Lord of the Rings music... Gosh, I love it!

There's a very subtle cue in "A Coronal of Silver and Gold". Its a much more subdued version of the music that plays right in the transition from when Sam is looking at Frodo after they are back from Mordor, transitioning into the wide shot zooming in on Minas Tirith as Aragorn is about to be crowned.

The cue in A coronal of silver and gold occurs at time marker 1:10. It corresponds with the scene where the head of an old Gondorian statue is lying on the ground, and for a brief moment a ray of sunlight illuminates a crown of flowers on the head, foreshadowing Aragorn's return....

Yeah that bit is clearly related to one of the Gondor themes. Incidentally I hated that track title so I changed mine to In The Morgul Vale.

The damn thing finally arrived

is it normal that I have two copies of that book thing?


edit: the crazy part of The Palantir is crazier than Shelob's Lair
and did my DVD player freeze or is the arrival at Minas Tirith really named The Grace of Undomiel?

The majority of that track has to do with Arwen, so the title fits IMO.

I may be the only one who genuinely likes the track titles as they are. Same goes for the FOTR and TTT track titles.

It's not like I changed the track names on the other two, not even Glamdring even though Foundations of Stone is all kinds of awesome, and I just posted (only edited, really) that in the minute I noticed that, but at first sight I really think that's misnamed. No matter how much Arwen stuff is there, the Minas Tirith part dominates the track. Though I haven't paid close attention to when it ends... I am posting after all

I still have 5 days. Please Santa, I've been very good this year!

The funny thing is that long Undomiel track should be split into two tracks, as there is like a 10+ second break between them in the film. The music starts anew when Arwen drops the book as the life of the Eldar is leaving her. That should be a new track, and I split it on my version into a track called Minas Tirith.

I think that's why the naming puzzled me - I didn't know the first 4+ minutes of Arwen stuff were the same track. So I need to turn my complaint around: it's appropriately named, but the arrival at Minas Tirith is just some part of it

What a great coincidence it arrived on the first day of my holiday break - I'm halfway through my the second listen and am about to read the online annotated thing

I'm glad they decided to make it all one track. It helps the pacing of the album to have a mixture of longer and shorter tracks rather than a bunch of short cues one after the other. Do it that way and you pretty much have the "Ultimate Edition" of TPM.

As for the Undomiel track, there may be a break in the music in the film, but it's still the same scene. Just because there's a break doesn't mean it needs to be a new track. Splitting it into two separate tracks is, to me, needless, and would be distracting as a listening experience. Just my humble opinion.

I am pretty much adamant about this. If there is a break in the music in the film, it should be a new track. For this one I like it better because the remaining Grace of Undomiel track is all mellow and the new track, that I called Minas Tirith, is mostly higher energy stuff. And for the record, we're not talking about short tiny little cues if this was split up where the break occurs. The Grace of Undomiel winds up at 2:50 and Minas Tirith is 3:32. Both are totally normal lengths for a track.

You're pretty adamant about most of your opinions.

But, whatever floats your boat. I generally really enjoy the album presentations of the CR's as they are. A lot of thought and planning clearly went into each project and it shows and I respect that. But each person should just enjoy this fantastic music however he sees fit.

Who isn't adamant about their own opinions? Sorry if this is some sort of problem for you.

I'm not adamant about this sort of thing, but it is inconvenient at the very least for those who make playlists and want obvious foreground pieces and can't take a somewhat iconic moment like the arrival at Minas Tirith without having to wait through 4 minutes of (semi-)quiet/ etheral Arwen music. Not that I ever had "Minas Tirith" from the OST on my mp3 player
As a listening experience as a whole, I don't give a damn. Isolated, it seems weird and makes looking for a cue take 2 seconds longer. And if it is possible to split it up, that moment can have its own name.
One that fits. Not like "The White Tree" for the lighting of the beacons
And for each film there were a few tracks that had better names on the OST than on the CR. Still, never changed them.


On a more positive note, reading through the booklet and especially the annotated score was highly insightful. Even knowing the OST by heart and having managed to watch the EE several times there were a lot of great stuff I never noticed. From the more obvious stuff like how "For Frodo" is a choral version of the Fellowship theme (really, I never noticed ) to detailed things like that combination of History and Evil of the Ring themes, themes battling it out between each other (Siege of Gondor), themes not quite making it to the end... I knew I knew nothing about the subtleties of music, but damn! I've got to read the things for FotR and TTT again...

Woo, my copy arrived today. Though still have to wait 4 days to get it Hurry up christmas lol

Really?! That was one of the things I was most looking forward to on the ROTK CR.

the string that play a small portion, sure, but the choir always went completely past me

I love that cue, as well. I love tracking the evolution of the Fellowship material throughout the three scores and how Shore manipulates the orchestration of the theme. I also love how all he needs to use are the first three notes of the theme for reference and how that makes it a very versatile motif that can easily meld with his other material.

Cerrabore can you shed more light on the ROTK CR being out of print? It'll be easier to find in the future if it's in our LOTR thread.

This is only what I've heard from someone else: the Return of the King Complete Recordings went out of print a few weeks ago unexpectedly. Doug Adams, the producer of the album, is working to get it back in print.

Doug Adams posted this on his blog:

ttbk

Interesting. I hope the ROTK CR comes back so people can get it. It's worth owning.

When is Doug Adams book coming out?

Any news on the book or the CD that supposedly will come out at the end of the year? I remember Doug Adams talking about it sometime last year, but I haven't heard anything recently.

From Doug Adam's blog:

"Plans are now underway to create an all-inclusive Master Box (a working title, not necessarily the final name) that includes all the Complete Recordings music. It has been decided that The Rarities Archives should be added to this set in order to make it absolutely as comprehensive as possible. This makes an enormous difference in terms of what rare material can be released? Had the Rarities been released with the book, licensing costs were always going to have SOME effect on how much audio could be included. We would eventually hit a point where, due budgetary realities, we'd have to start cutting things. There was just so much material.

However, with Warners now eager for the Rarities, everything is back in-house. They already own the license to this music. This means that CONSIDERABLY more music is now available for the project! You will see why this qualifies as something "major," I promise. And as I've said, there is some incredible LOTR music that no one has ever heard. Now we can be sure you'll hear it all. Frankly, it'll be amazing to put everything Shore wrote for this project side-by-side. It's remarkable both from a collector/completeist standpoint and from an artistic standpoint. Here, finally, is the complete collection of Howard Shore's music for The Lord of the Rings.

I have also stressed to the powers that be that I feel the Rarities should be made available as a stand-alone album as well, so that that material is not available only with the full multi-disc set. So those of you content with one set of the CRs need not panic!

So what else can I say about this so-called Master Box? Uh? nothing really. But only because there's next to nothing decided at this point. I don't know what it will look like. I don't know what's going to be inside as far as the CR's audio DVDs and liners go. It's very, very early on for this project. But everything seems to be in the best possible hands right now! This will be overseen just as The Complete Recordings were, with the same team and the same dedication.

As for The Rarities Archives, it's still safe to assume this will be presented on DVD because of the amount of material. But we're exploring some details past this that could potentially make the music a little more accessible for those disinclined to pop in an audio DVD.

This development also impacts the book. The Rarities were meant to represent the heart of the book's multimedia aspect. With that aspect now moving on to album form, we're freed up to create something entirely new. That's what all the upcoming filming is about. We're still discovering the parameters of this new aspect, but we're using our public appearances and pre-concert lectures as a starting point?the experiences that Howard and I have had discussing this score. The experiences themselves aren't going to be the focus, obviously, the music will. But I think our framing device will develop along these lines. We're in an even more embryonic state on this than on the Master Box. It's come as a complete surprise? and wonderful surprise at that, but thoughts are still being organized.

So are you all preparing to place the defibrillator paddles on your wallet? Don't do it! The book's bottom line is untouched. It will cost exactly the same as it would have six months ago. There will still be a Standard Edition and a souped-up Deluxe Edition. These will both be book and DVD combos. Deluxe will be deluxe in presentation only. You know, special hardcover, autographs, hand numbered, etc. Expect more announcements on this in the near future.

We are also actively looking into a super-deluxe package that would include both the Deluxe Edition of the book and the Master Box. (This would be the actual book, not a 5 by 5 liner reduction or anything like that.) If you've got the cash and are dying to get your hands on the most luxurious presentation possible, I promise you, we'll make it worth your while! Oh, and we have a special guest working on the

Á la carte for those of us with the CR sets?