Two Towers Complete Score
© Reprise
Towers, Two
By: Randall LarsonDate: Thursday, November 23, 2006
THIS WEEK’S RECOMMENDATIONS
Reinvest your appreciation of the second component of the finest film score of the last quarter century in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – The Complete Recordings, released this week by Reprise Records in a lavish, if unaccountably more expensive, box set that follows the format of that of Fellowship of the Ring, released last November. The fuller rendition of the complete soundtrack, again, allows listeners to savor the nuances and careful development of Shore’s middle-of-the-trilogy score, as it reprises thematic material from the first film, introduces new material, and hints at musical concepts that won’t be fully developed and harmonized until the third film. Again, three discs are given over to the recording of the score in its entirety, with a fourth disc being a DVD that presents the whole thing in stunning 5.1 surround sound (the score is that of the extended version of The Two Towers). Again, a 46-page book discusses the score in huge detail, Doug Adams, borrowing from his still forthcoming book, Music of the Lord of the Rings Films, analyzing its richness as he itemizes and categorizes returning themes, new themes, textures and instrumentation.
Hearing the complete Two Towers score from start to finish, without interruption of dialog, sound effect, or quietude, really emphasizes what an accomplishment the music is. The score works vastly well as an equal partner of any component of the film itself, but it also resounds magnificently as pure music – music derived from and associated with the characters, textures, and story developments of the film, but able to achieve a viable existence as a splendid storytelling symphonic narrative all on its own (one reason the score has done so well in its Lord of the Rings Symphony concert presentation).
As the second module of a three-part work, The Two Towers should not be expected to be a different score, say in the way that X2 is a different score from X-Men or that the score for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a distinctive yet related score in comparison to that of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. In the same way that the six Star Wars scores can be seen to comprise a single, unified yet progressively developing musical entity, Shore’s Lord of the Rings trilogy of scores comprises a single, epic canvas of intricate grain and woven complexity. The Two Towers shares the same characteristics of Fellowship, while extending that earlier composition through the newer landscapes of the continuing story, requiring The Return of the King for its fullness and summation. As the unified storyline that was begun in Fellowship is splintered into a trio of separate yet integrated journeys, each one beset with its own unique challenges and adventures, the music remains clarifies the unifying objective of the mission, made clear through the overarching Ring and Mordor motifs which remain constant throughout.
The extended passages afforded by the Complete Recordings has called for different track titles than found on the original single-CD release of the score, issued in 2002. That means it’s not always easy to determine exactly which tracks or portions thereof coincide with those on the first release; save to note that the original release has now become simply a Highlights Of album, with so much of the progressive flavorings inherent in the Complete Recordings absent. This one is the true score presentation, allowing the brilliance of the music to shine as it develops purposefully, delicately, and dramatically throughout its full length. That requires a degree of attention when playing the disc – it won’t work simply to turn it on as background music while doing housework or studying for final exams. This is complicated music that deserves attentiveness with which to glean its many details – how Shore’s phrasings interact to develop into such an amazingly unified thematic conceptualization; how the musical textures shift and congeal to craft music that is both serenely beautiful yet can become powerfully aggressive at a moments notice, and then turning fragile and highly spiritual in the next moment.
The freedom of length afforded by this release allows the music to unfold at its own pace, unhampered by the need to excerpt motifs and segments to fit the confined space of a single disc. We are therefore treated to such marvelous, fully-defined passages as “Banishment of Éomer,” with its magnificently drawn horn and strings flavorings; “Gandalf the White,” whose whisperings of majesty are broken by a persuasive reprisal of the Ring theme; the brooding mysterioso of “Forests of Ithilian” and of “Entmoot Decides;” those first moments where Shore briefly introduces his Rohan motif in “One of the Dunedain” and the richness with which all of the magnificent music for Rohan will be developed, flying as freely and sturdily as the fine steeds ridden until battle and freedom by the Riders of Rohan themselves; the full-blooded, cheering heroism of “Aragorn’s Return” and of “Théodon Rides Forth,” driven by chorus and soloist Ben Del Maestro and horsemen alike, Shore’s violin section weaving angelically between pounding hoofbeats of percussion and horn; the poignant heartbreak of “Retreat,” with its melancholy intonations of “Haldir’s Lament” sung by Elizabeth Fraser, before the cue opens up into an exuberant orchestral refrain; the malignant, savage ferocity even so tinged with the wicked gracefulness of the flying beasts in “Nazgûl Attack;” and the poignant and intentional accompaniment for Sam’s monologue spoken on The Stairs of Cirith Ungol, “Tales That Really Matter;” and, throughout the score, the darkly contrasting duality of the Smeagle/Gollum music. Shore’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is an operatic symphony that is among the finest musical accomplishments of the last half century. The plethora of unreleased material on this beautifully packaged edition is mouth-watering at the least, and the sonic dynamic achieved on the surround sound DVD of the entire 188-minute score is simply astonishing.
FILM MUSIC NEWS
Film Score Monthly reports that Hollywood records will issue a soundtrack to the new Tony Scott time-travel thriller that opened this week, Déjà vu – but suspects because it isn’t offered on amazon or any of the other music retailers that it may be a down-load only release versus a packaged CD (it is listed at iTunes currently). The score, the latest from Harry Gregson-Williams, is a richly provocative one, riffing on harsh tonality and rhythm, with an intriguing multi-layered and hybrid texture , well worth checking out (For more on this score, check out the scoring session report at http://www.soundtrack.net
Mark Thomas, the British composer whose credits include Shadows in the Sun, Dog Soldiers, and the animated Sprung, has been hired to compose the score for the renaissance drama Bathory, directed by Juraj Jakubisko, a veteran Slovakian filmmaker who is best known for The Feather Fairy and An Ambiguous Report about the End of the World. Bathory is based on the story about Countess Elizabeth Bathory known as “the greatest murderess in the history of mankind.” Anna Friel stars as the countess and other actors in the cast include Karel Roden, Hans Matheson and Franco Nero. The film is a pan-European production involving companies from the UK, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary, shot in Austria – in English. The film is scheduled to premiere next year. – via filmmusicradio.com
EuroArts has released a concert DVD featuring Michel Legrand conducting the Flemish Radio Orchestra in a concert of jazz and film music – including selections from The Three Musketeers, Never Say Never, Summer of ’42, and others. Michel Legrand Live in Brussels is available in widescreen and DTS surround sound, one of a growing fistful of film music concerts provided on DVD.
The Fountain Soundtrax © Nonesuch
The increasingly prolific Lakeshore Records has released a soundtrack CD for Harsh Times, David Ayers brutal drama about life in a South Central L.A. gang. The CD contains a suite of just under 9-minutes from Graeme Revell’s score, the balance of the CD containing 10 urban/hip-hop/pop songs by various bands. The label has also issued a score CD for Stephen Endelman’s music from the Irwin Winkler Iraq war drama, Home of the Brave and also a mostly songs score for Deck the Halls, the new holiday neighbors-at-war comedy starring Matthew Broderick. Only one cue preserves a cue from George S. Clinton’s score. Next week Lakeshore will issue Dario Marianelli's score for The Return, the new Sarah Michele Gellar horror thriller.
James Newton Howard was in London at AIR Studios, last October recording his score to the Edward Zwick dramatic thriller, Blood Diamond. The film is about a South African mercenary (Leonardo DiCaprio) on a quest to find a priceless diamond, with the help of a fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) and an American journalist (Jennifer Connelly). Newton Howard recorded the score in Studio 1 (aka "The Hall") with a 60-piece orchestra and 20-person choir, conducted by Pete Anthony. Read Soundtrack.net’s scoring session report, with photos, at: http://www.soundtrack.net/news
British agency DNA Music has confirmed that Ilan Eshkeri is currently writing the score for Hannibal Rising, the fifth film based on the character created by Thomas Harris. Directed by Peter Webber (Girl With a Pearl Earring) and starring Gaspard Ulliel as Hannibal Lecter and Gong Li and Helena Lia Tachovska in supporting roles, the film is scheduled to premiere on February 9 next year. Ilan Eshkeri is an up and coming composer who has scored projects such as Chasing Temptation (formerly known as Decameron: Angels and Virgins, to be released on March 9) and the German TV movie Curse of the Ring. – via filmmusicradio.com
The latest Film & TV Music issue of the Hollywood Reporter is now on newsstands. It features articles on current trends in unconventional scoring (discussing scores such as Babel, The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, The Prestige, and The Queen), comedy scoring, composers and their home studios (BT, Sean Callery, John Ottman and Alex Wurman), a column discussing potential Oscar nominees (from Horner's Apocalypto to Craig Armstrong's World Trade Center), and sidebars with composers discussing their latest scores (Beck's We Are Marshall, Danna's The Nativity Story, Gregson-Williams's Deja Vu, Isham's Bobby).
Christophe (Buffy) Beck’s next project is a romantic comedy called Licence to Wed, directed by Ken Kwapis and starring Robin Williams, Mandy Moore and John Krasinski. The film is scheduled to be released by Warner Bros on July 4 next year. Beck also recently scored the sports drama We Are Marshall, starring Matthew McConaughey. – via filmmusicradio.com
Another film composer has passed on: East German legend of DEFA fame Karl Ernst Sasse has died after a long battle with cancer. Sasse scored more than a hundred films sine the 1960s, including Signals: A Space Adventure, and new versions of silent classics such as Der Golem. Mania’s Music News reported on Monday that composer Nigel Holton, who wrote scores for films such as Carnosaur, Chloe’s Prayer, and Indigo Hearts, died in a drowning accident while visiting friends in New Zealand. Last week’s Soundtrax column remembered Basil Poledouris, whose death from cancer on November 8th robbed Hollywood of one of its most compelling and thoughtful score maestros.
GAMES MUSIC NEWS
Four-time Emmy award-winning composer Laura Karpman (EverQuest® II, Steven Spielberg’s Taken) has written the original music for Untold Legends™ Dark Kingdom™, the action-RPG launch title for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. The fantasy score was recorded in Prague with the FILMharmonic Orchestra and Choir, with Karpman conducting. The lyrics sung by the choir were adapted by Karpman from portions of the medieval poetry text “William Wallace” in Middle Scots - the literary source for the legend of Braveheart – and woven into the score to complement the game’s intriguing narrative and dramatic storyline.
Glenn Stafford, the game’s Audio Director at Sony Online Entertainment, said, “The score for Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom was beautifully composed and recorded, including a full live orchestra and choir. The recording is exceptionally high quality and was recorded in one of the most acoustically perfect concert halls in the world – the Rudolphinum in Prague, Czech Republic. The music enhances and highlights the dynamic and changing moods throughout the course of this intense action/adventure RPG game, and is wonderful to listen to on its own as well.”
Untold Legends Dark Kingdom © Game Box
Composer’s site: www.laurakarpman.com
Award-winning composer Richard Jacques’s music from the SEGA action-adventure video game Headhunter will be performed by the English National Ballet Orchestra during the UK debut of Video Games Live™ at Hammersmith Apollo in London on November 25th. Jacques will also attend the game industry meet and greet during the pre-show festival open to all ticket holders.
Video Games Live™ features music from video games performed by top orchestras and choirs around the world, combining exclusive video footage and music arrangements, synchronized lighting, solo performers, electronic percussionists and unique interactive segments to create an explosive one-of-a-kind entertainment experience. Tommy Tallarico, co-creator of Video Games Live, said, “The main theme from Headhunter is one of the greatest video game tunes ever written! For many UK gamers, Richard’s music will be a highlight of our upcoming European debut.”
Featuring Jacques’ signature combination of adrenaline-pumping, emotive orchestral composition and flair for writing memorable music-to-picture, Headhunter was the first video game soundtrack to record at the world famous Abbey Road Studios’ Studio One and with the A-list musicians of the London Session Orchestra.
Richard Jacques commented, “It’s great that VGL is bringing this unique concert experience to European audiences. I’ve been following the US shows from day one and last summer enjoyed the privilege of hearing my music performed at the Hollywood Bowl. However it will be an especially proud moment to have my music, which was originally recorded here in London, celebrated in front of a home crowd.”
www.richardjacques.com
Recommended Soundtrack sources:
www.arksquare.com/index_main
www.intermezzomedia.com/ (Italy)
For questions or comments, contact the author at
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My wife is *still* pissed that they jacked up the price on this one. It's like somebody realized how well FotR was selling, and decided to rip us off. Well, that wouldn't be the first time, won't be the last. Still, I'm very much looking forward to the release of the Complete Recordings for RotK.