The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
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Free Music Notes for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Free Music Review: Darly Beautiful
Hit: 5 Stars
Though not quite as memorable as Shore's music for the "Fellowship of the Ring," the music for the "Two Towers" is a fantastic piece of music, one that shows Shore's growth as a composer and his mastery to the leitmotif aproach to scoring. He skillfully takes shines a dim light on Middle Earth's darkest corners, illuminating the journies of the scattered members of the Fellowship with some exotic instumentation, and employing a handful of otherworldly vocal talents such as Isabel Bayrakdarian, Sheila Chandra and Emiliana Torrini to help paint the worlds of men, Ents and the fearsome lands of Isengard and Mordor. The whole of the soundtrack is magnificent, but Shore outdoes himself with a slew of tracks as varied as they are inspired pieces of music. "The Evenstar" is a disarmingly beautiful track, featuring the vocals of of Isabel Bayrakdarian and a mournful strings that have a heavy vibrato to create the mood of the song. "The White Rider" paints the resurrected Gandalf in a glorious light with anthemic choral and brass passages and powerful strings. "Gollum's Song" is another standout, being the anthesis to the soothing melodicism of Enya's May it Be. Emiliana Torrini's Björkish voice is perfect for the songs' unsettling and dark mood. Hell we are talking about the withered creature who keeps saying "My Precious." "The Breath of Life," my favorite track, builds from a quiet beginning featuring the vocals of Sheila Chandra to a muscular mid-tempo section with heroic brass melodies and an urgency that makes you feel Aragorn's ride to warn Helm's Deep of Isengards' 10,000 strong army of Uruk-hai. Like the movie, "The Two Towers" soundtrack ably carries the pivotal middle part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with an epic scope but with an intimacy that drives it deeper to paint the world of Middle-Earth.
Free Music Review: Excellent CD! Worthy Companion to the Fellowship.
Hit: 5 Stars
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers soundtrack is 1) an excellent score cd 2) a worthy companion to its predecessor the Academy Award winning The Fellowship of the Ring. Howard Shore returns to write the music for the next chapter of Jackson's films. The Two Towers has a mixture of new and old themes. Enya, a fixture on the Fellowship soundtrack is not featured on the Two Towers soundtrack. The Fellowship theme, the Isengard theme, the Rivendell theme, the Mordor theme, and the Hobbit theme all make reappearances, but added amongst them and comprising most of the cd are new themes. The Rohan theme is a very Vikingish theme replete with strings and percussion. Treebeard's theme, is a very soft kind of "forresty" music with a chorus to give it a mysterious air. It has many of the same qualities as the Ewok theme in Return of the Jedi. Arwen's theme is different from the first soundtrack, first because there is no Enya and second because its more of a melancholy love theme. Gollum's theme matches the character, kind of slimy sounding. As in the Fellowship, Shore uses different choirs very effectively, giving the elves an ethereal sounding choir, etc. The only complaint I have about the Two Towers soundtrack is the second to last track "Gollum's Song" sung by Emiliana Torrini. I found this song to be out of character with the rest of the cd and didn't much care for it. Unlike Enya's "May It Be" from the Fellowship soundtrack, "Gollum's Song" employ's no elvish and really just sounds creepy. Fitting for Gollum and it fits perfectly in with the movie although listening to it alone takes some getttin used to. However, it does not detract at all from the listening experience. The Two Towers is an excellent cd, and while it does not surpass the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack it is its equal.Free Music Review: Excellent CD! Worthy Companion to the Fellowship.
Hit: 5 Stars
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers soundtrack is 1) an excellent score cd 2) a worthy companion to its predecessor the Academy Award winning The Fellowship of the Ring. Howard Shore returns to write the music for the next chapter of Jackson's films. The Two Towers has a mixture of new and old themes. Enya, a fixture on the Fellowship soundtrack is not featured on the Two Towers soundtrack. The Fellowship theme, the Isengard theme, the Rivendell theme, the Mordor theme, and the Hobbit theme all make reappearances, but added amongst them and comprising most of the cd are new themes. The Rohan theme is a very Vikingish theme replete with strings and percussion. Treebeard's theme, is a very soft kind of "forresty" music with a chorus to give it a mysterious air. It has many of the same qualities as the Ewok theme in Return of the Jedi. Arwen's theme is different from the first soundtrack, first because there is no Enya and second because its more of a melancholy love theme. Gollum's theme matches the character, kind of slimy sounding. As in the Fellowship, Shore uses different choirs very effectively, giving the elves an ethereal sounding choir, etc. The only complaint I have about the Two Towers soundtrack is the second to last track "Gollum's Song" sung by Emiliana Torrini. I found this song to be out of character with the rest of the cd and didn't much care for it. Unlike Enya's "May It Be" from the Fellowship soundtrack, "Gollum's Song" employ's no elvish and really just sounds creepy. Fitting for Gollum and it fits perfectly in with the movie although listening to it alone takes some getttin used to. However, it does not detract at all from the listening experience. The Two Towers is an excellent cd, and while it does not surpass the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack it is its equal.Free Music Review: Wonderful (really four and a half stars, but it's close to 5
Hit: 5 Stars
How do I compare this to The Fellowship of the Ring's soundtrack? Well, this one is even more integral to the film. However, it doesn't stand on it's own as well as the first. That said, Howard Shore has outdone himself with these two scores for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. All of his work before it seems to be a warm-up to the orchestral brilliance he displays here. That's not slight his incredible work for David Cronenberg or David Fincher.Another note. The trailer music is a re-orchestration of Lux Aeterna, used in Requiem for a Dream, and it isn.'t included here. That's unfortunate, because that music reaches an intense high that leaves the listener exhausted. It's an incredibly dramatic piece of music. Nevertheless, there is some wonderful pieces to be found here.
"Gollum's Song" is one of the sharpest songs released this year. It's haunting, tortured, and a perfect compliment to Gollum, the schizophrenic soul who's been corrupted by the ring. "The Taming of Smeagol" starts off similarly to "Concerning Hobbits", but goes off in a different direction, more dramatic and intense. The orchestral flourishes of "The Riders of Rohan" work extremely well. Nothing tops "The Bridge of Kazad-Dum" for sheer power, but "Isengard Unleashed" comes close. Along with "Evenstar", it provides really the only moment of catharsis. "Evenstar" may be the saddest piece of music on the two CD's, a yearning and painful melody. It's heartbreaking.
There are no particularly weak tracks, which in and of itself is something good. If I say it isn't as good as The Fellowship of the Ring, that's more of a compliment to Fellowship than a slight to The Two Towers. As is, the music for the second installment is certainly worth your time.
Free Music Review: A Great Second Act
Hit: 5 Stars
I've been playing and playing my sound track for Fellowship of the Ring all year, and now I can alternate it with my Two Towers CD. I went whole hog and got the special version with the Farewell to Lorien bonus track as my Christmas present to me and I love this CD! Since The Two Towers is essentially a continuation of the same HUGE movie, the familiar themes from the Fellowship score make for consistency and good continuity. It's all from the same source, so I don't see any problem with Shore quoting his own earlier work. Use of leitmotifs is nothing new in music. I think Howard Shore captures the different moods of the different people of Lord of the Rings very well, and I find his score(s) very evocative of Middle Earth,alternately beautiful, stirring and sad, and sometimes all three at once.
My particular favorite tracks are Evenstar for its sheer beauty, and surprisingly, Gollum's song for capturing so much of Gollum's nature although it's not a really a "beautiful sounding" track. Gollum is treacherous and dangerous and smelly and drives everyone mad, and yet, almost everyone who encounters him can hardly help feeling pity for his misery at some point, knowing he's very much at the mercy of his longing for the Ring. The song is packed both with Gollum's love and hatred for the Ring, and he might be singing to the Ring, to himself, or just throwing out his misery and anger to the world in general.
The music written for the Rohirrim is wonderfully stirring. I can't wait to see the movie, and I'm looking forward to hearing what Howard Shore has in store for The Return of the King. If you loved the music for Fellowship, buy this CD--it's more of the same wonderful stuff and even better than the first.