|
|
| Author |
Message |
jr
|
|
LOTR OST
| 
Jun 13 21:51 UTC 2003 |
Lord of the Rings Soundtrack - opinions so far?
Yes I know there are three parts. LOTR is a 3-part book not a trilogy in the
conventional sense.
Au revoir
|
| 10 responses total. |
krj
|
|
response 1 of 10:
|
Jun 14 04:58 UTC 2003 |
(Hi Jeff! Thanks for poking into the conference)
|
polytarp
|
|
response 2 of 10:
|
Jun 19 03:24 UTC 2003 |
HI KRJ!
|
tpryan
|
|
response 3 of 10:
|
Jun 19 07:06 UTC 2003 |
I put the $18.98 that would go into buying a soundtrack into
buying the $24.98 extended edition DVD.
|
dbratman
|
|
response 4 of 10:
|
Jun 22 03:04 UTC 2003 |
The soundtrack music for "Fellowship" is competent symphonic movie-
music hackwork, nothing more. Lots better than the music for the 1979
Bakshi film, but a poor match for the magnificent story it's trying to
accompany.
Biggest problems, the use of cheap sequencing rather than harmonic
growth to build tension; and the use of imitation Celtic mush to
represent hobbit music. Tolkien, whose hobbits were based on English
peasantry, not Irish, would have emitted steam from his ears could he
have heard that.
|
scott
|
|
response 5 of 10:
|
Jun 22 12:12 UTC 2003 |
On the other hand, Tolkien would probably be happy that all his other stuff
is back in publication. All sorts of obscure things of his are now in
paperback at Borders...
|
orinoco
|
|
response 6 of 10:
|
Jun 23 05:39 UTC 2003 |
Actually, all the races in the LotR movies seem to have at least some
imitation-celtic flavor. If I remember right from seeing 'em in theaters,
there's pipe-y music and ornamental knotwork everywhere you go. (Still, the
music and the ceilidh-ish dancing at the Hobbit party was the most blatant
of it.)
|
dbratman
|
|
response 7 of 10:
|
Jun 23 16:45 UTC 2003 |
Scott - Tolkien was happy enough to get the cash for selling the movie
rights way back when. He expected to hate the result (there are a lot
of strong comments on the subject in his published letters), so while
he might consider it a good side-effect that he's selling better, it
wouldn't reconcile him to the hash that Jackson's films make of the
book.
|
twenex
|
|
response 8 of 10:
|
Jun 29 15:43 UTC 2003 |
Actually, The Elves were a more "Celtic"-inspired race - the language
Sindarin, which is the one which Aragorn and Arwen use together in the first
film, was meant to sound like Welsh and has several "Celtic" features such
as hte mutation of initial consonants in certain morphophonetic environments
(to put it in quasi-linguistic terminology). AFAIK, there are NO languages
in LOTR (or anywhere else such as The Silmarillion) baqsed on modern English,
Anglo-Saxon or any other Germanic language.
Having said all that, yes they should have used Welsh music, but Enya is known
to people who would steer well clear of Celtic music, just as the film is
known to people who would steer well clear of the book. I love the film; I
hope Tolkien would have too.
EOFYR
|
dbratman
|
|
response 9 of 10:
|
Jul 10 05:40 UTC 2003 |
There most certainly are Anglo-Saxon and Germanic linguistic elements
in LOTR. The Rohirrim speak and give their names in the Mercian
dialect of Anglo-Saxon - not a language based on it, but the actual
language itself. (Of course Tolkien feigns that this is a translation,
but in fact it's what he actually wrote in.) Various Frankish and
Gothic names pop up here and there, especially in the appendices.
The problem with the Enya songs is hardly that she's Irish instead of
Welsh (the other Elvish language is inspired by Finnish, so the Elves
are hardly pure Welsh), it's that Enya's music isn't even actual Celtic
music, but what Ken once memorably dubbed Celtic lounge music; and more
importantly still to me, the songs in the movie aren't even good Enya.
Sorry, but a reading of Tolkien's letters, and the splenetic rages he
got into about illustrations and other adaptations more harmless than
this one, convinces me that he would have utterly despised these
films. Their superficial resemblance to the books is only skin-deep,
and is a thin veneer over a thorough failure to understand what Tolkien
is about. (For a clue, read Tom Shippey's "The Road to Middle-earth.")
|
twenex
|
|
response 10 of 10:
|
Jul 23 02:35 UTC 2003 |
Point taken
|