Music of The Lord of the Rings film series

The music of The Lord of the Rings film series was composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced by Howard Shore between 2000 and 2004 to support Peter Jackson's film trilogy based on J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel of the same name. It is notable in terms of length of the score, the size of the staged forces, the unusual instrumentation, the featured soloists, the multitude of musical styles and the number of recurring musical themes used.

Shore wrote many hours of music for the trilogy, effectively scoring the film for its entire length. Over 13 hours of the music (including various alternate takes) have been released across various formats. Shore intended the score to be operatic and to have "a sense of age".^[1] He made use of an immense ensemble including a large symphony orchestra (principally, the London Philharmonic Orchestra), multiple instrumental "bands", various choirs, and vocal and instrumental soloists, requiring an ensemble ranging from 230 to 400 musicians.

The series music became the most successful of Shore's career, earning three Oscars, two Golden Globes, and three Grammys, among other nominations. Some of his themes or leitmotifs (like the Shire theme) became individually popular. The music has attracted the interest of musicologists and Tolkien scholars. It is performed by choirs and orchestras around the world as symphony pieces, concert suites and live to-projection concerts. Shore invited the musicologist Doug Adams to observe the composition process and to document it in what became the 2010 book The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films. It identifies the many themes of the score, and describes how these are used in each of the scenes of the film trilogy.

The music for the film series was voted the best soundtrack of all time by a Classic FM listener poll for six years in a row.^[2]