The Lord of the Rings and Howard Shore's Melodies

Rating: 9/10 (23 April 2016)

In December, 2003, J. R. R. Tolkien's last installment of The Lord of the Rings made its debut, with fans across the world swarming theaters to see Peter Jackson's inspired version of the film. In the film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Jackson wanted Tolkien's writing to come to life. This was accomplished not only by means of the cinematography, special effects, and computer generated-imagery (CGI), but by means of an epic film score, which, according to Estelle R. Jorgensen, "assists the moviegoer to make connections between times and travel imaginatively through time, thereby bringing alive the past and imagined future in the present moment." (45). The audience is thrown from battle scene to battle scene riding on the back of Howard Shore's melodies; finally able to catch their breath as Shore's concluding score ends the first installment of The Lord of the Rings. Howard Shore created a masterpiece that was able to alternate completely between the pastoral, the romantic, the fight, and the epic.