The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: The Complete Recordings
Soundtrack album by Howard Shore
Released	13 December 2005
Length	180:35
Label	Reprise

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: The Complete Recordings
Soundtrack album by Howard Shore
Released	7 November 2006
Length	188:13
Label	Reprise

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
ScoreNotes	A

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: The Complete Recordings
Soundtrack album by Howard Shore
Released	20 November 2007
Length	229:17
Label	Reprise

The Lord of the Rings: The Rarities Archives
Soundtrack album by Howard Shore
Released	European Union on 28 September and in the U.S. and worldwide on 5 October 2010
Length	1:19:25
Label	Howe Records

The Lord of the Rings Symphony
Soundtrack album by Howard Shore
Released	13 September 2011
Recorded	Lucerne, Switzerland
Length	1:55:15
Label	Howe Records

The music of The Lord of the Rings film series was composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced by Howard Shore. Shore wrote many hours of music for The Lord of the Rings, effectively scoring the entire film length. Over 12 hours of the music (including various alternate takes) has been released across various formats. Shore conceived the score as operatic and antiquated-sounding. He made use of an immense ensemble including a large symphony orchestra (principally, the London Philharmonic Orchestra), multiple instrumental "bands", various choirs and vocal and instrumental soloists, requiring between 230 and 400 musicians.

Throughout the composition, Shore has woven over 100 identified leitmotifs, which are inter-related and categorized into groups that correspond to the Middle-earth cultures to which they relate, forming the greatest collection of themes in the history of the cinema. The music was continued with the music of the Hobbit films, the prequels to Lord of the Rings, bringing the theme count to 170 or more within over 21 hours of music, making it one of the biggest catalog of themes in the history of symphonic music.

The score became the most successful of Shore's career, earning three Oscars, two Golden Globes, three Grammy, and several other nominations, and some of his themes (like the Shire theme) and songs earning great popularity. The score was voted for best Soundtrack in cinema history. The score was the subject of a short documentary film called Howard Shore: An Introspective, and has even earned a dedicated research-based book by musicologist Doug Adams. The scores go on being performed by choirs and orchestras around the world as symphony pieces, concert suites and live to-projection concerts.

Shore was chosen by the filmmakers when they found themselves temporarily-tracking parts of the footage to pieces from his existing scores. The films were also temp-tracked sparsely with pieces from the scores to Braveheart and Last of the Mohicans. Shore visited the set and agreed to take the project in early 2000. Shore began his work on the music early during the production of The Fellowship of the Ring in late 2000 and recorded the first pieces of music (the Moria sequence) in spring of 2001 to a 40-minute teaser of the film, as the film was still being shot. The rest of the score was recorded during the editing of the film in post production. Shore would later return to the finished film, recording additional music and revised takes for the extended DVD version in March 2002. A similar pattern was followed for The Two Towers (which was scored at a faster pace than the other two) and The Return of the King (with Shore also, unusually, providing an original score with new themes for the trailer, as well) with the final sessions taking place in Watford on 20 March 2004. In order to through-compose the trilogy (having the book and all three scripts to hand ahead of time) Shore spent nearly four years on the composition, compared to a period of 6–8 weeks per film, and a week or two of recording, as practiced by most film composers. For the recording process, which extended over four weeks per film, he composed the music in long suite-like pieces for the orchestra to go through during a day of playing, rather than short cues, lending greater cohesion to the music. Shore wrote the music effectively for the entire film length. In the finished film, some of the music was dialed out while other parts were looped or tracked and re-tracked, so overall about 90% of the finished film contains music.

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