Howard Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, conductor and orchestrator noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. He won three Academy Awards for his work on The Lord of the Rings, with one being for the song "Into the West", an award he shared with Eurythmics lead vocalist Annie Lennox and writer/producer Fran Walsh, who wrote the lyrics. He is a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg, having scored all but one of his films since 1979, and collaborated with Martin Scorsese on six of his films.
Shore in 2013
Shore at a press conference for The Lord of the Rings in Wellington, New Zealand, 2003
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.
Howard Shore, composer of The Lord of the Rings film score
Shore orchestrated the score himself, to maintain clarity in the presentation of the music's themes. The central theme, shown here, is "The History of the Ring", first heard at the start of the first film in "Prologue: One Ring to Rule Them All" and repeated at each major event in the Ring's progress. The theme, in 44 time, is scored for first and second violins, viola, cello, and double bass.
The scene of Bilbo's farewell party, with the hobbits dancing to diegetic music by Plan 9, ostensibly being played by the musicians visible at the top right of the image.
The musicologist Doug Adams enjoyed unique long-term access to Shore during the composition period to document and analyse the film scores.
