"LOTR" music an ongoing adventure for composer Shore

The "Lord of the Rings" movies have been out of theaters and on DVD shelves for years.

Howard Shore already composed a symphony based on the scores, and it's even been more than two years since the Oscar-winning film composer conducted that "Lord of the Rings Symphony" in Seattle's Benaroya Hall.

But the story behind the music behind Frodo Baggins and his quest to destroy the One Ring is not over yet, as Shore is still completely immersed in the score he wrote for Peter Jackson's epic fantasy film trilogy. Following last year's release of "The Fellowship of the Ring: The Complete Recordings," Shore went right to work assembling "The Two Towers: The Complete Recordings," a three-CD/one-DVD set released last month. "The Return of the King" will get the same deluxe treatment next year, with a four-disc set that will, for the first time, contain Shore's complete score from the films in its impressive entirety.

"Lord of the Rings" music has been readily available in single-disc soundtrack releases, but Shore always knew he'd eventually assemble the scores, not merely to satisfy "Rings" fans, but to give himself an opportunity to hear his work, 10 hours from start to finish, as he'd never heard it before.

"The scores were recorded in sections, and not chronologically," Shore said by telephone from his office in New York, "so the first edit [of the complete recordings] was the first time I'd ever heard the whole piece. That was an interesting feeling, because I'd never heard the score in its entirety. You hear most of it in the films, but there are other sound elements in that context, so this was our first pure listening."

It's been only six years since Shore began his first "LOTR" recording sessions, but assembling the complete scores was still an archival effort. Most was on hard drive in London, but other elements were in New Zealand (where the films were produced) or at the offices of the trilogy's distributor, New Line Cinema.

"I was composing music based on J.R.R. Tolkien's books as well as Peter's films," said Shore, who researched Tolkien's "Middle-earth" for four months before writing a single note of music. "There were stand-alone pieces written as themes, like the music of the Shire and the Fellowship theme, and then I started adapting these themes in the process of scoring."

For Shore, "The Two Towers" represented the splintering of the Fellowship established in Jackson's first film, resulting in the most complex compositions of his three-film score. "The Complete Recordings" reflect this complexity, with new and recurring themes and leitmotifs that are constantly adapted to the shifting moods and atmospheres of Tolkien's epic adventure.

To that end, Shore recruited film-music expert Doug Adams to fully analyze the music, enabling casual listeners and experienced musicians alike to appreciate every aspect of composition, arrangement and orchestration. Adams attended some recording sessions and was given unlimited access to Shore's creative process, allowing him to write the booklets that accompany the "Complete Recordings" CD sets and an upcoming full-length book ("The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films," due in 2007) that explore Shore's music in fascinating depth and detail. (Adams' scholarly expertise can also be appreciated in the annotated scores available online at www.lordoftherings-soundtrack.com.)

"I needed somebody of Doug's talent to be a part of this project," said Shore. "His writing brings another kind of storytelling logic to the listening experience, to help musicians and lay people understand how the music relates to the films."

After the complete "Return of the King" score is released next year, Shore (who is currently orchestrating an opera inspired by David Cronenberg's film "The Fly," which he scored) will eventually record the two-hour, 10-minute "Lord of the Rings Symphony," which is still being performed to sellout crowds around the world.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely that Shore will score the proposed film version of "The Hobbit." Due to legal conflicts between Peter Jackson and New Line over profit distributions, the creative team behind the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy will not be involved.

Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net