When I first saw the first chapter of The Lord of the Rings in theatres, I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed and intrigued by a new world that opened up before my eyes and was so extraordinary and complex that I just had to find out more about it. So I dove into every and any Tolkien book I could find, until that world started to take shape inside my head. I became so invested in this “Middle-Earth” and the story of The Lord of the Rings that when I saw the second movie, I was at first bothered by the “mistakes” I saw on the screen. It didn’t take long though before I realised that the changes these filmmakers made were actually no mistakes at all. The adjustments they made were based on a deep understanding of the story and its driving forces and of the medium they were using. They understood that what works in a book, does not necessarily work on film and vice versa, so changes need to be made to ensure that the story doesn’t lose some of its power when translated into a different medium. Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens, who wrote the screenplay, did exactly that. What is more, they managed to bring into the story some of the material that Tolkien himself would have loved to integrate into his trilogy, but could not find a way or a place to do so. I am talking of course about the love story of Arwen and Aragorn, a story line that much to the writer’s grief was relegated to the appendices at the end of The Lord of the Rings. The three script writers however managed to integrate the epic love between these two characters into the main story in a way that makes it almost impossible to imagine the trilogy without its inclusion. Through all this, they manage to stay true to the characters and to honour the authenticity of the story and the fantastical world, turning what Tolkien himself called an unfilmable book into an Oscar winning film production.
The music of this film trilogy, composed by Howard Shore, plays a big role in the success of these movies and in the bringing to life of Middle-Earth on the big screen. It is said that Shore regarded the scoring of these films as his chance to write an opera. The three acts therefore blend together beautifully, but more importantly, he gave every people of Middle-Earth its own theme and its own sound. For the simple, nature loving Hobbits of the Shire, he chose a wooden flute and a warm, peaceful melody, while he brought the mystical Elves to life with much more ethereal, exotic sounds, produced by instruments that sound very strange to the Western ear, complementing their not-from-this-world appearance. For the Dwarves, he found inspiration in the fact that they are a miner's folk and integrated hammering and very rhythmic male vocals. He also translated Tolkien's disapproval of industrialisation into sound. The overwhelming music that can be heard when diving into the production fires of Isengard is written in the rather unusual 4/5 time, that feels very forced and unnatural, as if it keeps stumbling. It still sounds very threatening though, as it should, since this is where a large part of the destruction of Middle-Earth is forged and bred. The force of the Ents of Fangorn forest however, is also one to be reckoned with. Shore wasn't afraid to experiment with different sounds to find the right companion for Treebeard the Ent and the dark forest he lives in. What he came up with, sounds very earth-like and tree-like, with a lot of wooden percussion instruments calling the tune. On the contrary, the realms of Men, Rohan and Gondor, are given a much more recognisable and “human” sound, with a Norwegian Fiddle as the lead instrument for the Scandinavian inspired Rohirrim and a French horn accompanying the more bombastic Gondorians.
When a number of these people meet in the battle of Helm’s Deep, these different sounds also fight each other. When we see the Elves ready for combat, we hear the same melody that we heard before in Lothlórien, but now in full battle mode. Soon after however, the Uruk-Hai start storming the keep and the unwholesome music of Saruman quickly takes over. This overwhelming piece of music contrasts sharply with some of the other battle scenes throughout the trilogy. For example, when when Faramir and his cavalry storm Osgilliath, the lone voice of a singing Pippin is nearly all that accompanies them. Somehow, this emphasises the madness behind the attack and the tragic end that certainly awaits them down by the river. The music is also used as a tool to differentiate between Gollum’s two sides: a melancholic, sad, pitiful sound for his good side, Sméagol, and a much creepier sound for his bad, manipulative side.
On the one hand, Howard Shore thus succeeded in establishing an emotional link to Middle-Earth through his music, while on the other hand giving depth to the cultures that inhabit this mythical world, in a way that is very close to Tolkien. The writer himself wrote down numerous songs and poems to the pages of his books, but their melody would always merely exist in the heads of the readers. This might be the one thing that films can do better than books and the one thing that Tolkien might have liked about the adaptation of his work. He meant for his work to be an English mythology that would serve as inspiration for artists to create more artistic work and that is exactly the desire that Shore answered to.
Laura Van Wymersch
Laura Van Wymersch is 24 years old and studied English & Dutch Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven. Not only has she been one of the most loyal fans of Lumière, on November 25th, 2012 she was also our guest expert in Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings adaptations. Listen to the interview here.
Todays hottest Belgian movie is with no doubt 'The Broken Circle Breakdown'. This movie, directed by Felix Van Groeningen, opened and closed the Film Festival of Ghent. With their performance on the World Soundtrack Awards the importance of the movie music of the film got to the fore. The genre of the soundtrack isn't the stereotype of country and bluegrass music. Bjorn Ericksson rewrote existing classics in the country- & bluegrass-repertoire creatively for, for instance, the voices of Veerle Baetens and Johan Heldenbergh.
cast Broken Circle Breakdown live at the WSA (c) Bert Wastijn
Who watched the movie can tell that the soundtrack is not just supporting the story but is standing in constant relation to all the aspects of this film. Not only because the main characters are no doubt the key figures of a bluegrass band that perform in diverse scenes. Also the lyrics connect with different layers in the soundtrack and the story. We can state that the music is one of the important elements that take this film to a higher level and make it even more touching.
For huge fans of this tupe of bluegrass music and for those who want to hear more movie music of this kind, the Original SoundTrack (OST) is already available in multimedia stores. It contains 15 tracks, as shown below:
1. Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Johan Heldenberg : voice
Bjorn Eriksson : voice, guitar
Karl 'Hank van Damme' Eriksson : voice , banjo
Geert Waegeman : mandoline
Nils de Caster : voice , violin
Lenn Dauphin : bass
2. The Boy Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn
Johan Heldenberg : voice, banjo
Veerle Baetens : voice
Bjorn Eriksson : dobro, guitar
Karl 'Hank van Damme' Eriksson : banjo
Geert Waegeman : violin
Nils de Caster : mandoline
Lenn Dauphin : bass
3. Dusty Mixed Feelings
Bjorn Eriksson : guitar
4. Wayfaring Stranger
Veerle Baetens : voice
Bjorn Eriksson : dobro
Karl 'Hank van Damme' Eriksson: guitar
Nils de Caster : violin
Lenn Dauphin : bass
5. Rueben's Train
Bjorn Eriksson : guitar
Karl 'Hank van Damme' Eriksson : banjo
Geert Waegeman : mandoline
Nils de Caster : violin
Lenn Dauphin : bass
6. Country in My Genes
Veerle Baetens : voice
Bjorn Eriksson : guitar
Karl 'Hank van Damme' Eriksson : banjo
Nils de Caster : mandoline
Geert Waegeman : violin
Johan Heldenberg : backingvocal
Lenn Dauphin : bass
7. Further On up the Road
Johan Heldenberg : voice, banjo
Bjorn Eriksson : dobro
Karl 'Hank van Damme' Eriksson : guitar
Nils de Caster : violin
Geert Waegeman : mandoline
Lenn Dauphin : bass
8. Where Are Heading, Tumbleweed?
Bjorn Eriksson : Ukelele, autoharp, e-bow guitars, bass, national guitar
9. Over in the Gloryland
Veerle Baetens : voice
Johan Heldenberg : guitar, voice
Bjorn Eriksson : guitar, voice
Karl 'Hank van Damme' Eriksson : voice
Nils de Caster : voice
Geert Waegeman : mandoline
Lenn Dauphin : bass, voice
10. Cowboy Man
Johan Heldenberg : voice
Bjorn Eriksson : guitar, backingvocal
Karl 'Hank van Damme' Eriksson : banjo
Nils de Caster : violin, backingvocal
Geert Waegeman : mandoline
Lenn Dauphin : bass
11. If I Needed You
Johan Heldenberg : voice
Veerle Baetens : voice
Bjorn Eriksson : national guitar
Lenn Dauphin : bass
Nils de Caster : viool
12. Carved Tree Inn
Bjorn Eriksson : national guitars, bass
13. Sand Mountain
Bjorn Eriksson : dobro
Karl 'Hank van Damme' Eriksson : banjo
David Buyle : violin
Geert Waegeman : mandoline
Peter Pask : guitar
Lenn Dauphin : bass
14. Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us
Veerle Baetens : voice
Bjorn Eriksson : national guitar, banjo, string arrangement
To see what the film is about, we suggest you go to a local cinema or try to get to watch this flemish production. But for a sneak peek on the music, we add a video of one of the tracks the cast performed live on the World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony.
For more information on the soundtrack and the live tour, visit this website.
... is vanaf 16 september elke zondagavond van 18 tot 20 uur te beluisteren op Klara. Ideaal om van zondagavond een 'filmmuziek avond' te maken! In dit programma gaan Bart De Pauw (BV en filmmuziek-liefhebber), Claude Blondeel (kunstkenner) en Patrick Duynslaegher (filmrecensent) zes weken lang de (volgens hen) beste filmmuziek laten horen. Wij kijken er alvast naar uit!
Willen jullie meer? In de tweede helft van september brengt Klara een cd uit met een selectie van de filmmuziek. Nog info vinden jullie hier en hier.
