A live performance of Howard Shore’s ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ score, performed by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra was always going to be an exciting prospect. A full decade after the film’s original cinema release it has been brought to Dublin’s spectacular Grand Canal Theatre for two special nights. Given that I was only twelve when the film was originally released meant I never fully took in the soundtrack the first time so tonight was the perfect opportunity to appreciate this award winning work.
Conductor Ludwig Wicki emerges through the ranks of the orchestra to a strong, polite applause and now with the curtain raised we can see the full scope of the performers on stage and they’ve definitely gone all out. No less than 26 violins, dozens of singers and even a 65 strong child chorus are onstage tonight as well as the rest of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
The differentiation between Middle Earth’s different races is assisted greatly by the score where Shore has placed a different leitmotif on each of Middle Earth’s groups (essentially different musical characteristics). Whilst this is something I was aware of from watching the film previously, the subtle blending of the leitmotifs is something that is only picked up upon with such a grand emphasis on the soundtrack. The Shire scenes are accompanied by light hearted folk flutes and subtle guitar but can easily blend into the more sinister Mordor scenes as sinister chanting and blazing tubas replace the breezy flutes.
The highlight of the night comes from the 30 minute sequence of the Fellowship embarking down the Mines of Moria. As the landscape moves from high mountaintop to deep cavern the malice is first brought out through the ominous children’s choir, menacing tuba blasts and a 5/4 time signature scrapyard percussion that brings the impending urgency of the claustrophobic mines. Even for the fight scene in Balin’s tomb, where the orchestra reaches such a height that it drowns out all the sound from the film it does nothing to detract from it. In fact the frenzied peak only goes to show the power a good score has on a film’s narrative.
Things reach another level entirely when fleeing from the skirmish the orchestra reach a wide-screen crescendo with the an urgent rendition of Lord of the Rings main theme whilst the Fellowship are being pursued by thousands of Orcs. The mood shifts from urgency to malice as the male chorus chanting builds and builds through one of Middle Earths darker languages. Reaching it’s absolute peak moments before Gandalf’s death we’re then brought into silence for an incredible contrast. There’s some emotional viewing once they leave the mines as soprano Kaitlyn Lusk soars over minimal backing instrumentation bringing the weight of the previous scene down on top of all present.