Soundtracks

This page explores various official editions of the LOTR film soundtracks, including regular, enhanced and internet versions, and complete recordings.

Link to these other pages for:

Introduction

The first film I ever remember seeing at the local Roxy Theatre was a musical; I was at most only four years old. During my childhood, I listened repeatedly to sets of recordings of broadway musicals, operas, and operettas – as well as just about every other genre of music. By age 9, I already thought occasionally about how cool it would be to create a musical or an opera … a goal I achieved before age 30 by scripting, composing, and writing lyrics for a one-act musical comedy.

I didn’t really understand until years later why I’d been so drawn to these kinds of musical stories. I think they appealed to me because they are holistic. They immerse you in a distinct reality of place and time, of costume and staging, where thoughts and feelings are freely sung, not merely said. Operas and musicals heighten the emotion of a situation and guide us as audience members into what the composer wants us to feel about a character or situation.

I contend that The Lord of the Rings trilogy would be a far different and much diminished experience without the brilliant soundtrack composed by Howard Shore. Would our sense of camaraderie and community in the Shire be the same without the Springlering dance and the pub songs of Merry and Pippin? Would we have less apprehension about Gollum’s duplicity or a foreboding sense about Shelob’s lair? Would we have the same level of joy at King Aragorn’s kiss of Arwen Evenstar at the coronation?

If you aren’t sure how music affects a scene, try this experiment. Pull out your special features DVD from The Two Towers THEATRICAL version (not Extended version). On the first page of the menu is a link to “Return to Middle-earth: WB Special.” Near the end of this presentation – approximately 40:00 into it – you’ll find a first look at the scene of the fight between the Rohirrim and the Warg riders of Saruman on the way to Helm’s Deep. The thing is, this two-minute clip happens to have all the sound effects added in, but no soundtrack yet. It’s a rare opportunity to be able to compare and contrast two relatively finished versions of the same scene – one with soundtrack and one without.

So – watch this clip, then immediately get your DVD of The Two Towers and watch the final version with the soundtrack:

TTT Theatrical Edition – Disc 1 – Chapter 26 “The Wolves of Isengard” –  about 1:25:50 into the disc.

TTT Extended Edition – Disc 2 – Chapter 34 “The Wolves of Isengard” – about 8:30 into the disc.

You may want to watch each version several times, perhaps noting with the music-enhanced version where the emotional tone changes, or follow the movie past where the preview clip ends and note when the soundtrack drops out for emotional effect.

Soundtrack Editions and Release Dates

The following information has been gleaned from several sites, but primarily from Filmtracks, which has some of the most detailed information available on soundtracks. I will seek to confirm the exact release dates from other sources later.

The Fellowship of the Ring Releases

  • Standard and Limited Edition (red leatherette) Soundtracks – November 20, 2001
  • Trilogy Box Set – December 9, 2003
  • Complete Recordings Box – December 13, 2005
  • Rarities Archive – October 5, 2010

The Two Towers Releases

  • Standard, Limited Edition (blue leatherette), and Internet (brown leatherette) Soundtracks – December 10, 2002
  • Trilogy Box Set – December 9, 2003
  • Complete Recordings Box – November 7, 2006
  • Rarities Archive – October 5, 2010

The Return of the King Releases

  • Standard Edition Soundtrack – November 25, 2003
  • Limited Edition (green leatherette) and Internet (burgundy leatherette) Soundtracks – December 9, 2003
  • Trilogy Box Set – December 9, 2003
  • Complete Recordings Box Set – November 20, 2007
  • Rarities Archive – October 5, 2010

Official Websites; Video and Print Resources

This section shares some resources to help explore the specifics of how Howard Shore composed the score for Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy, how some of the special songs came about, and how and why this music moves us …

Key Websites

Doug Adams Music of LOTR – Doug Adams’ blog on the complete recordings and archive for Howard Shore’s music from Lord of the Rings.

Howard Shore – Official website for Howard Shore, including details on LOTR live-performance-to-film-projection, LOTR Symphony, etc.

LOTR Soundtracks – Official website for details on all versions of LOTR soundtracks, plus trailers and some downloads (like trading cards and buddy icons).

See also the sections below on Film Score Monthly and Filmtracks for lists of specific links.

Video Sources

The Return of the King Limited Edition (green leatherette cover) and Internet Edition (maroon leatherette cover) each include a bonus DVD entitled, “Howard Shore: An Introspective.” According to the soundtrack booklet, features on this DVD relevant to the soundtrack include:

  • “Use Well The Days: A Behind the Scenes Portrait”: a glimpse at Hoard Shore’s weeks in London creating the music for The Return of the King by Elizabeth Cotnolr. (A 20-minuted documentary on the making of the score.)
  • Photo gallery from the studio sessions of The Return of the King

“Creating The Lord of the Rings Symphony: A Composer’s Journey Through Middle-earth” is the bonus DVD that was included with the ROTK Gift Set of the Extended Edition DVDs. It runs 52 minutes and contains both clips of concert footage from the live presentation of the score with orchestra and choirs, as well as commentary by Howard Shore and behind-the-scenes footage on the production of the film score and the live symphony presentation.

Print Sources

Fan Club Magazine – Issue No. 5, Pages 40-49 (October/November 2002; Arwen on the cover). This issue features an extensive interview with Howard Shore, “The Man Behind the Music,” written by Dan Madsen. Other issues of the Fan Club magazine have smaller articles and news features on Howard Shore and/or the soundtrack, but nothing this extensive. For details, check the Fan Club Magazines page, as I will eventually post a comprehensive index of articles and advertisements from the entire magazine series.

Music from the Movies, Issue 42, 2004. The entire issue features The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. This edition is sold out, however, it may appear elsewhere occasionally, on sites such as eBay or abebooks.com.

Projecting Tolkien’s Musical Worlds: A Study of Musical Affect in Howard Shore’s Soundtrack to Lord of the Rings by Matthew Young (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8364-2496-7). Matthew Young, M.M. in Music Theory, Bowling Green State University; Assistant Instructor and Ph.D. candidate in Music Theory at the University of Texas – Austin. From the back cover:

Explaining the meaning or affect of a piece of music is by no means an easy task. However, some success has been found through the work of Philip Tagg, whose technique consists of breaking down a musical example into minimal units of musical meaning (called musemes), comparing those units to other musical examples possessing sociomusical connotations, and demonstrating a transfer of musical affect from the music possessing sociomusical connotations to the object of analysis. This work expands Tagg’s techniques in an attempt to analyze the musical affect of Howard Shore’s film score for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. After a discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien’s description of the culture of the inhabitants found in Middle-earth, this work dissects the thematic material of Shore’s score, focusing on his incorporation of the music and culture of Tolkien’s text into his film score through instrumentation and style, as well as utilizing musematic analysis to argue the musical affect of Shore’s major themes that is projected on the audience. This book is directed toward any individual, musician or film enthusiast, who appreciates the ability for a film score to heighten the overall movie experience.

Studying the Event Film: The Lord of the Rings, edited by Harriet Margolis, Sean Cubitt, Barry King, and Thierry Jutel (Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-07190-7198-0). A set of academic essays using The Lord of the Rings trilogy to illustrate how a film can now become a global phenomenon through careful planning, marketing, licensing, and promotion … in ways that intersect with fan (and potential fan) interests. This one-of-a-kind resource includes an essay entitled, “Howard Shore’s Ring Cycle: The Film Score and Operatic Strategy” by Judith Bernanke (pages 176-184).

Resources: Film Score Monthly

Film Score Monthly featured cover stories on Howard Shore for each of the three installments in The Lord of the Rings’ soundtrack, and an occasional additional related story. Downloadable PDF back issues are available from the website by purchasing a subscription.

Resources: Filmtracks

Filmtracks offers significant online resources for soundtracks, including reviews, audio clips, track listings, cover images, general production credits, solo vocalists, choral text lyricists, labels and release dates, awards, and other notes.

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Howard Shore) – Includes reviews, audio clips, track listings, pictures, and other notes about The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack and albums, including standard edition (2001), Complete Set edition (2005), and Rarities Archive (2010).

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Howard Shore) – Includes reviews, audio clips, track listings, pictures, and other notes about The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers soundtrack and albums, including the standard edition (2002), Complete Set edition (2006), and Rarities Archive (2010).

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Howard Shore) – Includes reviews, audio clips, track listings, pictures, and other notes about The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King soundtrack and albums, including standard edition (2003), Complete Set edition (2007), and Rarities Archive (2010).

Nominations and Awards

Introduction

The Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) has many great features, among which are: cast and crew details, release dates and global ticket sales information, DVD release details, and nominations and awards information. For details on nominations for awards and special recognitions, IMDB is the most comprehensive listing I have found. They include worldwide awards, not simply the most well-known US and UK awards. They also include awards and special recognitions given by professional/artisan groups, organizations with specific interests, and the general public. (Note that awards may be given even several years after a movie is released.)

Currently – 2011 – the link to a film’s nominations and awards page is found near the bottom of the main IMDB page for the movie, along with links to multitudes of other details. The links below go directly to the IMDB Awards Page for that specific film.

The Fellowship of the Rings

The Two Towers

The Return of the King

When it comes to recognition for achievement in composition of scores and individual songs, as well as sound/music production, it is intriguing to see just how frequently music from The Lord of the Rings trilogy was at least nominated. Here are categorized lists of awards and additional nominations, extracted from the IMDB pages on each film.

The Fellowship of the Ring

SCORE/Howard Shore – Awards

  1. ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards – Top Box Office Films
  2. Academy Awards – Best Music – Original Score
  3. Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards – Best Composer
  4. Chicago Film Critics Association Awards – Best Original Score
  5. Grammy Awards – Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media (Howard Shore, composer; John Kurlander, engineer/mixer)
  6. Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards – Best Score
  7. Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards – Best Music Score
  8. Motion Picture Sound Editors – Best Sound Editing – Music – Feature Film, Domestic and Foreign (Suzana Peric, music editor; Nancy Allen, music editor; Michael Price, scoring editor; Andrew Dudman, scoring editor)
  9. Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards – Best Original Score
  10. World Soundtrack Awards – Best Original Soundtrack of the Year – Orchestral

SCORE/Howard Shore – Additional Nominations

  1. AFI Composer of the Year
  2. Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films – Best Music
  3. BAFTA Awards – Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music
  4. Golden Globes – Best Original Score – Motion Picture
  5. Online Film Critics Society Awards – Best Original Score
  6. World Soundtrack Awards –Soundtrack Composer of the Year

SONG/“May It Be” Enya – Awards

  1. Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards – Best Song
  2. Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards – Best Song
  3. Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards – Best Original Song (Enya, Nicky Ryan, Roma Ryan)

SONG/“May It Be” Enya – Additional Nominations

  1. Golden Globes – Best Original Song – Motion Picture
  2. Grammy Awards – Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (Enya, Nicky Ryan, Roma Ryan)

The Two Towers

SCORE/Howard Shore – Awards

  1. ASCAP Award – Top Box Office Films
  2. Grammy Awards – Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (Howard Shore, composer; John Kurlander, engineer; Peter Cobbin, engineer/mixer)

SCORE/Howard Shore – Additional Nominations

  1. Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films – Best Music
  2. Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards – Best Composer
  3. Chicago Film Critics Association Awards – Best Original Score
  4. Motion Picture Sound Editors – Best Sound Editing in a Feature – Music – Feature Film (music editors: Michael Price, Andrew Dudman, Steve Price, Mark Willsher, Malcolm Fife, Nigel Scott, Jonathan Schultz, Rebecda Gatrell, Raphaël Mouterde)
  5. Online Film Critics Society Awards – Best Original Score

SONG/“Gollum’s Song” Fran Walsh and Howard Shore – Awards

  1. Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards – Best Original Song

SONG/“Gollum’s Song” Fran Walsh and Howard Shore – Additional Nominations

  1. World Soundtrack Awards – Best Original Song Written for a Film (composer, Howard Shore; lyricists Fran Walsh, Janet Roddick, David Donaldson, Steve Roche, and David Long; performer, Emiliana Torrini)

The Return of the King

SCORE/Howard Shore – Awards

  1. Academy Awards – Best Music – Original Score
  2. Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films – Best Music
  3. ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards – Top Box Office Films
  4. Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards – Best Composer
  5. Chicago Film Critics Association Awards – Best Original Score
  6. Golden Globes – Best Original Score – Motion Picture
  7. Grammy Awards – Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media (Howard Shore, composer; John Kurlander, engineer/mixer)
  8. Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards – Best Score
  9. Online Film Critics Society Awards – Best Original Score
  10. Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards – Best Original Score

SCORE/Howard Shore – Additional Nominations

  1. BAFTA Awards – Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music
  2. Motion Picture Sound Editors – Best Sound Editing in a Feature – Music – Feature Film (music editors: Jonathan Schultz, Andrew Dudman, Steve Price, Michael Price, Malcolm Fife, Nigel Scott, Rebecda Gatrell)
  3. Satellite Awards – Best Original Score

SONG/“Into the West” Fran Walsh, Howard Shore, and Annie Lennox – Awards

  1. Academy Awards – Best Music – Original Song
  2. Golden Globes – Best Original Song – Motion Picture
  3. Grammy Awards – Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media

SONG/“Into the West” Fran Walsh, Howard Shore, and Annie Lennox – Additional Nominations

  1. Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards – Best Original Song
  2. World Soundtrack Awards – Best Original Song Written for Film

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