The Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring (The Complete Recordings)
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Free Music Notes for The Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring (The Complete Recordings)
Free Music Review: Tolkien would endorse this if he were alive...
Hit: 5 Stars
There's not much I can add to the previous detailed reviews. I will say this, that at the moment of writing this, that there are 2 sets left(I dearly hope for your sake that there is a restock) and both those sets are near $160. I ordered mine in December 2010 and only purchased this because I was given a gift card (I had always deemed $50 to high but now I know differently).
Immediately upon receiving the soundtrack I was struck by the care put into the presentation of the packaging and the booklet accompanying it. the Presentation follows from the example laid down by our beloved Tolkien himself, Peter Jackson and Howard Shore in their dedication to perfection. As you know, there are 5 discs of music in this set which I promptly downloaded to iTunes in 320kbps. It is excellent music, so you need excellent headphones. End of statement. Laptop speakers or any headphones/earbuds under $100 really insult the artists work that went into making the superior sound. The LotR experience isn't cheap, so don't you be.
You won't buy this if you aren't a LotR fan. That is one reason the price is such. I had always heard from people that it was far too pricey(it certainly is now!), but for someone to buy this, they would likely have to be a LotR enthusiast. 3 hours of music is a lot for anyone. The price per song for me in this set was around 75c, 25% lower than that of iTunes. I won't comment on the music because you obviously know that it is all the emotion and passion of the film without the visual. You can buy all the theatrical soundtracks for around $30 to get a sample. This is the first set from the three films, I am happy to say that The Two Towers and The Return Of The King: Complete Recordings are in transit to my house right now. Once I had the first I knew I needed the last two.
As a last note, I eagerly await the details of the Hobbit films to be released in 2012. They too are going to be made with the highest quality and attention to detail that will surely fascinate people as it always has.
Thanks goes to the originator of this fantastical journey, Tolkien himself.
I will end now and continue listening to the music I have previously commented on.
Free Music Review: Note on technical side of DVD Audio
Hit: 5 Stars
The other reviews (well, the positive ones anyways), sum up how great this "complete recordings" set is more than I could. I would like to add some technical details about the DVD Audio disc for those curious.
First, note that the DVD Audio disc contains the *entire* three hour recordings (so no disc swapping as with the CDs). Further, it's available in up to *four* different formats (which you use will depend largely on your audio setup). They are--
* Dolby Digital 5.1 [DVD Video (compatibility)] at 448 Kbps
* Dolby Digital 2.0 [DVD Video (compatibility)] at 224 Kbps
* Advanced Resolution Surround Sound (48 kHz, 24-bit) [DVD Audio]
* Advanced Resolution Stereo Sound (48 kHz, 24-bit) [DVD Audio]
With regard to the DVD Audio tracks, I was a little disappointed in the only marginal increase in sample rate over standard CD audio (I was hoping for at least 96 kHz, at least for the stereo tracks), but the increase in sample size (16-bit for CD vs. 24-bit on this DVD Audio disc) was *most* welcome. On a positive note, by keeping the sample rate down to 48 kHz they managed to keep the whole score on one DVD (a higher sample rate would likely have meant splitting the content between two or more discs).
Finally, to give you an idea of how the space on this DVD Audio disc was used, here's the size of the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directories (and their percentage relative to the total size of the disc)-
\VIDEO_TS - 0.94 GiB (14%)
\AUDEO_TS - 6.00 GiB (86%)
Total - 6.9 GiB (100%)
The AUDIO_TS directory contains the DVD Audio portion of the disc (Advanced Resolution tracks above). The VIDEO_TS directory contains the DVD Video (compatibility) portion of the disc (Dolby Digital tracks above).
As a parting note, yes, this is more expensive than I would have thought. But it is worth it, especially if you love Howard Shore's score for the film (and even more especially if you enjoy higher quality audio as is available on the DVD Audio disc included in the package). Now the wait for the next two films to be given the "Complete Recordings" treatment.
Free Music Review: Simply the best soundtrack ever written.
Hit: 5 Stars
It has been a tradition in the film score business, that if a score sells very well and the movie is popular enough, that the entire soundtrack will be released (all of the Star Wars movies, Cutthroat Island which actually was released only because the score was fantastic and people demanded the full deal, Star Trek, Superman). However, with the Lord of the Rings films, releasing the full score goes beyond the minor convenience of being able to hear any part of the movie you want, rather, we can hear the sheer brilliance of Shore's Wagnerian use of leitmotif and thematic development. We can follow the fellowship theme as it first appears when Sam and Frodo leave the Shire, through the village of Bree, and finally in its full glory when they form the fellowship. We finally get to hear the dwarf music which features a pacific Mauri choir with chanting by New Zealand football players! (no joke)You can hear the Gondor theme for the first time on solo french horn when Boromir is speaking in Rivendell. It's just such an amazing score that really transcends the genre of soundtracks and reaches more toward German Romantic opera in terms of form and thematic organization. It comes in a wonderful deluxe packaging similar to those of the limited edition soundtracks. A 40 page booklet is included with tons of information about the score and the individual tracks themselves. However, the real highlight of the score is the fourth disc which is the entire score in DVD audio and for those who have yet to experience the wonder that is DVD audio, this is a good starting point. Turn the volume up and put on the Khazad-Dûm track and you will be sold on the splendid sonics. The price is high but for die hard fans of the series and score, for whom this has been produced, it is a worhtwhile investment and will take you back to the wonder of first seeing the film in the theater. Highest recommendation.Free Music Review: THE BEST MOST COMPREHENSIVE SCORE RELEASED
Hit: 5 Stars
This is without a doubt the greatest total score ever released mainly because of how it was released. The music on three CD's which is great, but the DVD-Audio made the pain of $63.99 go away with its insanely clear highs and mids. I recommend this to anyone who likes the LOTR music and even if you have the short single CD score, upgrade as I did. I just can't wait for the other two film scores to come out now. The DVD-Audio makes the greatest reproduction of music I have heard yet. Be ware as I found out that the only way to play the DVD-Audio with High Resolution as I havd, is through the DVD analog outputs, I was trying it throught the optical cable and it did not work, due to copyright? The DVD-Audio come with either Dolby Digital or High Resolution depending on your player's ability, the High resolution is the better quality, I have A Marantz Dv6500 so it luckly plays the insanely clear High Resolution. I wish other great films would release a score like this one, but most don't have enough music to. THIS IS A GREAT SCORE, I STRONGLY RECOMMENT IT.
I FEEL I NEED TO POINT OUT THE DVD-AUDIO AGAIN. I HAVE NOTICED THAT SOME HAVE SAID THAT THEY HAVE HAD NO NEED OF IT, BUT HERE IS WHY I LOVED IT SO. For anyone who has a moderate to upper end home theater stereo, the DVD-Audio brings unmatched quality. I mean, I have never in my life heard such clear orchestrated music. Maybe the detail is not as noticable to most people(most people don't have a 5 Grand stereo(not including TV) but it is actually alot of the reason I bought the set, was for all music on one disk for my stereo. Wow it is awesome. Sure some people could do without it, because they must not have a system at home to use it with properly. But if you do have a system and hate that kind of static or background noise you get with scores, this is ur best buy.
Free Music Review: a few quibbles
Hit: 5 Stars
Man, is this awesome music. In fact, I'm tempted to say that it's the greatest score that's ever been written for a movie. and that's coming from a diehard John Williams fan.
But you know the music's great. Just go ahead and buy it. It's worth whatever you pay.
There are a few quibbles from me, however. The big one: as much as I love to have the various bits of non-Shore music (Gandalf's rendition of "The Road Goes Ever On," for example, and the infectious Hobbit party music entitled "Flaming Red Hair"), I'd MUCH MUCH MUCH rather they had been set off as separate tracks. There are several of these pieces, and they are almost all dropped right into the middle of score pieces. In one or two cases, they even play over the score! This creates an off-putting sense of dislocation in an otherwise seamless score.
I'm also not fond of the booklet. It's great on its own -- a scholarly study of the various themes introduced by Shore in the score -- but it's written from a music-academic point of view, and that makes it rather difficult to keep up with for laypeople like myself. It's informative, but it ought to have supplemented by a more traditional track-by-track explanation for people who do not possess music degrees.
And whereas the overall packaging is lovely, I definitely agree with other reviewers who have noted how shoddy the placeholder for the DVD is. It's just a piece of rubber that threatens to come off if you take the DVD out more than two or three times! I've just put mine in a spare DVD case along with my DVDs. The DVD itself, by the way, is gloriously good.
These are serious complaints, but they do nothing to detract from how deeply excellent this music is. I eagerly await the boxes for the other two movies.