The film composer’s job is to support and enhance the other elements of the film, because the music on its own is too abstract to conjure anything verbally or visually of what the film is about. Someone listening to the scores for Harry Potter or The Fellowship of the Ring—without knowing whether they’re for film or television or ballet or a suite from an opera or simply a stand-alone musical work—cannot match it to a nonmusical medium. Instrumental and wordless choral music only conveys sounds without specific verbal or visual meaning to the listener. The astute listener may pick up on the Elven words and the reference to Evenstar in the lyrics on The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack but that alone is not enough to invoke anything other than the idea that the music has something to do with the works of Tolkien.
Two composers with very different styles received assignments to capture in music the essence of a pair of fantasy books that have attained both critical acclaim and commercial success. While most readers are unable to articulate what kind of music matches how they visualize a book, they know when the music doesn’t work, especially when it supports a visualization that does a good job of capturing a book’s essence. So in many respects, the composer’s task is even more daunting than the filmmaker’s because the music can deaden a film as much as it can support and enhance it.
The Lord of the Introverted Scores
The selection of Howard Shore (whose musical style has been described as subtle, introverted, even non-melodic and dissonant) for The Fellowship of the Ring was greeted with puzzlement by those familiar with his work. The fantasy genre is a far step from the modern rather cult-like films that boast scores by Shore. Despite the unfamiliar literary territory for the composer, the resulting score for The Fellowship of the Ring showcases his ability to adapt his style to diverse cinematic subjects. He succeeds in capturing the overall heroic and somber nature of the Trilogy, yet disarms us with a charming innocence in depicting the hobbits and the Shire. The voice of Enya—the single commercial element in the soundtrack—blends well with the rest of the music. Part of the reason for this is that voices are incorporated throughout the score, and Shore’s own orchestrations and arrangements accompany Enya’s distinctive voice and compositions.
Shore’s score succeeds in capturing the essence of The Fellowship of the Ring and complements the vision of the film’s director, Peter Jackson. The score keeps the viewer focused on the action with strong thematic material, the use of a large orchestra and choral ensembles, and by giving the music the dark complexity that rumbles all the way through the Trilogy. In the end, Howard Shore has proven to be a perfect composer for The Lord of the Rings.
Harry Potter and the Composer’s Hype
The moment the first notes sound during Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone the name, John Williams, pops into the mind, creating a momentary distraction away from the action on the screen. This strong composer recognition is not necessarily a bad thing. John Williams’ music for the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films are wonderful musical supports, and his delightful score for Hook is a welcomed diversion in an otherwise mediocre film.
So why isn’t the music for Harry Potter as strong and as memorable as other scores by John Williams? A hint comes from the attention the music brings to itself when first heard in the film’s opening. The music does not quite connect with the other elements on screen causing it to sound a bit detached instead of being fully focused on supporting the film. Unlike the magical score for The Fellowship of the Ring, the music for Harry Potter lacks that spark of inspiration found in other scores by Williams. What is missing is that intangible musical turn of phrase or chord structure that absolutely captures and completes the viewers’ experience with the film. Some reviewers have even suggested that the music sounds like Williams on auto-pilot. Although Williams has always been a bit of a self-plagiarist and a borrower from many different composers and compositional styles, he has perfected the ability to blend all this musical diversity into background music that successfully supports a film’s overall impact.
All this being said, an uninspired score by John Williams is still better than a good score by many other composers, and the music in Harry Potter is certainly nice to listen to. But one can’t help but feel that Harry Potter deserves something a little more creative and imaginative. It is interesting that so much attention has gone into capturing the quality and essence of the Harry Potter books and yet the score fails to capture the quality and essence of what is expected of its composer. In this respect, Howard Shore has had a better time of it than John Williams in the comparing the scores competition because Shore had only to prove that he could pull it off. Williams had to prove he could create musical magic—yet again. This is simply too daunting a task to succeed at on every attempt.
To the delight of the judges and spectators alike this competition has several more rounds to go. Howard Shore is the composer for the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy and John Williams is listed for the next two Harry Potter movies.
* * * *
C. A. Casey is a Music Editor for Strange Horizons.
Related links of interest:
Lord of the Rings movies site
Harry Potter movies site
The Official John Williams Page
Filmtracks’ Tribute to John Williams
The John Williams MIDI Page
Howard Shore
The Journey Into Middle-Earth—Howard Shore talks about his score for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Score Of The Rings—Howard Shore finds the music in Middle Earth
Gargoyle Poems
By Michael Marsh
2/4/02
Spiders Dance
Hens grow teeth
in graveyards,
picking black daffodils
in the shades
of broken stones.
Shadows smile
and hair grows
thick on toads,
frogs laugh,
old blood dripping
from their lips.
Spiders waltz
hanging shrouds on
the dried skeletons
of grinning worms.
There is
even the Ghost
of a Gargoyle
riding
his night colored mare.
(Untitled)
It creeps
through like night
in a country
of worn fields,
Taking
the last daylight
out in a
lightened dusk.
It sits
in a resting
breath as
peace, and seems
As sleep,
giving those
a gentle dream
of death
Copyright © 1968-71 Michael Marsh
* * * *
Michael Marsh is the author of “Translations from the Gibberish,” “Sand,” “Next to Water,” and numerous poems and book reviews appearing in Star*Line, The Transformation Times, and others. He edited poetry at Portland State University in the 1970s. Marsh died in the early 1990s; these poems are printed with custodial permission.
Muse Trap
By Tim Pratt
2/11/02
My muse escaped last week,
slipped out the window between
the bars with my overnight
bag in her hand. I called the police
but they didn’t care about a petty
thief, and they said she was too old
to put on a milk carton, so I’ve
had to resort to other means.
Tonight I made a muse trap
and baited it with all her favorite
things. I left a trail of palm fronds
and cinnamon sticks and jelly beans
and peacock feathers and moon rocks
and lizard’s feet and uncooked meat
and colored glass and weathervanes
and window frost and broken kites
and a book of Yeats and a dish of cream
and a pile of dates and a sprig
of mistletoe sharpened at both ends
and an aloe plant and a glass of the wind
and a star in a blue bottle and a newborn
kitten and an elephant’s tusk and chocolate-
covered cherries and pears and ripe berries
and three feet of knotted black thread
and a blue silk pillow to rest her head
all leading from my big backyard
through the patio doors to this cardboard
box open wide on the floor. I’m hiding
behind the bathroom door with a knobby
club of fresh-cut oak and a burlap sack
and a music box that plays “Hush Little
Baby” when you open it up. I’ll be writing
again by morning if the gods give me luck.
Copyright © 2001 Tim Pratt
* * * *
Tim Pratt is a poet and fiction writer who lives in Oakland. His poetry has appeared in Asimov’s, Weird Tales, Star*Line, and other nice places. He works for Locus magazine. Visit his Web site to read more about him. Tim’s previous publications in Strange Horizons can be found in our Archive.
Why Norm Jones Never Feels Like He Gets Anything Done In A Day
By Russ Bickerstaff
2/18/02
Even when Norm is sleeping on the couch without motion
his soul recognizes vast motions elsewhere
as the couch and the house it rests on and the ground it’s dug into move around