HOWARD SHORE

My review of THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY for anyone who's interested:

http://moviemusicuk.us/2012/12/17/the-h … ard-shore/

Jon

Taste and consensus are forever strangers. The 'Song of the Lonely Mountain' is one of the few things about the score I unreservedly like.

It always sounded to me like a nice middleground between the ethereal vocal style of the LOTR films (which would have been a cliche if done again with another sweet songbird) and the masculine vocal sound Shore established for the dwarves. And the lyrics benefit from actually being Tolkien's in part, as opposed to the sweet ethereal nothingness that Boyens and Walsh tended to bring to the table (great to hear, but try not to think about what they're saying).

Of course, if the song is a poor follow-up to [spoiler]a close-up of the dragon's eye[/spoiler], that's a bit of a different issue. But my playcount in itunes for the song far exceeds any of the score tracks, except 'Radagast the Brown'.

Now there's a good positive attitude to have.

I had a positive attitude when I first tried to listen to it but then I heard the vocals for the first time and was suddenly transported from Middle Earth to a late-night BBC Radio 2 folk retrospective. It was then that I skipped past the rest of the track.

Having now listened to it all for the first time, my thoughts haven't really altered. The melody itself is okay but I won't be trying to get through it again.

I get that. They have all had folky influences - and I like them all to different degrees. The scores are steeped in cultural links to the races of Middle Earth and so, to have some folky influence is to be expected.

But this song - not the melody but rather the style of vocals, backing vocals and orchestration choices for 'the band' - just yanks me out of Tolkien's world. It just doesn't seem to fit well musically to my ears.

You are really looking for trouble, aren't you D?

Why do you say that? Because he disappointed you the past few years? I though Cosmopolis was actually really good and quite different.

How much of Shore's music have you really explored?

His back catalogue pre-LOTR is quite impressive especially his work for Cronenberg where he was the most creative. The Brood, Scanners, and Videodrome. Those three are unreal featuring some of the most creative film scoring I've ever heard! Then there's the operatic The Fly, the charming Big, the horrific The Silence of the Lambs, the passionate Philadelphia, the playful Ed Wood, the dark and disturbing Se7en, the truly messed up Crash, and the incredibly colorful and epic scores to The Cell and Looking For Richard. This, ALL written before LOTR. Quite an impressive line-up of scores, IMO.

What's even more remarkable about Shore are the handful of scores he wrote WHILE he was working on LOTR. The Score (one of the great jazz scores), Spider, Gangs of New York and Panic Room.

After LOTR he continued to write solid music... The Aviator, A History of Violence, The Departed, Eastern Promises,
A Dangerous Method, Hugo, and Cosmopolis.

So, as you see (and hear) I'm really having a very hard time classifying Howard Shore as overrated.

-Erik-

So in order to get all the statements of the Misty Mountain theme I have to get both albums?

And no one has mentioned THE YARDS or THE GAME.
D will be back in shore's camp the next time he likes one of his scores. There's no question he's a great film composer, he just often makes the film work more often than he pleases the ear in the usual ways. It's often too murky for me for example.

I think among score fans, Shore is actually *underrated*, because his music is rarely flashy.

Cosmopolis could be written by anyone with a knowledge in the ambient sound; others write as such, and even better, but nobody cares - or even dismiss them, 'cause they're not Shore. As for the rest of the body of his work, nothing even comes close to LOTR. Thus, this is why i say he's overrated, apart LOTR, that moment in his career.

Uh huh.



Comes close to what exactly?

-Erik-

I think that Jon and Erik summed up my feeling on Howard Shore. I first came across his work with THE FLY, which is both horrific and heartbreaking, and have been keen on his music ever since.

I think that more generally he has been elevated to iconic status with his LORD OF THE RINGS music, but only for this music.

He is one of those composers who has grafted hard for many years creating many solid (though difficult to listen to in some cases) works.

In some ways, LORD OF THE RINGS is quite un-Shore-like to my ears having listened more to his early works over the years.

Certainly, several of his more recent works have only had flashes of appeal to me. But his praise should not be assessed only on his past 3-4 years' work.

Thematic structure and overall form of all the compositions; the musical vision as a whole; you hear glimpses of that in Hobbit , but you just know, it's never quite there.