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No seriously though I had a phase that just ended last summer, where I watched all LotR and all Hobbit movies in Extended every month. That phase lasted roughly 2-3 years.
We just did it with my friends a couple weeks ago. It was their first time watching the extended edition and their son's first viewing of the trilogy !
It was such a huge part in the book as well. Back at that moment, before they saw the balrog, they just knew that something dangerous is chasing them. But as they passed the bridge and the balrog appeared in full, legolas just started crying. He and gandalf were the only ones old enough to know what a balrog is, Gandalf from experience, and legolas from horror stories, as the balrog was most likely a boogie man for the elves of his generation, a tale of a monster so terrifying the bravest and greatest of elves died while fighting it, a beast of morgoth himself. And so he cried when he saw that thing, an ancient demon he only heard the name of spoken in hushed tones by war veterans, scarred and battered eons later.
To add to this: In the books, Gandalf kinda faces the Balrog before this already. As they are fleeing from the Orcs, he sends the others ahead to block a doorway they just passed through with some kind of spell. When he joins the group again, he tells them about how something insanely powerful challenged his spell from the other side all of a sudden and it almost ripped him apart, causing the whole wall and floor to collapse and buying them some time. Gandalf is very exhausted in that moment and says something along the lines of "I've never been this worn out before". He actually needs to rest for a little before continuing on
It's been almost 20 years, but I still remember sitting in the theater with the two girls I went to see the movie with, and the one on my left whispering in careful awe "my god, the music" when the choir in Khazad-dum bellows out when they're on that crumbling bridge. It's the only time that's happened. Any movie. Anyone I went with. It's one of my favourite pieces of music.
In the special features, Howard Shore says he brought in football and rugby players to give the chanting in Khazad-Dum extra oomph. The men's choir in that section is all Polynesian, too. Shore said he found something "other-worldly" in their voices.
I didn’t know this info that’s pretty awesome. I’m also realize because I was a kid when the dvds came out I never watched the behind the scenes features I only watched the movie 🤦🏽♀️ some fan I am! Lol
@@clowicousoh wow, that means you have some really great new stuff to enjoy. I used to have those on every day, whole getting ready for work, while making and having supper, I used to know the behind the scenes stuff almost by heart. It's so well done and entertaining.
I wrote a dissertation on the power of Shore’s music in The Lord of the Rings and your videos on it were the inspiration. Thank you for releasing yet another wonderful and beautifully detailed analysis of the powerful music
One interesting thing about analyzing music set to LotR is that, given that the world was sung or fore-sung into being in-universe, the backing track can be interpreted as listening to the original music of the Ainur - listening to the sound of fate, in a sense, as it depicts the actions we see on-screen in a tapestry of sound.
Gandalf, the Balrog, Sauron and Saruman were all part of this original choir before entering the world for as long as it exists. Dragons, Elves and humans are just part of the creation. Tom Bombadil is older and outside the story, having written all these wonderful books.
Man thank you! I was always looking for this as a separate piece of music with its own name. Finally i could find it :D At the end of "Bridge of Khazad-dum". Thank you so much!
@@fabibi_ha I hear that a lot actually. It seems like it could be its own track called The Fall of Gandalf or something, but no it's still Bridge of Khazad-dûm.
The Bridge of Khazad Dum is one of my favorite compositions in which you can tell just by listening what's happening in the story. The other one that's really good is James Horner's "Stealing the Enterprise" from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Shore is such an absolute bloody genius, man. And I love your breakdowns of his work. I'd love to see more LotR stuff from you if there's more to talk about. I think I've watched your other LotR videos but I'm not sure if you've talked about the music of the ents yet...? They're also ancient creatures of Middle Earth that have wonderful music to go with them, but I understand not including them here since they're not antagonistic "monsters" like the other creatures talked about here. Not sure if there's a whole video that could be made about just the ents, but that could probably be included along with something else maybe? Anyway, love your channel.
If you want a super detailed breakdown off all the themes and other little musical details in every single track of the Complete Recording, check out Monoverantus' channel! He's halfway through ROTK.
Excellent, as ever. I think the single standalone piece in the whole LOTR trilogy music is *Isengard Unleashed* - which for me tells a complete journey Starting with the excited playfulness of going on an adventure, like Dickens, before shortly falling into the trap of deeper, darker challenges, as it moves on to industrial summoning of power to drive forward and then uplifting into the choral solo that takes us out of the dark and into the light of progress
The only thing missing from this video is the amazing music and analysis from the battle as Gandalf and the Balrog fall into the depths of Moria. Such powerful music in this section. METTANA!
It would have been interesting had you included the score that is played while Gandalf and the Balrog are plummeting into the depths at the start of The Two Towers.
Your videos are absolute quality my friend. Film schools should show these in class for the future cinema industry workers. Seriously you are fenomenal and I thank you for these master pieces.
Another incredible LOTR video. Thank you so much for the effort you put in here. The Khazad-dum music was undoubtedly Howard Shore’s best composition in the trilogy. I cannot imagine how well it was well-received in Cannes when that scene was first previewed there. I sure felt like I was in hell the first time I saw this scene. Too bad its continuation (The Foundation of Stone) was not included here but nevertheless, I truly enjoyed this one!
This video is excellent, just like the music of LOTR. When I was a teen, I’d listen to the soundtracks on repeat to and from school/church and be immersed in the movies in my mind (cause I couldn’t be glued to my TV). I also bought all three of the extended cut DVDs which had hours of footage showing how the films were made. I loved it all but the music portions with Howard Shore talking about how his ideas all came together were the best!
I have to say, the way you analised, summarised and visualised the score of Howard Shore is a testament of your ability to understand music! I am a huge fan of these films, and you gave me another perspective of why it is such a masterpiece. Thank you!
Man thank you for shedding some more light on this incredible score score. As all the other comments have said, your insight and presentation on this wonderful music is unmatched. I'd also like to give massive credit to your scriptwriting. I genuinely had a tear in my eye after your last line with the Galadriel quote. I would love some more LoTR content
I've been a silent subscriber for a while, but I wanted to say that this series on the LOTR music actually prompted me to watch the movies, as I hadn't seen them before. I am so glad I did. Thank you so much for that!! I would LOVE to see further videos in this series on LOTR music, if you can . Thank you for continuing to inspire me as a young musician and composer!
The Moria scene is probably the most epic movie moment ever created. Basically, everything we like about fantasy adventure was all crammed into a few minutes of story. Darkness, danger, monsters, heroes. This is why games like D&D were invented in the first place. Tolkien, Jackson, Shore, and the cast worked together in a once-in-a-lifetime combination of talents that will live forever, as long as movies are watched.
This is why FotR is my favourite LOTR film of the three! When I was younger I loved The Two Towers for all the time spent with Aragorn's crew, Rohan, Isengard and the "cool battles" from that movie. But as an adult, I love FotR as a simply phenomenal "fantasy adventure journey" story. A group of heroes travelling from one fantastical location to another, encountering myriad creatures of good and evil along the way. As you say, this is the feeling of a journey through a mystical land which games like D&D or The Elder Scrolls are seeking to recreate. But no other fantasy movie has captured this idea as effectively or as originally as FotR did.
There is another indication of the Watcher in Water, with the things that gnaw the world underneath it (even unknown to Sauron etc.), implying the Watcher in the Water is related to them in nature (by relative proximity and weirdness, maybe it was even explicitly referred to). The description is also perfectly sufficient and makes sense, as the thing is underwater... And fingered tentacles, etc, are perfectly enough to give one an idea of what attacks one.
Either melancholic , either sad and heartbreaking , either scherzosic , happy , nostalgic , elegant , luminous of aleatorical disconased , horroric and operatic , lord of the rings soundtracks will always be in our hearts. That was the most tremendous level of work by Howard Shore as composer and orchestrator . Real big cojones for his level . The Balrog sequence my number one on the first film . Nazgul sequences also that horroric and operatic dark ominous feeling . Black speech , Khuzdul and every language of Middle Earth is in the score. Even Old English. How cool. Maestro Shore is a power leveled magician in orchestration and motivical composition. As epic as Wagner with Nimbelungen Ring circle . High level fantasy soundtrack . A big circle of every emotion . Chorus pats are the cherry on the cake. Even the male mongol throat singers in Moria sequens . Urukhas tanakhi bushra !
Thanks for including the lament for Gandalf in this video. Of all the great music in the movie, this is my absolute favorite. The first time I heard it, it made me cry (outside of the context of Gandalf's death since I knew the ending), but it is heart wrenchingly beautiful perfectly containing the emotions of the scene.
The way Howard Shore can write intense chaotic music and then slap the fellowship theme or one of the Elf themes and then suddenly cut back to the chaos is other worldly, and for him to write that masterpiece in Moria and then cut to a sorrow melancholy lement to mourn Gandalf that makes you forget the intense music you just heard is utterly brilliant, it's my all time favorite musical sequence in any film, Howard Shore wrote probably the greatest score to ever exist for LOTR and it's my personal favorite, great break down of these monster themes I just love anything that has to do with break downs of sores from movies
Your videos are so amazing! I’m already so in love with the trilogy but learning more about the music which I adore is like a quick revisit of the movies
I think the reason they took a different approach for the Balrog was because it was no mere monster, but a being on par with the likes of Sauron himself. _A Demon of the Ancient World._ That line alone broke open for me that the world was far richer than I could even imagine all those years ago in that theater when I first saw this film.
I made popcorn and sat down just to watch this. You made us appreciate this masterpiece even more than I thought was possible. I know nothing about music but your script writing and voice are so smooth and entertaining and it's all very interesting, it keeps me in the moment.
I'd love to hear your take on Smaug's thematic material from The Hobbit. I've always loved it as someone who isn't an expert on music, so it would be cool to see a more detailed analysis on it
Howard Shore is a fantastic composer, I find it strange that one hardly ever got to notice him later, and that some stuff he made afterwards seems almost awkwardly derivative of his work on these movies.
The emotional voices that mourn Gandalf's fall and the beginning of the breaking of the fellowship, all while we see each of the other characters mourn his death in different ways as they exit the mountain.... Nothing will affect me more in my life 🥺. Howard Shore, like John Williams, has had such an immeasurable impact on my life and I'm so glad for it.
The scripts you wrote to guide your narration of the Tolkien videos were just great. Wonderful words accompanying fantastic music. Every time i watch one of your Tolkien videos, i have a desire to break out the extended edition DVDs.
16:20 - "When all other lights, have gone out." I do not possess the musical acumen to give words to the specifics of how Shore's track works. Fortunately Listening In does. The Bridge at Khazad Dum is almost the best of Shore's work in this. I still like The Breaking of the Fellowship best, though.
I was wondering why you ordered the monsters in a different order then the story, but as soon as Ganldalf's lament came on I understood completely. I even stuck around for the Nebula message because that was playing in the background.
Hey Listening In, just wanted to put in a request for the Light of the Seven / Sept of Baelor explosion scene from Game of Thrones. Still think it's an absolute masterpiece
Thank you so much for this wonderful series of videos! I've recently taken to re-watching the LOTR trilogy, tip to stern, for the first time in over a decade. I frequently find myself in tears... and at least 80% of the time it's owing to the music. Your videos have really helped me appreciate and understand the score and it's themes in a richer way than any previous viewing. Thanks tremendously, and keep up the great work!
Howard Shore's 20th Century portions of the Lord of the Rings scores are very underappreciated I think. To me, they're just as masterful and memorable as the richly tonal majority of the score is. Thank you for bringing a deeper understanding of this music.
I guess you could say more of the same about the track Glamdring, the first song in the Two Towers soundtrack which plays when the movie revisits Balrog vs Gandalf. The moment is reframed with a new soundtrack which erupts with fierce bloodlust the moment Gandalf lets go of the bridge, in stark contrast to how he goes out in Fellowship of the Ring. Almost all of the parts are present: the chanting, the Moria figures, etc. but amped up to eleven as Gandalf takes the Balrog one on one during a titanic fall
Fantastic video. I'd love to see your treatment of some older soundtracks as well - ones that have clearly stood the test of time, by composers unfortunately no longer with us. For example: Lawrence of Arabia (Maurice Jarre), Wrath of Khan (James Horner), Dances with Wolves (John Barry), Dragonslayer (Alex North), Conan the Barbarian (Basil Poledouris). If I had to pick one, the last (of course). Or give us some of your own "deep cuts", as it were. But in these cases, they all really added something to the narrative with their composition, forerunners of Shore's masterpiece effort on the LotR.
There are many unbelievably great scores, and I have listened to so many of them. But the score of the Lord of the Rings has always been the one for me. THE best out of them all. The complexity, emotion and plain world shaping music that came out of these three masterpieces I think will forever be my absolute favorite music albums of all time. Beyond epic.
Those themes are truly unfogettable, but Balrog's will always have a very special place in my heart. I vividly remember when I saw LotR for the first time as an 11-yo or so and that scene left such a wild impression on me - especially the music. I kept coming back to it n my thoughts very often; and when I got the chance to read the book soon after, Balrog's theme echoed through my mind as I read the whole fragment of his confrontation with Gandalf - and this mixture of Tolkien's writing and this one specific score moved me so much that for the first time I felt inspired to ceate something and truly put my whole heart into it; this is what moved me to become an artist mysef. It still baffles me that it affected me so strongly that I can pinpoint this exact moment. True masterpiece.
One part of the LOTR soundtrack that I feel I haven’t heard outside of horror. Those blaring and endlessly building chromatic walls of horns are something I have only associated with LOTR.
