Fans of Lord of the Rings and film music alike will enjoy this in-depth analysis of Howard Shore's music for the LOTR movies. Adams begins by presenting all the various themes used in the score, then describes how Shore weaves them all together in the films going through each movie from beginning to end. The accompanying demos/rarities CD has some interesting pieces, as well as a conversation between the composer and the author. ( )

This is a marvelous accompaniment to the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson. If you are a lover of orchestral film scores, and enjoyed Howard Shore's Academy-Award-winning scores to the LotR's trilogy, you'll definitely want to check this book out. Music historian Doug Adams was brought in by Shore to chronicle the creation of the three films' music as soon as Shore knew he had been hired as the composer. Adams followed the creation of the music every step along the way, and provides exhaustive background information about every little bit of the music -- how and why certain musical riffs were created, what the musical influences on the soundtrack were, and much more. The book includes a CD with rare musical bits and alternate tracks from the recording sessions. This book is lavishly illustrated with photos and art from the films, as well as fragments of Shore's sheet music. This one is a little intense for casual readers, and at times the writing style is a bit "dry", but if you are a LotR fan, a fan of orchestral movie soundtracks, or a musical history fan, it's right up your alley. I enjoyed it tremendously!

This was original reviewed for my local library's website: http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/depts/bookguide/srec/staffrec11-06.htm ( )