LORD OF THE RINGS: Howard Shore's Score

Hey folks, Harry here... Now y'all read my first report about the CANNES footage, the second time I saw it (Yes, I'm well aware that I'm a bastard), I paid close attention to the score... well... closer attention anyways.

For the Mines of Moria there is a great deal of choral work... Deep male voices, but I couldn't make out the language... The mood when mixed with the images was of ancient majesty... It felt old. Now once the action begins the drums begin... These didn't sound like your regular timpani drums, it sounded closer to stretched animal skins across LARGE drums... like those in Japan in RISING SUN... but the rhythm was ummmm... scary. This music was perfect for the images.... so much so that upon that first viewing I didn't notice what it was doing to me... that it was adding an emotional texture to the very real and atmospheric images.

Now, Sunday, before the LORD OF THE RINGS party, Joram, Calisuri, Peter Jackson, Gordon Paddison and I sat down for some drinks at the Hotel Martinez's restaurant the PALM D'OR yeah... I know...

At the end of the conversation, David Cronenberg came up with Howard Shore. Apparently they have been talking about the upcoming Ralph Fiennes flick that Cronenberg is set to helm called SPIDERS, and after talking a bit with Cronenberg, I was able to speak to Howard Shore a bit about his score and how much I want to hear it separate and not on film... Because I was so visually distracted that I couldn't concentrate on his score without shutting my eyes (which I wasn't about to do).

Asking about the choir, Shore began beaming... Turns out that it is about a 300 member all male Maori Choir singing Dwarvish version of Tolkien text. In fact, Shore tells me that this is something he is doing through out the score for LORD OF THE RINGS, putting in quite a bit of Choir work, but using it to reinsert Tolkien's text into LORD OF THE RINGS by way of the various tongues of Middle Earth. Elvish, Dwarvish and the darker languages as well...

He hasn't begun recording too much of the score yet, but he's really in the midst of composing and orchestrating quite a bit of it. But personally, I can't wait to hear this. I can say that Shore's score sounds nothing like his Cronenberg work or ED WOOD or SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.... It felt old and moody and creepy and cool. Now if only I had an MP3 or a cd with that dang Moria music... NOBODY TOSSES THE DWARF!!!! hehehe....