McCreary Seizes The Ring of Power

In case it has been overlooked, Amazon is releasing a little streaming series this Fall that serves as a prequel of sorts to Tolkein’s The Lord of The Rings. This new fantasy epic builds from Tolkein’s mythos starting us thousands of years prior to the events of The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy. The series is already noted as one of the most expensive in television history with over $1 billion invested. Bear McCreary brings his thematic sensibility and orchestral skill into the musical universe crafted by Howard Shore. A few gestures in the opening main title incorporate some of Howard Shore’s music and the style also aligns with it as well in the tracks that follow.

The opening “Galadriel” provides a bit of lighter fantasy with ethereal choral writing (it will recur through the score often with stunning moments, like in “The Boat”). “Khazad-dum” then gives us the contrast with its male chorus in a somewhat Slavic musical style. We shift gears to folkish material in “Nori Brandyfoot” providing again another easily recognizable thematic and sonic component that help set these individual tracks apart. This is what makes the score a continually engaging listen as one thematic thread after another is introduced in warm orchestral writing, or in the reduced folk styles (“Durin IV”; the song “This Wandering Day”). The musical gestures borrow from the global musics of the world and are then transformed here in these “ancient” fantasy realms (“Numenor”; the quirky “Harfoot Life”). McCreary also blends these together from time to time into the orchestral fabric as well (reminiscent of his approach on Black Sails). A more tortuous, minor-mode lyric line enters in “The Stranger” which brings an element of mystery and darkness. This gets a skittish motif with dark male chorus for “Sauron” and later a dark chanting “Nampat” (and the creepy “The Mystics”) creates a guttural moment in the score (repeating in an otherwise stunning “In The Mines” track). “For the Southlands” creates an interesting soundscape with jagged edges and low string cuts across brass swells in an exciting moment in the score. McCreary’s score is a wealth of classic orchestral fantasy gestures. The choral writing owes a bit to the approach of Morten Lauridsen which here brings some quite gorgeous writing to the forefront. Big blowout action is not really as much on hand here. Instead we are treated to a lot of atmospheric orchestral backdrops that should connect well to the visual vistas. Overtime, the connections thematically to these locales and characters should cement themselves into the subconscious of the viewer well.

The digital release of the score may also be one of the longest ever with two-and-a-half hours of music! It gives a musical symphony of character tracks and scenic vistas in a grand fantasy style. Rather than stick to a British Isles folk influence throughout the score, McCreary casts about across the globe to instill a larger scale of “ethnic” cultures within Middle Earth, broadening the musical palette a bit more as these are sprinkled sparingly about. He also builds upon the Shore style, though his own sound and approaches are very much to the forefront which provide slight homage and then quickly move on. Recurring thematic ideas receive interesting transformations as well following story elements and character development a bit. Those who like their fantasy scores writ large with great thematic writing will have a great deal to revel here in what will undoubtedly be one of McCreary’s best scores.