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Yay!  Lord of the Rings bloopers!  I hope there’s more where these came from.

Another list, this time about movie soundtracks, compiled by the listeners of UK’s Classic FM and revealed during the Monday, May 30 Bank Holiday.

40  633 Squadron - Ron Goodwin
39  Cinema Paradiso - Ennio Morricone
38  Superman - John Williams
37  Once Upon a Time in the West - Ennio Morricone
36  The Merchant of Venice - Jocelyn Pook
35  Somewhere in Time - John Barry
34  The Shawshank Redemption - Thomas Newman/Mozart
33  Indiana Jones - John Williams
32  The Dambusters - Eric Coates
31  Chariots of Fire - Vangelis
30  Pirates of the Caribbean - Klaus Badelt
29  The Lion in Winter - John Barry
28  The Godfather - Nino Rota
27  Braveheart - James Horner
26  The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Ennio Morricone
25  Brief Encounter - Rachmaninov
24  The Last of the Mohicans - Trevor Jones
23  The English Patient - Gabriel Yared
22  The Great Escape - Elmer Bernstein
21  The Deer Hunter - Stanley Myers
20  E.T. - John Williams
19  Gone with the Wind - Max Steiner
18  Titanic - James Horner
17  Ladies in Lavender - Nigel Hess
16  Harry Potter - John Williams
15  Dangerous Moonlight - Richard Adinsell
14  The Big Country - Jerome Moross
13  The Piano - Michael Nyman
12  Saving Private Ryan - John Williams
11  The Magnificent Seven - Elmer Bernstein
10  Dr Zhivago - Maurice Jarre
  9  Jurassic Park - John Williams
  8  Lawrence of Arabia - Maurice Jarre
  7  The Mission - Ennio Morricone
  6  Dances with Wolves - John Barry
  5  Out of Africa - John Barry/Mozart
  4  Schindler’s List - John Williams
  3  Gladiator - Hans Zimmer
  2  Star Wars - John Williams
  1  The Lord of the Rings - Howard Shore

Of course I had to take a look, but I can’t say I’m very thrilled with the choices.  I have to admit a couple of those titles I don’t know at all, a few others I know but am not familiar enough with the music, and a couple others come almost as a shock.  Pirates of the Caribbean and Gladiator?  Superman ranked so low?  A “score” by Rachmaninoff?  Is that fair?  If so, I guess that’s why Gladiator showed up so high, since I guess they are including the unsubtle cribbing from Wagner and Holst.
    I can’t say I approve of lumping some scores together either.  With Lord of the Rings this is understandable, since the intent was to make one large organic piece; but it doesn’t seem fair not to separate Star Wars (or “A New Hope” as you kids call it) and Empire Strikes Back.  Or just to concentrate on Raiders at the expense of the other Indiana Jones scores.  With that in mind, it would be hard to argue—even for this LOTR fan—that Howard Shore’s work bests Williams groundbreaking and instantly recognizable themes in Star Wars and Empire.
    Those aren’t my only quibbles either.  I would much rather have Field of Dreams over Titanic; the latter might have sold more albums but the former has better music.  E.T. and Superman should swap places.  It’s nice they noted of Elmer Bernstein’s two great themes, but what about his Ten Commandments score?  And think for a moment of all the composers who are completely left out of that list.  No Jerry Goldsmith?!  I’m not his biggest fan, but surely they can’t have forgotten all the significant work he has done.  Erich von Korngold wrote several classic scores for cinemas Golden Age, none of which is remembered here.  Another unbelievable lapse is the absence of Bernard Herrmann, whose Citizen Kane score was voted best in the recent TIME poll—and of course, the great work he did in many Hitchcock films.  If they’re going to give a nod to Elmer Bernstein’s two greatest themes, what about the memorable melodies Henry Mancini wrote for the screen?  A lot current moviegoes were came of age with the music of Danny Elfman, but he didn’t make a showing here either.  Not forgetting Randy Newman, Alan Silvestri, James Newton Howard to just name a few.  There’s a lot of good stuff in the list, admittedly; but there’s so much lacking.

I had the pleasure of seeing The Detroit Symphony Orchestra perform Howard Shore‘s The Lord of the Rings Symphony on Saturday.  It was a special one-night-only peformance, conducted by Markus Huber, with the Ford Motor Company Chorus and the Christ Church Grosse Pointe Choir of Boys and Girls.  Guest soloist was Susan Egan, handling the elven songs; a young boy sang “In Dreams” but I did not catch his name.
    The chorus work was a bit shaky, but that’s forgivable considering the small amount of rehearsal time the full ensemble had (so I’m told).  The chorus was also smaller than I would have expected.  Curiously, although the songs from The Two Towers and The Return of the King were retained (sung by Susan Egan), the Enya material was absent.
    A large video screen showed artwork from the Peter Jackson movie.  Sketches and drawings from John Howe and Alan Lee were displayed.  I’d heard that film clips would be shown but I thought these sketches worked much better, setting the tone without upstaging the music.
    I thought I had a great seat, in the third row, but in fact I was much too close.  All I could see and hear were strings.  The horns were quite often just a rumor.  This is less a problem with our orchestra than with the Fox Theater’s acoustics.  It might be a great gem of a movie palace but every concert I’ve seen there has sounded terrible.  Still, when the music was louder, everything got clearer and it was great pleasure to hear the orchestra surging across the Pelennor.
    By the way, if you’d like to recreate the Symphony in the comfort of your home, put the following tracks in your playlist.  (It would only be a rough approximation however since you would be missing some bridging material.)  And if you’d like to recreate my concert-going experience, sit right next to the left speaker.

My wallet is destined to be empty.  Last weekend, New Line announced the specs on this December’s release of the four-disc The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition.  The official movie site has the details, and DVD Answer has screen grabs from the movie and the DVD menus.  The Extended Edition contains fifty minutes of added scenes, plus two discs of supplemental material on the making of the film.  It will be available on December 14, and can be pre-ordered starting October 1.

    Insuring that my bank account must remain flatlined every December, Topps is releasing another Lord of the Rings collector card series.  Once again the series will feature autograph and memorabilia cards, this time covering the entire trilogy.
    Note to all family members who may read this: sadly, yes, I will be handing out IOUs again this Christmas.

I finally got a chance to see my brother Rick’s handiwork.  In decorating his son Jake’s room he had downloaded a PDF of JRR Tolkien’s map of Middle-earth, converted it to transparency, projected it onto Jake’s wall and painted it.  Here is the impressive result.  (Click on the image to see a large-scale photo.)