Howard Shore: Creating the Lord of the Rings Symphony (2004)
Amerimage-Spectra
Documentary Description
Howard Shore - Creating The Lord of the Rings Symphony - A Composer's Journey Through Middle-earth Includes excerpts of live concert footage from The Lord of the Rings Symphony: Six Movements for Orchestra, Chorus and Soloists, documentary commentary by Howard Shore, and the illustrations of Alan Lee and John Howe. The concert footage was recorded live at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Place des Arts, Montreal, Canada in February 2004.
The music of the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced by Howard Shore. Shore wrote many hours of music for The Lord of the Rings, 10 hours of which have been released in The Complete Recordings CD/DVD boxed sets. (Additional music including alternate, unused compositions are set to be released in late 2010.)[dated info] Shore composed the music in an emotional, operatic way, threading through the scores over 80 specific leitmotifs, which are categorized by the Middle-earth cultures to which they relate. Shore began his work on the music for The Fellowship of the Ring in late 2000 and recorded the first pieces of music (the Moria sequence) in spring of 2001. Additional music for the extended DVD version was recorded in March, 2002. A similar pattern was followed for The Two Towers and The Return of the King, with the final sessions taking place in Watford on March 20, 2004.
The music was performed primarily by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Voices, with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra contributing some of the early Moria music. A wide variety of instrumental and vocal soloists contributed to the scores as well. The scores for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King won Academy Awards in 2002 and 2004. The latter film also won an Oscar statuette for Best Song, as well as the Golden Globes for Best Original Score - Motion Picture and Best Original Song. 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.
Comments
Related Documentaries
People who watch this documentary also look for: