The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

WOW. After a couple of close plays in the past few days, Howard Shore's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is absolutely, so much better than the disappointing first. A masterpiece, no less.

As hoped, the themes from AUJ are shown developing beautifully, the compositions are now carefully organized and the orchestrations are more varied, bigger and richer. To my excitement, Shore leads us closer in his musical journey to the climactic Lord of the Rings, giving a much anticipated birth to further FOTR leitmotifs and well-loved musical patterns. You'll hear Bree for the first time (The Quest for Erebor); you'll be given a first, full play of The History of the Ring theme on a solo violin (Flies and Spiders); you'll also hear the beautiful birth of the Ringwraiths' theme (e.g. 'NAY-NAH!'), the same foreboding motif that we'd hear extensively in FOTR by a massive and blood spitting choir; and more (you'll hate me forever if I reveal the rest to you).

I remember in 2010, just before the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Live to Projection) concert in Lucerne, Shore compared his scoring of The Lord of the Rings movies to weightlifting. He said to us, quite bravely, that seven years after the put down the pencil and signed the last cue of The Lord of the Rings, he wouldn't be able to do it again. Humble as always, he silently worked out for hours a day, consumed gallons of musical protein shakes and put those veins out like a bodybuilding monster. Boy he did it again.