ROTK Music podcast

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This is cool.

That's a link to a Film Score Monthly podcast about the new ROTK Complete Recordings. Doug Adams, who wrote the liner notes for all three of the completes, and who spoke so engagingly at ORC this year, presents the material. He's very energetic and into it.

The podcast includes listener questions. Here's one that made me roll my eyes:

The Return of the King soundtrack is much more complex than the other films. Was that a conscious decision?

Noooo. It just kinda happened in the studio while we were playing it. All of a sudden all the musicians took off busking and we ended up with this massive THING. *snort*

Another treat: at the end of the podcast we get to hear 30 seconds of an alternate scoring for the Argonath scene in FOTR, which did not get used in that film.

Enjoy!


P.S. If you stay on after the end, the next podcast (which comes up automatically) is a very interesting discussion of the enduring popularity of the Dies Irae theme. This is a piece of music written in the 1300's that is still popular, used as thematic material by composers in all kinds of instances. (Even if you don't recognize the name, believe me, you know this music.) Take a listen, it's fascinating.

Request

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If there's anyone out there who can capture streaming audio, could you please get this file for me?

Discussion of ROTK music from 2004

It's quite a good piece, and if someone can get the file for me, I'll upload it for everyone to save.

Thanks!

ROTK Music analysis

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Yesterday I asked if anyone could capture this for me, and dear belleferret came through. She's turned it into a .mov file and an .mp3. You can pick them up here:

Oscar nominated soundtrack discussion - 2004 - .mov file

Oscar nominated soundtrack discussion - 2004 - .mp3 file


This is an excellent discussion of two Oscar-nominated soundtracks from 2004 - Finding Nemo and Return of the King. The host talks about the thematic threads in the music, and when discussing ROTK, he takes the main Shire theme and talks about the evolution of the cues, using a comparison of Shore's treatment of several themes in FOTR and ROTK. Emotional me that I am, hearing the contrast so blatantly makes me tear up every time! (One of Shore's cues presented here uses the Dies Irae that I mentioned yesterday. It's amazing how that theme turns up in music everywhere down the centuries!)

It's quite an informative program, so I hope you all will download it.

Enjoy! (And thanks again, belleferret. *hug*)

Hee!

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There was a young man from Belize
Who tried hard to hold in a sneeze.
But it came out at last
As a powerful blast
That knocked down a number of trees.

(no subject)

Well, good on you, Australia!

*raises glass in toast*

(no subject)

There lived near the town of Bywater
A hobbit who swam like an otter
By the light of the moon
To the nightingale's tune
He danced with the River-maid's Daughter.

Alternative Tolkien - Hunter S. Thompson

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Hunter S. Thompson:



The fiends are nipping at our heels....war, children, is just a shot away....crazed fiends dine on flesh and bone....the trail beats on.....

We were somewhere around Emyn Muil at the edge of the mountains when the ring began to take hold.

It crept up my spine like the first rising vibes of an acid frenzy. I saw a vision of one million fat greasebacking black-hooded fiends sucking into a football-shaped eyeball with a retina of pure hellfire. For some reason or another, it reminded me of C-SPAN. And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of these cocksuckers, all swooping and screeching and diving around me. And a voice was screaming: "Good Eru! What are these goddamn pigfuckers!"

"As your guardian, I advise you to walk at top speed. It'll be a goddamn miracle if we can get to Mordor before you turn into a wild animal."

My 'guardian', Sam, was revealing himself to be the purple-blooded blowhard fatbody I had always suspected him of being. I decided internally to piss in his water bottle after he falls asleep. One more crazed, cynical comment like that and I'll sic the leeches on him.

Christ, did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did he hear me?

"Jesus, look at your face," Sam said, "you're about to explode."

"Fuck you, you devious fat bastard!" I responded.

In an instant, I felt a giant brown turd fall out of the sky. The turd proceeded to attack me, reaching for the ring in an insistant rage. There is nothing so crazed and irresponsible as a man in the depths of a Ring binge.

I decided it was time for a reassessment of the entire situation. I pushed the manturd into my guardian and hid behind some rocks.

There was something utterly pathetic in the sight of that fat hobbit grappling with a manturd. For a moment, I felt I had done an awful thing; the experience must have been negative for Sam. Better not tell him about those goddamn wraiths, I thought. I stepped out from behind the rock. Perhaps some reason would stop this foul beast from his dirty work.

"Uh...look, we're trying to find the way into Mordor. Would you like to travel with us?"

"Hot damn! I never traveled with a fatso before!" he responded. I suddenly liked our new found companion.

"Is that right?" I said. "Well, I guess you're about ready, eh?"

The manturd nodded eagerly.

"We're your friends," said the fatbody. "We're not like the others."

And that settled the matter about the ring. The manturd, as I later learned, was named Gollum. He was a swinish pervert with a knack for sadomasochism and a foot fetish. Either way, the three of us beat on the unkept path. I felt like a monster reincarnation of Bilbo Baggins .... a Hobbit on the Move, and just sick enough to be totally confident...