always give you a rough idea of the film sequence, except for the last 3 tracks which are extras
Disc: 1
1. Fire And Water
2. Shores Of The Long Lake
3. Beyond Sorrow And Grief
4. Guardians Of The Three
5. The Ruins Of Dale
6. The Gathering Of The Clouds
7. Mithril
8. Bred For War
9. A Thief In The Night
10. The Clouds Burst
11. Battle For The Mountain

Disc: 2
1. The Darkest Hour
2. Sons Of Durin
3. The Fallen
4. Ravenhill
5. To The Death
6. Courage And Wisdom
7. The Return Journey
8. There And Back Again
9. The Last Goodbye - Billy Boyd
10. Ironfoot
11. Dragon-Sickness
12. Thrain

I have all the sound tracks so far and constantly listen to the 3 LOTR CDs, they are brilliant, really inspirational, but both Hobbit sound tracks just do nothing for me, know where near the as good IMO.

What do others think?

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Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

Hmm. I agree about the Hobbit vs LotR soundtracks - certainly not as good. However I have to say that I can really enjoy listening to the first Hobbit soundtrack. The Desolation of Smaug one however, it not memorable for the most part. I think the problem arose because Howard Shore didn't orchestrate or conduct the DoS soundtrack and I don't think he will for the BotFA either. Instead he writes all the themes but someone else orchestrates them, which I think loses a lot of Howard's wonderful score in overuse of tremolo strings. This was different from LotR and AUJ, where he composed, orchestrated and conducted all of it.

It's weird that I find the AUJ soundtrack better than DoS as I also much prefer the AUJ film to DoS as well. Funny how that works. I definitely notice the lack of Shore's own orchestration in DoS and what I've heard of BotFa so far...

I believe the reason for him not orchestrating and conducting DoS and BotFA are that PJ wanted to use the NZ Philarmonic and Shore's health /age wouldn't really allow for him to travel. AUJ on the other hand was done with the London Philarmonic. And as for LotR, that was 10 years ago and so travel wasn't as big a deal for Shore at the time.

I love listening through the LotR scores at any time of the day. I've taken to listening a lot to The Return of the King "Complete Recordings" which is just fantastic. "The Lighting of the Beacons" and "The Eagles" are two of the standout tracks on that soundtrack

I've got to say that I think LotR is the finest film score of all time - maybe not got the one most memorable theme from a film of all time, but as a full work, it's unbeatable IMO! I view Howard Shore as something of a musical genius! His work on each of the races in Middle Earth is just astounding and the manner in which he devised all his themes even more so!!!

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My WIP: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=27174&start=180

Mr Took is spot on. I really could not have said it better.

The LOTR and AUJ soundtracks I listen to all the time. DOS too, but not nearly as much as AUJ. And breaking down DOS, I find the 2nd disk better than the first. I put it down to the movie, as you are cast right into the action without the building themes you get with AUJ. However on DOS, The Laketown theme is tremendous.

I never heard about the "complete recordings" till they were way out of production and they go for ridiculous prices. I wish Howard Shore/PJ would release those on MP3. Its a damn shame. I do listen to them on youtube, and think TTT is my favorite of the CR.

Cheers,

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Xintao

Great post Bandobras, really enjoyed reading that. I did not realise HS did not conduct the DOS sound track, agree with you fully the AUS is much more memorable of the two. Hoping the BOFA is better.

Would love the "complete recordings" but the price is just incredible unfortunately.
Do you have the "Symphony" recording?

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Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

Thanks for the kind words guys

@Xintao - yes, the Laketown theme is indeed excellent, my favourite off the DoS soundtrack too. It just captures the mood and tone of Laketown so well!

@Harfoot - no, I'm afraid I do not have The Lord of the Rings Symphony, however it is definitely on my wish list!!!

In terms of "The Complete Recordings", the RotK one is still available on iTunes. I am not actually in possession of the whole album yet but have rather picked and chosen the tracks that either don't appear on the main soundtrack album or just far outweigh their edited soundtrack counterparts.

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My WIP: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=27174&start=180

Ah, sorry Xintao i missed your post and just read it, i will listen again to the Laketown theme, thanks

Also i do not have an itunes account, does anyone know how much the complete recordings are on itunes?

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Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

Harfoot, the laketown theme is really called Thrice Welcome.

I know FOTR and TTT Complete Recordings are on Youtube. I listen to them there while at work or when I'm painting figures.

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Xintao

Complete Recordings on iTunes - I think it's £30 for the whole RotK album with about 50 tracks or something...

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My WIP: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=27174&start=180

The BOFA sound track was released today, download this morning from Amazon. Its a "BIG" sound track (obviously) much more so than the previous two have been, music for all the battles. The album is more like the ROTK sound track IMO, and all the better for it.
I have only listened the once and it takes me 3 or 4 play throughs to get to know an album, but on first listening its is very, very good.
its has a much stronger,louder feel than AUJ.

As Bandobras Took mentioned above, Howard Shore has not conducted this or the last release, due to age and travelling.

Highly recommend this, but my favourites are still by far the three LOTR sound tracks.

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Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.