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This filmscore/soundtrack is (chiefly) classical program music and a huge tone poem of the First Water. All the music on this CD was composed, orchestrated, conducted, and produced by Howard Shore. I thought long and hard prior to reviewing this work because I have some definite issues with it, which I'll discuss in just a bit - but the bottom line is that with this CD you get your money's worth and it's really a fine collection. First, I wish to provide some background details of the original story and of the music.
For the uninitiated, "The Lord of the Rings," (by J.R.R. Tolkien) is an adult fantasy tale of good versus evil in a land called Middle Earth where all manner of creatures exist and interact. "The Two Towers" is the second entry of the LOTRs trilogy where "men," (as opposed to elves, dwarves, and hobbits), are introduced in a major way into the chronicle. The filmscore here includes some themes from the first film ("The Fellowship of the Ring") and incorporates some new ones as well.
The orchestra here is nothing less than the much-renowned London Philharmonic, spot-on in their rendering of the work and yielding near-perfection in this instance in my opinion. The vocals include The Voices of London, The Oratory School Schola Boys' Choir, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Ben Del Maestro, Elizabeth Fraser, and Emiliana Torrini. Dermot Crehan is featured playing a Norwegian fiddle called a "hardinger" and fine work it is. Other unique orchestral ethnic instruments featured herein include the rhaita (Jan Hendrickse), cimbalom, dilruba, log drums, and wood xylophones.
To describe the overall work in general terms, it's characteristically broad with not a lot of instrumental solos, often highlighting expansive sweeping strings, big horns booming out bass scales, and pounding and assertive timpani. I listen to classical music 24/7 (and especially to movie soundtracks) and here, I detected numerous superlative trends and techniques of Stravinsky, Debussy, Loeffler, Elgar, Orff, Hovhaness, Gowers, and Górecki, albeit Shore has his own well-stuffed bag of tricks and I think that my notations are just reflective of the influence of at least most of these great composers on Shore himself. Not many of the movements end as they begin, if any at all do so.
Ultimately, three hours of music were used in this film and only 72:24 of it is found on this CD (more on this later, the producers forgot to list any times on the liner notes or rear cover!). It was recorded in 2002 (post-film production) at the Coliseum at the Watford Town Hall (19 miles northwest of London, England). And to clear up a muddy point in advance, many of the solo vocal renderings are yielded up by the singers in Tolkien's "made-up" languages from the original book, and are therefore unintelligible (the final track excepted). The "translations" (into English) are found in the CD liner notes.
One point came to my mind right off: Howard Shore must have had to discipline himself against an unceasing temptation to configure every piece of music in this film to the likes of traditional Irish folk tunes and reels. You'll find some of this ethnically-familiar music inserted, here and there, but that hurdle was cleared nicely, much to the benefit of the film and similarly to the listener I might add. I made copious notations as I listened (many times) to the CD and I have listed a number of my thoughts here (BTW, I don't read a note of music so if I have misused some terms, just please take them as a lay person would express them):
Track 1, (3:51) "Foundations of Stone" - Big horns; broad, flowing strings; lumbering percussion, and; a "Carmina Burana-type" chorus and vocals.
Track 2, (2:48) "The Taming of Sméagol" - "The Hobbit" main theme (clarinet) is up front; atmospheric chorus; tense strings; a transition into big percussion and bass notes on horns.
Track 3, (4:05) "The Riders of Rohan" - An action theme, chiefly of horns; a decrescendo and a return to a string crescendo; this leads into a medieval ambiance.
Track 4, (2:45) "The Passage of the Marshes" - (one of my two favorite movements) A spectacular vision of ancient magnificence... horns first, then a solo violin (hardinger), then more horns and strings; a change of key and more musical tension; more key changes over the course of this track.
Track 5, (2:58) "The Uruk-hai" - A variation of yet another familiar action theme... a canon, really; totally orchestral; then, a big but brief reprise of Track 4 and subsequently into a brisk Doomsday march.
Track 6, (3:48) "The King of the Golden Hall" - A staccato percussion laid against big horns, ending abruptly into a lightly played second reprise of Track 4 (solo violin).
Track 7, (3:17) "The Black Gate Is Closed" - Another apprehensive action piece and then to a less assertive development in the minor key with a hallowed chorus; a series of orchestral crescendos; a rondo of strings and a change of key.
Track 8, (3:15) "Evenstar" - Another favorite of mine. This piece opens with Isabel Bayrakdarian singing a beautifully melodic Celtic theme in the minor key.
Track 9, (2:28) "The White Rider" - Embarks much like the opening chorus in the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th; then to some playing of scales, with switching from the minor key to the major; then back to the minor.
Track 10, (2:43) "Treebeard" - Opens with the dreadful F#-C exchange (or possibly transposed in another key); then, to a Stravinsky-ish "Rite of Spring" sacrificial maiden march.
Track 11, (3:34) "The Leave Taking" - A chorus rendering a premise that's just a bit ripped-off from a late-period "Star Trek" film, morphing into something of an arabesque; then, a dreary manifestation of an orchestral series of key changes, all in the minor keys.
Track 12, (3:52) "Helm's Deep" - Big horns, big timpani, the latter in a syncopated presentation; enter the echo of a chorus chanting scales; a decrescendo and a re-building of the Track 4 theme; enter another Enya-type Irish theme.
Track 13, (5:27) "The Forbidden Pool" - A diminutive opening in the minor key which somewhat escalates via some bass-note work from the cello section.
Track 14, (5:07) "Breath of Life" (featuring Sheila Chandra) - An unintelligible mantra (I mean this in a positive sense); ultimately to a galloping horn, string, and woodwind crescendo, then a decrescendo.
Track 15, (4:36) "The Hornburg" - More of the Track 4 theme; a brief trumpet solo preceding a chorus of vocals.
Track 16, (3:15) "Forth Eorlingas" (featuring Ben Del Maestro) - The chorus opens with a light chant, building to a point of climax where the orchestra again reprises the Track 4 theme, and then on to another of the main LOTR themes.
Track 17, (5:00) "Isengard" (featuring Elizabeth Fraser and Ben Del Maestro) - Fraser open the piece which evolves to simply more pounding scales; then back to a sort of coda-length segment of the Track 4 theme; then, more Fraser and Maestro.
Track 18, (3:44) "Samwise the Brave" - An old English folk tune rendered as a flute solo at the opening, (a variation of a prevalent LOTRs theme, ultimately correcting to the actual chief LOTRs theme).
Track 19, (5:51) "Gollum's Song" (featuring Emiliana Torrini) - This is the final work of the CD - Torrini seems somewhat out-of-place (or perhaps it's that the actual music does) against its peer tunes... it's really not classical music at all. The lyrics are half-whispered, half-sung and the underpinning is reminiscent of a Jim Morrison (The Doors) ballad. It's the only song on the CD where the words are sung distinctly in modern English. The track ends with a very nice version of the Track 4 notion.
Now, to address my three minor reservations/concerns about this CD:
1. If you want all the music from this film you'll have to purchase this pricey work: The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (The Complete Recordings). This was indeed a disappointment when I discovered that I had been "shorted"; however, I must reiterate that I did in fact get my money's worth on this CD, given the low price - I was just disappointed that a particular piece of music that I especially loved was missing!
2. The last track, "Gollum's Song" really just does not fit in with the rest of the music. There are many people who clearly love this song and I don't challenge their right to enjoy it -- it's just that I see it as an incongruous entry on this heavily edited CD. I would not be much concerned with this had the producers of the CD soundtrack (Howard Shore may not have had the final say) not redundantly injected the theme from Track 4 so many times, taking up a lot of the CD space. In fact, I think that Howard Shore would have been far ahead to farm out the Gollum composition in its entirety (he collaborated) to a single writer who regularly works in this genre of music. In the end, I wish they would have just included more classical movements, eliminating this one from the abbreviated CD. But since they didn't, like most of my CDs, there's seems to always be at least one track that I don't care for so I really can't complain all that much on this issue. And as I said, there are plenty of folks who really savor this tune.
3. My biggest concern is that Shore did not use Isabel Bayrakdarian nearly enough. While the other vocalists are quite good, they're not even in the same universe with Bayrakdarian as far as I'm concerned. She's a rising soprano of infinite talent and she really shines here (all too briefly!) as she particularly does with one of her recent phenomenal CDs: Isabel Bayrakdarian ~ Cleopatra
Finally, this is an "enhanced" audio CD with bonus multi-media content which will run on most computers - it does make an internet connection when you engage this feature.
That's about it. Howard Shore and all concerned did a terrific job with this soundtrack and I highly recommend it, although if you can afford the expensive "complete" one, I'd obtain it instead.
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Not as Pictured Here
3 stars because the soundtrack is great as expected. But the product was not as presented- the cover appears to be a two-sided insert card and the original booklet with liner notes were not included. I like having those, so this is disappointing.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2008
- Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2003
Top reviews from other countries
- Paul MReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 19, 2025
Good music, Good Soundtrack
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Natiti99Reviewed in France on May 31, 2009
BO le seigneur des anneaux les deux tours
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andreapavReviewed in Italy on July 27, 2015
La colonna sonora del secondo capitolo
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mistressfraserReviewed in Germany on December 5, 2002
Die Geduld hat sich gelohnt!
