# Lord of the Rings



## Edward Elgar

I have a couple of queries on the subject of the Soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings. I would like to know your opinions.

1. Do you think it's good music?
2. Do you think it's right to class this as classical music, or to class any other film music as classical?
3. Do you think it's right of James Horner to pass off the highlights of the soundtrack as a symphony?


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## MaestroX

> 1. Do you think it's good music?


Yes, its very fitting to the film. I own all 3 soundtracks 



> 2. Do you think it's right to class this as classical music, or to class any other film music as classical?


Defining music to a genre is always difficult. Its not concert music (aka classical) its film music, so its best not confuse things and keep it in the film music box 



> 3. Do you think it's right of James Horner to pass off the highlights of the soundtrack as a symphony?


No way! I hate it when people do spin offs, let it be


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## Lisztfreak

Actually, before I started listening to classical, the LotR soundtrack was my favourite (and only) music! And I still enjoy it. Being also quite a Tolkien fan, the combination of the book and the soundtrack was pure magic for me - I could read & listen for hours . So yes, I would definitely say it's good music.
Is it classical? Well, perhaps only in orchestration. But it follows the film, and simply flows on, so as much as I know, it isn't anyhow formally arranged to be classical (i.e. sonata forms, rondos, variations etc.). 
First time I hear about this James Horner's plans. I'm not sure about it... perhaps we should just let the guy try, and we'll see if it's any good .


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## Edward Elgar

Sorry! I meant Howard Shore!


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## Lisztfreak

Aaah, so! Now I think of it, I've heard something about him writing a symphony some time ago... it should have been performed by the New York Philharmonic or London Symphony Orchestra, I'm not sure any more.


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## IAmKing

Edward Elgar said:


> I have a couple of queries on the subject of the Soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings. I would like to know your opinions.
> 
> 1. Do you think it's good music?
> 2. Do you think it's right to class this as classical music, or to class any other film music as classical?
> 3. Do you think it's right of James Horner to pass off the highlights of the soundtrack as a symphony?


1. Yes. I don't have the soundtrack on CD, and have therefore only heard it while watching the films, but I think its really fantastic. Unbelievably fitting... the Riders of Rohan theme is just phenomenal.

2. Its difficult to say. What defines classical music from a purely musical perspective?

3. I'm not sure. I haven't heard this "symphony". If it works as a cohesive piece of music as a symphony, then I have no problem with it. If he merely cobbled together the highlights of the soundtrack (which I don't believe any self respecting composer would do), then I don't think it would be right.


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## Edward Elgar

You know, the Riders of Rohan theme was played on a Norweigien fiddle called a hardingard!


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## Lisztfreak

Wasn't it hardinger  ? It certainly sounds fabulous!


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## oisfetz

Better this ring:


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## Danny Piano

MaestroX said:


> Yes, its very fitting to the film. I own all 3 soundtracks
> Defining music to a genre is always difficult. Its not concert music (aka classical) its film music, so its best not confuse things and keep it in the film music box





> Is it classical? Well, perhaps only in orchestration. But it follows the film, and simply flows on, so as much as I know, it isn't anyhow formally arranged to be classical (i.e. sonata forms, rondos, variations etc.).


That's not true
While I agree that classical is a very relative term it has more to do with chronology than style

So to understand whether soundtracks can be considered "classical" music we have to ask ourselves whether the last centuries music that was composed to follow imagines, stories and pictures was considered classical

The answer to this question is: of course!

You mentioned sonatas, rondos, variations and so on but forgot either incidental music (Grieg's Peer Gynt, Tchaikovsky's The Snow Maiden and Hamlet, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, Mendellsonh's Midsummer's Night Dream, Bizet's L'Arlesienne, Schubert's Rosamunde, Khachaturian's Masquarade, Sibelius' Pellea and Melisande and The Tempest and The White Swan and King Christian ...) and symphonic poems (Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scherahazade, Dukas's Apprentice Sorcerer, Beethoven's Creatures of Prometheus, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Strauss' Don Juan, Dvorak's The Golden Spinning Wheel and the Water Goblin, Sibelius' The Wood Nymph ...)

Not to mention the Prokofiev soundtrack for the movie "Lieutenant Kije" 1933, which is considered classical music anyway

What I'm saying is that music which follows a story or images or that is even just incidental and the focus is more on the acting and the plot rather than the music itself not only existed in the "classical" music era but was not considered inferior or less worthy to be "classical" than other forms.

Soundtracks are just a technologically-driven evolution of symphonic poems and incidental music and as such they should be considered pure "classical" contemporary music and not just film-music


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## Kurkikohtaus

*Danny Piano*, most of the incidental pieces that you mention were rearranged into suites by the composer himself. We are not listening to the actual incidental music, we are listening to "themes" from the incidental music that were given the classical forms that Lisztfreak mentions.

As far as the tone poems you mention are concerned, most of those are in sonata, variation or rondo form.

If there is one thing that truly unifies "classical" music from say 1700 until into the 20th Century, it is the organization of musical motives into a formal context.

So if the themes from the Lord of the Rings are taken and rearranged into a formal context, I would be most interested in hearing the result.


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## Lisztfreak

Considering the 'Lord of the Rings Symphony', here's the link to a site about Howard Shore's performance at Albert Hall, with London Symphony Orchestra:

http://www.futuremovies.co.uk/filmmaking.asp?ID=88

Reading the site it seems that the 'Symphony' is in fact just the thing some feared it to be - a series of higlights from the film soundtrack. I hoped it would be a real, classically shaped symphony, and I don't think Shore would have been incapable of writing something like that.


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## mahlerfan

Edward Elgar said:


> I have a couple of queries on the subject of the Soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings. I would like to know your opinions.
> 
> 1. Do you think it's good music?
> 2. Do you think it's right to class this as classical music, or to class any other film music as classical?
> 3. Do you think it's right of James Horner to pass off the highlights of the soundtrack as a symphony?


1. Yes, I believe the LOTR music is very good; it follows the films perfectly and the brass is awesome!
2. Um, that's a bit harder to answer. I would probably classify it as film music, though the orchestration is amazing.
3. No, I don't really think of it as a particularly good decision, though I recently heard it performed live in concert and was blown away. It is a six-movement piece, two for each film.


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## amirjsi

Is it good music, most definitely yes. I think it stands way up there as one of the best movie soundtracks.

As for the question of whether or not to think of it as classical... Well, I guess you can think of it as orchestral... some of it has solo parts... some vocal.. some choral; what we normally associate with classical music. If I'm forced to think in that context, I'd call it a symphonic poem or a symphonic suite.

The Howard Shore "symphony"... That event I saw, it came bundled with The Return of the King Collector's Edition. Like I said before, Symphonic Poem or Suite. But the playing is not very good though.


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## Eric

one of my favorite soundtracks, assuredly good music


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