The Music of Lord of the Rings

I was sort of at a loss as to what to write for the LOTR party, but as you can see, I finally thought of something. :)
Even in the books, music is a large part of Lord of the Rings. The books are filled with beautiful, powerful poems and songs, and one can only wonder what the tunes would be.
The question is partly answered by the music for the movies. Mr. Howard Shore did a wonderful job with the music for the film trilogy(and is continuing to do a great job with the music for The Hobbit), and I'd like to think that Tolkien would approve of it. The soundtrack is perfectly fitting with the melancholy atmosphere of the series.
I'll highlight some of my favorite tracks from each movie, starting with Fellowship of the Ring.



One of my favorite tracks from the first movie is the Shire Theme, 'Concerning Hobbits'. It's very rustic and gentle sounding, beautifully illustrating the simple nature of the Shire-Folk. I love the instruments they use, like a wood flute, and some sort of mandolin-ish sort of thing (It's really visible at about 01:20, I'm not sure what kind of instrument it is). It makes it feel like something Hobbits would actually listen to. :D Basically, this song just makes me very, very, happy.


And now the other end of the mood spectrum. In my family, we affectionately call this the MEN theme, because it plays when our heroes are doing something manly and heroic. This track is many layers of awesome, with powerful brass, high-tension violins, and here's something cool. The ominous male chorus in this song is actually singing in the style of native New Zealand warriors. I thought that was a neat touch. I love how the song goes absolutely nuts at the bit where the Balrog comes in. Totally gives me shivers.
Then of course, there's an abrupt mood change when Gandalf is apparently 'killed', and the song becomes very mournful.


Now for the awesomeness that is this. I know in the book that the Ents sang a cool song as they marched on Sauruman, but I think that this breathtaking music makes up for not having singing trees.


As I recall, this played as Aragorn and Theoden King decide to ride out and take out as many orks as possible, even if they don't win the battle. Then after they ride out, Gandalf is there with the Rohirrum, and there's a cool, heroic reprise of the usually melancholy Rohan theme(Which I also love <3).


I feel like this post is long and ranty enough, so I'll finish out with what's probably my favorite, albeit, really depressing, LOTR song- The Sacrifice of Faramir. Yeah, the title is so dramatic that I had to put it into italics.
But seriously, this song is so terribly sad, heroic, tense- all sorts of moods mashed up together. And then Pippin starts singing. That's the metaphorical cherry on our metaphorical sundae.
This was a really good scene in the movie, too (well, except for Denethor's table manners... eugh...), always makes me sad for poor Faramir. And Denethor, too. Since he does love Faramir deep down, but he just doesn't realize it.

Well, there it is. *some* songs from the mind-numbingly awesome LOTR soundtrack. Because I couldn't think of anything intelligent to say about anything else. And even this post was basically just me going: "[drool] Duh, this song iz puritty..." XD Well, minus the drooling.
Later, amis!