Hey folks, Harry here.... Man, sometimes I get a report that literally just makes me frustrated beyond words that I can't be everywhere at everything. I know many of you feel the same way when you hear about me or Moriarty getting to do something very cool, but believe it or not... we feel the same way. Like when Quint was describing the X2 preview at San Diego Con... or like this report about this... You just wish you could click your ruby slipper heels together and be there.... Not that... ummm, I am actually currently wearing my pair of Ruby Slippers.... "Clang Clang Clang went the Trolley!!!"
I've talked a lot with my Film Score friends in LA. The two most popular theories about an expanded LOTR album is 1.) The complete 2 hours plus score on a several CD set (which as much as I'd want it is just wishful thinking at the moment) and 2.) Compiling all three LOTR films in one condensed complete Symphonic Work. Well the later must be true, because tonight at the Hollywood Bowl, I attended the whole premiere concert performance of "THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING for Symphony Orchestra and Chorus" Part one of a three part Symphony.
With all the work Shore has to do scoring the Tower Towers and the extended DVD cut of Fellowship, he found time to rearrange FOTR into a suite. The piece was 45 minutes long and separated into two moments (each covering a book in FOTR). So added up the completed Lord of the Rings Symphony would run a little over 2 hours with six movements
Movement#1 was 10 minutes and covered all the material in Book One (on the album it would be from "The Prophecy" through "A Knife in the Ford"). Movement #2 was the meat of the concert, running 35 minutes (from "Many Meetings" on the album to the end). One would say, aren't you losing a lot in the process? that's like cutting half of the album (35 minutes) out, right?! What it does is remove the reprises of the score and cuts to the melodic meat of the material. There were some segments that were in the movie and not on the CD (when Merry and Pippin lit the firework in the Tent), rewrites of music (The opening of "The Prophecy" has a subtle underscore of the Fellowship theme now) and some new material that me and a friend couldn't place at all.
When finally viewed as a whole with all 6 movements, I don't know for certain what the Symphony will be, but I know it will be something unique. This is the music in its purist form. This isn't some highlight piece that you might hear on compilation CD. It works completely removed from the movie in its own context . Listening to the music by itself, one quickly sees how atypical this score was. It reaches further back than referencing 70's and 80's score and back even further before the music that inspired those composers. What is the result is something that sounds elemental, like some great work of Holst or Stravinsky that was lost then found 100 years later.
I really want to put in some effort to pimp this show. Because it is like the difference between seeing a movie at home and on the big screen. There's no comparison. Hearing a great score in front a full orchestra is breathtaking. You have this rich warm sound and then the individual instruments and voices jump out at you. The Flute Whistle playing the Hobbit theme. The Boy Soprano singing Gandalf's Lament. The Trumpets that herald every victory of the Fellowship or feeling the resonating clang of metal of the Uruk-Hai attack. That you should see -- I mean hear.
After the show, I was able to talk to several Members of the Chorus. We chatted awhile about music in general and one of them was kind enough to let me see their part. It's really a trip seeing sheet music with lyrics in Elvish on them.
Shore was in the audience this evening. He took the stage afterwards for a bow and the audience responded in kind with a heartfelt applause. It was also announced that he is flying back to London this week to prepared for the Scoring Sessions for THE TWO TOWERS, which begins recording this Monday.
-RARECREATER
Oh man... Oh man... Scoring session for THE TWO TOWERS... oh man... oh man... That is like... Oh man, I wanna hear...
