Soundtrack: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Special Edition)
Composer: Howard Shore
Label: WaterTower Music
Release Date: December 11, 2012
It’s the soundtrack we’ve all been waiting for this year — Howard Shore’s score for the first in Peter Jackson’s trilogy of films based on The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. The music is performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer, and the album features vocal performances by Richard Armitage and the rest of the film’s Dwarf Cast as well as an original song written and performed by Neil Finn. The soundtrack is available in two forms: the Standard Edition soundtrack, containing 26 tracks of Howard Shore musical goodness, and the Special Edition, with extended versions of seven of the tracks and six bonus tracks that don’t appear in the Standard Edition. (This review is based on the Special Edition soundtrack).
If you enjoyed Shore’s scores for the three Lord of the Rings films, you will enjoy this soundtrack. The music overall is in the style of the previous films, with occasional references to familiar and recognizable musical themes from them, including the “In Dreams”/Shire melody and some of the Elven themes sung in Quenya. I particularly enjoyed hearing one of the most familiar themes from the Lord of the Rings films, and the one most closely associated with the Ring, in the track entitled “Riddles in the Dark.”
This soundtrack is by no means a re-working of Shore’s previous material, however. In fact, except for the occasional sparks of recognition such as those mentioned above, most of the music is composed just for this movie. New does not mean unfamiliar, though, especially to fans of the Lord of the Rings films. The parts of the score related to Bilbo, Hobbits, and The Shire all still have the same lilting, Celtic feel with strings and pennywhistle as the predominant instruments (see, for example, “Dreaming of Bag End” and “A Very Respectable Hobbit”), and just as the Nine traveled through the Mines of Moria to the harsh, staccato singing of a threatening-sounding men’s chorus in The Fellowship of the Ring, it sounds like Bilbo and the Dwarves will have similar musical accompaniment during their underground dealings with the Goblins.
One of the best parts of this soundtrack is what seems to be a main theme, first brought to our attention in a cue entitled “Misty Mountains” when Richard Armitage, who plays dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield, sings the beautiful and haunting melody during the party at Bilbo’s house. The words, beginning “Far over the Misty Mountains cold…” are Tolkien’s, and here, Armitage, accompanied by the rest of the Dwarf Cast, sings stanzas 5 and 7 of the ten in the book. The melody returns throughout the soundtrack, although one of the best examples is “Over Hill,” where Shore gives it the epic movie treatment, complete with full orchestra. We hear the melody again at the end of the soundtrack as well, in Neil Finn’s “Song of the Lonely Mountain,” presumably placed over the closing credits. In this case, the words are written by Finn, but they are very much in the poetic and thematic style of Tolkien’s dwarf song.
I have long been a fan of Howard Shore’s music, and this soundtrack is no exception. It has just enough familiar elements to make Lord of the Rings movie fans feel right at home, but it is a solid, original movie score in its own right and is sure to be enjoyed even by those who come to The Hobbit with fresh ears.
Track Listing:
Disc 1
- “My Dear Frodo”
- “Old Friends” (Extended Version)
- “An Unexpected Party” (Extended Version)
- “Blunt the Knives” (performed by the Dwarf Cast) (Exclusive Bonus Track)
- “Axe or Sword?”
- “Misty Mountains” (performed by Richard Armitage and the Dwarf Cast)
- “The Adventure Begins”
- “The World Is Ahead”
- “An Ancient Enemy”
- “Radagast the Brown” (Extended Version)
- “The Trollshaws” (Exclusive Bonus Track)
- “Roast Mutton” (Extended Version)
- “A Troll-hoard”
- “The Hill of Sorcery”
- “Warg-scouts”
Disc 2
- “The Hidden Valley”
- “Moon Runes” (Extended Version)
- “The Defiler”
- “The White Council” (Extended Version)
- “Over Hill”
- “A Thunder Battle”
- “Under Hill”
- “Riddles in the Dark”
- “Brass Buttons”
- “Out of the Frying-Pan”
- “A Good Omen”
- “Song of the Lonely Mountain” (Extended Version) (performed by Neil Finn)
- “Dreaming of Bag End”
- “A Very Respectable Hobbit” (Exclusive Bonus Track)
- “Erebor” (Exclusive Bonus Track)
- “The Dwarf Lords” (Exclusive Bonus Track)
- “The Edge of the Wild” (Exclusive Bonus Track)
Rating: 4 / 5 Stars
