{"id":11801,"date":"2008-01-30T14:58:45","date_gmt":"2008-01-30T21:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/01\/30\/lotr-music.html"},"modified":"2014-06-13T17:07:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T23:07:26","slug":"lotr_music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/30\/lotr_music.html","title":{"rendered":"LotR Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playing Lord of the Rings Online of late, I’ve been thinking a lot about the movies (and trying to decide if Kitten is ready for them).  Thoughts from listening to some of the soundtracks this afternoon.<\/p>\n

It is unfortunate that far too many movies feel obliged to include a non-orchestral, usually “pop” track in their end titles, so as to provide a “hit single”  that will add additional sales revenue and perhaps even ticket sales (“Hey, that’s that song from that movie — we should go see it!”).<\/p>\n

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings <\/em>trilogy was no exception to this — but was exceptional in coming up with some pieces that (a) weren’t jarring pop music Top Ten hit sorts of bushwa, and (b) actually worked well with each of the films.<\/p>\n

Fellowship of the Ring<\/a> <\/em>has Enya lilting “May It Be.”  Enya may be an acquired taste for some, but her celtic, etherial style fits in quite well with the world of magic and elves and the like that Frodo’s found himself thrust into.  The lyrics are a bit pedestrian, but Enya’s voice is as much an instrument as the Howard Shore-conducted orchestra in the background. <\/p>\n

I’d probably have been satisfied with more Enya in The Two Towers<\/em><\/a>, but instead we get Emiliana Torrini with a near-gasping “Gollum’s Song.”  It’s not a singing style I’m fond of — but here it works.  It’s a plaintive, nearly painful ode to the whole Gollum\/Smeagol tragedy, written by Shore and Fran Walsh.  It added to my movie experience, rather than distracting from it.  Or, at least, listening to it now it does. <\/p>\n

Shore and Walsh teamed up for Return of the King<\/em><\/a>‘s closing tune, along with Annie Lennox (who co-wrote and sang it), “Into the West.” Lennox’s voice isn’t as polished as one might initially hope — but it lends a bit of human (or hobbit) heart to this song — mostly drawing from Tolkien’s own words — about the passing into the Uttermost West.  (It also, I discovered, made a great lullabye for Katherine, once upon a time.)<\/p>\n

Three very different tunes, three different singers, in a single movie trilogy.  And they all work (YMMV, of course).  Pretty nice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Playing Lord of the Rings Online of late, I’ve been thinking a lot about the movies (and trying to decide if Kitten is ready for them).  Thoughts from listening to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[382,41,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lord-of-the-rings","category-media-movies","category-media-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5615,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/10\/familiarity_of.html","url_meta":{"origin":11801,"position":0},"title":"Familiarity of the Rings","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Feb-04 9:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I am often asked, \"What kind of music do you like?\" Actually, I'm rarely asked that, but work with me here. My answer is, invariably, \"Familiar music.\" That is to...","rel":"","context":"In "Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit"","block_context":{"text":"Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/lord-of-the-rings"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1227,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/02\/12\/oscar_my_err.html","url_meta":{"origin":11801,"position":1},"title":"Oscar, my err","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Feb-02 3:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey, Oscar nominations are out. And the ones I've seen are: Best Supporting Actor: Ian McKellan, The Lord of the Rings Best Actress: Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge Art Direction: Harry...","rel":"","context":"In "Harry Potter"","block_context":{"text":"Harry Potter","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/harry-potter"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135364,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/16\/now-getting-lord-rings-tv-series.html","url_meta":{"origin":11801,"position":2},"title":"Why are we now getting a “Lord of the Rings” TV series?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Nov-17 3:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because Christopher Tolkien, at 93, has retired from his role as the (very, very strict) gatekeeper of J R R Tolkien's literary estate. I'm torn on this, because Christopher has been notoriously restrictive of any use of his father's stories, to the point of their being choked off to just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/luthiel-and-beren.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3223,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/01\/10\/chum.html","url_meta":{"origin":11801,"position":3},"title":"Chum","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Jan-03 8:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"USA Today is holding a \"Star Wars vs Lord of the Rings\" write-in poll. Let the bloodbath begin!...","rel":"","context":"In "Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit"","block_context":{"text":"Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/lord-of-the-rings"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9532,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/06\/13\/alternative_mov.html","url_meta":{"origin":11801,"position":4},"title":"Alternative Movies","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Jun-06 10:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"Notstarring.com is a site dedicated to stars who didn't get (or take) roles on movies. The mind reels (so to speak) at some of the items from their Top 25...","rel":"","context":"In "Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit"","block_context":{"text":"Lord of the Rings \/ Hobbit","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/lord-of-the-rings"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24589,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/16\/okay-know-how-i-was-complaining-about-lego-media-tie-ins-the-other-day.html","url_meta":{"origin":11801,"position":5},"title":"Okay, know how I was complaining about Lego \/ Media tie-ins the other day?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-Dec-11 6:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"All is forgiven. #ddtb Embedded Link LEGO.com LEGO\u00ae The Lord of The Rings\u2122 :Home Welcome to the official LEGO\u00ae The Lord of The Rings\u2122 website. Coming Summer 2012","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42780,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11801\/revisions\/42780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}