I'll come clean right now and admit that my last contact with with J.R.R. Tolkein was back in early 1980-something. It was very late at night and my borrowed hardcover copy of The Silmarillion slipped out of my fingers, tilted backward and smacked me right in the face. I guess I musta dozed off there for a minute.
Looking back on it, I can't piece together a decent reason as to why I was making the attempt at reading that book. The endless Middle Earth stuff in The Two Towers drove me batty. Maybe The Return Of The King got me psyched for more background material. Maybe I was just tryin' to look cool with The Silmarillion on my book pile (probably right next to Godel, Escher, Bach). Who knows?
In any event, this was right about the time that me & science fiction/fantasy (yes, I know they're not the same thing...don't get huffy) parted ways. Those genres never truly resonated with me anyway. When I started working in an engineering environment the ever present "Love Of Spock" pushed me away even more. The "Love Of Spock"? That's what I call the expectation that because you're interested in engineering you must be into science fiction.
Fast forward to the present, and here I sit with a copy of Howard Shore's The Return Of The King....having seen none of the film series. It's an interesting situation because while I'm a big fan of film music, I've almost always seen the movie before purchasing the soundtrack/score.
Well, that's OK. The music should be able to stand on its own, right? And this is Howard Shore we're talking about. The score to Naked Lunch sits right up there with my all-time favorite film music, a list that includes Thomas Newman's American Beauty, Jerry Garcia's guitar improv for Zabriskie Point, and Ennio Morricone's entire body of work.
If I had to use a single word to describe this music, it would have to be "majestic", a word that was probably used to death in the umpteen-million reviews of Lord Of The Rings. The moods and emotions painted by Shore: pensive, tense, mysterious, fearful, aggressive, joy and wonder. These are accentuated by some truly fine solo performances including Ben del Maestro on "Minas Tirith" (an amazing contrast to the dark choral work preceding it), Billy Boyd ("The Steward Of Gondor"), Renee Fleming ("Twilight And Shadow", "The End Of All Things") and James Galway ("The Black Gates Opens", "The Grey Havens"). The recording closes with "Into The West", performed by Annie Lennox. Fan's of the film series will find a lot to like here. The emotional sweep of the recording tracks the arc of Tolkein's storyline beautifully.
Some of Shore's music is so intense that I almost want to see the movies now.
Almost.
(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)
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Article comments
1 - Steve Cordina
go see the movie already !!
*rolls eyes*
2 - Chris Kent
Why see the movie when you can listen to the lovely music by Howard Shore?
3 - Mark Saleski
it's not gonna happen.
i have a growing list of super-popular movies that i've never seen:
E.T.
Titanic
Gladiator
Lord of the Rings series
plus, the special effects used in lots of modern movies just creep me out...it's like watching software.
4 - Chris Kent
Mark,
You're as eccentric as my ex-girlfriend....she refused to watch Titantic because she had a fear of drowning....even though the film was excellent.....all of those movies mentioned are quite good. And ET didn't have computer generated effects anyway....
What were you, raised by wolves?!!
5 - Mark Saleski
...just embracing my inner curmudgeon.
6 - Eric Olsen
Dude, they really are all good in their - very different - own ways, even freaking Titanic. E.T. is one of the best movies about childhood ever made, an absolute classic, the sci-fi crap almost gets in the way. I love the first two LOTR, although I am less thrilled with #3.
Put your nose back on your face and pick one of them, at least. Sometimes things are popular for a good reason - the public isn't always stupid.