To finish the year 2023 with a bang, we have prepared a new album release of Howard Shore’s score for the 2001 epic fantasy adventure film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Directed by Peter Jackson, the film is based on the first volume of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. Featuring an ensemble cast including Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, and Andy Serkis, The Fellowship of the Ring acts as the first installment in the widely acclaimed The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
For those who do not know, the story is set in the fantasy land named Middle-earth, where after a great war, the Dark Lord Sauron seeks to find his lost One Ring to be able to conquer and dominate the races of the world. After being lost for generations, the Ring finds its way to a young hobbit, Frodo Baggins, who is unaware of its history and power. However, the ancient magician Gandalf discovers the true nature of the Ring and both join the Fellowship of the Ring, a group of nine companions who begin a perilous journey to Mount Doom in the land of Mordor, the only place where the ring can be destroyed.
Little more can be said about the success of the trilogy. Not only did Jackson and his crew manage to fascinate hardcore fans of Tolkien’s work, but they also produced a film that appealed to wider audiences. Full of eye-popping special and visual effects and astounding vistas of the New Zealand scenery, The Lord of the Rings trilogy is regarded as the best fantasy epic in motion picture history, with many calling it a true visualization of Middle-Earth.
For the music, Jackson approached composer Howard Shore, who was mostly known for writing dark and moody scores for disturbing and suspense films directed by David Cronenberg, Jonathan Demme and David Fincher, among others. According to Jackson, Shore was chosen for being able to write intelligent music for literary adaptations, for his operatic approaches, and for his extensive knowledge of instruments. This announcement was met with skepticism by film music enthusiasts, considering that the trilogy required up to 12 hours of non-stop fantasy music, incorporating Tolkien languages, songs, and poetry, as well as addressing many cultures, the inner conflicts of diverse characters, the world’s folklore, and the epic tale encompassed in the three-part novel. To deal with a project of such magnitude, Shore devoted a full year to write the music for each individual film, when most film scores are done in three to four weeks. He would eventually come up with over 80 leitmotifs, almost parallelling the complexity of Tolkien’s work. Each culture in Middle-earth is represented with a unique musical style, as well as distinctive themes, with over two-dozen special instruments accompanying the classical symphony orchestra and chorus. When the first entry of the trilogy was released, it was only a matter of days before critics and fans realized that Shore’s music would quickly become a classic of modern film music.
Shore’s excellent use of harmony is one of the many aspects that made his scores for the trilogy memorable. Even in the most frenzied passages, Shore retains harmonic constructions, avoiding dissonance at all times and making the music extremely attractive. However, it is Shore’s conjuring of distinctive and appealing themes what truly makes the music stand out. The first score in the series introduces many of the major themes that are used throughout the trilogy, while also providing snippets of themes that are further explored in the sequels.
The theme that immediately catches the attention of any listener is the Fellowship theme. This theme is often considered the main theme of the entire trilogy, and it consists of a heroic brass motif that works as a story element. Fragments of it are heard during the beginning of “The Treason of Isengard” as the hobbits Frodo and Sam start their journey walking through the country fields of the Shire, and it gradually expands when new characters join them until they reach the Elven village of Rivendell. Here, during “The Council of Elrond”, when the Fellowship finally comes together, the theme is presented in its fully realized orchestral form. As the story progresses and the Fellowship begins to break down, the theme is disassembled and never heard in the same heroic vibe again.
The material composed for the Shire and the hobbits is also one of the most recognizable and adored musical elements of the trilogy. The main theme for the hobbits is presented in the “Concerning Hobbits” track and it is a Celtic-influenced rural melody often played by a solo whistle. This rhythmic theme represents the unheroic aspects of the hobbit life, and once the hobbits leave their home, the theme is used to elicit a sense of longing. Additionally, the theme is also used to express the well-meaning nature of this race, a goodness that ultimately saves Middle-earth, and for this reason it bookends The Fellowship of the Ring before proceeding to gain more force during the sequels.
Besides the themes for the hobbits and the fellowship, Shore wrote significant material for the One Ring itself. Three separate themes exist for the Ring, all of them consisting of the same instruments, and in the same key and style. The first tune, commonly known as the History of the Ring theme, is a nine-note melody for strings that is used during the title sequence of the trilogy, and it reappears whenever the One Ring changes hands or makes a significant progress in joining its master. The Seduction of the Ring theme consists of a humming boys chorus, and it represents the One Ring’s irresistible allure and false promises. This theme can be heard at the opening of the track “The Treason of Isengard”, and while it makes little appearances during The Fellowship of the Ring, it has a major impact on the narrative of the subsequent films. The third theme for the One Ring, is the Evil of the Ring theme, an impressive brass fanfare in low key that also symbolizes Sauron and Mordor, the forgers of the Ring. This theme makes its debut during the half of the track “Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe”.
Isengard, its Orcs and the evil wizard Saruman also receive a major thematic identity in the form of a pounding five beat rhythm accentuated by a nasty brass melody. Featuring in the second half of “A Knife in the Dark”, this thunderous theme expresses the industrial might of Middle-earth and the impact it makes in the natural world. As a counterpart of this theme, Shore wrote a Nature’s Reclamation theme, also present in the middle of “A Knife in the Dark” in the form of a beautiful melody in boy soprano (sung by Edward Ross) that is used whenever nature restores the balance throughout the trilogy, reaching fitting climaxes during the sequels.
Several other secondary themes exist in The Fellowship of the Ring. The evil Ringwraiths have their own identity which is predominant during the first half of the score, as the malicious specters stalk and chase the hobbits searching the Ring. This theme is primarily choral, with a mono-rhythmic melody line that effectively creates a sense of deadly suspense and unease, without losing harmony. The tracks “Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe”, “A Shortcut to Mushrooms”, “A Knife in the Dark” and “Flight to the Ford” all exhibit astounding performances of this theme.
There are also additional themes for other characters, such as Arwen and Gollum/Smeagol, for some of the monsters the Fellowship encounters, like the Balrog, and even for several locations, such as Moria. However, out of all the secondary ideas, perhaps the most developed is the material for the Elves, present predominantly during the “Rivendell” and “Lothlórien” tracks. Shore opens the movie with the Lothlórien theme in “One Ring to Rule them All”, during Galadriel’s voice-over. This theme is mysterious in nature, sometimes reaching off-putting senses, while also being heartbreaking as in Elizabeth Fraser’s soloist performance of Lament of Gandalf. The Rivendell theme has an exotic Eastern style and hits the right notes to transport the listener to a world of fantasy. However, as the Elves eventually depart from Middle-earth, the presence of the material for the Elves decreases as the story progresses.
Shore would eventually earn a well-deserved Academy Award for his music for The Lord of the Ring: The Fellowship of the Ring. The music can be thoroughly enjoyed by any casual listener for its accessibility, but a closer and much more insightful look shows that the music is so carefully constructed and its motifs so delicately interwoven that the score effectively provides all the magic the Tolkien world demands.
The music for The Lord of the Ring: The Fellowship of the Ring was released in 2001 by Reprise Records in the form of a 70-minute album that is missing many highlights of Shore’s work. It did contain the two songs composed and performed by Enya, which were a major selling point. The score was re-released by Reprise Records in 2005 as a 3-CD complete set that contained most if not all of the material Shore composed, presented in a program that was loyal to the film by including even source cues performed by the cast. This release also included in its booklet an in-depth analysis of the music by Doug Adams, which is an excellent read to understand Shore’s processes, instrumentations and approaches. However, with a running time of 180 minutes of music, this expanded album proved to be too much for some film music enthusiasts. This release by Renovatio Records aims at finding a place between those two extremes. Our 2-CD program of approximately 95 minutes contains all the music you would expect to hear in an album for the first entry of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Sit back and let yourself be transported once more into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien.
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