Ok, since I know Mattias has seen this, I figured I would bring it up in case anyone else has seen it.
A very interesting new addition to the LOTR "franchise", by as far as I can tell, a totally different creative team, and, so far, it seems actually pretty good from the three episodes now available. Relatively high-budget feel, darn good CGI (and not insane amounts of it everywhere or so I think), nice soundtrack by Bear McCreary, very pleasing cinematography and color grading (genuinely pleasing to watch on a nice screen!). Only slightly weird thing I guess is the lack of a firm plot yet, but I guess it's just one of those shows where the plot slowly emerges as time goes on, widening from a very "narrow" lens to a very "broad" lens very gradually, sort of like The Expanse in a way I guess.
The McCreary score seems to nod at Shore's ethereal openness while having McCreary's trademark intriguing harmonies and counterpoint. It does its job while also being enjoyable enough to actually want to listen to on its own, not just a series of sustaining chords, straight chugga-chugga cellos, aleatoric sounds, or trumpets playing quadruplets like many modern scores are (though there is unfortunately a bit of all that scattered throughout still), though I must add it is not very memorable (one might say in a good way). Shore's main title theme for Rings of Power on the other hand feels rather out of touch, like I'm about to be read inspirational children's stories on public access television from the 90's or something.
Score thoughts:
One of the things I've noticed about the score is the use of more "archaic", or at least, "unexpected" harmonic elements. There's a lot of pedals, grounds, and blunt or 'misleading' harmonies manipulating the appearance of tonality or suggesting modality.
This isn't necessarily all that different from Shore's approach to LOTR, with borrowed rhythmic concepts throughout, and Shore made heavy use of pedals and grounds in his scores. I just think McCreary is doing a bit more with harmony, especially incidental harmonies from passing tones and counter lines, which seem much more prevalent and willing to step outside tonal boundaries while still pushing in a clear direction.
Khazad-Dum for example starts with a bass ground which gradually gives way to increasing polyphony. Even then the harmonies are simple and very fifthy/fourthy, with even some elements of a canon and some pedals. When there is harmony, it's largely blunt and archaic, like early American music.
Numenor is another piece which makes use of very old fashioned forms at the start, starting a very rigid, almost early-medieval harmony. Later on, it does get more complex with a few modulations and some again, rather bizarre chord progressions. There's an interesting chromatic descending choral line throughout Numenor as well. Khazard-Dum also curiously has a descending line at the very end of it, albeit with different intervals and landing over the bar.
Sauron makes use of some rather curious harmonies at first, albeit later devolving into a pedal bass and chugga chugga violas.
Galadriel's theme is quite lovely, of course, and treated throughout the score in a variety of colors. In Galadriel, it feels like a classic 90's movie score through and through, though with some pleasing counterpoint, in particular at its height. It almost has a Latin flair to my ear at times which I find curious. Maybe I have spent too much time listening to the excellent Brazil themes from Civ V...
Valinor has some curious harmonies with a few tastily placed chord extensions. Almost reminds me of 2000's choral music, almost Whitacreish or something. Some typical "space chords" in there too.
In the Beginning is a tour de force of textures and attitudes. Getting everything here from Whitacre to Gregson-Williams Narnia and nods to Shore.
Durin IV also stood out as quite pleasing.
McCreary is also much more willing to reach for non-orchestral sounds, and non-western sounds, which again lends an ancient or neo-medieval feel to some of the pieces.
It is rather curious that I am hearing a number of things that sound like virtual instruments in these, in particular the harfoot music? There's a flute that does what sounds like a volume-based fade.
None of this to be honest makes for much memorable music, but, alas, to some extent that is sort of the point of film/TV music I guess, at least according to some schools of thought on the subject. I don't find McCreary's melodies all that memorable overall, and Shore definitely wins in that category in the original LOTR trilogy by quite a wide margin. I would say overall as a probably rather gross generalization, McCreary isn't as much a melodicist as he is a careful harmonizer and counter-melody writer, while Shore generally seems to focus a little too much on rhythm and melody while often leaving harmony rather simple. That said, McCreary still succeeds in writing clean, vocal melodies... even if they are a bit lengthy and far from the immediately-etched-in-your-brain earworms of Shore's LOTR.
Anyway, Rings of Power? Pretty good so far. Not huge about the 3rd episode, but it's still leagues better than The Hobbit movies so far, and I'm happy to keep watching it.
A very interesting new addition to the LOTR "franchise", by as far as I can tell, a totally different creative team, and, so far, it seems actually pretty good from the three episodes now available. Relatively high-budget feel, darn good CGI (and not insane amounts of it everywhere or so I think), nice soundtrack by Bear McCreary, very pleasing cinematography and color grading (genuinely pleasing to watch on a nice screen!). Only slightly weird thing I guess is the lack of a firm plot yet, but I guess it's just one of those shows where the plot slowly emerges as time goes on, widening from a very "narrow" lens to a very "broad" lens very gradually, sort of like The Expanse in a way I guess.
The McCreary score seems to nod at Shore's ethereal openness while having McCreary's trademark intriguing harmonies and counterpoint. It does its job while also being enjoyable enough to actually want to listen to on its own, not just a series of sustaining chords, straight chugga-chugga cellos, aleatoric sounds, or trumpets playing quadruplets like many modern scores are (though there is unfortunately a bit of all that scattered throughout still), though I must add it is not very memorable (one might say in a good way). Shore's main title theme for Rings of Power on the other hand feels rather out of touch, like I'm about to be read inspirational children's stories on public access television from the 90's or something.
Score thoughts:
One of the things I've noticed about the score is the use of more "archaic", or at least, "unexpected" harmonic elements. There's a lot of pedals, grounds, and blunt or 'misleading' harmonies manipulating the appearance of tonality or suggesting modality.
This isn't necessarily all that different from Shore's approach to LOTR, with borrowed rhythmic concepts throughout, and Shore made heavy use of pedals and grounds in his scores. I just think McCreary is doing a bit more with harmony, especially incidental harmonies from passing tones and counter lines, which seem much more prevalent and willing to step outside tonal boundaries while still pushing in a clear direction.
Khazad-Dum for example starts with a bass ground which gradually gives way to increasing polyphony. Even then the harmonies are simple and very fifthy/fourthy, with even some elements of a canon and some pedals. When there is harmony, it's largely blunt and archaic, like early American music.
Numenor is another piece which makes use of very old fashioned forms at the start, starting a very rigid, almost early-medieval harmony. Later on, it does get more complex with a few modulations and some again, rather bizarre chord progressions. There's an interesting chromatic descending choral line throughout Numenor as well. Khazard-Dum also curiously has a descending line at the very end of it, albeit with different intervals and landing over the bar.
Sauron makes use of some rather curious harmonies at first, albeit later devolving into a pedal bass and chugga chugga violas.
Galadriel's theme is quite lovely, of course, and treated throughout the score in a variety of colors. In Galadriel, it feels like a classic 90's movie score through and through, though with some pleasing counterpoint, in particular at its height. It almost has a Latin flair to my ear at times which I find curious. Maybe I have spent too much time listening to the excellent Brazil themes from Civ V...
Valinor has some curious harmonies with a few tastily placed chord extensions. Almost reminds me of 2000's choral music, almost Whitacreish or something. Some typical "space chords" in there too.
In the Beginning is a tour de force of textures and attitudes. Getting everything here from Whitacre to Gregson-Williams Narnia and nods to Shore.
Durin IV also stood out as quite pleasing.
McCreary is also much more willing to reach for non-orchestral sounds, and non-western sounds, which again lends an ancient or neo-medieval feel to some of the pieces.
It is rather curious that I am hearing a number of things that sound like virtual instruments in these, in particular the harfoot music? There's a flute that does what sounds like a volume-based fade.
None of this to be honest makes for much memorable music, but, alas, to some extent that is sort of the point of film/TV music I guess, at least according to some schools of thought on the subject. I don't find McCreary's melodies all that memorable overall, and Shore definitely wins in that category in the original LOTR trilogy by quite a wide margin. I would say overall as a probably rather gross generalization, McCreary isn't as much a melodicist as he is a careful harmonizer and counter-melody writer, while Shore generally seems to focus a little too much on rhythm and melody while often leaving harmony rather simple. That said, McCreary still succeeds in writing clean, vocal melodies... even if they are a bit lengthy and far from the immediately-etched-in-your-brain earworms of Shore's LOTR.
Quote:Aside: Out of curiosity (and bad discretion), I decided to rewatch the Hobbit movies after and WOW, my opinion on those movies was not changed for the better. The only good part of those entire three movies is the bombastic, ridiculous combat, and not because it's epic, but rather because it's so damn funny. I could watch that Barrel scene on loop for a solid hour before going insane. The whole thing seems mired in its technical ambitions, compounding early-adopter digital video with 3D and 48 fps just seemed too much, and the choices in color grading (your typical desaturated orange-blue thing from every movie poster ever) and post processing (grainy? denoised?? over-sharpened yet not really that sharp???), probably an attempt to fix visual issues introduced from technical choices required to enable 48 fps and 3D nonsense, don't help one bit.
The result is a film which is visually dull to the point of feeling completely disconnected from anything going on. It might as well be in black and white.
Oh, and the CGI is straight up uncanny valley, sticks out like a sore thumb, though I can't decide if that's because of the 48 fps nonsense or the 3D nonsense or a mix of both. I've already accidentally purged the entire trilogy out of my mind just writing this post, and had to go back and rewatch parts already just to remember what exactly I didn't like.
Somehow the score to the Hobbit films is even less memorable than McCreary's Rings of Power. I find it just as dull and disconnected as the films.
I guess the whole thing is a case study in "don't let technical ambitions ruin a perfectly good project"?
Anyway, Rings of Power? Pretty good so far. Not huge about the 3rd episode, but it's still leagues better than The Hobbit movies so far, and I'm happy to keep watching it.
Sample library developer, composer, and amateur organologist at Versilian Studios.