| The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | |
| Type: | Television score |
| Composer: | Bear McCreary |
| Text: | J. R. R. Tolkien |
| Language: | Fictional languages (Quenya, Sindarin, Khuzdul, Adûnaic, Black Speech) and English |
| Composed: | July 2021 – present |
The music of the American fantasy television series is composed by Bear McCreary, with additional music by Howard Shore and other artists. The Amazon Prime Video series is based on J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth, primarily material from the appendices of the novel The Lord of the Rings, and is set thousands of years before the novel in the Second Age of Middle-earth. It covers all the major events of the Second Age from Tolkien's writings.
McCreary was first approached about composing the series' original score in 2019, and began writing themes or leitmotifs in July 2021. The series is not a continuation of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies and McCreary was contractually prevented from quoting any of the themes that Shore composed for those films. Despite this, he hoped to create musical continuity between his score and Shore's. After six weeks of composing new themes, McCreary began writing the score for each episode and ultimately composed nine hours of music over eight months. He eschewed the common industry approach of using other composers to write additional music to ensure a consistent musical approach for the whole series. Recording began in November 2021 while McCreary was still composing. The score was recorded with orchestras at Abbey Road Studios and AIR Studios in London and a choir at Synchron Stage in Vienna. The choral music was sung in Tolkien's fictional languages. Soloists were recorded around the world playing various specialty instruments. Recording for the first season was completed in April 2022. Independent of McCreary's work, Shore composed the series' main title theme.
A soundtrack album for the first season was released on August 19, 2022, and was followed by additional albums featuring McCreary's full score for each episode. The score has received positive reviews from critics and several accolades, including a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award nomination for Shore's main title theme.
Amazon acquired the global television rights for J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in November 2017. The company's streaming service, Prime Video, gave a multi-season commitment to a series based on the novel and its appendices, to be produced by Amazon Studios in association with New Line Cinema and in consultation with the Tolkien Estate. J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay were set as showrunners of the series, titled , which is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. It follows a large cast of characters and covers all the major events of the Second Age from Tolkien's writings: the forging of the Rings of Power, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, and the last alliance between Elves and Men.
The series was originally expected to be a continuation of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, but Amazon later clarified that their deal with the Tolkien Estate required them to keep the series distinct from Jackson's films. Despite this, musicians Plan 9—Janet Roddick, David Donaldson, and Steve Roche—and David Long returned from the films to provide music during filming for the first season, as did Howard Shore, who composed the original scores for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Shore was first reported to be in discussions about working on the series in September 2020. He was said to be interested in developing musical themes but not necessarily composing the entire score. Shore was confirmed to be in talks for the series a year later, when composer Bear McCreary was reported to be involved as well. Their hiring was officially announced in July 2022, with McCreary composing the score and Shore writing the main title theme. McCreary later confirmed that he was contractually prohibited from quoting any themes that Shore wrote for the films.
A long-time fan of Tolkien's writings and Jackson's films, McCreary was first approached about working on the series by executive producer Lindsey Weber, who he worked with on the films 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) and The Cloverfield Paradox (2018), in 2019. He was not hired until mid-2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the first season's production and delayed the executive producers' decision on who the composer would be. This meant McCreary had less time than he would have liked to compose the season's score.
Despite not being able to quote any of Shore's material from the films, McCreary wanted to stay true to Shore's approach by preserving the core sounds and styles of music for each culture that Shore had developed. In this way, he hoped to create a "continuity of concept" between Shore's music and his own, with his new themes being added to the "pantheon of memorable melodies" that Shore had written. McCreary said his music for these societies at their peak would naturally progress into Shore's music for the Third Age of Middle-earth, which he called wistful and melancholy. When starting work on the series, McCreary met Shore and they discussed their approaches to writing music. McCreary felt there was an expectation, based on Shore's scores, that the music in the series be a "character in and of itself" and he wanted to match that by writing music that was less in the background than other modern scores are.
McCreary prefers to see completed footage from a project before composing music for it, but for The Rings of Power he had to begin work based only on the scripts for the first season, conversations with the showrunners, and seeing a rough version of the first two episodes. He felt this worked for the series because, as a fan, he was able to compose themes based on his personal expectations. This meant he was also able to compose themes that would work across the whole series, rather than just the first season, because he already knew the major character arcs. McCreary typically composes three or four themes or leitmotifs for a project, but needed more than 15 for The Rings of Power. He began working on the music in July 2021, starting with "an absolutely brutal six weeks" just composing the themes. He compared this to writing a symphony. McCreary next applied his themes to several key scenes from the first two episodes. He presented these to the showrunners and other executive producers before they heard the individual themes because he wanted their first experience of the music to be in context.
After his themes had been approved by the executive producers, McCreary dedicated most of his time for the next eight months to composing the full nine-hour score for the first season. He only took five days off in that time, and eschewed the common industry practice of using other composers to write additional music. This was to ensure a consistent musical approach for the whole series. Also uncommonly, McCreary did not have spotting sessions with the showrunners after the first two episodes because they all felt that they were already on the same page. He would instead compose and mock-up the full score for each episode and send it to the showrunners, who generally had only a few specific notes for each one. McCreary said it was surreal to have that much freedom and trust on such a big series, which he called "the most ambitious thing that I've ever been attached to. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to be able to pour myself into something so profoundly, and be given the space and the creative freedom to do the score I want to hear."
Because he was full-time composing the score, McCreary was unable to orchestrate it himself and relied on his long-time orchestrators Edward Trybek, Henri Wilkinson, and Jonathan Beard to follow notes that he wrote for them. In addition to writing for orchestra and specialist solo instruments, McCreary composed music for choir and solo singers. For these, he used words from Tolkien's fictional languages: the Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin, the Dwarvish language Khuzdul, the dark language Black Speech, and the Númenórean language Adûnaic. McCreary noted that there is potential to invent new words in some of these languages based on the rules that Tolkien established, but he preferred to stick to words that Tolkien created himself. He started by referring to a dictionary of words and phrases for each language while he was composing, and then worked with Brian Claeys from his production company to make sure the text fit the music. Payne reviewed all of the text in the score to ensure each fictional language was being used correctly. McCreary was amazed by and grateful for this considering Payne's busy schedule as showrunner. Finally, the series' dialect coach, Leith McPhearson, recorded herself pronouncing every line of text phonetically, syllable by syllable, so the choir and soloists could learn the correct pronunciation of each word ahead of recording. McCreary felt the amount of work put into getting the languages correct for the score was a testament to how much the crew cared about the source material.
After McCreary finished composing the score for the first season, he spent six to eight weeks creating soundtrack albums, participated in marketing for the series, and then spent September 2022 writing blog entries that explain his score for each episode in-depth. The day after he finished writing the blogs, which he considered to be the end of his work on the first season, McCreary received scripts for the second season. He began composing new music by November, including music that was needed during filming. The composer expressed excitement at being involved in the season from the beginning and being able to pace out his work better than on the first season. He composed eight hours of music for the second season.
Writing all of the themes or leitmotifs for the series and ensuring they were distinct and memorable required "every skill [McCreary] had ever learned" throughout his career. His approach was to use a unique set of specialty instruments for each theme on top of the orchestra and choir, and he chose a different starting interval so they would all be identifiable by their first two notes. He wrote an "anthem" for each culture that the character themes could either align with or not, depending on the characterization, to "clearly express each theme's narrative intention". McCreary wrote multiple sections for each theme including introductions and developments.
For the introductions of the Elven capital Lindon and High King Gil-galad, McCreary chose to use Elrond's theme. He did not do this to suggest that Elrond represented Elves in general, but because he wanted the audience to focus on Elrond's character in those scenes. He had a specific theme for Gil-galad planned but did not use it during the first season.
Additionally, McCreary used the "overblown woodwind effect" of a Japanese shakuhachi flute as a recurring sound to signify the presence of wolves in the series.
Because of the series' large budget, McCreary was given the resources he needed to record the score how he wanted without having to use common television cost-saving techniques such as alternating between bigger and smaller orchestras. Recording for the score began in November 2021. Each episode used a 90-piece orchestra at either Abbey Road Studios or AIR Studios in London over four days, a 40-person choir and children's choir at Synchron Stage in Vienna over three or fours days, and soloists on various specialty instruments in Los Angeles, New York, Norway, and Sweden over seven days. Because of limits on the number of performers allowed together during the COVID-19 pandemic, the orchestra was split into strings, woodwind and brass, and percussion for separate recording sessions. McCreary supervised the various recording sessions remotely while continuing to compose the score, with Gavin Greenaway, Cliff Masterson, and Anthony Weeden conducting the orchestra instead. Gottfried Rabl and Bernhard Melbye Voss conducted the choirs.
The different recordings were mixed together by Jason LaRocca to sound like they were all recorded together. By the end of 2021, the music was being added to the final sound mix for each episode. This was done on a schedule comparable to a feature film, giving time for McCreary to work with each episode's editors, sound designer Robby Stambler, and sound mixers Lindsey Alvarez and Beau Borders until they were all happy with the sound mix for each episode. McCreary said this was the first time in his career that he was able to give input on a sound mix before a showrunner's involvement. Working on the music mixes, supervising recordings, and still composing all of the music himself took a large toll on McCreary's physical and mental wellbeing, but he chose to continue composing the entire score himself because he wanted to realize the "full extent of [his] vision" and because writing music for The Lord of the Rings was a lifelong dream of his. McCreary finished composing the score in April 2022 and was able to conduct the orchestra for the final episode at AIR Studios that month.
Soloists that were recorded on specialty instruments for the first season include Paul Jacob Cartwright playing fiddle, McCreary's longtime collaborator Eric Rigler playing bagpipes and Irish whistles, Bruce Carver playing bodhrán drums, Olav Luksengård Mjelva playing the hardanger fiddle, Erik Rydvall playing nyckelharpa, McCreary's close friend Malachai Bandy playing the yaylı tambur and viola da gamba, Zac Zinger playing the shakuhachi flute, and William Roper creating the Orcs' music with horns of war, ceremonial shells, antlers, femur flutes, and Aztec death whistles. Violinist Sandy Cameron performed the solos for the track "Scherzo for Violin and Swords" and the instrumental version of "Where the Shadows Lie" while Eric Byers provided cello solos. Vocal soloists included Sladja Raicevic, child soprano Laura Maier, and McCreary's wife Raya Yarbrough.
Plan 9 and David Long wrote eight pieces of music for use on the first season's set, including diegetic music for the streets of Númenor. The series includes several on-screen songs which McCreary was happy to see, believing that it was a key part of Tolkien's writings and helped show the different cultures of Middle-earth. Plan 9 wrote the melody for the song "This Wandering Day", with lyrics by showrunner J. D. Payne. McCreary arranged and orchestrated the song, which is sung by actress Megan Richards in-character as the Harfoot Poppy Proudfoot during the episode "Partings". Plan 9's Janet Roddick also sung a version of the song that is heard during the episode's end credits. A version of the song "Where the Shadows Lie", which McCreary wrote as a theme for the score, is heard during the end credits of the first-season finale featuring singer Fiona Apple.
For the second season, McCreary was able to contribute to the music needed during filming because he was already involved in the production from the start.
Two singles from the first season's score were released when McCreary was announced as composer for the series. For the second season, two songs were released as singles ahead of the release of McCreary's score.
| Title | Format | Length | US release date | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Galadriel" | Digital download | 3:44 | Amazon Music | ||
| "Sauron" | 2:46 | ||||
| "The Last Ballad of Damrod" (featuring Jens Kidman) | 3:18 | Roadrunner Records | |||
| "Old Tom Bombadil" (featuring Rufus Wainwright) | 3:10 | Amazon Music |
McCreary produced a first-season album featuring his main themes as well as highlights from each episode. He edited, re-wrote, and re-recorded most of the music to create "an emotional listening experience that captures the season's narrative arc in a symphonic format", and to remove some spoilers because the album was released before the episodes were. The version of "Where the Shadows Lie" featuring lyrics sung by Fiona Apple was added to the album after all the episodes were released. McCreary also released individual albums after each episode debuted, containing "virtually every second of score" from each episode. Music for the second season is being released in a similar pattern, with an initial album featuring selections from the full season's score followed by individual episode albums.
| Title | Format | Length | US release date | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season One | Digital download | 2:40:54 | Amazon Music | [1] | |
| CD | 2:40:54 | Mondo | |||
| Vinyl | 2:40:54 | ||||
| Season One, Episode One: A Shadow of the Past | Digital download | 55:49 | Amazon Music | [2] | |
| Season One, Episode Two: Adrift | 49:17 | [3] | |||
| Season One, Episode Three: Adar | 51:29 | [4] | |||
| Season One, Episode Four: The Great Wave | 54:53 | [5] | |||
| Season One, Episode Five: Partings | 55:08 | [6] | |||
| Season One, Episode Six: Udûn | 48:56 | [7] | |||
| Season One, Episode Seven: The Eye | 54:57 | [8] | |||
| Season One, Episode Eight: Alloyed | 59:46 | [9] | |||
| Season Two | Digital download | Amazon Music | [10] | ||
| Vinyl |
A limited edition box set for the first season from Mondo, Amazon Music, and McCreary's label Sparks and Shadows was released on April 26, 2024. The collection includes Mondo's two CD first-season album release and eight CDs featuring the music from each episode. It also comes with a 136-page journal written by McCreary which details his episode-by-episode account and general thoughts on the creation of the season's score.
Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK said the time and effort it took to write a review of the first season's score was worth it, praising it as the best of McCreary's career and calling it an astonishing achievement that lived up to the high bar set by Shore with the films. Broxton discussed the various themes and techniques used by McCreary and concluded that "the conceptual design, intellectual creativity, and musical world-building in this score is something that you just don't see in modern film scoring... the fact that so many of the themes are clearly identifiable and memorable, with actual hummable melodies, is something that should be celebrated everywhere". Broxton felt it was the best score for any film or series of 2022, and in his annual Movie Music UK Awards he named it the score of the year as well as the best original score for television.
Reviewing the score for Movie Wave, James Southall said McCreary's hiring was a masterstroke and the composer had managed to write music that fit alongside Shore's without trying to imitate the latter. None of McCreary's themes gave Southall the "instant gratification" of some key Shore themes from the films, but he still found some to be memorable—a rarity for modern television, in his opinion—and particularly praised "Galadriel". Southall felt the score was a career-defining moment for McCreary. Sci-Fi Bulletin David A. McIntee said McCreary's score was a true pastiche of Shore's style and the best of television composing, rating the first season album a superlative 11 out of 10. Sarah Shachat of IndieWire called the score a "force of nature" and highlighted McCreary's ability to convey story and character information while also "reverse engineering" sounds that would feasibly evolve into Shore's material. Kyle Kruske echoed those thoughts in an "ode to Bear McCreary's excellent score" that he wrote for MovieWeb, in which he said the score was a "worthy successor" to Shore's "musical crown".
Patrick Lyon at Collider said the score had taken him "right back to Middle-earth" and discussed how McCreary had honored Shore's approach to leitmotifs for the films. Lyon highlighted the track "Khazad-dûm" and how it was consistent with Shore's own material for the Dwarves while also representing a different era for those characters. Alice Rose Dodds of Game Rant also discussed how McCreary had honored Shore's work while creating a score that matched the needs of The Rings of Power setting and characters. She had similar thoughts to Lyon on "Khazad-dûm" and also highlighted the approach taken for "Galadriel" compared to Shore's music for that character. Dodds concluded that "McCreary takes everything that Shore has done, and transforms it into something that works with the new context of the show... it brings hope to those who listen, that Rings of Power will burn with Tolkien's heart at its center". Writing for /Film, Jeremy Mathai said the score was a testament to the power of musical motifs which many modern films and series, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, did not take advantage of.
Writing for Screen Rant, Thomas Bacon described McCreary's score as "absolutely stunning" and said it evoked Shore's music while bringing a new feeling for the series. Bacon felt the score did not quite live up to the films, but said it was "remarkably impressive and serves as a testimony to [McCreary]'s real skill and talent". Zanobard Reviews also felt the score did not match Shore's and was disappointed in Shore's own contribution, feeling the main theme was not memorable and was only added so Shore would be associated with the series. However, they said McCreary's work was "pretty damned amazing" and graded the first season album 9 out of 10.
Within two weeks of the first season album being available for download, Shore's main theme had been streamed over 117,000 times on Spotify while the tracks "Galadriel" and "Khazad-dûm" had been streamed over 100,000 times. The album reached a peak position of 15 on the UK Soundtrack Albums Chart and 28 on the UK Album Downloads Chart during the week of October 27, 2023.
The first season's score was ranked seventh on IndieWire list of the best television scores of 2022.
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASCAP Composers' Choice Awards | Television score of the year | Bear McCreary | [11] | |||
| Hollywood Music in Media Awards | Original Score — TV Show/Limited Series | Bear McCreary | [12] | |||
| International Film Music Critics Association Awards | Score of the Year | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (music by Bear McCreary, theme by Howard Shore) | [13] [14] | |||
| Composer of the Year | Bear McCreary | |||||
| Composition of the Year | "Galadriel" (music by Bear McCreary) | |||||
| "Númenor" (music by Bear McCreary) | ||||||
| "Sailing Into the Dawn" (music by Bear McCreary) | ||||||
| Best Original Score for Television | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (music by Bear McCreary, theme by Howard Shore) | |||||
| Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards | Original Main Title Theme Music | Howard Shore | [15] | |||
| Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards | Outstanding Score For Television | Bear McCreary | [16] | |||
| World Soundtrack Awards | Television Composer of the Year | Bear McCreary | [17] |
McCreary was asked to compose original music for the series' title announcement video that was released in January 2022, for which he used his "The Stranger" theme. Later in 2022, Amazon asked McCreary to perform live with an orchestra at San Diego Comic-Con. He combined the tracks "Nolwa Mahtar", "Galadriel", "Sauron", and "The Stranger" into an overture for choir, orchestra, percussion, and solo violinist Sandy Cameron.