The Lord of the Rings
Label: Intrada
Catalogue No: FMT 8003D
Release Date: 1991
Total Duration: 76:22
UPN: 7-2025-88003-2-9
This must be one of the more unusual CD re-releases of an older score. Leonard Rosenman’s lengthy, hard working score for LORD OF THE RINGS has been lavishly reproduced, transfigured, on CD. Thirteen years have elapsed since the score first made its appearance on a double album. As the composer notes in his rather self-serving liner notes, the audio quality wasn't too hot. Back in 1978, the orchestrations seemed thin and primitive, as though Rosenman was trying to match primeval orchestration with the fantasy images on screen. The entire score has now been remixed, as well as re-sequenced to follow the action of Ralf Bakshi's misguided film. Now, themes (particularly the main theme) are allowed to begin as fragments and then develop, most of them culminating in the final tracks of the CD. So what we have here is a sense of progression. Early listeners of his score were not allowed to appreciate how truly well thought-out Rosenman's score is.
The two bulky LP's have been condensed down to a single tiny CD, with a bonus of some 12 minutes and four tracks of previously unreleased music. That minuscule CD holds an amazing 77 minutes of music! The remixing allows us to hear instruments and voices we've not heard before. This particularly comes across in the “Mordor” chanting passages, the enchanting lullaby “Mithrandir” and the impressive “Helm's Deep” battle sequences. The sound and the orchestral writing can be spectacular. Be sure to “pump up the volume” for “Helm's Deep”, which presents some of the weirdiest battle music ever.
If there's a drawback for the score, it's a predictable one for those of us who have followed Rosenman's music. After all, we’re talking about the Bomp-Bomp-Bomp-Bomp Guy Himself. It's all over the score, pulling it down from the fantasy world it works so hard to create, down to the level of his many pedestrian TV movie scores.
On a similar scale, the same happened on his score for STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME. Both scores show that Rosenman is at his best when he sticks to leitmotifs, and extricates himself from the bomp-bompy morass of stuttery writing. So though the score is of generous length, much of it could be dispensed with. Though Rosenman’s liner notes are helpful (jarring the memory of a film seen 13 years ago and deservedly buried), one must quibble with the immense amount of ego that shows through his text. As for LORD OF THE RINGS, Intrada has truly revealed it for the first time, and film music enthusiasts should be grateful.
Steven J. Lehti – Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol. 10 / No.40 / 1991
