Ive been listening to the OST for Lord of the Rings because of the recent arc and I am loving it! Am curious to hear what my fellow GWC’ers count as their favorite tracks.
Personally, I adore all of the ‘Rohan’ music, but my fave right now is definitely Howard Shore’s “The Uruk-Hai” from the Two Towers soundtrack. Beautiful and terrifying by turns, phenomenal.
What say you GWC?
About once I month I listen to all three LOTR Soundtracks in their entirety.
It’s hard to pick a favoriate song, but Forth Eorlingas ranks high on my list.
That’s because when I hear it, I picture so clearly the awesome scene of Theoden and Aragorn making their desperate calvary charge down the ramp from Helm’s Deep and then Gandalf and Eomer literraly The Calvary Over the Hill arriving just in time.
When I listen to it I always mouth the words “Theoden King stands alone.” …pause…“Not alone.”
Its strange how Forth Eorlingas actually makes me feel like the sun is rising. Was that too nerdy? lol
Just realized I have Torrini’s last album (‘Me and Armini’) on my ipod right now, its pretty damn good. Although it certainly doesnt have the same feeling as Gollum’s Song, which is really frelling sad. “…for all the lies you told us. The hurt, the blame. And we will wait to be so alone. We are lost. We can never go home.” 
The Bridge of Khazad Dum for sure, though of course Ig reatly enjoy the entire thing.
It’s now to late for me, but later today (for you tomorrow) I’ll compile my favorites ot the LotR score. Howard Shore it up there with John Williams for me.
About the time Return of the King was released, I was listening to a lot of Dire Straits, and I thought it’d be real touching to see a video cut to Brothers In Arms. I’ve seen it done before, but not to the quality I’d imagined, and I don’t have the knowhow or the technology to do it myself.
Either that, or replace Gollum’s Song with it at the end of Two Towers, even though I love Gollum’s Song, and think it works perfectly. But I did used to switch the Audio feed to the record player at the end of TT occasionally, and Brothers In Arms also works quite well.
This is freaky. I’ve found the thread just as I’m starting the RotK: The Complete Recordings.
My favorites are Pippin’s Song (Steward of Gondor) and Into the West.
More info about The Complete Recordings:
“Entire Academy Award®-winning score on 3,3,4 CD’s plus 1 Audio DVD in 5.1 Surround Sound plus a 48-page Book.”
http://www.lordoftherings-soundtrack.com/
Wikipedia (yes, I know) says:
Additional music including alternate, unused compositions are set to be released in late 2009.
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Call me a softy, but I have a special love for all the Elvish related pieces. Aniron, Lothlorien, Evenstar, The Grey Havens, etc… Other favs are Concerning Hobbits, A Journey In The Dark, The Great River, Amon Hen, The Breaking Of The Fellowship, Foundations Of Stone, The White Rider, & The Forbidden Pool. I don’t know why, but to me most of the stuff from Return of the King didn’t feel as special.
I did a special edit for myself compiling material from all three soundtracks, editing out the harsh or intense stuff. Particularly the bit from The Bridge Of Khazad Dum where Gandalf falls; I call it “Flying Fools, Crying Fools”. It makes great background music for reading or writing, or just plain relaxing. I don’t dislike the louder sections, I’m just easily distracted.
Well, that settles it, I think I’ll listen to it right now.
BTW, who can forget the Rankin/Bass Hobbit soundtrack.
I recently got into the Complete Recordings. my favorites from that are Bilbo’s Song and The Passing of the Elves. my favorite character theme is probably Gandalf’s Farewells, which appears when he falls in Moria and again when he’s at the Grey Havens. those two high notes get me every time.
Duncan, would it be possible for you to share your mix? (that is, if you care to.) I would love to listen to something like that while doing other things, as the intense parts of the score sometimes terrify me. in a good way. but yeah, it’s distracting.
The Complete Recordings sound like something I’d be interested in. If only I didn’t throw all my money away on comics & food.
I’m not exactly the maestro of uploading data properly, as I so embarrassingly demonstrated recently, but I’d be happy to, once armed with the proper knowledge. Let me know if that knowledge lies with you and what the best way to transfer the files would be.
Many of the tracks are simply straight from the soundtrack anyway. Only eight tracks of the mix are isolated from their larger whole. It’s a bit of an amateurish effort really.
Now, when I took the “High The Memory” section from the dreadfully sluggish 21 minute “Remembering” off Yes’ Tales From Topographic Oceans, and made it into a 5 minute track that could’ve spent some time on '70s airwaves, that time I impressed myself.
I do quite enjoy the LOTR film soundtracks, though I use it for soothing background music more than anything else. I must admit, my knowledge of Star Wars and BSG is much better. That said, my favorites:
The Riders of Rohan (basically love the Rohan theme)
The King of the Golden Hall
Minas Tirith
and basically all of the last hour of Return of the King 
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or maybe not.
This has been stuck in my head for the last few days (just played the Hobbit for my kids):
Hmmm. I suppose my vote would have to go for Concerning Hobbits. It has that nice elegant overworld sort of ring to it, and really just epitomizes on of he focuses of LOTR, being the rise of Hobbits in the face of adversity.
It’s a theme of the book, it counts!
Thanks for the link.
Somehow I oversaw the Complete Recording were out in the world.
As for the Motion Picture released soundtracks my favorites are.
FotR:
All tracks besides Many Meetings and Lothlorien
TTT:
Everything with Rohan themes, Isengard Unleashed and Evenstar
RotK:
Hope and Memory, The White Tree, The Steward of Gondor, The Ride of the Rohirrin and the last seven tracks
I really need to watch the movies again and listen to the soundtracks.
While I love all the music (Howard Shore is a genius!), my favorites are the Shire and Rohan themes because they use violin and hardinger. I’m a sucker for strings.
I can’t remember the name of the piece, but in Return of the King there’s one major one that just makes me sob every time I hear it. It’s from the part where Sam and Frodo are talking about the Shire, and then Sam carries him up Mount Doom, with the big choir singing along. Big tears every time.