What a way to end a week. Yes, as the poster indicates, "The Fellowship of the Ring" was performed live to film with a full orchestra and 250+ choir. The sound levels of the dialogue were strong, but the sound levels for the sound effects (especially during the fighting scenes) were turned down a lot - the highs and the lows were filtered out.
Although Howard Shore didn't conduct himself (the rumor was that he was going to conduct it), it was nevertheless an AWESOME experience. I hadn't seen the film in a few years, so it was ever so breathtaking and exciting to watch it, especially to live music! It was amazing to actually see how the music came to life with the orchestra and choir.
I don't know if it the lady who sang solo during the Elf themes and "May It Be" at the ending title was Enya or not... but the two young boys were awesome!! One boy sang the part where Gandalf is trapped at the top of Isengard, and the moth(?) flies to him. The other boy sang at the ending title. I must say, boys' singing voices before pre-puberty are so beautiful and angelic.
What was really cool about the concert was how the conductor timed all the cues. There was a small screen in front of the conductor above his score, where the film was shown. First, a subtitle came on top of his screen, which I presume had the title of the cue and such. A purple line would pass by, which indicated that the cue was coming up. Then, a white circle would give him one measure of pre-click. A green line would pass through, which indicated the start of the cue. The white circle would flash at each downbeat.
People laughed, people applauded (especially when each members of the fellowship first gathered at the Council of Elrond, and after each amazing action scenes), and people cried. The words of Gandalf really came to me as an encouragement.
Frodo: I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
Good stuff there.
Boromir's death was so much more heartbreaking and sad than when I had first seen it. Sigh. Merry and Pippin were just so hilarious and cute. Aragorn made me want to scream when he fought, and Legolas was HOT whenever he shot his arrows. Hahaha-
Anyway, it's Howard Shore is just amazing. The themes, orchestration, everything. Our professor would always say that no matter what beautiful melodies you create, it can be a piece of trash or a piece of art depending on how you orchestrate it and how you use the appropriate timbres to make the music come to life. Shore's orchestration is beyond expressions - it's just so beautiful and so... right. And to think that the film was scored almost entirely from beginning to end... That's three films, each almost 3 hours long!! Genius. That's all I can say.
After watching "The Fellowship of the Ring," it made me and my roomie want to watch the entire trilogy again. Well, it says that the epic goes on, and "The Two Towers" will be done next October... Hopefully I'll still be in NYC to watch it, because that's my FAVORITE.
And as a side note, Frodo and Pippin were at the concert today and came up on stage with Howard Shore. I really wanted to see Pippin!!! But I forgot that he didn't have much hair... (Oh, the deceiving image of hobbits with full, curly locks.)
The Lord of the Rings, truly a masterpiece!
