Kassandros
Rohan
Feb 13 2013, 9:28pm
Views: 1132
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What if Howard Shore wrote a score for The Silmarillion?
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Something just occurred to me. Howard Shore has talked about his method of composition before, wherein he goes directly to the source material and creates many themes before ever taking a look at a script. In the soundtrack for An Unxpected Journey, there's actually a fair amount of music that never even showed up on film but still is an interpretation of The Hobbit and associated background material. This led me to an idea: What if Howard Shore wrote a score based directly upon The Silmarillion? I think it's reasonable to assume that the Tolkien Estate has no plans to sell the movie rights for The Silmarillion. And the story would not exactly be a natural fit for a Hollywood studio. So we can safely assume that there will be no movie for The Silmarillion. But what if Howard Shore wrote a score unattached to any movie? It could be written in the same style as his music for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and he's already said he likes to work directly with the source material, so I imagine he'd be quite comfortable making a score without an associated movie. He also had seemed open to the idea of his music having a life of it's own away from the movie, as evidenced by his writing of The Lord of the Rings symphony and the films accompanied by a live orchestra. So perhaps he's also be open to doing a score for The Silmarillion? Let's take a look at logistics. Is it legal? I'm no lawyer, but I've seen CD's that have claimed to be inspired by Middle Earth before featuring characters and events from the books as titles. I don't think song titles fall under copyright law and if these CD's have been produced, why couldn't Howard Shore do something similar? It's possible Trademarks could be an issue, but I would imagine Howard Shore would have an easier time obtaining rights from the Tolkien Estate for a soundtrack than Peter Jackson would for a movie. And Trademarks can usually be gotten around through changes in the titles. Would a record company or studio fund the project? I think so. I know classical music doesn't sell well these days, but I've always heard that Howard Shore's scores were very popular, winning audience polls and receiving critical praise. He also has won two Oscars for his LotR scores. I also can imagine that the work could be performed live by orchestras around the world and might prove to be popular. Would Howard Shore want to do it? I have no idea! But, as I mentioned earlier, he's been open to expanding the LotR music beyond the movies in the past. LotR seems to be his best known work. It's possible he wouldn't feel comfortable with the project since there is no movie attached or that he might want to move on from Middle Earth, but he also seems very proud of his Middle Earth material and seems to enjoy it, so perhaps he'd like to go for another score. Would there be an audience? I think so. Naturally, there would be less demand for the soundtrack than for the scores associated with the movies, because the movie won't be there to connect audiences to the soundtrack with emotional visuals. And the movie also won't be acting as a giant marketing campaign for the soundtrack. But Shore's Middle Earth soundtracks have been popular enough to warrant the release of The Compete Recordings, so I think there's a large enough fanbase to make this a possibility. Instead of being called a score or a soundtrack, it could be presented as a symphony or some other standard orchestral work, but still be designed to fit with the movies. In addition, the darker stories in the Silmarillion should add variety to the music and might be more compatible with a classical music presentation. What do you think? Would you buy a movieless soundtrack for The Silmarillion if Howard Shore composed it? I know I would.
all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us...
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