The Hobbit Special Edition Movie Score.

[Gordian Knot]

Christmas season with accompanying appropriate music over, I finally had a chance to listen to The Hobbit Special Edition version. Hoping for a second grand slam as the LotRs scores, I was terribly disappointed.

The Hobbit score, separated from the movie as a stand alone product, gets an A+ for the intricate tonal orchestration that makes Howard Shore so brilliant.

So what's the problem? As a score for a movie it's DULL as hell! It was composed, as practically all modern movie scores are these days, to be background music for the movie. Music that is not meant to be heard. What a concept! The few hints of the LotR themes that return in snippets only make the rest of the listening experience more frustrating.

What good new themes there are, like the Misty Mountain theme, which appears to be the Hobbit movie's main theme, is used so sporadically and in such brief moments that it's beauty is mostly lost.

How the same composer could be so spot on with the themes in the LotRs can now be so wrong for The Hobbit is as mystifying as it is discouraging.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Have you heard Stephen Oliver's music for the 1980's BBC adaption? Exceptional music.

 

[Gordian Knot]

No. Thanks for the tip Stephen! Will definitely look it up.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Have you heard Stephen Oliver's music for the 1980's BBC adaption? Exceptional music.

Ah, yes, I have that on tape - from the BBC radio dramatisation. Not epic like Shore's LOTR soundtracks, but definitely very Tolkien.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I was disappointed, too. I didn't hate it and maybe I would have liked it more if I hadn't been comparing it to the LOTR score, but it's impossible not to.

The Misty Mountain theme is the best, I agree -- aside from the bits and pieces from LOTR. But this time is nothing that is so moving, for instance, as the Rohan theme from TTT and ROTK.

On the other hand, to be fair, there aren't really any moments like the Ents marching on Isengard where the music can soar.

 

[The Judge]

Have you heard Stephen Oliver's music for the 1980's BBC adaption? Exceptional music.

I can second that. I'm not overkeen on the counter-tenor (though he gives an other-worldly effect which isn't out of place), and the music for Shadowfax outstays its welcome as far as I'm concerned, but the rest of it is wonderful. I don't know if it's just me, but I find a real English feel to the songs, as if some of it is traditional music he's adapted.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

My thoughts exactly. He was an interesting and much respected composer. If you buy the 13-CD version of the BBC's adaption you get a fourteenth CD with just the music. It's wonderful.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I also purchased this hoping for the greatness found in the LOTR soundtracks. While I wasn't as disappointed as others, I did feel it fell a bit short. I love the Misty Mountains theme, but beyond that not a lot of new themes really stood out.

But I did like it enough to buy it, so there you go.