The Lord of the Rings (1978 Film)

Artist: Leonard Rosenman
Label: Lord of the Rings
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Soundtrack
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 025218400121
EAN: 0025218400121
ASIN: B00005QY2R

Release Date: 2001-11-13

The Lord of the Rings (1978 Film)

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Movie Soundtracks

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General

| Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Tracks:

History Of The Ring
Gandalf Throws Ring
The Journey Begins; Encounter With The Ringwraiths
Trying To Kill Hobbits
Escape To Rivendell
Company Of The Ring
Mines Of Moria
The Battle In The Mines; The Balrog
Mithrandir
Frodo Disappears
Following The Orcs
Fleeing Orcs
Attack Of The Orcs
Gandalf Remembers
Riders Of Rohan
Helm's Deep
The Dawn Battle; Theoden's Victory
The Voyage To Mordor; Theme From The Lord Of The Rings

Similar Items:

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring - The Complete Recordings
The Middle Earth Album
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - The Complete Recordings
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Customer Reviews:

Best part of this sub par movie.......2005-05-11

The animated 1978 Lord of the Rings movie disappoints in almost every aspect of its production except the music. Rosenman is able to capture almost as well as Shore the spirit of Tolkien. Unfortunately it doesn't always ring true, because unlike the recent LOTR trilogy scores, Rosenman doesn't use actual elvish and dwarvish in his chorale pieces. This detracts somewhat from the overall listening experience. Rosenman's main theme is enchanting and my only criticism of that, is that it is underused. The other problem Rosenman has, is that this score does resemble some of his other work most noticebly Star Trek IV. Overall this is a fine score, not a great one, but it is enjoyable.

For those fanatics of the movie only.......2004-10-05

What happens when the guy who did the theme for "Combat!" does a fantasy film's theme? Voila!

This soundtrack is really a hit and miss, as far as most soundtracks go. I only bought it because I consider the animated LOTR to be one of the most "craptastic" films ever made, and my cult love for it went that far. The problem with this soundtrack is two-fold, however:

On one hand, it is like many film soundtracks in which you would probably have to see the visuals in order to fully enjoy it. Otherwise, its just a bunch of notes. Some tracks do actually suit well on their own, particularly the last three tracks and "Mithrandil," but otherwise you would probably have to be a fan of the movie before venturing to buy this.

The funny thing is...the main theme actually isn't all that bad...but yet again there's a catch. On it's own its a good theme, and the tracks that are easy to listen to on their own are good as well...but when you actually SEE the movie you realize how poorly placed they are. "The Dawn Battle/Theoden's Victory" is EXTREMELY melodramatic in the film, with lots of wind instruments playing a loud, sad song as the orcs slowly advance on our heroes. Heck, just listen to the first few seconds of "History of the Ring" - that's how the movie opens folks, an artillery barrage from every instrument in the orchestra.

Like I said, if you loved the movie and never read the book in your life, I would suggest buying this. If you didn't like the movie, it's not worth your money. Might have not been worth my money...oh well!

could be better..........2003-06-10

Now, I have this movie, and that could be better, and so could be the soundtrack. While this CD has interesting song titles (aka. Gandalf Throws Ring and Trying To Kill Hobbits), the song I'd say is my favorite would be Helm's Deep, a (slightly strange) battle piece. It is filled with unusual choral-er-eruptions. Another song I like is Mithrandir, an almost angelic song deticated to Gandalf. Summary= it could be better.

Not as good as Shore's work, but still worth owning.......2003-01-16

I am not too familiar with Leonard Rosenman except with his work on Star Trek IV. After hearing Howard Shore's impressive scores to the latest Lord of the Rings films, I decided to give this one a shot thinking the same would result. This score is good, but nowhere close to Shore's work. But bear in mind that this score is for an animated film, so the sound is much different. 77 minutes of score is available on this album divided into 18 tracks. The main theme is known as the Hobbits' theme and is a bouncy 9 note woodwind motif found in "History of the Ring", "Trying to Kill Hobbits", "Company of the Ring", and the end of "Attack of the Orcs". The Hobbits' theme is developed further in later tracks, such as "Riders of Rohan", "The Dawn Battle: Theoden's Victory", and "The Voyage to Mordor: Theme From The Lord Of The Rings". This version of the theme is a noble and rhythmic march that sounds almost identical to parts of Star Trek IV. The Mordor theme features an all male chorus chanting "Mordor" repeatedly and can be found in "The Journey Begins: Encounter With the Ringwraiths", "Riders of Rohan", and "Helm's Deep" to name a few. Some good action music that contains running strings and percussion is found in "Escape to Rivendell", "The Battle in the Mines: The Balrog", and "Frodo Disappears". If you come across this score, I suggest that you get it. It's not as good as Howard Shore's work, but still is a good score.

Simply awful........2002-11-24

Ralph Bakshi's ill-fated 1978 animated version of "Lord of the Rings" is univerally loathed by Tolkien fans and non-fans alike. Sadly, its soundtrack by Leonard "Star Trek IV" Rosenman is a part of the problem. While it's been praised as superior to Howard Shore's compostion due to its "character themes" and "avant-garde style", I wasn't able to percieve any coherent themes at all, and "avant-garde" just means "dissonance" in this case. It's too loud, too bold. The orc-song at the end is simply ridiculous, much like the badly rotoscoped orcs that sing it.

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