The Rohan theme is a vaguely Celtic, noble melody, first heard in ‘The Riders of Rohan’, where it is performed on a hardanger (Norwegian fiddle) by soloist Dermot Crehan. In terms of the orchestral music, the two newest, and most noticeable, themes are for a place and a person: Rohan and Gollum. Texts written in old English and various Tolkein-invented languages soar magisterially in and around the orchestra, adding a great deal weight and implied importance. If one were to pick the best thing about Shore’s work, it would be the choral elements: from the stunning opening in ‘Foundations of Stone’, through the dissonance of ‘The Passage of the Marshes’, to the glacially ethereal ‘Evenstar’, the heraldic ‘Helm’s Deep’, the prayer-like reverence of ‘The Hornburg’, and the portentous tones of ‘Isengard Unleashed’, the chorus dominates the proceedings. Shore has written enough original material for this instalment to make it a worthwhile and interesting listen, but dusted it liberally with music from The Fellowship of the Ring to ensure it has a thematic consistency and contains a tangible emotional anchor.Īs with the first score, The Two Towers overflows with themes, motifs, and intriguing and varied orchestral work, as well as some of the most impressive choral performances in years, courtesy of the unrivalled London Voices under the direction of Terry Edwards, and the featured soloists. Unlike other film score trilogies, The Two Towers is fortunate in that it does not suffer greatly from “middle-movie” syndrome that plagues others. Following the events of the last movie, and the death of Gandalf (Ian McKellen), the story now follows the broken Fellowship as they each embark on separate adventures in Middle Earth: Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) trekking into Mordor, guided by the dangerous and mischievous Gollum (Andy Serkis), where they intend to destroy the One Ring Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) escaping from the Orcs who captured them, and falling into the company of an ancient being known as Treebeard and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), on the trail of the missing Hobbits, becoming involved with the people of Rohan, its king Theoden (Bernard Hill), and his beautiful daughter (Miranda Otto), whose city is under siege by the dark forces of Saruman (Christopher Lee). Thankfully, Shore delivers on all counts, providing a score which has the grandeur, and epic scale of the original – and more than a few surprises.įor those who don’t know, The Two Towers is director Peter Jackson’s cinematic version of the “middle section” of JRR Tolkein’s massive Lord of the Rings trilogy – the sequel to The Fellowship of the Ring, and the set-up for the upcoming The Return of the King, due for release late in 2003. As such, the pressure on Shore was enormous – to deliver the goods dramatically, to maintain the thematic and stylistic tone and – in the minds of the fans – to make it at least as powerful, stirring and moving as the first one. When The Fellowship of the Ring was released in 2001, such was the critical acclaim and fan-based fervour it generated, The Two Towers would almost need to cause world peace and align the stars to parallel its success. With The Lord of the Rings, Howard Shore has joined this latter group.

Other composers face it when they write music for a beloved piece of fiction – especially in the fantasy or comic book genres – or have scored a major hit with their last effort in a series. Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner, such is their popularity and fan base, face it each time they write a new score.

It’s a peculiar phenomenon, akin to the “second album” syndrome faced by rock and pop musicians whose debut works are hugely successful John Williams faced it when embarking on the follow-up scores in the Star Wars saga.

Howard Shore, welcome to the world of film music pressure.

Two towers sound track