Howard shore - creating lord of the rings symphony - 3/5

The music of the "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy was composed, orchestrated, conducted and produced by Howard Shore. Shore wrote nearly 12 hours of music for The Lord of the Rings, 10 hours of which have been released in The Complete Recordings CD/DVD boxed sets. (The remaining 2 hours are comprised of alternate, unused compositions, and are set to be released in late 2008.) Shore composed the music in an emotional, operatic way, threading through the scores over 80 specific leitmotifs, which are categorized by the Middle-earth cultures to which they relate. Shore began his work on the music for The Fellowship of the Ring in late 2000 and recorded the first pieces of music (the Moria sequence) in spring of 2001. Additional music for the extended DVD version was recorded in March, 2002. A similar pattern was followed for The Two Towers and The Return of the King, with the final sessions taking place in London on March 20th, 2004. The music was performed primarily by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Voices, with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra contributing some of the early Moria music. A wide variety of instrumental and vocal soloists contributed to the scores as well (see below). The scores for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King won Academy Awards in 2002 and 2004. The latter film also won an Oscar statuette for Best Song, as well as the Golden Globes for Best Original Score - Motion Picture and Best Original Song. Shore's music for The Lord of the Rings has become the most successful composition of its composer's career, and is one of the most popular orchestral film scores of all time..... Howard Leslie Shore (born October 18, 1946) is an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Grammy Award-winning Canadian composer, orchestrator, conductor and music producer best known for composing the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the score for The Silence of the Lambs, and for the films of David Cronenberg. He is also a prolific composer of concert works; his first opera, The Fly, based on the plot (though not the score) of Cronenberg's 1986 film premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on 2 July 2008. An original organ piece will debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra for the John Wanamaker organ in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania entitled Fanfare on 27 September 2008. He is the uncle of composer Ryan Shore. He was born to a Jewish family in Toronto, Canada, and studied music at the after graduating for Forest Hill Collegiate Institute Berklee College of Music in Boston. From 1969 to 1972, he performed with the group Lighthouse. In 1970 he was the music director of Lorne Michaels' short-lived TV program The Hart & Lorne Terrific Hour. Shore wrote the music for Canadian magician Doug Henning's magical/musical Spellbound in 1974, and he was the musical director for Lorne Michaels' hugely influential late-night NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1980, appearing in many musical sketches, including Howard Shore and His All-Nurse Band, and dressed as a beekeeper for a John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd performance of the Slim Harpo classic I'm a King Bee. Shore also suggested the name for The Blues Brothers to Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi... Awards; * Shore won the 2002, 2003 and 2004 Grammies for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for his scores to The Lord of the Rings films, and the 2004 Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for Into the West from The Return of the King. * He won back-to-back Golden Globes in 2003 and 2004 for The Return of the King and The Aviator, respectively. * Shore won the 2001 Academy Award for Best Original Score (for The Fellowship of the Ring) and the 2003 Oscar for Best Original Song and Best Original Score, both for The Return of the King. * On June 11, 2007, Shore was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from York University in Toronto for "his sweeping artistic vision"[4]. * Shore has also been honored with awards from The National Board of Review, Recording Academy Honors, The Broadcast Film Critics, Chicago Film Critics, The British Academy of Film And Television Arts, Genie Award, World Soundtrack Award, New York's Gotham Award, and The Saturn Award for Science Fiction * Shore is the first recipient of the Film & TV Music Award for Best Score for a Science Fiction Feature Film for The Last Mimzy.... [Wikipedia]