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Well, I got it on Saturday night and have listened to it three times. Now, it may be because I'm spoiled on other composers like Michael Kamen (Adventures of Baron Munchausen), Danny Elfman (Batman), Ennio Morricone (Good the Bad and the Ugly and the Untouchables), Jerry Goldsmith (Patton, The Omen), Georges Delerue (Man for All Seasons), Miklos Roza (Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Eye of the Needle), Ron Grainer (Where Eagles Dare), the incomparable James Bernard, and even going back to Dimitri Tiomkin (Guns of Navarone) and Max Steiner (Gone with the Wind) and Eric Wolfgang Korngold (Adventures of Robin Hood)---but I found the LOTR to be a bit of a let down. There's really only one main theme. I was expecting individual themes for several of the characters--certainly for Frodo and Gandalf and Gollum--being woven together throughout the incidental pieces, as is often done.
For that reason, much as I liked the orchestration and some of the chorus (although they got to be a bit too Wagnerish for me), the music became quickly predictable for me, just after listening to the CD 3 times.
Don't get me wrong. It's nice music. But it didn't really blow me away. (Of course, it's much better than the Leonard Rosenman score for the 1979 Ralph Bakshi version!)
Best,
John F
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