RotK Complete Recordings: November 6, 2007
 

If you're like me and adore Howard Shore's magnificent score for the film trilogy (regardless of how you judge Peter Jackson), you've been looking forward to the Return of the King: The Complete Recordings musical release for a while now.

I was searching for news of this very thing just a few weeks ago, and checked again today to find that, oh happy day, the Complete Recordings will release November 3, 2007!

The original soundtrack release was pretty good, but missed almost all of the crucial cues, such as the Ride of the Rohirrim, and the Battle of the Black Gate (IE, "For Frodo.") Happily, we have but another month and some change before the soundtrack releases. http://www.planetsmilies.com/smilies.../happy0030.gif

Well, I wouldn't say it missed nearly all of the crucial cues, but yeah, an OST-sized album is going to miss a lot of significant stuff. Especially when it's Howard Shore's Return of the King.

The first two Complete Recordings are spectacular and if you like the music or just want to sit back and listen to the brilliant work of a master in thematic development, they are a must-have.

Each set features three CDs (well, four for ROTK, because there's so much more material) and a DVD with the entire score in surround sound (insert hyperventilating in excitement here). They also feature some amazing liner notes by Doug Adams, who does an outstanding job of explaining the intricacies and relationships within Shore's score. Adams is writing a book called The Music of The Lord of the Rings, which is set to release sometime next year and will also feature a disc of rarities.

Cannot wait to get my hands on ROTK:CR, though it'll be a while; not in November, for sure. I can wait, though. It's gonna be incredible.

This should be good :) I was always disappointed that the original ROTK CD skipped so much of the movie music; so finally being able to hear stuff like the Fellowship theme that plays during Gandalf and Pippin's fighting on the wall or the battle music on the Pelennor or the music as Sam returns home will be great.

Meh. I didn't even know these were out! So cheers for bringing it up. I shall get these I think because the music was something I really enjoyed in the films.

Wonder if they'll do a 'collected set'?

If they did, it would be mighty expensive! But I'm sure if they can find a way of making more money...;)

Even if it did cost a fortune for it, I would still buy a combined pack of the complete collection of the LotR music... ohhh the pain of waiting a whole like two months for music... it's time to listen to my soundtrack that is not the complete collection again!

ROTK will be the best of the bunch, I'm certain. It builds upon FOTR and TTT to reach a height that would have otherwise been unattainable. I shiver thinking about the final development and interaction of the many themes. Shore is an unparalleled master at this. Who else would have had the concept of playing a theme one time in the first movie, on a solo French horn, and then bringing it back with elaborate orchestration in the third? Shore does it with not one but two themes - The Realm of Gondor, and Minas Tirith.

There was an outstanding Track-by-Track discussion of the OSTs in the Novices and Newcomers forum a couple years ago; I wish there were enough CR owners out there to do one for the Complete Recordings as well. Ah well; at this point I'll be happy if I get ROTK:CR by Christmas!

Looking forward to this!

I've been waiting for this. I like the first two soundtracks, but neglected to buy the complete recordings, but ROTK is by far my favorite score. Any idea how much this will be? The other two were rather expensive, I imagine this one will be as well.

The list price is $74.98, which amazingly is the same as TTT:CR (EDIT: I say amazingly because TTT has one fewer CD). If you're interested in preordering, you might check out moviemusic.com, which offers it for $59.99. Considering you get five discs (4 CDs + 1 DVD), forty-something pages of liner notes, and a handsome packaging, all for one of the greatest film scores of all time, I'd call it a bargain.