Film music / Symphonic blockbuster scores · 2001
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Howard Shore
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring · 하워드 쇼어
Why listen
Home, travel, danger and song acquire different musical scales, making an imagined world through changing themes and arrangements rather than constant grandeur.
Listen and read
Tracks · previews
English editorial edition
Album story
Begin listening to The Fellowship of the Ring by noticing its smaller world. Concerning Hobbits follows The Prophecy, placing everyday scale beside a much wider story. Remembering that contrast makes the threatening titles and extended pieces that follow more than a succession of impressive sounds. Their changes acquire a point of reference.
This is the original eighteen-track album for the 2001 film scored by Howard Shore. The linked Reprise edition differs from the thirty-seven-track Complete Recordings and later concert rerecordings. It opens with The Prophecy and ends with Enya’s May It Be. Because Enya composed and performs included music, the entire programme should not be described as solely Shore’s composition. Nor does this album contain every film cue or screen sequence.
Keep the smaller world in mind
Remember a phrase from Concerning Hobbits before moving into The Shadow of the Past. Does its familiar impression continue unchanged, and how do rhythm and instrumental weight shift? Knowing every fictional place name is unnecessary for hearing the construction of familiarity and unease. Rather than labelling all themes immediately, hold onto one short phrase and use subsequent listening to explore differences.
The journey changes its dimensions
The Ring Goes South lasts approximately two minutes three seconds, while The Bridge of Khazad-dûm approaches six minutes. Include A Journey in the Dark between them and follow the changing spans. Short does not automatically mean lightweight, nor long uniquely important. Hear how energy passes from one section to another, and when instrumental forces gather or disperse. The album need not be understood as one continuous march.
Voices have different identities and functions
Elizabeth Fraser sings Lament for Gandalf within Lothlorien; Edward Ross performs In Dreams within The Breaking of the Fellowship. Enya supplies the final May It Be. Keeping those credits distinct helps explore what each vocal presence changes. Retain the transition from the extended seventeenth track into the closing song to hear an album ending shaped by several contributors, rather than assigning every voice to its most familiar name.
The album through its tracks
Remember Concerning Hobbits, compare the journey tracks’ dimensions, then hear track seventeen lead into May It Be.
Concerning Hobbits
This approximately two-minute-fifty-five-second second track sits between The Prophecy and The Shadow of the Past. Rather than deciding that all the film’s music must be homely or reassuring, hear how this impression differs from its surroundings. Remember a returning phrase and the rhythm’s forward movement to establish a reference for longer pieces later. You do not need to identify every instrument or recall a precise screen scene. Begin with one memorable melodic idea and follow the sounds supporting it. Allowing attention to remain with this smaller scale can make later increases in weight or darkness more noticeable. Its position gives the surrounding journey a useful point of contrast.
Reference · Apple Music: original eighteen-track Reprise soundtrackMay It Be
Enya composed and performs the approximately four-minute-eighteen-second final track. Shore’s position as the album’s principal composer does not make this his sole work, and the earlier score’s different singers should not all be identified as Enya. Begin with The Breaking of the Fellowship to experience the closing song in context. After that extended piece, consider how arriving at words changes the way a melody is followed and an ending anticipated. This may feel different from playing a familiar song alone. The selection is the original soundtrack’s final track, not a concert arrangement or another singer’s cover. Use it to hear where this particular album programme arrives.
Reference · Howard Shore official: original eighteen-track programme and vocal credits
Listen next
Compare Titanic to hear how extended film scoring and a separately sung song interact near an original soundtrack’s ending.
Titanic ↗References & editorial note
Written for English readers. Album facts are referenced below; listening suggestions are editorial interpretations. AI-assisted editorial review; not independently human-reviewed.