Hahahha when I saw the title I immediately thought : What BLASPHEMY is this? 😁 But I am glad I watched the video first. Besides, I know you love Howards work.
I don't mind the title, it's not clickbaity in a bad way at all. I love this video, it makes me appreciate both the theme and the opening credits of the show. I think it's grossly underappreciated.I'm looking forward to watching more analysis of the Rings of Power soundtrack, please do make a lot more 😉
I personally loved Howard Shores opening score to the show. It gave me chills first hearing it. Going in to watching the first season of Rings of Power, I didn't know that Shore was scoring the theme. When I first heard it, I had to look it up because it felt so much like his style. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out it was Shore!!
Loved this buddy! Really good job ! A lot of research and effort went into this (as all your work). Thanks for the shout out too!! I think you make compelling arguments in favour of simplicity and a language that ‘speaks to all’ as well as the sort of ‘ancient-ness’ of Shore’s world.
There were some nice moments when Bear was on The Friendship Onion podcast and Pippin told stories about Howard Shore and how meticulous he went at those Soundtracks, even for The Hobbit.. something about him saying there are no 7minor Notes in it all when he first proposed him for 'the last goodbye' and you could see Bear being visibly shaken to his core, because he then realized (again) with what kind of perfection he has to compare his work to now...
@@monoverantus would love to see some more RoP videos too honestly! Your LOTR-Shore is fantastic, and I also think Bear has started something great, that is worthy of analysis and exploration. (Also loved the show, but I know that's more subjective) And btw Monoverantus, your content is great 🙌🏽
Thank you very much for this Analysis. This theme certainly grew on me, and I have to admit, I'm a big fan of Bear McCrearys score aswell. I actually have a request: I would love to hear an analysis of some of the Rarities Soundtracks, but ESPECIALLY of one of my favorite LOTR pieces of all time: "The Prophecy". Im just fascinated by this track, especially the dark, operatic 2 opening minutes of it, which is, in my humble amateur opinion, one of the most haunting compositions ever conceived. It sadly never made it into the final movie OR even Complete Recordings and because of that you never covered in on your channel and it certainly gets overlooked, which is a shame. Im also very interested in why it never was used, the information on that is very rare, atleast i didnt find anything online. Would love to hear more about it! Anyways, thank you so much for your content and I'm looking forward to what you'll do next! :)
Thanks! As I've said in my QnA, I'm open to doing it somewhere down the line. Regarding The Prophecy, I can tell you this: The opening scene went through a lot of revision and was finished quite late. It originally spent more time on unique musical moments (like the first two minutes) and introducing themes that doesn't help a first-time audience understand the movie they're watching (like a Second Age Gondor theme). The final version we see used a lot of tracked music (ie. taken from other parts of the movie) including the Lothlórien, The Pity of Gollum and the History of the Ring theme (which wasn't written to be a Ring-theme), because the creators realized they had to zone in on the themes that provided continuity.
I really look forward to the opening titles. It's the Music of the Ainur realised visually as well as audibly, and I love it as much as the rest of Shore's Middle Earth scores. Thank you for helping me understand more, as I have no musical knowledge; other than I know what moves me.
Sometimes, the right composer, the right techniques and all that jazz you talked about... just simply isn't enough. The magic notes, simple or complicated, are rare and hard to come by. For the LOTR those notes were always there, it was magical. For the opening of Rings of Power, it is good music sure. But I don't think most people felt that it had that immediate palpable magic that Shore's past music on the LOTR had. And that is honestly to be expected, how often do people manage to create such iconic melodies and scores?
The opening music is one of the few things I actually liked about RoP. And the opening visuals of the grains of sand, changing as if showing the history of Arda, looking similar to that effect of grains of sand on a big surface and how they change pattern and shape depending on what music is playing ( forgive the messy description, I simply dont know the name or more adequate words to describe it ). I like it since it puts music into the primary view. People who read the Silmarillion know how integral music was to Tolkiens legendarium, and that its the literal medium of creation and the beginning of everything. There were some good ideas in there, but the show just did not live up to expectations.
Yeah, I agree, it was a letdown. Hopefully it gets better (as most shows do). The effect you're talking about is called cymatics, well worth looking into.
Now it'll be interesting how Bear McCreary does the Season 2 soundtrack, I have a feeling it's gonna be a lot more corrupted, a lot more Sauron in themes. Already one Numenor theme has a lot of nods to Sauron given Ar Pharazon is kind of gonna go nuts at some point, but that'll be interesting to see, the show's version is always very different.
Hi monoverantus. It’s good to see you again. Thanks for the upload. I feel like the same thing happened with John William’s theme to the Kenobi show. Really underwhelming. Hard to believe he even wrote it. I’m not sure if these seasoned composers are seeing the shows, realizing they are not great (trying to be polite), and then phoning it in on the scoring sheet. Both seem to lack any kind of actual “theme” and are just a bunch of changing textures.
Great video's, I was hoping people would analyse this so I wouldn't have to myself. I'm still not swayed on it being great though, I think it's good. But music inhabits that unique space of it being a science but also a very spiritual thing, for scores to be great in my opinion they need to find a balance between these two opposing sides, and in that aspect this one just hasn't come close to tickling my g-spot.
@@monoverantus yeah same here, we're also talking about a track of not much more than two minutes... who knows what shore would've done if he had agreed on doing the full score. It's great he found a way to put so many ideas in those two minutes without it feeling overcrowded. But still, it doesn't really grab me.
I didn't mind the theme itself (though I wasn't exactly astounded by it, either), but I really didn't like the visuals of that credits sequence. The whole "using sound to move sand" shtick sounds cool on paper, but feels very hollow and unimpressive in practice, and reminds me of computer screen-savers more than anything. It doesn't feel Tolkien-y, it doesn't feel ancient, it doesn't feel mythic or epic. The musical theme is really dragged down by these visuals.
Yes, but the rest is even more underwhelming. It’s not bad, but not as memorable as the LOTR score. It’s so distinctive and you want to listen to it anytime. The last song in the last episode was absolutely awful.
I actually quite like the theme. My gripe isn't the music, but the visuals with it. It felt closer to good old Microsoft music player background visuals than a high end production. We probably got spoiled by game of thrones and others, but the bar was already set years before RoP
The theme is not as bad as people think it is, it suffers from the backlash the Series gets as a whole. In comparison to many of the other scores , songs and sound design in the show the Theme is one of the Best. But maybe that is also one of the reasons why people don't like it, it has Lord of the Ring vibes but is used for a Series that for many fans is so far removed from Tolkien's work that it's kinda painfully to be reminded that it's even in the same Universe. All that ,kinda stains the work of the Composer, sad if you think about it, that your work is viewed as worse just by association.
Always happy to watch Ed talk about music, but I've hadn't given the score any real consideration, or thought for that matter. The horrific things happening onscreen are too distracting. I'll probably give it some attention once the sting of being a racist wears off.
I think an essential problem of trying to discuss the music separately from the work itself is that the music is created to be part of, and musically express the ideas of the story. Thus, it’s going to be intrinsically harder to appreciate this music just as music, because one is forced to disassociate it from the images it is meant to express, which goes against the whole point of soundtracks. The soundtrack for TROP is going to lose on all fronts simply because it is made for a story ostensibly in Tolkien’s universe, made by people who despise Tolkien’s worldview. Your analysis is quite enjoyable, in any event!
I really lile Howard Shore's musical score in the original PJ LoTR trilogy. Personally , the opening music theme of RoP does give a similar tone more or less to the music in LoTR trilogy, This is probably the only thing I quite like about RoP, though the show itself is so much inferior to PJ LoTR as an adaptation. I guess, those people who dont like this opening theme, have their reasons, the fact that the show itself has nothing to do with Tolkien lore, and that somehow influence their judgement on the musical side of things.
For me it's not that this track is simple, it's just weak. When I listen to it it doesn't feel like there's any emotion or strength behind the music. Even Bear's score felt weak. There's just something about how they did it that just doesn't have the same potency that a lot of other scores have.
Sorry for the clickbaity title, and make sure to watch to the end before commenting!
Thanks for watching!
Hahahha when I saw the title I immediately thought : What BLASPHEMY is this? 😁 But I am glad I watched the video first. Besides, I know you love Howards work.
The way Shores themes evolve and play into each other... perfection by the highest standards.❤
I don't mind the title, it's not clickbaity in a bad way at all. I love this video, it makes me appreciate both the theme and the opening credits of the show. I think it's grossly underappreciated.I'm looking forward to watching more analysis of the Rings of Power soundtrack, please do make a lot more 😉
I personally loved Howard Shores opening score to the show. It gave me chills first hearing it. Going in to watching the first season of Rings of Power, I didn't know that Shore was scoring the theme. When I first heard it, I had to look it up because it felt so much like his style. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out it was Shore!!
Great video my man! Brilliant work
Loved this buddy! Really good job ! A lot of research and effort went into this (as all your work). Thanks for the shout out too!! I think you make compelling arguments in favour of simplicity and a language that ‘speaks to all’ as well as the sort of ‘ancient-ness’ of Shore’s world.
There were some nice moments when Bear was on The Friendship Onion podcast and Pippin told stories about Howard Shore and how meticulous he went at those Soundtracks, even for The Hobbit.. something about him saying there are no 7minor Notes in it all when he first proposed him for 'the last goodbye' and you could see Bear being visibly shaken to his core, because he then realized (again) with what kind of perfection he has to compare his work to now...
Excellent analysis, I love the content of your channel, will you analyze the themes of the hobbit, and rings of power?
Thanks! As mentioned, I might make more RoP content if people want it.
@@monoverantus I would love more ROP content Bear McCreary's appendices gave some cool insights into his process and I'm eager for more analyses.
@@monoverantus would love to see some more RoP videos too honestly!
Your LOTR-Shore is fantastic, and I also think Bear has started something great, that is worthy of analysis and exploration. (Also loved the show, but I know that's more subjective)
And btw Monoverantus, your content is great 🙌🏽
Love the analysis. I'd appreciate any rings of power content you want to make.
Thank you very much for this Analysis. This theme certainly grew on me, and I have to admit, I'm a big fan of Bear McCrearys score aswell.
I actually have a request: I would love to hear an analysis of some of the Rarities Soundtracks, but ESPECIALLY of one of my favorite LOTR pieces of all time:
"The Prophecy".
Im just fascinated by this track, especially the dark, operatic 2 opening minutes of it, which is, in my humble amateur opinion, one of the most haunting compositions ever conceived.
It sadly never made it into the final movie OR even Complete Recordings and because of that you never covered in on your channel and it certainly gets overlooked, which is a shame.
Im also very interested in why it never was used, the information on that is very rare, atleast i didnt find anything online.
Would love to hear more about it!
Anyways, thank you so much for your content and I'm looking forward to what you'll do next! :)
Thanks! As I've said in my QnA, I'm open to doing it somewhere down the line.
Regarding The Prophecy, I can tell you this: The opening scene went through a lot of revision and was finished quite late. It originally spent more time on unique musical moments (like the first two minutes) and introducing themes that doesn't help a first-time audience understand the movie they're watching (like a Second Age Gondor theme). The final version we see used a lot of tracked music (ie. taken from other parts of the movie) including the Lothlórien, The Pity of Gollum and the History of the Ring theme (which wasn't written to be a Ring-theme), because the creators realized they had to zone in on the themes that provided continuity.
I really look forward to the opening titles. It's the Music of the Ainur realised visually as well as audibly, and I love it as much as the rest of Shore's Middle Earth scores. Thank you for helping me understand more, as I have no musical knowledge; other than I know what moves me.
It’s definitely the only part of the show that’s any good. But the music of the ainur would be too incredible for us mortals to even comprehend IMO.
16:55 the Hobbit confirmed 😂
This series and the Level of creativity in it made me want to imagine and dream again. No recent Fantasy product was able to do so
Great job, keep doing these kind of videos.
Sometimes, the right composer, the right techniques and all that jazz you talked about... just simply isn't enough. The magic notes, simple or complicated, are rare and hard to come by. For the LOTR those notes were always there, it was magical. For the opening of Rings of Power, it is good music sure. But I don't think most people felt that it had that immediate palpable magic that Shore's past music on the LOTR had. And that is honestly to be expected, how often do people manage to create such iconic melodies and scores?
Was waiting for the Hobbit, but GOD OF WAR!! Hells yeah!
The opening music is one of the few things I actually liked about RoP. And the opening visuals of the grains of sand, changing as if showing the history of Arda, looking similar to that effect of grains of sand on a big surface and how they change pattern and shape depending on what music is playing ( forgive the messy description, I simply dont know the name or more adequate words to describe it ).
I like it since it puts music into the primary view. People who read the Silmarillion know how integral music was to Tolkiens legendarium, and that its the literal medium of creation and the beginning of everything.
There were some good ideas in there, but the show just did not live up to expectations.
Yeah, I agree, it was a letdown. Hopefully it gets better (as most shows do).
The effect you're talking about is called cymatics, well worth looking into.
@@monoverantus Thank you very much, I knew there was a word for it 😁 its something new worth learning
Now it'll be interesting how Bear McCreary does the Season 2 soundtrack, I have a feeling it's gonna be a lot more corrupted, a lot more Sauron in themes.
Already one Numenor theme has a lot of nods to Sauron given Ar Pharazon is kind of gonna go nuts at some point, but that'll be interesting to see, the show's version is always very different.
Amazing as usual.
I appreciate what you do
Hi monoverantus. It’s good to see you again. Thanks for the upload.
I feel like the same thing happened with John William’s theme to the Kenobi show. Really underwhelming. Hard to believe he even wrote it. I’m not sure if these seasoned composers are seeing the shows, realizing they are not great (trying to be polite), and then phoning it in on the scoring sheet. Both seem to lack any kind of actual “theme” and are just a bunch of changing textures.
Still waiting on "The Voice of the Ring, Part 2" but no pressure.
Great video's, I was hoping people would analyse this so I wouldn't have to myself. I'm still not swayed on it being great though, I think it's good. But music inhabits that unique space of it being a science but also a very spiritual thing, for scores to be great in my opinion they need to find a balance between these two opposing sides, and in that aspect this one just hasn't come close to tickling my g-spot.
That's fair. Though I'm giving this track a strong defence, it's not necessarily the best Shore could've done.
@@monoverantus yeah same here, we're also talking about a track of not much more than two minutes... who knows what shore would've done if he had agreed on doing the full score. It's great he found a way to put so many ideas in those two minutes without it feeling overcrowded. But still, it doesn't really grab me.
0:15 niiice😂😂
Du är kung Anton 😎
howard shore's or bear mcreary's?
Why without lyrics?
I didn't mind the theme itself (though I wasn't exactly astounded by it, either), but I really didn't like the visuals of that credits sequence. The whole "using sound to move sand" shtick sounds cool on paper, but feels very hollow and unimpressive in practice, and reminds me of computer screen-savers more than anything. It doesn't feel Tolkien-y, it doesn't feel ancient, it doesn't feel mythic or epic. The musical theme is really dragged down by these visuals.
Funny, this opening reminds me Foundation.
edit Just read on Google that is the same composer hahahahaha
I love the Numenor music. The rest I don't really care for.
Yes, but the rest is even more underwhelming. It’s not bad, but not as memorable as the LOTR score. It’s so distinctive and you want to listen to it anytime. The last song in the last episode was absolutely awful.
Really? Where the shadows lie is awesome!!
@@silask.1966 I found the singer terrible, I don’t like Gollum’s song either even though the singer is a bit better.
@@di3486 oh okay. Gollums Song also really good imo
I actually quite like the theme. My gripe isn't the music, but the visuals with it. It felt closer to good old Microsoft music player background visuals than a high end production. We probably got spoiled by game of thrones and others, but the bar was already set years before RoP
The theme is not as bad as people think it is, it suffers from the backlash the Series gets as a whole. In comparison to many of the other scores , songs and sound design in the show the Theme is one of the Best. But maybe that is also one of the reasons why people don't like it, it has Lord of the Ring vibes but is used for a Series that for many fans is so far removed from Tolkien's work that it's kinda painfully to be reminded that it's even in the same Universe.
All that ,kinda stains the work of the Composer, sad if you think about it, that your work is viewed as worse just by association.
McCreary is a genius (solely based on Battlestar) why he's so lacking, he resorted to working on fanfic schlock like this is a mystery.
Huh? He took a job, a big one, for a big IP and big studio. Why wouldn't he?
Always happy to watch Ed talk about music, but I've hadn't given the score any real consideration, or thought for that matter. The horrific things happening onscreen are too distracting. I'll probably give it some attention once the sting of being a racist wears off.
I think an essential problem of trying to discuss the music separately from the work itself is that the music is created to be part of, and musically express the ideas of the story. Thus, it’s going to be intrinsically harder to appreciate this music just as music, because one is forced to disassociate it from the images it is meant to express, which goes against the whole point of soundtracks. The soundtrack for TROP is going to lose on all fronts simply because it is made for a story ostensibly in Tolkien’s universe, made by people who despise Tolkien’s worldview.
Your analysis is quite enjoyable, in any event!
there is a bad mixage for the music of the generic and the video of the generic is not very good.
I really lile Howard Shore's musical score in the original PJ LoTR trilogy. Personally , the opening music theme of RoP does give a similar tone more or less to the music in LoTR trilogy, This is probably the only thing I quite like about RoP, though the show itself is so much inferior to PJ LoTR as an adaptation. I guess, those people who dont like this opening theme, have their reasons, the fact that the show itself has nothing to do with Tolkien lore, and that somehow influence their judgement on the musical side of things.
About the only good thing about the show
its 2 themes and some synth. its overrated.
Listening to rop's very underwhelming, and unmemorable score, shore's is incredible and stays in the mind.
Unmemorable??? What??
@@silask.1966 Yeah, don't remember any of it. Too much gregorian monk chanting for me. It was good, but it just isn't memorable.
@@tinyspeaker I listened to it really often so maybe I’m bias 😂😂. But I noticed it really often in the show itself
@@silask.1966 Fair enough man, I'm glad you liked it that much. I thought the score was one of the better things about the show.
@@tinyspeaker it definitely is!
For me it's not that this track is simple, it's just weak. When I listen to it it doesn't feel like there's any emotion or strength behind the music. Even Bear's score felt weak. There's just something about how they did it that just doesn't have the same potency that a lot of other scores have.
This is beautiful, just a shame it's a prelude to the much abhorred Rings of Prime.
The soundtrack is the only thing the show does right without failure.