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Music of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season One: Amazon Original Series Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by
Howard Shore (title theme) and Bear McCreary (original score)
ReleasedAugust 19, 2022 (2022-08-19)
Recorded2021–2022
StudioAbbey Road Studios
AIR Studios
GenreSoundtrack
Length2:29:12
Label

The original soundtrack to the Amazon Prime Video television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power featured musical score composed by Bear McCreary and a main title theme, composed by Howard Shore, who previously scored for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film series. Their involvement was initially reported on September 2021, before being officially confirmed as part of the project in July 2022. McCreary, wrote the score, nearly thirteen months before his inclusion being confirmed, on July 2021. He nearly wrote 15 new themes for the score, in order to continue Shore's legacy through the music and those tracks added as a "pantheon to Shore's melodies" featured in the trilogy. Various musical styles and languages, fictionally created by Tolkien, was attributed in the score, performed by the 90-piece orchestra and the 40-member vocal choir, when recording happened at the Abbey Road Studios and AIR Studios in London, and additional recording happened at Los Angeles.

Season 1: Amazon Original Series Soundtrack was released on all major streaming services on August 19, 2022, two weeks prior to the official premiere. It was led by two singles from McCreary's score — "Galadriel" and "Sauron" — released exclusively on Amazon Music on July 21.[1] The album featured 37 tracks, while two exclusive tracks were available in Amazon Music. The physical soundtrack will be marketed by Mondo, set for release on CD (October 14) and vinyl (January 13, 2023).[2] Additional soundtrack albums featuring the full score for each episode will be released after the episode premieres.[3]

Background

"I’m a huge fan of the J.R.R. Tolkien books, of the legendarium, the mythology and the Peter Jackson films. They were, in a way, at the nexus of my childhood and adulthood, the last films that took me away as a child. I watched those films over and over and over."

— McCreary, about the Lord of the Rings films and its main inspiration that drew him to work in the series.[4]

Howard Shore, the composer for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, was reported to be in discussions with Amazon about working on the series in September 2020. He was said to be interested in developing musical themes but not necessarily composing the entire score.[5] A year later, Shore was confirmed to be in talks for the series,[6] when composer Bear McCreary was reported to be involved as well.[5] Their hiring was officially announced in July 2022, with McCreary composing the score and Shore writing the main title theme.[1] McCreary said the main theme was created independently of the score, but he felt the two "fit together so beautifully".[7] The Head of Music at Amazon Studios, Bob Bowen, opined that both musicians have "deep understanding of the Tolkien legendarium".[7]

Recording and production

"In our show, we are seeing these societies at their peak. So, yes, there’s a connection, but it doesn’t sound the same. In the ‘Hobbit’ films, the dwarfs were a people in diaspora, lost and hoping to retrieve their homeland. Here we see the might of Khazad-dûm, one of the mightiest cities in all of Tolkien’s work, and we see it at its peak. It has this churning industrial energy. It is not sad and forlorn, it’s powerful. My hope is that if anyone watches our show and then watches the Peter Jackson films, there will be a continuity of concept."

— McCreary, on the idea of the show.[4]

McCreary began working on the series in July 2021, and said it was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to work on such an ambitious score with the creative freedom that he wanted. He spent nearly two months writing new musical themes based on the scripts, which he compared to that of writing a symphony, and then used those to compose nine hours of music for the first season over eight months. Each themes had two sections, an introduction and the development of that theme. He wanted to honor Shore's musical legacy and hoped to create a "continuity of concept" between the series and films, with the 15 new themes he wrote for the season being added to the "pantheon of memorable melodies" that Shore had written. He did note that his music would reflect the series' depiction of "these societies at their peak" compared to Shore's music for the Third Age which had "a wistfulness and a melancholy".[4] McCreary used different approaches for the different groups in the series: the music for the Elves features "etheral voices" and choir, the Dwarven music has "deep male vocals", the Harfoot's have music based in natural sounds, and the harmonic language for Númenor has Middle Eastern influences.[8]

The score for each episode took four days to record, using up to 90-piece orchestras at Abbey Road Studios and AIR Studios in London as well as a 40-person choir at Synchron Stage in Vienna. For the choral music, McCreary pulled text from Tolkien's writings and worked with the series' language experts to write new lyrics in Tolkien's fictional languages, including the Elvish languages Sindarin and Quenya, the Dwarvish language Khuzdûl, Black Speech, and the Númenorean language Adûnaic. He added each themes had been crafted with close consultation with the language experts, further stating that "the context of what is being said, and the language in which it is being said, matches what you are watching". Soloists were recorded in Los Angeles and across Europe playing folk instruments such as the hardanger fiddle, nyckelharpa, bagpipes, and bodhrán drums. McCreary was still writing music for the first season in Los Angeles while recording for most of the episodes took place, but he was able to conduct the orchestra for the final episode at AIR Studios in April 2022.[4] The score also featured two performances from the actors, Sophia Nomvete and Megan Richards, who respectively played Princess Disa and Poppy Proudfellow.[9][10]

Track listing

All music composed by Bear McCreary, except where noted:[4][2]

Season One: Amazon Original Series Soundtrack
No.TitleLength
1."The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Main Title" (composed by Howard Shore)1:34
2."Galadriel"3:44
3."Khazad-dûm"3:21
4."Nori Brandyfoot"2:50
5."The Stranger"5:04
6."Númenor"4:32
7."Sauron"2:46
8."Valinor"2:40
9."In the Beginning"7:50
10."Elrond Half-elven"3:24
11."Durin IV"3:05
12."Harfoot Life"2:22
13."Bronwyn and Arondir"2:48
14."Halbrand"2:56
15."The Boat"4:09
16."Sundering Seas"2:42
17."Nobody Goes Off Trail"4:26
18."Elendil and Isildur"4:17
19."White Leaves"4:43
20."The Secrets of the Mountain"3:50
21."Nolwa Mahtar"2:03
22."Nampat"2:35
23."A Plea to the Rocks" (featuring Sophia Nomvete)3:48
24."This Wandering Day" (featuring Megan Richards)2:11
25."Scherzo for Violin and Swords"1:53
26."Sailing into the Dawn"4:19
27."Find the Light" (Amazon Music exclusive) 
28."For the Southlands"4:33
29."Cavalry"4:07
30."The Promised King" (Amazon Music exclusive) 
31."Water and Flame"3:30
32."In the Mines"8:15
33."The Veil of Smoke"5:00
34."The Mystics"7:55
35."Perilous Whisperings"2:42
36."The Broken Line"5:56
37."Wise One"8:45
38."True Creation Requires Sacrifice"5:52
39."Where the Shadows Lie"3:05

Release history

Release dates and formats for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season One: Amazon Original Series Soundtrack)
Region Date Format(s) Label Ref.
Various August 19, 2022
Amazon Studios [11]
[12]
October 14, 2022 CD Mondo [2]
[13]
January 13, 2023 Vinyl [14]

Chart performance

Chart performance for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season One: Amazon Original Series Soundtrack)
Chart (2022) Peak

position

UK Soundtrack Albums (OCC)[15] 33
US Soundtrack Albums (Billboard)[16] 24

References

  1. ^ a b Reilly, Nick (July 21, 2022). "Bear McCreary confirmed as composer of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'". Rolling Stone UK. Archived from the original on July 21, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c "'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' Soundtrack Album Details". Film Music Reporter. August 18, 2022. Archived from the original on August 18, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  3. ^ "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season One Soundtrack Available Now!". TheOneRing.net. August 19, 2022. Archived from the original on August 20, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e Burlingame, Jon (August 19, 2022). "Bear McCreary Talks Scoring 'Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' as Soundtrack Releases Worldwide". Variety. Archived from the original on August 19, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Howard Shore and Bear McCreary to soundtrack LOTR on Prime series". TheOneRing.net. September 19, 2021. Archived from the original on September 21, 2021. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  6. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (September 19, 2021). "Oscar-Winning 'The Lord Of The Rings' Howard Shore In Talks To Compose Music For Amazon Studios' Middle Earth-Set TV Series". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on September 20, 2021. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Fleming, Mike Jr. (July 21, 2022). "Howard Shore Returns & Bear McCreary Scores Amazon's 'The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on July 21, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  8. ^ Motamayor, Rafael (August 19, 2022). "The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Soundtrack Is Now Available To Stream". /Film. Archived from the original on August 19, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  9. ^ "The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Soundtrack Has Dropped Early". Empire. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  10. ^ Sledge, Ben (August 22, 2022). "The Rings Of Power Soundtrack Is The Best Reveal So Far". TheGamer. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  11. ^ "The Epic Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power Soundtrack Is Here". Gizmodo. August 19, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  12. ^ Massoto, Erick (August 19, 2022). "'Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' Soundtrack Is Now Available to Stream". Collider. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  13. ^ Armstrong, Vanessa (August 19, 2022). "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Soundtrack Is Available for All Ears — Elven and Otherwise — To Listen To". Tor.com. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  14. ^ "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Score Gets a Vinyl Pressing". SuperHeroHype. August 19, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  15. ^ "Official Soundtrack Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  16. ^ "Soundtrack Chart History (Soundtrack Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
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