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DISCLAIMER: This transcript is provided on an "as is" best efforts basis and is based on a MiniDisc recording made where speech was not always legible because of noise in the room. Any errors made in transcribing what was actually said are mine, and not those of the speakers quoted, and may include spelling mistakes, incorrect names and other minor typo's. Readers should also bear in mind that statements read in cold print can often convey a completely different meaning from that intended by the speaker and perceived by the original audience.
Thanks to Sharon Cooper (a.k.a. 'WelshArwen') for providing the mini-disc recording on which this transcript is taped (as I had to leave early) and to Music from the Movies magazine for hosting the Q & A session and giving permission for this transcript and photo's to be published. This session was given at the Royal College of Music in London to an audience of about 200 fans and readers of the magazine.
		Moderator: I'd like to open up the floor for questions. Does anybody have any questions? Question: First of all, congratulations on winning the Academy Award - you thoroughly deserved it. Howard Shore: Thank you. You know, one after the other like that, that's pretty remarkable. It's just an amazing thing! Question: It's certainly the finest film score I've got in my collection and it's captured the hearts of my family as well, which is surprising because obviously they don't always listen to my music. What I'd like to know is that you mentioned twelve hours of music. Are we actually going to get to hear that in a deluxe boxed set? Howard: The plan is to do a box set. We have the proposal in to Warner's. And Warner's... it's looking good, but Warner's were sold.. you know it's all internal. They were sold I think with (indecipherable) - a group that (indecipherable) bought - the whole company was sold. So it's kind of in, being approved. But it looks good. We want to do it, and Peter wants to do it. What Peter has suggested, and what we've suggested to them, would be eight CDs and one DVD. The eight CDs would be the complete extended version of the music. I know there was something on the internet that said it would be just the theatrical but that was actually reported wrongly. The idea is to have the complete extended version - the long version. And it would be everything that's in the film would be on the CD's. So you'd have everything! Then there's a lot of other things that we did so Peter's suggested... he loves all the documentary stuff, he loves all the 'behind the scenes' things, so he suggested to make a DVD that would be out-takes and he calls it 'Rarities' which could be anything. It could be the first recording of 'The Fellowship' theme. And even recordings in the rough, and things like that. Sketches of things! The interesting thing for collectors is to see the process. So it's that kind of thing and he was suggesting that kind of DVD. And also Elizabeth Cotnoire, who did the documentary on 'Return of the King' called 'Use Well The Days' - that's on the DVD, she has a longer version that she's making for the boxed set. And I'm sure it'll have commentaries and things like that. Moderator: She said there was a part with you in the shower! Howard: [mock shocked]I.... errr... I... I'm married to Elizabeth and she's a really good film maker and writer and producer and has done a lot of television documentaries and things. So she had access. The reason Warners let her do the piece is because they knew they would get... you know there's the bath robe and stuff like that. Moderator: Just to let everybody know... there are many versions of 'Return of the King' - a couple of different versions. If you buy ... there's one that has two disks in. Howard: The green one, with the leatherette. Moderator: The second disk is a DVD of Elizabeth's documentary during 'Return of the King'. It's really interesting to see. It's wonderful. There's a part in there - the Lighting of the Beacons - I think that's where it's recorded - there's a part where he's conducting 'Lighting of the Beacons' and it totally will knock your socks off. Howard: They have a camera on you for the booth. When we record at Watford the control room can't see.. it's all done with camera's because it's another part of the building where the orchestra is, so there's a camera on me all the time that I was recording. And they used some of that. There's some interesting shots and things on it. It's done more light-hearted. Moderator: So if you don't have it you should check into it. It's a beautiful DVD. Very nicely done by Elizabeth. Howard: And there's another documentary on 'The Two Towers' extended version - it has a documentary on the music as well. Moderator: Another question? Question: Hi Howard. My name is Michelle (indecipherable). I've come from New York especially to hear your concert tomorrow night. I'm so happy to be here. Howard: Fantastic. That's great! Question: I wanted to talk about how you chose the various instruments for the different (indecipheable). I read somewhere where you talked about the hobbit theme being kind of very simple, naive and contained when they hadn't yet left The Shire, and then you shored the music at the very end which became the same theme but you used different instruments to make it broader... Howard: I was trying to show an evolvement in that case. I think that was... Question: .. and what made you choose the instruments? Howard: They were chosen by the cultures actually. In that instance the music was trying to... at the end of 'Return of the King', you hear Sir James Galway playing the penny whistle - the tin whistle. Very focussed really. And then it evolves into the flute, and you hear Galway play the flute. So I was trying to show the shape of the whistle evolving as the hobbits evolved. And had grown The Shire in a sense - at least Frodo. In a sense they probably all did. I was trying to show that and the evolvement of the instrument is so related. The folk instruments were chosen maybe for the different cultures. Just as a means of expression. Middle-earth five thousand, six thousand years ago, that wanted the music to have a sense of history so some of the instruments are old. You know I didn't use say a Pan Flute which is probably one of the oldest instruments in the world, until 'Return of the King' for Faramir. Instruments like the sarongi (?), the lute and the day flute I had used specifically for Lothlorien to express types of exoticism. In the same way that languages were used specifically for the cultures. Old English is used only for Rohan and a certain type of Elvish, whether it was Quenya - an older type of Elvish, or Sindarin was used to give you the feeling of these different worlds, so were the folk instruments, like the Hardanger Fiddle. Tolkien describes Rohan as a Nordic Viking culture so the Hardanger is a (indecipherable) Fiddle with sympathetic strings - as a folk instrument were focussed and I thought that would be a good way to express those ideas. That's how the instruments fall. The Celtic music is one of the oldest music in the world. It's ancient and it was a way to express this ancient feeling, and it was also versatile in a way, those instruments. It can be used elsewhere in the story. Like I used a dulcimer in Hobbiton in the original scene in Hobbiton in 'Fellowship of the Ring' and Gollum was a river hobbit. Gollum had been destroyed by The Ring over hundreds of years and when you hear part one of the themes of Gollum is now the dulcimer played - the dulcimer evolved to the hammered sound played by the cymbalom, which had a darker, more ominous sound. I wrote a different piece for it. So I was trying to show evolvement of these instruments and how they related to these characters in the scripts. Question: (indecipherable from back of hall but seems to be about problems of going back and doing extended versions of each film score) Howard: It was like doing an entire movie production. I always thought that each film was... because I've done over sixty films before doing 'Lord of the Rings' that it felt like six films to me. And the DVD was the seventh film. So an entire production in itself. But the opening up of the score, it's a very meticulous process that's fairly techinical because you're taking an existing recording. It's like taking a photograph and trying to.. you know cutting it and then opening it up, opening up the space and then trying to photograph something new in the middle - sort of new people in the picture months later. So the lighting has to be precise to do that. In our case the lighting equates to the microphone and the acoustic sound of this. So there's this technical thing where we're opening up the score, recording more music, longer sections and had to match perfectly and seem completely seamless. John Kurlander did all the recordings involving all the recording crew, all the films. He's very expert at that. He's like a physicist - he has like sonar tape measures and it's all calculated. Recordings like this are all connected to where the microphone is - it's all about the distance of the sound to the mic. 90% of recordings is that, and 10% is the sound of the room, like this room. He's very expert at matching that and that's how we do the DVD because we want .. we feel the DVD is the movie. We feel that's the one that will be the film that people will want to see in five or ten years and it's the best work in the entire piece, I think, are the extended versions. So we do them as carefully and as meticulously as if we were doing the movie, which is probably kind of rare. In movies I don't know of that being done too much. Moderator: It's interesting that you mention that about John Kurlander. I remember sitting there the day before you went to Watford and he was setting up and he said 'Rudy, you notice I'm not measuring the distances with the mic'. And I said 'Yeah, why don't you do that?' and he goes 'By about the third year you know exactly what to do'. He's an amazing guy. Another question. Question: (indecipherable). It's kind of in two parts really. Have you got a favourite piece from the whole trilogy, and have you thought about making 'The Hobbit'? Howard: I haven't quite started on 'The Hobbit' yet. We want to do 'The Hobbit'. Peter wants to do it, but the rights issues are getting sorted out. I would say the Sam... the Frodo/Sam relationship. I've said this before but I always felt like Frodo because he had the burden of The Ring and I always felt like the hobbit having to do the score. You know it was like you had put your hand up and said 'I will take it', you know? I kind of did the same thing. Peter was my Gandalf, and somtimes my Sam. He says that I was sometimes his Sam. When he was failing I was urging him on, so I always felt close to that relationship and the music that played into Frodo and Sam, which essentially comes from The Shire and the place through the full score. Moderator: We can only take one or two more questions. Question: (indecipherable, seemingly a question about if Howard is worried about only being known for Lord of the Rings rather than all the other work he has done) Howard: I'm not afraid of it, no. My work has been very linear. I've been writing music since I was 10. What you're hearing in 'Lord of the Rings' is kind of the experience... just the product of all of your work in a sense. You're writing an eleven hour piece and to do that and to orchestrate it ... you're seeing all of your work somewhat in this piece. So I don't mind that. I think some of the other pieces will hold up and they have something to say. But this kind of incorporates everything you've ever learned about making a film. Moderator: One last question. Question: (indecipherable from back of hall) Howard: Yes I do. It has its moments. I live ouside of the city and it's really quiet and somewhat secluded. So I go from that to doing a concert in London or in Atlanta. And there were moments where you know people come together to do something and I kind of like that community aspect of it. Howard: Can we take more questions? Do we have to finish at a certain time? Because there seems to be more questions. [Moderator indicates that signing CDs for everyone will take time]. Let's do it until 7 then. We can take a few more! Question: (indecipherable - long question from Italian visitor that seems to be about whether projects like this would be possible in the future, with time constraints increasing as films are made over shorter and shoter periods of time) Howard Shore: I'm not sure of the question. Is it a top time question? Well there'll only be time constraints. You just need a director who will say to you 'I will make sure you have enough time to do everything you need to do'. That would do it. Peter's told me that - and he did, and he kept his word, and that's the way this was done. It was done through really fantastic collaboration, over a year. You would have to do that. [One thing that] I'm feeling more from the movie-after-movie aspect of writing film music is that you can start much earlier on films if you want to write pieces based on the screenplay or the book - the ideas that are inherent in the screenplay. A lot of film music is really based on the screenplay. Words! Question: Did you ever visit the sets in New Zealand? Howard: Yes, of course. Many times. Many times over the course of the last three years and nine months since the first visit. I drew a lot of inspiration from being there. I also lived in New Zealand for part of the production. I had a little house. Peter lives in a little town called Seatoon, which is outside of Wellington. It's on an inlet that goes out to the sea from Wellington Bay. You know it's a movie made on kitchen tables, cottages kind of thing. You think of it as this grand production, but it's small. So I would take a house down the road, a couple of doors down, and I would write there and I'd see Peter and Fran and Phillipa and that's how we developed a really good friendship. I'd see orca wales in the inlet and porpoises and I wrote in the South Island in Queenstown. Wherever I was, I was writing. I kind of miss it in a way. It's just sort of dawning on me that I don't have to make a movie this year. I'm working on another movie, another project, and it seems odd to not be working on a film that's going to take a while to kind of stop thinking of it. Moderator: Howard, thank you very much! Back to page 1 of this transcript (Moderator interview) Concert review and photo's Ian's weblog review of Wellington world premiere performance of Symphony Ian's weblog review of London premiere of 'Fellowship of Ring' movements Ian's weblog review of Hollywood Bowl world premiere performance of 'Fellowship of the Ring' movements
Don't forget you can check out reports of lots of other Lord of the Rings -themed events in the Web Logs section

Email: ian@iansmith.co.uk