule Them All," eventually to be replaced by the theme for the history of the ring. Then, a more hesitant, but still noble brass performance in "The Argonath" was also struck. The adjustments made to the Orc/Isengard music largely pushed back its debut so that it would clearly represent their marching armies (as opposed to "Out From Bree"), though it was accelerated once introduced later on. The horror in "Flight to the Ford" originally contained interesting choral performances in its final minutes. The final two tracks from The Fellowship of the Ring on this CD are mock-up demos made by Shore and his associates for filmmaker approval. The first one presents "The Shire/The Hobbits" so closely to its final form that the composer clearly nailed this idea from the start. Even on a Synclavier system, this theme's simple melody is lovely. The tone of the keyboard emulates the style of the later woodwind solos of the theme so well that it's almost a good companion for them, a remarkable statement about any sparsely rendered demo. Not as engaging but quite interesting is Shore's initial theme for the dwarves in "Moria." This stout march is an apt representation of the characters in the story, and while its brawny form did inform Shore's final score, one can hear that this theme probably would have ended up without a home in the picture. On the whole, this compilation's music from The Fellowship of the Ring is weighted heavily towards the villains' themes. Paying the full price of the book simply for these CD tracks may be too steep for all but the most enthusiastic collectors of this franchise's music. Also to be considered is the fact that those who exclusively enjoy the 5.1 surround sound versions of the complete sets may have difficulty reverting back to standard stereo sound to appreciate this additional music. Still, Shore's efforts for The Lord of the Rings have proven to be peerless in the modern age of film music (and perhaps ever, some would argue), and any new music from the concept is welcome, in any form.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

• Music as Written for the Film:  *****
• Music as Heard on the 2001 and 2003 Albums:  ***
• Music as Heard on the 2005 and 2018 Complete Sets:  *****
• Music as Heard on "The Rarities Archive" Album:  ****
• Overall:  *****

Bias Check:

For Howard Shore reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.56 (in 25 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.32 (in 99,362 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.