In this two-part Kinotes series, we look at Bear McCreary’s work on the new “Lord of the Rings” TV show, THE RINGS OF POWER as it relates to Howard Shore’s expansive score for the LORD OF THE RINGS film trilogy. McCreary wasn’t allowed to use the music from the movies, but felt it was important to stay true to the musical tapestry Shore established for Middle-earth. 

In the second episode, we tackle the human realms: Gondor, Númenor, Rohan, and the Southlands, and some of the figures associated with them. We also look at star-crossed Elf and human relationships, Sauron and the various villainous figures of the show and movies, and try to use McCreary’s music to speculate about mysterious characters from the show. 

Show Notes:
00:00 - Introduction & Recap
03:11 - Music of the High Men: Gondor & Númenor
11:20 - Human Heroes: Elendil & Isildur / Aragorn
16:37 - Star-Crossed Love: Aragorn & Arwen / Bronwyn & Arondir
21:12 - Music of the Middle & Low Men: Rohan & The Southlands
27:57 - Halbrand
19:06 - The Dark Lord Sauron
28:42 - Challengers: Saruman & Adar
40:15 - Dark Servants: The Nazgûl
43:42 - Mystery Figures: The Stranger & The Mystics
49:06 - Gandalf the White
50:24 - Outro / Sources / Social Media / “White Leaves”

Please subscribe, rate, review and/or leave a comment on iTunes. For other queries, email us at [email protected]. We’re also on Twitter: @kinotespodcast and @nicknylen (my personal handle).

All episodes are written and produced by Nick Nylen.

Sources:

• Books: THE MUSIC OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS FILMS by Doug Adams. Available used on Amazon. 
• Podcasts: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING series of “The Soundtrack Show” by David W. Collins. Available on Apple Podcasts. 
• Interviews: Bear McCreary interview for YouTube channel In Deep Geek - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyf7WQ6wQt8
• Blog: Bear McCreary’s blog series on making the music for THE RINGS OF POWER - https://bearmccreary.com/bears-blog
• Others: The insights and musical analysis of Frank Lehman (@fmlehman on Twitter) and Monoverantus on YouTube & Twitter (@AMoverus) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbyg3ujMxvifnRRHFrlCvmg/featured
• The Tolkien Professor Corey Olson (@tolkienprof and @SignumU) on Twitter.