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THE
LORD OF THE RINGS: The Fellowship Of The Ring
An epic series like this cannot go without a soundtrack matching its visual
grandeur, immense narrative intensity and overall cinematic genius. From
all of the amazing film-score maestros like John
Williams, Ennio Morricone, James Horner, Hans Zimmer
and Jerry
Goldsmith,
Howard
Shore
was the fortunate composer to land this absolutely sought after (but daunting)
job. But with such an incredibly inspiring subject and dedicated director
behind it, no wonder the score is so absolutely alive. For a composer
to breathe life into a few chords to become an instantly recognizable
audio identi-kit is no mere feat. Shore's
emotional main theme holds so much emotion, latent dread, hope and adventure
within its less than 20 notes that it will stand proudly beside themes
like Star Wars, E.T. and Indiana Jones. The dedicated and
talented people behind the music include the London Philharmonic Orchestra,
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, The London Voices and the London Oratory
School Schola. Besides Shore's great symphonic ride through friendship,
good, evil, love and action-adventure, a handful of songs weave brilliantly
into this audio depiction of Middle Earth (whose map can be found in the
CD tray). There is Enya's
moving song May It Be with its Celtish feel (also the second predominant
theme) as well as Aníron, (the theme for Aragorn and Arwen). The ever
brilliant Elizabeth Fraser performs the poem Lament For Gandalf
in the track Lothlorien voiced by Philippa
Boyens
who wrote lyrics and authoured poems for the film that were translated
into Elvish, Dwarvish, Black Speech and Adunaic. The piece In Dreams
is performed in The Breaking Of The Fellowship by Edward
Ross.
And then not to mention the choir which features throughout this spotless
soundtrack following the narrative from start to finish. But we all know
it's far from finished with two more to come. If ever there was a career
high for Howard
Shore,
this series is it. [The enhanced CD contains exclusive weblinks to
additional content]
6 / A
- PB
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