Lord of the rings trilogy soundtrack free download

It is a big step for the film, and a defining moment for the score. The track dovetails into a heartbreaking passage for solo soprano before moving into the spooky Middle Eastern textures of "Lothlorien" voiced in part by Elisabeth Fraser and the stately but foreboding "The Great River".

At this point, Shore's ultimately nine-hour score for Tolkien's trilogy begins to move to it's first conclusion, and the power of the extremely moving "The Breaking Of The Fellowship" cannot be understated here; it is a seven minute masterpiece of film scoring, bringing to a point all of the emotions of the journey we've just taken. It segues smoothly into Enya's second song, "May It Be", which keeps in pitch-perfect tone with all that has preceded it, and the disc rounds out with yet another masterful and triumphant restatement of the fellowship theme.

Before I start gushing again about how great this CD is, let me get something off my chest in case it wasn't painfully obvious already : I am a big Tolkien fan. But more than just that, I am a big movie fan Even with that in mind, this is a must own score if ever there was one. If you have ever called yourself a film score fan, you've got no excuse not to get this disc. Every track is a highlight in its own right, and the breadth and scope of Shore's achievement gets more and more impressive every time I heard it and that has been quite a lot over the last two months.

To sum up, the only thing that may best this disc is a complete release of Shore's entire score for the film. Either that, or his work for the next two installments for which I will be waiting with baited breath. In the meantime, thank you Mr. Jackson, thank you Mr. Shore, and thank you to anyone else who helped in the creation of this film and score.

You've all given us something quite marvelous. If any information appears to be missing from this page, contact us and let us know! Net Soundtrack. Net Search Register Login. Only a few minutes of finalized music were recorded each day to allow for input from director Peter Jackson and revisions to the music and performance [6] Jackson gave Shore direction and had each theme played to him as a mock-up and by the orchestra before approving it. All of the music production which overlapped with the films' editing process was supervised by Jackson who often asked for significant changes to the music, which is unusual for film music.

Shore began his work on the music early during the production of The Fellowship of the Ring in late and recorded the first pieces of music the Moria sequence [7] in spring of to a minute teaser of the film, as the film was still being shot. The scored section also included a version of the Breaking of the Fellowship sequence, with an extended tin whistle solo, and a montage of footage from the following two films.

The rest of the score was recorded in London during the editing of the film in post production, and took over hours to record. Shore would later return to the finished film, recording additional music and revised takes for the extended DVD version in March A similar pattern was followed for The Two Towers which was scored at a faster pace than the other two and The Return of the King with Shore also, unusually, providing an original score with new themes for the trailer, as well with the final sessions taking place in Watford on 20 March Shore wrote the music effectively for the entire film length.

The music was performed primarily by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and three choirs: London Voices for mixed and all-women choral parts , Wellington Maori-Samoan choir for all-male choral passages in Fellowship of the Ring and London Oratory School Schola boy choir. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra contributed some of the early Moria music, written for an early edit of the film.

A wide variety of instrumental and vocal soloists, including members of the films' cast, contributed to the scores as well. The scores for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King won Academy Awards in and , with The Two Towers not being nominated simply because of a rule of the Academy to not nominate sequel scores that reuse old themes, [8] a rule that was undone specifically as to allow for the nomination of Return of the King. Shore's music for The Lord of the Rings has become the most successful composition of his career and one of the most popular motion picture scores in history.

Howard Shore's composition does not utilize motifs from other scores he had written previously, or from passages of existing film or stage music, with the exception of one intentional nod to Richard Wagner's ring cycle over the end-credits of the third film.

Shore wrote a long series of interrelated leitmotifs that were used, developed, combined or fragmented throughout the three scores. The motifs are attached to places, cultures, characters, objects and occurrences, and are divided into sets and subsets of related themes.

Shore used his themes in defiance to the common practices of film music and even some theater works by strictly applying them for narrative purposes, never resorting to using them purely to suggest mood, although several intriguing instances still exist in his work: he replaced the Realm of Gondor theme used for the passage of the Argonath with a statement of The History of the One Ring theme, the main theme of the trilogy, to denote the film coming to a close; and he used the so-called Ringwraith theme which in fact applies more broadly to all the servants of Sauron [note 5] to the Orc armies of the prologue.

Shore's use of the leitmotif is not only strict but also nuanced: rather than mimic the onscreen action, the themes are often used subtly to inform underlying dramatic connections. There is even significance as to the order in which themes appear in a scene or to when a theme is absent.

The themes go through a series of variations of orchestration, tempo and harmony to denote changes to characters and the general progression of the plot. Again, the Fellowship theme gradually comes together before appearing in a string of full heroic statements as the whole company travels and struggles.

After Gandalf's demise, however, the theme appears fragmented, the harmony is changed and the instrumentation is reduced leading up to a dirge-like statement over the death of Boromir. It is gradually remade during the next two films, leading up to a grand choral statement during the assault on the Black Gate. Each film, and particularly the first one, starts with an overture: a series of statements of the principal themes of the feature, which extended from the opening credits till after the individual title of the film.

The main Lord of the Rings theme appears on the main title, while the main theme of each individual episode appears on the second title. Shore used the first film to introduce the principal themes, the second film to add more themes and develop the existing ones, and the third film to create conflict and crossovers between the existing themes and bring them to a resolution, creating in the process new themes for the Fourth Age.

Also across the three scores, Shore changed the soundscape: incorporating more aleatoric devices and contrapuntal writing in The Two Towers, compared to The Fellowship of the Ring, and more extrovert writing for Return of the King. All of these themes were compiled into a menu by musicologist Doug Adams, who worked with Shore on the documentation of the score.

Furthermore, in creating The Hobbit scores Shore would not only add another 62 themes or more, but actually went on to reuse some isolated musical gestures from the Lord of the Rings scores, turning them into leitmotives after-the-fact, adding up to over leitmotives used in the Lord of the Rings trilogy alone, and when combined with motivs of The Hobbit.

There are also leitmotives which Shore only used in alternate forms of pieces from the soundtracks, and even several variations and diegetic pieces that can be added to this count, as well. By comparison, John Williams' hour composition to Star Wars features about fifty themes overall, and other film compositions such as James Horner's Titanic featuring but a handful, thereby making Shore's work on the Lord of the Rings films by far the most thematically-rich of any cinematic work, and when coupled with his work on The Hobbit trilogy, even rivals Wagner's Ring catalog of leitmotivs, making it not only the most thematically complex film score but one of the most leitmotivically-nuanced works in the history of orchestral music.

The themes below are as they appear across the three films, sorted out into their thematic families. Many are provided with a clean audio example. The themes within each family share a soundscape and melodic and harmonic traits, but there are also connections between themes of different families to imply dramatic connections and lend cohesiveness to the score as a whole.

Listed below are some 85 of the most clearly defined of those motivs:. The material for Mordor suggests the geographical location and antiquity of the land by use of the augmented second, a prominent interval of eastern scales; and prominently features the descending whole step, as opposed to the ascending half-step featured in the opening figure of the Fellowship theme.

This material acts in direct contrast to the Shire material, as both thematic families are similarly constructed with multitude of principal themes, and of secondary motivs used as accompaniment figures, some of which like the skip-beat accompaniments motivs of each thematic family are even constructed similarly.

The Mordor themes are often underlined by one of these three motivs, which serve as accompaniment figures, although they also appear independently, as well:. The Hobbit themes are very Celtic-sounding, scored for Celtic instruments namely fiddle and tin whistle. Their maturation through the story has them not only transform melodically and harmonically, but also make use of the orchestral relatives of the folk instruments with which they are originally played.

The music is stepwise and calm, with old-world modal harmonies to evoke familiarity. Besides the variations of the basic tune, Shore crafts several accompaniment motivs that often play as a baseline to The Hobbiton theme.

However, as the story progresses, elements of this baseline begin to appear independently of each other and of the Shire theme:. The Music of the Elves is sinuous in line with the Arts Department's vision of the Elvish architecture , clear-toned and elegant, being scored for women voices, violins and chimes. It is however also ancient, exotic and at times closed off to the outside world, like the Elves, and is in those instances scored for eastern instruments and contains melodic intervals prevalent in Eastern music.

Whereas the Mordor material contrasts the Shire material, the related Isengard material contrasts the Fellowships' thematic material: The Isengard theme opens with a twisted variation of the 'there and back again' shape that opens The Fellowship theme. The Dwarvish music is raw, and based on parallel fifths rather than full chords. It is scored for all-male voices, often for very deep and rough voices at that, and for blaring brass.

This contrasts it with the Elvish music, and also informs the perils of Moria. The music of Gondor and the World of men and stately and brassy, but not necessarily triumphant, the music lamenting the decay of the mortal world.

Only from the later half of the Two Towers and into Return of the King are the themes of the world of men presented in more heroic settings.

In The Hobbit film trilogy soundtracks, aside from adding well over 70 new leitmotives to the Middle Earth catalog, Howard Shore chose to reprise and vary pieces of music that did not initially have thematic significance in the Lord of the Rings, thereby turning them into themes.

Since some of these motivs are only short, singular quotes, or a subtle variation on an existing motiv, their status as leitmotives is debatable and they are only listed as possible motivs. In The Hobbit, Howard Shore added about 65 new themes which are a part of the greater catalogue of themes for the Middle Earth film franchise. The themes above have been identified by musicologist Doug Adams, namely in his Liner Notes and 'The Music of the Lord of the Rings films' book, based on the intentions of Howard Shore as presented in the Complete Recordings.

However, there are other motivs in the score, in three forms: themes that don't recur in the films or the Complete Recordings but do recur in alternate forms of the soundtracks like the Original Soundtrack or Rarities; motivs that are distinctive variants or components of existing themes, and other recurring gestures which aren't leitmotives, but are nevertheless important to the narrative aspect of the score; and pieces of music mostly diegetic music and musical sound effects that were not written by Shore but are nevertheless used in conjunction with his score and reappear thematically.

The validity with which these motivs are identified as themes varies. Some of these motivs went unused in the film and the Complete Recording , but appeared several times over the course of the original soundtrack release which are not covered by the book or the Rarities Archives as well as the Lord of the Ring Symphony or the fan-credits of the extended editions. These appear below:. There are other 'themes' of this nature but their definition is more tenuous.

In the Extended Edition, there is technically a reprise of the Argonath music over the fan-credits. The choral piece for Saruman's duel with Gandalf can be seen as a relative of the Servants of Sauron theme in the Lord of the Rings Symphony, Shore clarifies this connection by attaching this piece, in full, to the end of the composition 'The Black Rider' , and even the choral Outburst 'Mettanna! There are several alternate forms of existing themes that never got past the mock-up stage, like an alternate Moria theme, an alternate, major-key version for the Ascension of Gondor, an alternate Frodo's Song and Arwen's Song.

The scores contain multiple distinctive variations and fragments of themes, as well as other recurring figures, that do not constitute leitmotives, but nevertheless merit mention. First, there are multiple gestures that are at the basis of some of themes, like the 'there and back again' shape that opens the Fellowship theme and connects it to its subsidiary themes. Equally, the inverted figure, serves as a general gesture for the forces of evil.

Part of the thematic development in the score also occurs throughout introduction of hybrid figures, although few of those are labeled as separate themes by Adams: there is a recurring hybrid of Smeagol's theme and the Ring theme, which illustrates his connecting to it. Other notable variations include Shore changing melodies from descending to rising, a device applied to all the Mordor motivs in Return of the King, but not one of those is labeled a separate theme in the book.

He also takes the Nazgul harmonies and sets them to a choir for the Witch King's battle with Eowyn and while that figure is non-recurring, it is a device that he also used with other themes like Thorin's in An Unexpected Journey. There is a two-beat variation of the Mordor Skip-Beat used in 'the most frenetic situations' [39] which can be described as a separate chase motiv. The Shire theme, because of the malleable and long-winded nature, can be described as two motivic units, with the B-section being used sparingly and separately from the A-phrase, often in a very different, expansive effect.

In fact, the outline figure also has a uniquely 'warped' variation used for Smeagol's antics when he fetches rabbits for Frodo , as well. Smeagol and Deagol are actually associated with several 'second-age' variations on several of the Shire themes, including a variant of the rural or playful Shire theme and a variation of the Hobbit Antics.

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