The original soundtrack to the Amazon Prime Video television series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power features a musical score composed by Bear McCreary and a main title theme composed by Howard Shore, who previously scored the film trilogies The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by Peter Jackson. McCreary wrote nearly 15 new themes, inspired by Shore's earlier work. The score includes various musical styles and fictional languages, consructed by author J. R. R. Tolkien. Recording involved a 90-piece orchestra and 40-member vocal choir working in London, Vienna, and Los Angeles.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season One: Amazon Original Series Soundtrack)
Soundtrack album by Howard Shore (title theme) and Bear McCreary (original score)
Released	August 19, 2022 (2022-08-19)
Recorded	2021–2022
Studio	Abbey Road Studios AIR Studios Synchron Stage Vienna
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	2:40:54
Label	Amazon Mondo

Season 1: Amazon Original Series Soundtrack was released on all major streaming services on August 19, 2022, two weeks prior to the official premiere. It was led by two singles from McCreary's score – "Galadriel" and "Sauron" – released exclusively on Amazon Music on July 21.[1] The album features 40 tracks. The physical soundtrack will be marketed by Mondo and is set for release on CD (October 14) and vinyl (January 13, 2023).[2] Additional soundtrack albums featuring the full score for each episode will be released after the episode premieres.[3]

Background

Howard Shore, the composer for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, was reported to be in discussions with Amazon about working on the series in September 2020. He was said to be interested in developing musical themes but not necessarily composing the entire score.[5] A year later, Shore was confirmed to be in talks for the series,[6] when composer Bear McCreary was reported to be involved as well.[5] Their hiring was officially announced in July 2022, with McCreary composing the score and Shore writing the main title theme.[1] McCreary said the main theme was created independently of the score, but he felt the two "fit together so beautifully".[7] The Head of Music at Amazon Studios, Bob Bowen, opined that both musicians have "deep understanding of the Tolkien legendarium".[7]

Recording and production

McCreary began working on the series in July 2021, and said it was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to work on such an ambitious score with the creative freedom that he wanted. He spent nearly two months writing new musical themes based on the scripts, which he compared to that of writing a symphony, and then used those to compose nine hours of music for the first season over eight months. Each themes had two sections, an introduction and the development of that theme. He wanted to honor Shore's musical legacy and hoped to create a "continuity of concept" between the series and films, with the 15 new themes he wrote for the season being added to the "pantheon of memorable melodies" that Shore had written. He did note that his music would reflect the series' depiction of "these societies at their peak" compared to Shore's music for the Third Age which had "a wistfulness and a melancholy".[4] McCreary used different approaches for the different groups in the series: the music for the Elves features "etheral voices" and choir, the Dwarven music has "deep male vocals", the Harfoots have music based in natural sounds, and the harmonic language for Númenor has Middle Eastern influences.[8]

The score for each episode took four days to record, using up to 90-piece orchestras at Abbey Road Studios and AIR Studios in London as well as a 40-person choir at Synchron Stage in Vienna. For the choral music, McCreary pulled text from Tolkien's writings and worked with the series' language experts to write new lyrics in Tolkien's fictional languages, including the Elvish languages Sindarin and Quenya, the Dwarvish language Khuzdûl, Black Speech, and the Númenórean language Adûnaic. He added each themes had been crafted with close consultation with the language experts, further stating that "the context of what is being said, and the language in which it is being said, matches what you are watching". Soloists were recorded in Los Angeles and across Europe playing folk instruments such as the hardanger fiddle, nyckelharpa, bagpipes, and bodhrán drums. McCreary was still writing music for the first season in Los Angeles while recording for most of the episodes took place, but he was able to conduct the orchestra for the final episode at AIR Studios in April 2022.[4] The score also featured two performances from the actors, Sophia Nomvete and Megan Richards, who respectively played Princess Disa and Poppy Proudfellow.[9][10]

Track listing

All music composed by Bear McCreary, except where noted:[4][2]

Additional soundtracks

The additional soundtracks for The Rings of Power, featured full score for each episode, which were released after the episodes' premiere.[4] The soundtrack for the first two episodes: "A Shadow of the Past" and "Adrift" were released on September 1 and 2, respectively.[12][13][14] The soundtrack to "Adrift" was initially released on August 31, ahead of the series' premiere, but was removed and then made available again on September 2.[13][14]

Reception

Zanobard Reviews wrote "while many of McCreary’s new themes are indeed amazing and very memorable, some are sadly a bit less so, with a few blending into each other to the point where they are rather difficult to identify and separate at times, which does dampen the whole “orchestral tapestry” thing a tad. Howard Shore’s brief contribution to The Rings Of Power is also a bit of a disappointment, as a singular and rather forgettable ninety second cue just isn’t enough to make any meaningful impact on the score, no matter how LOTR-y it may sound. Bear McCreary does channel a little bit of Shore in his compositional style (particularly in the more Elven moments) but the music here is certainly and identifiably McCreary’s, which will please some, and heavily displease others [...] the composer does seem to just give it his enthusiastic all here, to some seriously impressive musical results overall which honestly is all we can really ask for. In essence then; if you’re coming here expecting the second coming of Howard Shore’s Lord Of The Rings and all the iconic music that would entail, you are going to be disappointed. If you’re here with just the expectations of a solid fantasy score, a couple of decent themes and a good orchestral time though; you’ll be utterly blown away by how good this is."[15]

Thomas Bacon of Screen Rant wrote "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power soundtrack to date is absolutely stunning, perfectly complementing the lavish cinematography and remarkable special effects. Shore's theme is stylistically evocative of Peter Jackson's classic The Lord of the Rings movies (likely the reason he was hired in the first place). McCreary, meanwhile, is a skilled composer whose own personal style has been heavily influenced by Shore's work, making him a perfect thematic match. At the same time, though, his music is subtly different - in keeping with the Second Age setting of The Rings of Power, which deals with a very different version of Middle-earth."[16] Writing on the "Khazad-dûm" theme, Bacon said "it is one of the most striking themes, with thunderous drums and deep chants to present the Mines of Moria before the Dwarven kingdom's downfall",[16] and "Nori Brandyfoot" called that the theme "is evocative of the Hobbits, but with (appropriately enough) a far more adventurous feel."[16] He concluded "McCreary's score doesn't quite live up to Shore's, but frankly it was never going to. Still, it is remarkably impressive and serves as a testimony to the composer's real skill and talent."[16]

Sophia Alexandra Hall of Classic FM, called the score as "a mystical musical return to middle earth".[17] Juliette Harrisson of Den of Geek had reviewed the score "McCreary’s Celtic-flavored composition is the perfect continuation of Shore’s work".[18] Ben Sledge of The Gamer "Composer Bear McCreary has created a soundtrack with shades of the Ainulindalë".[19] Alicie Rose Dodds of Game Rant said "If Shore’s Middle Earth was one of melancholy and the wistful crumbling of one great race, then McCreary’s Middle Earth is one that speaks loudly of the might of these cultures at the pinnacle of their power. His music plays like the predecessor to Shore’s, like the music of mighty people before they fell to sickness, greed, and ruin. The best comparison is that Shore’s music is like the faded and often crumbling frescos of a church, still mighty, beautiful, and powerful, but lacking the color and vibrancy of when it was first created."[20]

The main theme to Rings of the Power, written by Howard Shore, was nearly streamed over 117,000 times in Spotify, while the themes "Galadriel" and "Khazad-dûm" streamed over 100,000 times.[16]

Charts

Release history

References

На других языках

[ru] Властелин колец: Кольца власти (саундтрек)