The music of The Lord of the Rings film series was composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced by Howard Shore between 2000 and 2004 to support Peter Jackson's film trilogy based on J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel of the same name. It is notable in terms of length of the score, the size of the staged forces, the unusual instrumentation, the featured soloists, the multitude of musical styles and the number of recurring musical themes used.
Shore wrote many hours of music for the trilogy, effectively scoring the film for its entire length. Over 13 hours of the music (including various alternate takes) have been released across various formats. Shore intended the score to be operatic and to have "a sense of age". He made use of an immense ensemble including a large symphony orchestra (principally, the London Philharmonic Orchestra), multiple instrumental "bands", various choirs, and vocal and instrumental soloists, requiring an ensemble ranging from 230 to 400 musicians.
The series music became the most successful of Shore's career, earning three Oscars, two Golden Globes, and three Grammys, among other nominations. Some of his themes or leitmotifs (like the Shire theme) became individually popular. The music has attracted the interest of musicologists and Tolkien scholars. It is performed by choirs and orchestras around the world as symphony pieces, concert suites and live to-projection concerts. Shore invited the musicologist Doug Adams to observe the composition process and to document it in what became the 2010 book The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films. It identifies the many themes of the score, and describes how these are used in each of the scenes of the film trilogy.
The music for the film series was voted the best soundtrack of all time by a Classic FM listener poll for six years in a row.
Context
The Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel by the English philologist and author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1954–1955, and became one of the most popular books of the 20th century, with over 150 million copies sold. It has been translated into at least 58 languages.
The New Zealand film director Peter Jackson created a film series based on the book. The three films were shot simultaneously and released between 2001 and 2003, to popular acclaim. Together the three films grossed over $2.9 billion worldwide.
Creation
Film scores
The Canadian composer and conductor Howard Shore composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced the film trilogy's music. The filmmakers had considered the American composer James Horner and the Polish composer Wojciech Kilar for the role. Shore visited the set in 1999, and composed a version of the Shire theme and Frodo's Theme before Jackson began shooting. In August 2000 he visited the set again, and watched the assembly cuts of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King. In the music, Shore included over 50 leitmotifs to represent the different characters, cultures and places. There are for instance multiple leitmotifs just for the hobbits and the Shire. Although part of the score for the first film was recorded in Wellington, New Zealand, virtually all of the trilogy's score was recorded in Watford Town Hall and mixed at Abbey Road Studios in London. Jackson planned to advise the score for six weeks each year in London, though for The Two Towers he stayed for twelve. Shore composed a main theme for the Fellowship rather than many different character themes, and the Fellowship's highs and lows are depicted during the series. Individual themes were composed to represent different cultures.
For the soundtrack, the score was primarily played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, ranging from 93 to 120 players throughout the recording. There are contributions by London Voices, the London Oratory School Schola boy choir, and artists such as Ben Del Maestro, Sheila Chandra, Enya, Renée Fleming, James Galway, Annie Lennox and Emilíana Torrini . The actors Billy Boyd, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Miranda Otto (extended cuts only for the latter two) and Peter Jackson (for a single tam-tam sound in the second film). Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens wrote the libretto; David Salo translated it into Tolkien's constructed languages. The third film's end song, "Into the West", was a tribute to a young filmmaker Jackson and Walsh befriended named Cameron Duncan, who died of cancer in 2003.