Saturday, May 30, 2009
Radio Waves
Looks like the Radio City LOTR concerts are beginning to attract a bit of press attention. See recent posts on BrooklynVegan, TolkienLibrary, and NBCNewYork. Come join the Fellowship indeed!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Kraków Pics
Kraków Video
The sound quality isn't the best, so instruments occasionally sound a bit distorted. But live outdoor mic set-ups aren't the same as recording sessions. And you've got to love the energy!
I'll be back later tonight. Expect emails, posts, etc. to be addressed then.
Great to see you all here again!
I'll be back later tonight. Expect emails, posts, etc. to be addressed then.
Great to see you all here again!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Chance Encounter?
The hotel in Kraków has been decked out in a music motif. It's right across the street from the concert hall, so I suppose there is supposed so be a sort of thematic flow. It serves a strictly visual purpose, however. The notation isn't quite accurate, lines are split into sections as carpeting dictates, etc. So imagine the surprise when one finds the below sitting on the wall behind the front desk:
Click to enlarge, should need be. The key, if it isn't clear, is A-flat. Can this be a coincidence? The hotel easily predates the film music festival. Did some designer (obviously not acquainted with proper notation) end up randomly etching Williams' five-note motif from Close Encounters into the glass? How funny!
Click to enlarge, should need be. The key, if it isn't clear, is A-flat. Can this be a coincidence? The hotel easily predates the film music festival. Did some designer (obviously not acquainted with proper notation) end up randomly etching Williams' five-note motif from Close Encounters into the glass? How funny!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Decider's Radio City Contest
Another free ticket contest for prospective Radio City attendees, this one courtesy of Decider New York! Click here for details.
Out of my own curiosity, how many readers already have tickets? Who's still holding out?
Monday, May 18, 2009
ROTK Live World Premiere Now Official
The dates for the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King -- Live to Projection are now set! Mark your calendars for Lucerne, Switzerland on February 5, 2010 (7:30 p.m.), February 6, 2010 (7:30 p.m.) and February 7, 2010, (11:00 am and 6:30 p.m.)
Ticket pre-orders will begin on Art Productions' website later this summer.
Friday, May 15, 2009
HS @ Berklee
How this reached me over a year past its release I'll never know. But for those of you wondering what it's like to be at the receiving end of Howard Shore's conducting, I present the following, which is from his appearance at Berklee last year. The LOTR Suite isn't available, but this is from Shore's lucidly disturbing--and brilliant--work on Naked Lunch:
KC Review
Kelly stopped by for this quick review of the LOTR Symphony's appearance in Kansas City:
As for the Kansas City Symphony, my fiancee and I went to the Friday night showing which did not have the technical difficulties mentioned for the Thursday night concert. It was an amazing experience! I liked the usage of light (red for war/kazadum etc. and green for the shire, and i think blue for Lothlorien). The video-screens were nice because they showed concept art and paintings by John Howe and Alan Lee! I much prefer this to showing movie-footage! The choir's did an amazing job! And I was blown away by the performance of "Gollum's Song"!
Thanks, Kelly!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Village Voice Contest
VillageVoice.com is apparently running a contest where you can win free tickets to the Radio City LOTR concert.Interested? Click here for details.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Review Due
For those who haven't been scanning the Twitter feed, please allow me to repost the following:
We are currently exploring who exactly will be receiving the first review copies of The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films.
I can't tell you how long I've been waiting to type that!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Good Day
It's an exciting, if wildly hectic day here today!
And I'll be more than happy to tell you why in a few hours.
Or a few days.
Or when I'm allowed.
Back to work for now, and please excuse my scarcity around the blog. Back soon...
And I'll be more than happy to tell you why in a few hours.
Or a few days.
Or when I'm allowed.
Back to work for now, and please excuse my scarcity around the blog. Back soon...
Friday, May 8, 2009
No, don't worry, I'm not adding Facebook to the ever-expanding list of technology I'm trying to wedge into the blog. However, the Radio City concerts have been up on Facebook for a few weeks now. Michael Regina (of TORN fame) is caretaker there, and he's just put up some information regarding banner exchanges, etc.:
Hello LOTR Fans!
Mike here with a quick update on all things Lord of the Rings and Radio City!
Attached with this notel are 3 official LOTR Radio City Concert Banners of various sizes, please add them to your website and let me know. By doing this you guarantee a link back on our official site (http://www.theradiocitylotrconcert.com) Community section. You will soon see these banners appearing on several websites including HitFix.com, MySpace, Facebook, DarkHorizons.com, and of course TheOneRing.net!
The Fan-Fest community is hard at work preparing some great events and panels for the weekend, I've been hearing some great ideas from the team. More news on the Fan-Fest soon!
Thanks for reading, please check out http://www.theradiocitylotrconcert.com for any updates and information about The Lord of the Rings Radio City Concert in New York. Cheers!
Get the full scoop--and the banners themselves--right here. (Requires Facebook membership.)
Kansas City Review
An epic cycle of films calls for epic music, and Howard Shore’s impressive score for the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy certainly fits the bill.
Two hundred performers filled the stage of the Music Hall Thursday night when the Kansas City Symphony, joined by multiple soloists and choruses, performed the “Lord of the Rings Symphony.”
While Thursday’s performance was admirable, a few technical glitches marred the first half.
The composition is Shore’s own reworking of many hours of film music into six movements that last a bit more than 2 hours. A certain musical hierarchy infused the work — music with a Celtic flair represented the Hobbits, and passages tinged with eastern music referred to the Elves.
Whether or not an audience member followed the plot of the Tolkien books or subsequent films, they could certainly appreciate the lush orchestral themes.
Click here for more...
Thursday, May 7, 2009
KansasCity.com on The LOTR Symphony
Ann Spivak of The Kansas City Star has landed a new interview with Howard Shore as part of a preview piece on the Symphony:
"It was difficult to let go of things, but I worked with a very good editor who helped me along the way," Shore said. "The story is told through the symphony, and I think it really works wonderfully. It is very narrative, from the Shire (where the hobbits live) to Mount Doom (where the story ends) and the destruction of the ring and back again. All the major themes are included. It's really the best of the best."
Click here to read the ful piece.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Tweet
Hi everyone,
If you'll cast your eyes to the right you note that I've added a Twitter feed. I though this would be more appropriate for very short updates or anecdotal additions that don't warrant complete posts. Until now I've been ditching these types of comments in the Ongoing Discussion boards, but they're not really appropriate there either as they don't necessarily invite responses.
Any feedback is welcome. If it's just an eyesore I'll happily remove it. Personally, I think it could be fun... as long as I'm sure to use it correctly. Most Twitter accounts tend to devolve into a hyper-explication of excruciating minutia pretty quickly. So the burden's on my shoulders. Thoughts?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Great Book
With the Kansas City LOTR Symphony performances coming up at the end of this week, I wonder if anyone's taken note of the KC Public Library's parking:
Believe it or not, that's the permanent appearance, not a special decoration. Not exactly classic architecture, I suppose, but quite apt on this occasion.
Believe it or not, that's the permanent appearance, not a special decoration. Not exactly classic architecture, I suppose, but quite apt on this occasion.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Ongoing Discussion Thread [May, 2009]
This sweet and merry month of May,
While Nature wantons in her prime,
And birds do sing, and beasts do play
For pleasure of the joyful time,
I choose the first for holiday,
And greet Eliza with a rhyme:
O beauteous Queen of second Troy,
Take well in worth a simple toy.
-William Byrd
Last month I noted that these updates are getting more and more difficult to pull off because of schedule. And that certainly is true; the schedule is busier than ever right now. Seems that every day is filled with conference calls, emails, approvals, notes, FedEx excursions, ticket bookings, etc. I had to laugh at myself this week when tending to a couple of major phone calls from the front seat of my car as I sat in a parking lot waiting for rain to subside. Ah, the glamor of showbiz!
But all this means we're hitting the point where the plans and schemes of the past several years are finally being realized. It's an absolutely amazing process, but it also repositions me into a more supervisory role. It's a fascinating transition, though I'm honestly not sure how gracefully I'm accepting it. I'm a bit of a control freak, I suppose. So there's no small amount of stomach-churning and teeth-grinding involved as I learn to delegate work and trust others with a project that's been solely mine for so long. The funny things is, everyone involved is producing the best work of their lives. My wildest dreams are exceeded on a daily basis! I just need to learn to settle my nerves. :) There will inevitably be a few changes from our original concepts. In fact, we've been examining a couple of exciting alterations this past week. I know at every mini-announcement I make I'm harping that "nothing is final until it's final... anything could change!" I would be wise to listen to my own words!
But whether or not I'm clumsily falling into a coordinator mode, the project is making the transition beautifully! The book layout is well underway at the publishers. I sent a disc of high-res imagery out this week which will replace the placeholders they're currently using. And we've managed to squeeze a few more score pages and music examples into the book. Not even preview audiences have seen these yet. Somehow I find these even more beautiful and compelling than the film imagery. Stravinsky was obsessed with the appearance of written music and went to great pains to present his scores as beautifully as possible. I can absolutely understand that. We should have a first pass at the layout completed within the month. I think we're clocking in at just over 220 pages right now, but the count won't be official until the layout is done.
We've also been finalizing contract details this past week. The powers-that-be are now beginning to set up book signings, and in order to do so they need to have the author's contract logged in their computer system. Again, I've spent years shaking so many hands and promising this or that, it feels crazy to see things finally advance to the legally binding level. It feels so... real!
Many of the signings currently being arranged are meant to coincide with Radio City. I'm sure everyone has checked out the official website by now. What you're seeing, however, is merely a preview version. The full site is expected to go live soon. Of course, we'll keep adding to it constantly, but the concept and presentation will be widening in the coming days. The scope of this weekend is just mind-boggling! It's funny putting the publishers in league with the Radio City team. It's like families meeting at a wedding. I think we have no less than five corporate entities assembled in order to pull off the next few months. That's a big wedding!
And yes, as noted earlier in the week, I'm heading back to Europe in a couple of weeks here. And possibly again over the summer. We'll see.
So I'm gently humming William Byrd madrigals to myself. I took a weekend gig playing timpani for a Mendelssohn performance. I'm trying to drink tea more often than coffee. Anything to stay calm. Of course, inevitably I'm answering phone calls mid-Mendelssohn and drinking tea and coffee rather than tea instead of coffee. But, I suppose it's the intent that counts, right?
But this is the big push. We're so close. Just a few more updates and a this crazy dream about a book that can both celebrate and analyze Shore's intricate music; a book that shows film music can be as detailed, intellectual and moving as any other genre... that dream will be realized! We should all be so lucky.
And fortunately work on The Hobbit is years and years off, so I'll have a long time to rest and recoup.
Oh wait...
In the meantime, enjoy the LORDly new magnet below. Click here if you want one yourself. Now where did I leave the coffee grinder...?
Tampere Symphony Reviews
The indefatigable Sabsi and Babsi have already chimed in with the first, which I've reposted in comments. Please feel free to add yours as well.
S&B's pics are located here. What an interesting hall!
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