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FlyingSerkis
Rivendell
Jan 19, 9:52pm
Views: 488
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AUJ Special Edition Soundtrack Bonus Tracks
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Hi all 
I'm not sure how much speculation there has been here about the bonus tracks, but I'd like to start a discussion here and present my own thoughts.
Firstly I would suggest that "A Very Respectable Hobbit", "Erebor" and "The Dwarf Lords" are short suites to present themes that Shore has written for The Hobbit.
Starting with "A Very Respectable Hobbit", we simply have a series of themes associated with Bilbo. From Doug Adams' post "Bilbo Primer", I can now attach some labels to these themes (though Doug does say that these are by no means "official" names). We first get the Bilbo "Adventure" theme, which only appears once in the rest of the score, at the beginning of the track "The World Is Ahead". At 0:32 in "A Very Respectable Hobbit", the music suddenly leaps into a spritely version of Bilbo's Main Theme (Tookish Side), which is the second half of the so-called "two-part" theme. At 0:45 we of course hear the main Shire theme (I believe this is referred to as the Pensive Setting of the Shire theme?). Then at 1:00 we hear what Doug has been calling Bilbo's "Fussy" theme. So, all in all, a nice presentation of most of the Bilbo-focussed thematic material (though skipping out the "Baggins" side of his main theme).
"Erebor" interestingly seems to begin with the same "Adventure" theme that began AVRH, but played on some sort of bagpipe, I suppose to sound more Dwarven. The rest of the track sounds to me like variations on this theme, but it could be referencing other dwarven material? It doesn't seem to feature the theme Doug Adams calls the "Erebor" theme as far as I can tell. Although the theme that I can hear has already been identified by Doug as a Bilbo-related theme (and obviously appears as such in the previous track), I wonder if it the change of instruments to a very non-Hobbity sound and the track name "Erebor" indicates that this is an "Adventure" theme that goes far beyond just our little Hobbit... I wonder if this is an indication for a theme that Shore plans to use much more in the next two films? Or if it is simply a diversion that he has had while in this world, and he is making a musical imagining of the kingdom of Erebor in its prime? (It is a much more proud and jolly theme than what is currently known as the Erebor theme, which is quite a sombre and almost sad theme, as if reflecting more on the tragic loss of Erebor than its glory.) If it is indeed more musically related to Erebor than to the Shire, you can see why Shore would use it as an "Adventure" theme for Bilbo - what could be more adventurous than this great kingdom so far away from the Shire?
Anyway, moving on! "The Dwarf Lords" is rather more difficult for me to analyse. I don't personally recognise any themes in here. I wonder if this again could be material written about Erebor in its prime? Does it relate to Dain Ironfoot? Will we hear some of this when Erebor is finally recovered?
The last bonus track that I haven't mentioned yet is "The Edge of the Wild". What with its fairly tense but low-key second half, it seems that this is probably an actual cue for a deleted scene. I have seen various theories over the web, and at one point it was brought to my attention that, during that tense second half, we have some of the Witch King motif that appeared in ROTK. So it has been suggested, and I like the idea, that this was for a scene in which Gandalf investigates the tomb of the Witch King that Galadriel mentioned in the Council. This would be where the second trailer got those scenes of Gandalf from - and given that those pictures were in the trailer, it would seem that such a sequence was removed from the final edit quite late on in the process, hence it could have been completely scored by Shore before being removed. The first half of "The Edge of the Wild" contains initially some music that sounds quite similar to the little bit that finishes "The World Is Ahead", but fleshed out a lot more, and then moves on to a statement of the "Misty Mountains" company theme. It sounds to me like some journeying music. Given the name "The Edge of the Wild," could this be happening as the company leave Rivendell? i.e this first half is an alternate for the second half of the track "Over Hill", and then before the stone giants happened, the scene would have cut to Gandalf's movements and then the second half follows his investigation of the tomb. Therefore we would have seen what Gandalf is up to between leaving the White Council and saving the company from Goblin Town.
So what do you think? 
Then Manwë and Yavanna parted for that time, and Yavanna returned to Aulë; and he was in his smithy, pouring molten metal into a mould. 'Eru is bountiful,' she said. 'Now let thy children beware! For there shall walk a power in the forests whose wrath they will arouse at their peril.'
'Nonetheless they will have need of wood,' said Aulë, and he went on with his smith-work.
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AUJ Special Edition Soundtrack Bonus Tracks
