The Music of The Lord of the Rings by Mystery Ensemble at The Stoller Hall
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
It’s hard to imagine Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies without Howard Shore’s epic score. By turns sweeping, intimate, romantic and darkly melancholic, the music runs the gamut, with Shore equally at home with the bombast of grand scale battle sequences, and the quiet tragedy of obsession that drives the quest for the ring at the films’ centre.
Indeed, the score is as integral to the experience of watching The Lord of the Rings saga as the New Zealand landscapes, or Wētā’s groundbreaking effects work. Can you imagine the terrifying chaos of the Battle of Helms Deep without Shore’s thundering percussion, or the Edenic bliss of the Shire without his pastoral melodies?
This March, audiences are invited to experience Shore’s majestic work at Manchester’s Stoller Hall where the modern orchestra Mystery Ensemble promise to transport you back to the fantasy of Middle Earth, it’s battling dwarves, gallant elves and brave hobbits, by performing pieces from the Canadian composer’s Academy Award-winning score. Goosebumps guaranteed.
