Here's where we are now... looking forward to and discussing the TTT complete box set due in about six weeks:

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THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS

SET FOR RELEASE November 7, 2006

Available For The First Time!
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - The Complete Recordings

Howard Shore’s complete Grammy-winning score for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, from the epic film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, will be available in a deluxe four-disc edition from Reprise/WMG Soundtracks on November 7, 2006.

This historic release contains over 180 minutes of music on three CDs, comprising the full score of the 2002 film, composed by Howard Shore. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Complete Recordings marks the second edition of the three complete recording releases of the film trilogy whose score has been honored with three Academy Awards, four Grammy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, and which has sold over 6 million copies worldwide. This deluxe set also includes exclusive new artwork, packaging, extensive liner notes written by Doug Adams, and “Gollum’s Song” performed by Emiliana Torrini.

Composed for symphony orchestra and choir, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Complete Recordings was performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra, The London Voices, The London Oratory School Schola featuring vocal performances by Emiliana Torrini, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Sheila Chandra, Elizabeth Fraser, Ben Del Maestro and cast member Miranda Otto.

The fourth disc is a DVD-Audio presenting the entire The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Complete Recordings in 5.1 Surround Sound.

The boxed set for the complete recordings of the first film, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – The Complete Recordings, was released on December 13, 2005 . It spent months in Amazon.com’s top 100 Sales Ranking, and garnered some of the best reviews of the year. “For fans of any of The Lord of the Rings films, The Fellowship of the Ring/Complete Recordings is an essential experience,” Heather Phares, All Music Guide. “The Complete Recordings is last year’s most important archival soundtrack release, expanding and preserving one of the finest and most significant recent scores in all of film music. Shore’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy is an operatic symphony that is among the finest musical accomplishments of the last half-century. The plethora of unreleased material on this beautifully packaged edition is mouth-watering at the least, and the sonic dynamic achieved on the surround sound DVD of the entire 180-minute score is simply astonishing. ” Randall Larson, Music From the Movies

Composer of over sixty-five film scores, Howard Shore brought a lifetime of experience to creating the epochal soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Shore used Tolkien's texts and drew from multiple periods throughout music history to evoke the book’s enchanted worlds. He developed over 80 leitmotifs to describe the cultures of Middle-earth . Collaborating with authors/lyrists Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, he composed choral music utilizing the Tolkien-created languages for the Elves (Quenya and Sindarin), the Dwarves (Khuzdûl), Men (Adûnaic) and the evil cultures of Mordor (Black Speech). For Rohan, all the choral text was set in Old English.

In 2003, working with conductor John Mauceri, Shore created The Lord of the Rings Symphony, a two-hour 6 movement concert piece drawing from the nearly 12 hours of music he composed for Peter Jackson’s landmark film trilogy. This piece features a full symphony orchestra, adult and children's choirs, as well as solo instrumentalists and vocalists, totaling more than 200 musicians on stage. Since its debut in November 2003 in Wellington, New Zealand, The Lord of the Rings Symphony has been performed in sold-out concerts on four continents and in some of the world’s most legendary venues, including London’s Royal Albert Hall, Moscow’s Kremlin Palace Theater and Sydney’s Opera House . Some of the world’s leading international orchestras – including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony and London Philharmonic – have performed The Lord of the Rings Symphony in addition to regional orchestras across the United States, and this past July, the symphony celebrated its 100th performance by the San Francisco Symphony.

The UK’s Classic FM voted The Lord of the Rings soundtracks the Best Film Score of All Time for five consecutive years. Shore’s other impressive film credits include Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator (Golden Globe Award), David Fincher’s Se7en and Panic Room, Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia, and 11 films with David Cronenberg including A History of Violence and Spider . Shore is currently writing an opera based on his film collaboration with Cronenberg, The Fly, commissioned for the Los Angeles Opera, and he is also completing work on his fifth collaboration with Martin Scorsese, The Departed, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg.

Says Shore of his time on The Lord of the Rings, “Everybody felt that we were working on something important. It was a film that welcomed the intensity of our efforts. As much as we put into it, it showed us more. It was endlessly revealing working on The Lord of the Rings.”

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I am back once more from a month long vacation (without a connection to internet) and I have to say I did not have strength to read all the last 6 pages of the old LotR package Update thread that had appeared after I went on that long break. But I am giddy now that the official date for the release of TTT CR has been announced.
As I have said elsewhere and before that TTT is the LotR score I am least familiar with. I do not know the reason but the middle part of the saga has not received as much attention from me as FotR and RotK. And this makes the upcoming CR set all the more interesting as I can rediscover this music in a complete form.

And I am still continually suprised and amazed about the level of detail in the scores as I think many other people are. Even after years of listening I find new things I have not noticed before even though they might be obvious after you start to notice them and they make complete sense.

One of those moments happened few days ago while I was listening to the TTT OST. Suddenly I became aware that the track 9, White Rider, contains the Orc/Isengard 5/4 rhythm underneath the Exorcism of Théoden bit of the track (0;13-0;38). I was stunned once again. This was a detail that had gone unnoticed by me for ages and now it suddenly became clear. And the thematic reference makes perfect sense as Gandalf is battling Saruman for Théoden's soul and Shore pits Isengard material against White Rider music. This depth really makes these scores something extraordinary.

DOUG, did you say that there would be more Gandalf the White material presented on the CR than what's in the film (and OST)?

54 DAYS TO GO!!!

Oh, and the blue color of TT: CR looks awesome!

Oh well....

And that good old post...well, all things are doomed to pass, all life is doomed to fade and yet we are not without hope...Doug, welcome to the new thread, whenever u come in

why don't you just add a link to the press release or the press release itself to the first post of this new thread? That way, someone visiting this forum doesn't have to search the other thread.

I'll definately do that!

We know you're busy, Doug, but surely you have something to tell us now? (something that we'd like to know )

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Originally posted by gkgyver:
I wonder if there ever was music recorded for the extended opening scene, with Gandalf and the Balrog running up the Endless Stairs.

And I can't wait to hear the choral music from the extended Fangorn scene in which Gandalf explains that the Ents are going to wake up and find that they're strong.

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I hope there is a track from the scene where Gandalf talks to Aragorn about Sauron fearing him.

Like the new digs! Thanks to Peter for letting me know the thread was relocated. I will try to address a couple of questions best I can.

First, sorry about the November 7 switcheroo… I heard about the change about 2 days before the press release went out, but felt it was better to let the PR do the talking at that point. I don’t know what prompted the move, but don’t worry, it’s not due to any sort of problem. We’re cleaning up Annotated Score materials now and the DVD menus are being finalized, so everything is right on schedule.

On the issue of deceptive running times, let me clarify a little. Yes, TTT runs longer than 180 minutes. FOTR did also, but TTT is a bit longer than FOTR. However, remember that FOTR’s running time includes over five minutes of Plan 9 music, two Enya pieces, and about 30 seconds of Fran Walsh’s Drinking Song… er, make that the song Fran Walsh wrote for the hobbits to sing while drinking!

Anyway, TTT only includes one melody by Plan 9 (Éowyn’s piece), and that’s entirely performed over Shore’s score. So even when you do get an official running time for the Two Towers set, remember that this time, the ENTIRE playing time is dedicated to Shore’s music… so you’re actually getting significantly more score.

Does that make a little more sense?

>>>One of those moments happened few days ago while I was listening to the TTT OST. Suddenly I became aware that the track 9, White Rider, contains the Orc/Isengard 5/4 rhythm underneath the Exorcism of Théoden bit of the track (0;13-0;38). I was stunned once again. This was a detail that had gone unnoticed by me for ages and now it suddenly became clear. And the thematic reference makes perfect sense as Gandalf is battling Saruman for Théoden's soul and Shore pits Isengard material against White Rider music. This depth really makes these scores something extraordinary.>>>

The Five Beat Pattern is really quite viral in this score… or perhaps parasitic. It’s all over the place, but it’s generally trying to squirm its way inside other material and take it over. The Théoden bit above is a great example. You’ll soon be able to hear a version or two you’ve never heard before as well.

>>>Personally, I'm really looking forward to the unreleased Nazgul music in the Dead Marshes. It scared the hell out of me in teh theatre.>>>

Much of what you heard in the theater in this scene was created through mixing… like the big choral crescendo. You’ll hear quite a bit more on disc – it really fleshes out the first appearance of a Nazgûl in TTT, both tying him firmly to the FOTR Black Riders, and making him seem much more vicious and dangerous.

>>>I am looking forward a number of cues like the Boromir flashback scene and the small rendition of Nature's theme while Merry and Pippin lie tied up at the edge of Fangorn and Merry tells the little story about the trees of Buckland and that Nazgûl over Dead Marshes cue.>>>

Just wait until you hear the unused end of the Fangorn piece!

>>>DOUG, did you say that there would be more Gandalf the White material presented on the CR than what's in the film (and OST)?>>>

I did, indeed.

I’m not kidding, there are a huge number of unused bits in this score. If the EE was one large step beyond the Theatrical version of this score, then the CR is the same sized step beyond the EE.

>>>I hope there is a track from the scene where Gandalf talks to Aragorn about Sauron fearing him.>>>

It’s in there, of course. Heck, that one could never be left off anyway… it includes a tiny premonition of one of the most important themes in The Lord of the Rings!

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Originally posted by Doug Adams:
It’s in there, of course. Heck, that one could never be left off anyway… it includes a tiny premonition of one of the most important themes in The Lord of the Rings!

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If my memory isn't failing me, there's a hint of Into the West in there, right?

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Originally posted by Swashbuckler:
Yup! That's exactly it.

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Nope, something more important.

Nope, something more important.

[/B]<HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think I know what theme it is. I believe it is a hint of the majestic, ending variation of the Sauron theme, which plays over the falling Barad-Dur and Black Gates, in ROTK.

EDIT:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>Originally posted by Incanus:
Thanks for that nice long post Doug!

I thought the theme referred in that little scene in TTT is the Completion of the Quest/Destruction of the Ring (as I call it) theme which is heard in the End of All Things (3;53-> ).<HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

Ya, I think were talking about the same theme here. Am I the only one who thinks that it has a little of the Sauron theme in it? I sense the same up and down motion in the beginning of each theme. It also makes sense to me, being a "majestic, ending variation" as it plays over the "ending" of Sauron's reign.

It's just amazing how much interesting things Doug Adams is posting here. Even in Belgium (where I'm living) people interested in soundtracks know your name! (Now you know I’m from Belgium, you might want to forgive my poor English

I'm looking forward to CR from TT but now my priority is finding a cue by cue analysis from CR FOTR so I can really discuss things with all of you (Afterwards I can study TT, which I already have found on this site – great cue by cue analysis by the way- I found one from CR FOTR made on this site but it's not complete.
Is there anyone that can help me?

Looking forward to new information
I think I'm gonna like it here ;

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Much of what you heard in the theater in this scene was created through mixing… like the big choral crescendo. You’ll hear quite a bit more on disc – it really fleshes out the first appearance of a Nazgûl in TTT, both tying him firmly to the FOTR Black Riders, and making him seem much more vicious and dangerous.

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Uuh, are you saying that "cue" was tracked in? Or that there were just some instrument sections dropped in the mixing?

This CR better be good, you've just raised my expectations a hell of alot!