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Wow! You are really skillful in recognizing different instruments! Do you play in an orchestra?
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Thanks! I play in the school's wind ensemble and full orchestra, and also in an orchestra outside of school.
I watched the Creating the Lord of the Rings Symphony DVD and I would recommend it to anyone who is serious about music. It's mostly just the music being played by the orchestra/choir with a few short interview clips with Howard Shore, but it's fascinating to watch. I learned several things from it as well. Seems I was wrong about the Shire theme; it
is a tin whistle in Track 2 after all. And where I've been saying oboe, it's often been an English horn. Ah, well. I was close.
Track six:
The very beginning (very as in just the first few notes) reminds me of the Mordor theme, a reminder that the Nazgul are still out there somewhere. At 0:24, it becomes distinctly hobbitish again, with a smidge of bounce to it.
Side note, not really LotR related: at 0:53, I was trying to figure out what theme that would be... I realized that for a few seconds it sounds similar to the music from Pirates of the Caribbean!
Around 1:15, the timpani slowly starts to make an appearance in the background, which as
ungoliant said, is rather like a heartbeat. Then the pace really beings to pick up, and a gong enters, adding to the traces of Mordor which can already be detected. When the brass and choir are added, it is evident that things cannot be pleasant for our poor hobbits.
Suddenly things grow dangerously quiet. When we played Beethoven's Fifth in orchestra, there is a Grand Pause in which nobody plays, and it lasts a beat longer than anyone listening would expect it to. The conductor, who is a fascinatingly deep guy, told us that that one beat of silence should be the loudest thing in the entire symphony. While there is not total silence, it somehow feels even worse, making you feel uneasy, like you are in hiding while one of those black riders is about
somewhere outside. Low brass, a soft gong, and some more of the discordant strings, so much like in Shelob's lair, break the silence and then we are back to the loud brass once more.
This transforms into the Isengard theme, at which I always get excited because it's in five. I always kind of move in time with the music when I hear it.... ONE two three FOUR five ONE two three FOUR five... It gives an impression that's slightly off kilter, and the accented beats are like strong hammer falls, giving the image of the orcs forging away in Isengard. As I learned from the LotR Symphony DVD, they actually had a guy banging with a mallet or hammer on a huge, suspended piece of metal.
Then it slows and becomes gentler. I am not sure what part of the movie this corresponds with; I'm thinking Gandalf on top of Orthanc, although I'm not sure.
And as a last note, this track is pi minutes long.
