The Lord of the Rings - Music as an Emotional Guide

The Lord of the Rings - Music as emotional guide

Not only the actors' performances and the director's cleverly adapted screenplay are important to create certain emotions in a movie, but also the music is an essential key that guides your emotions - more than most viewers realize. This is certainly the case with the score of the monumental epic blockbuster: The Lord of the Rings!

The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring, written by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), first published in 1954, was the beginning of a new era in the fantasy genre. It was one of the books which many people thought would be impossible to shoot. In 1999, one man - Peter Jackson - gathered enough courage and belief to take the first step... and ended up creating one of the most spectacular fantasy epics, which was released in 2001.

The Lord of the Rings is not only a viewing experience, but also an audible journey through a world of darkness, grief and dispair, as well as hope, joy and love. Composer Howard Shore created a powerful score that leaves its listeners breathless. His unique interpretation of Middle Earth sounds like Tolkien described it: varied, colourful and complex. Every race, landscape and mood has its own inimitable theme.

Peter Jackson wanted to reflect Tolkien and bring Middle Earth to life. He invited Howard Shore to visit the different sets and to meet the cast, because he wanted him to immerse himself as much in the story as possible:"There were many months of reading Tolkien's books, studying Ring mythology and influences of Tolkien," Shore says "I had to do that in order to write, to express any ideas and emotions. [...] I think IÒ'm always writing for an emotional impact. I want to feel something when I watch a film and that's how I create music. I mean, I'm watching a film and feeling something and trying to create that in music [...] It is about these people and you want to relate to Frodo, and you want to relate to Bilbo and you want to feel what they're feeling."

The music helps to create different worlds and places the listener into them, giving him or her explicit information about the cultures and races in The Lord of the Rings. It also creates clarity for the listener so that you know that you are in the realm of Lothlуrien or in the frolicsome country life of the hobbits. The hobbits are given a playful and jaunty theme. Enter the realms of the Elves and you find a very ancient, ethereal and almost religious sound, performed by a female choir. A dark, chanting choir represents the Black Riders and the result is an incredibly evil and very dramatic melody. The predominately masculine Dwarvish culture is presented by a male choir, consisting of 60 Polonasian singers that chant dark and powerful dwarvish verses. "When they look down into the depth of Moria", Peter Jackson says "you want to hear all the lost souls that have been lost in those mines - thousands of Dwarves."

Shore has been oriented towards the leitmotif principle

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