3/4/2023 0 Comments Two towers sound track![]() I was very much hoping that Shore would choose to develop Gollum's theme from the first film. Which brings us to the sad and tragic character of Gollum. And the lovely theme for Frodo appears briefly in the opening of the second track, "The Taming of Smeagol". "The Leave Taking" reprises this beautiful, albeit depressing, piece. It's also nice to hear that Galadriel's, or the Elven, theme found its way into this score as well. It was more or less hummed by a quiet boys choir in the first film, and the choir is used here too, but this version is fuller, more rich and more mysterious. There is a beautiful rendition of the temptation theme, or rather the theme used to represent the seductive nature of The One Ring, in "The Forbidden Pool". ![]() It's soon replaced by Sauron's aggressive brassy, motif, which in turn is replaced by the militaristic theme for Isengard and Saruman's army of Uruk-Hais. The heroic theme for the Fellowship shows up in a very grand, and long, version, dominated by piercing trumpet and low brass. "The Uruk-Hai" reprises several already established themes. It opens the score in "Foundations of Stone", performed by slow strings, similar to the first statement in The Fellowship of the Ring (over the films' title) and makes another noteworthy appearance in "The Hidden Pool". The Ring theme makes several appearances. Many of the leitmotifs and themes from the previous score appear here as well, and Shore does a good job expanding and developing them. The excellent "Breath of Life" features the voice of Sheila Chandra, while "Forth Eorlingas" couples the singing of Ben Del Maestro with an enormous orchestral swell, creating one of the grandest moments of the entire score. "Evenstar" includes some gorgeous singing by Isabel Bayrakdarian, recalling Enya's contribution to the first score. ![]() And the solo performances in other cues are outstanding. "The Passage of the Marshes" features some truly scary writing for choir as Frodo, Sam and Gollum make their way through marshes haunted by ancient fallen warriors. Absent however is the dark, chanting choir of the Black Riders, but what we get instead makes up for it big time. I'm thrilled to hear that the deep "ho ho ho"-choir from Moria makes a guest appeareance in the opening "Foundations of Stone" as this without doubt was one of the musical highlights of the first film. Shore makes use of both male, female, boys and full choir and solo voices. However, similar to The Fellowship of the Rings score (this is act two of what Howard Shore likes to describe as a three act opera, after all), is the overall sound of the score - most notably the string writing, bombastic brass and the strong presence of voices. Apart from a couple of tracks, like "Evenstar" and "Breath of Life", but they are more sad than lighthearted. Sure, The Fellowship had its fair share of darkness too, what with the gothic music for the Ringwraiths and all, but while it gave the listener the opportunity to take a break from the action and relax a little with cues such as "Many Meetings" and "Concerning Hobbits", The Two Towers is pretty much action and suspense from start to finish. The score for The Two Towers is considerably darker than the one for The Fellowship of the Ring. Judging by the soundtrack CD I think it was safe to say that Shore had produced yet another Academy Award-worthy score. It's not too stupid to guess that The Two Towers will have the same effect on moviegoers. It's not that strange really - the score is larger than life, and perfectly accompanies the visuals. Howard Shore's Oscar winning music for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is one of those scores that practically everyone noticed while watching the film, and actually remembered afterwords. Review Summary: Howard Shore, and The Lord of the Rings, are back in full force for part two of this epic trilogy.
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