August and September 2022 were monumental months for Tolkien fans. Love it or hate it, Amazon’s long anticipated first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was set to premiere in September and fans on all sides were preparing themselves. The board was set, the pieces were moving.
For me, I’d already got what I wanted: Bear McCreary’s score for the first season! For context, it was Howard Shore’s original scores for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003) that kindled my fascination with music and drove me to initially want to be a film composer.
Listening to McCreary’s new music for Middle-earth was nostalgic, opening the door to my childhood experience of obliviously sitting down to watch Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring in the cinema for the first time. The black screen. The opening choir. Elvish lyrics. My mind was transported back to 2001.
I fervently joined in community conversations on the music (forgetting the show it was attached to!), taking part in a panel discussion on the teaser tracks ‘Galadriel‘, ‘Sauron‘, and the Rings of Power Theme Suite. McCreary’s music for the show was like the comforting warmth of an open fire, hot water bottle, and mountain of blankets in the heart of winter. Middle-earth was back with new instruments, new harmonies, new tones, and new colours. McCreary’s score built beautifully on Shore’s original scores, drawing on a wealth of musical traditions to build a new musical language for this new yet familiar Middle-earth.
With the release of each episode, McCreary further treated us to episodic score albums, culminating in over eight hours of musical material for season one! As a sidenote, if you haven’t listened to these albums yet then I would strongly encourage you do – they were the soundtrack to my nine-hour move from Kent (south-east England) to Glasgow (Scotland)!
Analysing the Themes
Following hundreds of hours of listening to, gestating on, and critically thinking about the show’s music, I had the idea to produce a series of videos on YouTube that analysed each of the themes. What I didn’t realise is that it would take almost nine months to complete sixteen videos on eighteen themes! However, I had immense fun recording the series and definitely did not walk away from my piano in frustration… at all!
My plan was to go through the themes as they were presented on the two and a half hour score, playing (and singing) the themes and inferring how melody, harmony, instrumentation, tone, and a range of other musical elements tied the musical themes to the events of the show, Shore’s score, existing musical traditions, and, most importantly, Tolkien’s Middle-earth mythology – ‘Valinor‘ being the one I’m most proud of.
I quickly realised that the plan to produce ten minute videos was not going to happen. Ultimately, ‘The Mystics‘ ended up the shortest at over fifteen minutes and ‘Bronwyn and Arondir‘ the longest at over thirty six minutes – there were a lot of traditions and Richard Wagner to cover! However, if someone comes away with an appreciation for the nuance and details hidden in McCreary’s themes then I’m content.
Along the way I learnt a lot about McCreary’s approach to the show, quoting frequently from his growing catalogue of Zoom interviews and blog posts (check these out!) to enrich my comments on his music. Conclusively, although McCreary isn’t keen on people analysing his music in the manner I have, the process hasn’t dispelled the magic of the show or his music for me, it only intensifies it. My fascination for knowing how things work and create enchantment is precisely how said enchantment intensifies – at least for me.
Having recently moved up to Glasgow and parting with my beloved piano, I hope to be able to find a new piano on which to carry the video series when the season two score is released. In the meantime, if you’re interested in listening to me discuss McCreary’s music then check out my series: The Rings of Power Thematic Musical Analysis on my YouTube channel.
As a final note, if you would be interested in me writing up my analyses in a series of blog posts here then let me know. I wonder how my ideas have developed over the past year.
The Rings of Power Thematic Musical Analysis
- Galadriel
- Khazad-dûm
- Nori Brandyfoot
- The Stranger
- Númenor
- Sauron
- Valinor
- Elrond Half-elven
- Durin IV
- Harfoot Life
- Bronwyn and Arondir
- Halbrand and the Southlands
- Elendil and Isildur / The Faithful
- Nampat: The Orcs and Adar
- The Mystics
- Mithril / Rings of Power / One Ring & Forging Themes
Will Sherwood 
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