Favourite LOTR soundtrack

Been listening to all of these recently, my favourite's atm ROTK, with the ride of the Rohirrim being one of my most listened to tracks (just beaten by the second movement of RKs Sheherazade)

Mark

Wow. It's hard to pick just one. I think this is one of those movies where the soundtrack got better after every production. The first was amazing, the second - better, and the third - the best. Howard Shore definitely didn't "kill" this soundtrack, and I'm glad. He did spectacular work on each film, so really, I couldn't pick one -- but since I do (:P) I choose Return of the King :o

wow, I'd forgotten about this thread completely, thanks for reminding me :P

*stocks up mp3 player with LOTR stuff*

Definitely Return of the King for me, although I love the shire theme introduced in the first one.

OMG! I have absolutely no idea which is the best. I would say that the third is the fullest of the three as far as orchestration and compositional complexity go. However, there are just so many defining moments on all of the three soundtracks. I am one of the biggest Howard Shore nuts you will ever meet and Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. I thought and still think that Howard Shore did the best possible job that could have been done. I think that even if John Williams, Patrick Doyle, Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson-Williams, etc. would have composed this soundtrack it would not have been nearly as good. I seriously consider it to be one of the best scores ever produced (and I know a lot of different film scores). Anyways, I think some of the defining moments of this score are the tracks entitled the prophecy, concerning hobbits, Flight to the Ford (awesome beyond words with the pulsing percussion), Many Meetings, The Bridge of Khazad Dum, The Breaking of the Fellowship, Foundations of Stone, Evenstar, Breath of Life, Forth Eolingas, Isengard Unleashed, Samwise the Brave, Gollum's Song, Hope and Memory, Minas Tirith, The White Tree (possibly the greatest single orchestral composition for any film score ever composed), and damn near the rest of the Return of the King Soundtrack, Minas Morgul, The Ride of the Rohirrim, Twilight and Shadow, Shelob's Lair, The Fields of the Pelennor, The End of all Things, The Return of the King, The Grey Havens, Into the West. I know that I basically just did the track listing for the three soundtracks but that is what I think. It is such brilliant work that not one track shows any weakness in the composing. All tracks are brilliant; no weak points to this score.

Anyways, have you guys gotten into the complete recordings? They are totally worth every penny. Not only do you get the most comprehensive booklet ever written for a film score, but you get a DVD with surround sound of the entire score and three audio CD's of the entire score for the fellowship and 4 for the Two Towers (I think). This booklet tells you all kinds of things like where the score was recorded, what exotic instruments where used, how it was orchestrated, in depth look at the use of motifs in LOTR, and everything. It is a really impressive box set. One of the other reasons it is so worth it is because they actually have tons of music on the complete recordings that is not present on the original soundtrack. Sometimes - with other scores - you basically get the soundtrack all chopped up but in the order of the movie with not much more music then was in the original soundtrack. This time you nearly get half again the music that was on the soundtrack.

where would i find the described box set?

I'm getting that!:w00t: How much?

I don't own or listen to the soundtracks of LOTR but I remember really being excited by the music in that scene where the fire signals are travelling across the mountains (I think it was in the third movie but I may be wrong). Certainly it was a very effective soundtrack and undeniably the third was the best (this I remember).

where would i find the described box set?

Amazon.com is the best place that I have found. Different stores used to carry Fellowship's complete recordings. I have never seen the Two Tower's complete recordings in the stores. I think that you might be able to find Fellowship at Borders, but it would still be more expensive than Amazon. Best Buy is a no go with either of them (at least in my checking the stores several times). The Return of the King has still not been released. I would expect to see it around this next Novemeber or Decemeber. On Amazon you can expect to find Fellowship for about $59 or so. Then - because it is the latest - Two Towers will be about $65 or so. The retail sale price is a bout $75 for both of them so this is a reasonably good discount. If you go to the store you will probably buy it at retail value. However, believe me, it is completely worth the money. I usually do not praise things like this. Most often it is a bunch of hipe and then all you get is some phony generic middle of the line stuff that is basically worthless. In this box set, it is like the people creating it meant to sell it to true learned musicians like a lot of people we have here on YC. They do not hold back on the technical stuff just cause some "idiots" will not understand it.

I can't think in terms of "favourite" soundtrack, since the entire score is one organic entity, intended as a natural growth and development, both thematically and emotionally, from start to finish.

I guess it's like asking "which is your favourite movement of this symphony"... to me, the "three" scores are really but one, like the books, and like the film. It is not a trilogy, but one single film, divided into more manageable chunks.

As a matter of fact, there is even a hint that Shore understood that the books were neatly divided into SIX and not three, and included references to that in the score's development. His LotR "Symphony" (which I didn't care for... I thought the filmscore was better put together) is even divided into the six "books".

The fellowship theme was taken directly from either the first or second of Sibelius's symphonies, I'm dead serious. Listen to both and you will definitely find it somewhere.