Here's a little bit of wannabe Middle-Earth music.

[Michaelt]

Hi. There was a period over the last several months during which I thought I might have a very slim chance of getting on the music team for the new Middle-Earth series (not as the actual composer of course). That is probably not going to be the case after all, but I’ve started going through some of what I’d written as a potential “pitch piece” and doing mock-ups. I don’t know if I’ll do it all, but I figured I’d at least put some of the opening out there instead of keeping things to myself like I usually do.

Update: this is now the full "piece" if it can really be called that.

Click to read more...

 

[Marcus Millfield]

It so happens that I have the Fellowship of the Rings OST on repeat for a while now and just paused it to listen to your contribution. As far as I'm concerned, the style would fit perfectly!

 

[Roger Newton]

Great. it reminds me of The Devil Rides Out.

 

[Michaelt]

It so happens that I have the Fellowship of the Rings OST on repeat for a while now and just paused it to listen to your contribution. As far as I'm concerned, the style would fit perfectly!

Well, that's the highest compliment I could strive for as far as I'm concerned, haha. Thank you!

Great. it reminds me of The Devil Rides Out.

Thanks! Not familiar with that but sounds intriguing.

 

[MartinH.]

Hi. There was a period over the last several months during which I thought I might have a very slim chance of getting on the music team for the new Middle-Earth series (not as the actual composer of course). That is probably not going to be the case after all, but I’ve started going through some of what I’d written as a potential “pitch piece” and doing mock-ups. I don’t know if I’ll do it all, but I figured I’d at least put some of the opening out there instead of keeping things to myself like I usually do.

This is so good, I got goosebumps!

 

[damirexus]

Hi. There was a period over the last several months during which I thought I might have a very slim chance of getting on the music team for the new Middle-Earth series (not as the actual composer of course). That is probably not going to be the case after all, but I’ve started going through some of what I’d written as a potential “pitch piece” and doing mock-ups. I don’t know if I’ll do it all, but I figured I’d at least put some of the opening out there instead of keeping things to myself like I usually do.

Hi, I really like it. Looking forward to hear the main theme.

 

[Trash Panda]

Nicely done!

 

[Michaelt]

This is so good, I got goosebumps!

Damn. Well that is more than I would ever dare hope to accomplish with anything I've written so that's encouraging!

Hi, I really like it. Looking forward to hear the main theme.

Thanks, not sure I'll tackle any more in mock-up form but I did sketch out around ten themes/motives based on what I thought would be narratively sensible for the show. As more information comes out, it's interesting to see if I was speculating well or not.

Nicely done!

Thanks man.

 

[Jetzer]

I like it! Definitely LotR

 

[Michaelt]

I like it! Definitely LotR

Thank you!

Well dinner last night must have been laced with cocaine or something because I spent a number of hours fleshing out the rest, more or less as I'd originally intended. Updated the original post. Special thanks to my 2011 iMac which has really put up with a lot recently.

 

[Michel Simons]

That full piece is really something else. Beautiful.

 

[FireGS]

Impressive. What choirs are those?

Orchestrationally, this nails it. I think thematically it could use work. That's something I hope is not lost in the new series. Shore's use of motif and weaving them in and out seemlessly, even during underscore, is just brilliant to me. I don't hear any real theme in here, just a sort of meandering between different flavors of Shore (and Pope?)-like orchestration. If that was the goal, to *sound* like Shore's LOTR/Hobbit, you nailed it. The thematic writing, though, is hard to match.

I would have liked to hear some more writing for woodwinds. If they were there, I didn't hear them. Lots of great winds stuff to be heard in LOTR.

Technically, from a mockup perspective, theres not really a single moment where I thought, "ugh, samples. #rip."

Mockupwise, this is boss. Save this template. Its killer.

 

[Michaelt]

Impressive. What choirs are those?

Orchestrationally, this nails it. I think thematically it could use work. That's something I hope is not lost in the new series. Shore's use of motif and weaving them in and out seemlessly, even during underscore, is just brilliant to me. I don't hear any real theme in here, just a sort of meandering between different flavors of Shore (and Pope?)-like orchestration. If that was the goal, to *sound* like Shore's LOTR/Hobbit, you nailed it. The thematic writing, though, is hard to match.

I would have liked to hear some more writing for woodwinds. If they were there, I didn't hear them. Lots of great winds stuff to be heard in LOTR.

Technically, from a mockup perspective, theres not really a single moment where I thought, "ugh, samples. #rip."

Mockupwise, this is boss. Save this template. Its killer.

First of all, choir is mostly Eric Whitacre except the big chanty stuff which is Oceania II.

I trust your ears man! If you think the orchestration works and the mock-up is solid that's definitely encouraging though I have some reservations about both; more prominent woodwinds would be great but I have a feeling that'd in turn lead to some of those "RIP" moments, heh. As it is I let them stay a little more textural.

I also agree that thematically this is pretty flimsy. I really struggle with writing "imaginary film music" from a formal perspective, and generally avoid that, so I sort of just imagined this as a kind of FOTR prologue equivalent that moves through certain dramatic beats loosely based around the idea of what this show could entail. Put against picture and with further repetition maybe some of these elements could take on more identity, but yeah as it is that is a really tall order like you say.

 

[NoamL]

This is very cool. You got close to that iconic LOTR sound without directly quoting anything!

 

[Michaelt]

This is very cool. You got close to that iconic LOTR sound without directly quoting anything!

Thanks! Looking forward to my feature in Vanity Fair.

 

[ALittleNightMusic]

The strings are one of the Spitfire ones I take it?

 

[Michaelt]

The strings are one of the Spitfire ones I take it?

Appassionata, Chamber Strings, Abbey Road....

 

[Henrik B. Jensen]

Hi. There was a period over the last several months during which I thought I might have a very slim chance of getting on the music team for the new Middle-Earth series (not as the actual composer of course). That is probably not going to be the case after all, but I’ve started going through some of what I’d written as a potential “pitch piece” and doing mock-ups. I don’t know if I’ll do it all, but I figured I’d at least put some of the opening out there instead of keeping things to myself like I usually do.

Update: this is now the full "piece" if it can really be called that.

Any chance this could be uploaded again, @CT ?

I remember it sounded good

 

[SomeGuy]

did the piece get removed? I dont see any links to hear the piece. :(