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Artwork copyright (c) 2003 New Line
Productions, Inc.; review copyright (c) 2003 James Southall
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THE RETURN OF THE KING Sweeping,
epic end to the trilogy A review by JAMES SOUTHALL One of the biggest challenges facing Howard Shore for The
Lord of the Rings trilogy - apart from the obvious one, the sheer volume of
music required for each film - was that it is not a film then a sequel then
another sequel, it's really one long story. None of this Star Wars-style
"let's pretend it was all one long story all along" business, this one
really was, putting him in the unique position of needing to plan, effectively,
three films in one go. One thing he has done very well is write three
scores which are different enough from each other than they make for albums that
can stand on their own without seeming just one third of a whole, but at the
same time they are clearly all painted on the same tapestry and draw from the
same basic well. And so, The Return of the King is here; more of
the same, but different even so! It is worth saying right at the start that this is easily - very
easily - the most satisfying album of the three. The Fellowship of the
Ring was good - but something seemed to be missing, and even with a
comparatively small proportion of the score as a whole being presented on the
disc, the music was far too repetitive; The Two Towers was not
repetitive, but it was incredibly dense, overbearingly so, and lacked the first
score's charm; The Return of the King seems to take the best elements of
the first two scores and add a whole lot more, even better elements. The first obvious difference is in the very first cue, "A
Storm is Coming" which (despite its title) is a considerably lighter and
more appealing start to the album than the previous two featured. The most
notable new theme is for Gondor and is heard several times (though never enough
to drive you to distraction!) - perhaps most impressively in "The Steward
of Gondor". Another great new theme is heard in "Twilight and
Shadow", a moving, emotional and powerful piece which seems all the better
for its relative simplicity. The orchestration here is far slighter than
in the previous two films, which makes the music considerably easier and most
pleasant to listen to, and also makes that all-important emotional connection
all the easier to find. (The cue is also notable in that it introduces
Renee Fleming. Each of the scores have featured notable vocalists, but to
attract an artist of Fleming's calibre is a real coup. Another big-name
cameo comes from Sir James Galway, who lends flute and whistle performances to a
few tracks.) Don't assume, however, that slighter orchestration means
everything is cute and melodic; far from it, indeed "Shelob's Lair" is
particularly dissonant, but because the orchestration isn't heavy-handed, the
clarity and vibrancy of the performance is allowed to shine through and make a
real impression. It's a great, portentous, powerful piece. Early indications were that most of the film's action music
had been eschewed from the album because it hadn't been recorded in time for
inclusion, but the truth is that there is plenty of exciting music here.
"The Ride of the Rohirrim" will, I'm sure, go on to become one of the
most popular pieces out of all of Shore's work on the trilogy; and "The
Fields of the Pelennor" is as good a piece of action music as you'll hear
in a new score this year. I mentioned emotion in the previous paragraph,
something the first two scores in the trilogy just didn't seem to have; Shore
has made up for it here with a number of wonderful pieces, none better than
"Anduril", whose brass theme is stunning. Another thing laid on
in spades that wasn't nearly so prominent in the previous scores as may have
been expected is spectacle; just listen to "The Black Gate Opens",
which virtually screams out that something very important is happening, with yet
another new theme, a beautiful piece for chorus and orchestra given its most
touching performance by Galway's flute, and also introduces (guess what?!)
another new theme, a horn piece that goes on to form the basis for the end
credit song. The strongest cue of all is probably the titual "The
Return of the King", which runs for ten minutes and is a big, sweeping
finale piece that, delightfully, reprises the Hobbit music from The
Fellowship of the Ring. There's still time for another highlight after
that though, with "Into the West", sung by Annie Lennox. Each of
the three films has featured an excellent song over the end title, reprising
that particular golden age tradition, though this time - great though the song
is - I do wonder whether a full-scale summary of the trilogy's major themes
might have been even better. I found the first two scores in the trilogy to be left
slightly wanting, so it is refreshing to report that The Return of the King
delivers on every count. Shore wraps things up in a predictably
melancholic and reflective, rather than celebratory, manner, and the album is a
triumph from start to finish. It's certainly one of the strongest - if not
the strongest - scores of the year. Things aren't quite over yet
for Shore however, with him taking his six-movement (two from each film)
"symphony" around the world, writing new music for the expanded DVD
and planning a nine-CD box set of all the music from the trilogy - I do
wonder about the wisdom of that (given that The Fellowship of the Ring is
already so repetitive as to render repeated listening somewhat unlikely, even on
one CD! - and that even Gandalf himself might struggle to stump up the cash for
a 9-CD set!) But on this evidence, Middle Earth has never sounded so good. Buy
this CD from amazon.com by clicking here! Tracks
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