|
What I especially like about the Soundtrack is, that, while you know which song was featured during what scene, you don't necessarily need to connect the music with the actual pictures from the movie. You can just lean back and listen and have your own ideas in your mind at the same time. In the case of tracks which were used in scenes not from the book, I now even connect them with different passages. When listening to "The White Tree", for example, I now imagine the arrival of the Knights of Dol Amroth in Minas Tirith.
The mixing of the leitmotifs is sometimes done very well, sometimes not so much. In "Isengard Unleashed", I think, it makes sense to combine the two themes (the Elf theme at the beginning, of course, makes no sense) because in the story Isengard and Fangorn 'meet', so the themes should do so as well. But then there are also songs like "A Knife in the Dark", where the Nazgûl theme suddenly goes over into the Isengard theme, but for no reason at all.
My favourites are
Concerning Hobbits (of course)
The Shadow of the Past (this track gives me shudders)
The Treason of Isengard (I like the ring-verse-in-black-speech choir, as well as the ambiguous/threatening version of the Fellowship theme)
Flight to the Ford (my favourite among the songs which feature the Nazgûl-theme)
A Journey in the Dark / The Bridge of Khazad-dûm (I know it's fake-Khuzdul, but I think it sounds more than well enough / amazing atmosphere)
Amon Hen (I really like that small "Temptation of the Ring" motif at the beginning and how it develops. Personally, I happen to prefer the "Death of Boromir" music at the end to "The Breaking of the Fellowship" (I can't stand "In Dreams"))
Foundations of Stone
The Riders of Rohan, The King of the Golden Hall, Helm's Deep, Forth Eorlingas (I just love the Rohan theme. Of all leitmotifs used in the
Soundtrack, it's the one which goes through the most variations, I think.)
Evenstar (I have no idea why they use Old English for the songs about Arwen, but the atmosphere it conveys is very nice)
Isengard Unleashed (best song featuring Isengard theme, brilliant ending)
Hope and Memory (one of the shortest songs, but a little gem, I think)
Minas Tirith & The White Tree (of course)
The Ride of the Rohirrim (see above)
Shelob's Lair (it's a little too heavy on the string instruments, but to me, the ending is one of the most powerful parts of the whole Soundtrack)
Actually, I don't like the songs that are actually sung, at least when the language is English (except Gollum's Song). I think I once read somewhere that Gollum's Song was originally intended to be performed by Björk. Does anyone know whether that's true?
|