From the noble halls of Númenor and Lindon to orc communities festering under Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power showcases a lush portrait of J.R.R. Tolkien's iconic fantasy world. Providing the sonic soundscape to the Prime Video series' sweeping vision of Middle-earth is Bear McCreary, who navigates the tricky balance of evoking Howard Shore's work from the Peter Jackson film trilogy while providing new music that complements this prequel series and stands as his own distinct work. From inventive character themes and scoring regions of Middle-earth that hadn't been adapted for the screen yet, McCreary gave The Rings of Power a musical identity that elevates the action and drama.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, The Rings of Power composer Bear McCreary reflected on developing musical identities for characters and kingdoms in the series, shared his inspirations for scoring the series, and offered insight into the world Tolkien created.
CBR: My favorite parts of the Rings of Power Season 1 soundtrack are the Harfoot themes. It's very rustic, and I love the pipes and hand drums. How was it bringing this innocent touch to the epic music?
Bear McCreary: The interesting thing about diving into The Rings of Power is that the Harfoots' story might've been the biggest challenge in that we all remember Howard Shore's music for the Shire, but these are not the hobbits of the Shire, we're thousands of years away from it. One of the things I think about with the Shire -- from the books, the movies, and the music -- is comfort. It's very comfortable and pleasing. In a way, it's Tolkien's idealized version of life.
Harfoots have it rough! It's different, they are nomads and in danger all the time, [but] they have this sense of home that they take with them. I wanted it to feel portable. I wanted it to have small drums, wooden drums, log drums, and then, as a reference to where the Shire will end up, some Celtic and British instruments -- pennywhistles, uilleann pipes. It's a matter of combining these things. I really wanted it to feel like there's this community of very comfortable people, but they are constantly on the move. I think that's where a lot of that percussion comes in. It energizes this music to give you that sense of comfort in danger.
There's a lot of percussion in this score, with tracks like "Khazad-dûm" having big drums but also for Númenor. With Númenorean culture being quite nautical, it's like the stuff you'd hear coming from the big ships in Ben-Hur. How was it exploring that side of Númenor?
Númenor was the most liberating for me because there's no Númenorean society or music to speak of in the Peter Jackson movies that most people know. Even in the trilogy of books that Tolkien wrote, they are an echo of a past great society. We get to see that society at its peak. One of the things that I thought would be cool was to bring in sounds that fans of the Peter Jackson films have not heard in a Middle-earth context. As you said, it's very nautical, and the production design feels very Mediterranean. It reminded me of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Babylon. These were colors that I wanted to draw from, so I brought in Mediterranean instruments -- frame drums, Armenian duduk, Turkish yaylı tambur, metallic ching changs -- these exotic instruments that feel very evocative of the Middle East and Mediterranean ancient world.
What's great is that we can establish that sound for The Rings of Power. We can establish that that is what Númenor sounds like. My hope is that fans, in the future, will binge-watch all of our show and then go right into the Peter Jackson movies. Perhaps the lack of those instruments in Peter Jackson's movies will have an emotional connection for them because they will have gotten used to it sounding like a part of Middle-earth. But when they get those movies, it's a part of Middle-earth that isn't there anymore.
You also get to go into some really dark areas, providing themes for the orcs, which wasn't explored that much by Shore's score. There's just something so visceral about that sound.
The orc music was maybe my favorite. It's the least melodic, but I wanted to create music from death. I wanted to have as much of their instrumentation be made from things that were alive and no longer are -- bones and hide, bone flutes, conch shells. Anything that was once alive and its carcass can make a sound is part of this. I think the most interesting sound in there, a recurring sound in all the orc material, is an instrument called an Aztec death whistle which was discovered in the '90s. We're still not sure what it was used for, but in Aztec society, archeologists found these skull-shaped items and realized that when you blow into them, they make the sound of a human screaming.
They're a terrifying sound, and I thought they had to be a signature sound for orcs if I've ever heard one. That was cool, and getting to play with these colors that are very ominous and dark is very satisfying to offset the nobility of Galadriel's theme, the optimistic innocence of Elrond's theme, [and] the childlike beauty of Nori's theme. In order to offset those, as you said, I did need to go to these dark places, which was very inspiring.
Something that captures that juxtaposition so well is Sauron's theme, which is heroic and beautiful, but like Castlevania, you invert it to get the full picture once you realize who Sauron really is. How was it putting that together?
That was really fun, deciding that I wanted to have a theme for Sauron that, when you played it backward, would be a theme for somebody else. You would hear both of these themes individually and then, at the end of the season, piece them together. For the most part, I was successful. I will say, unsurprisingly, there were some fans in Episode 6 or 7 who figured it out, and they were right. I took this theme and played it backward, and I love that. I love that this little Easter egg can work. It's easier said than done, and I'm not going to lie, it's an intellectual exercise. Once you start talking about turning a theme backward, in order for that to work and have emotion, it has to have a very particular set of pitches, rhythms, and harmonies, and it took me weeks to figure that out, but it does work.
The other thing that I think [is] interesting about it is that Sauron's theme is the only one that is contained. It's very small. Everybody else either leaps up or dives down these big gestures. Sauron's theme is a ring. It's just this little circle. To me, it feels dangerous because it's so small, and of course, one of our other characters has a theme that goes circular and small. It just goes in the other direction. That was really fun and maybe the biggest challenge in the season.
I love that you're incorporating Tolkien's text into the lyrics you're writing. There are a lot of songs in Tolkien's books, which I don't feel appear that much in Jackson's work.
Absolutely, and shockingly, the Ring Verse didn't! The first thing I did when I got hired was think that we had to set in the Ring Verse. We brought in Fiona Apple to sing it, and I love that. When I read Tolkien's works, even when I was a kid, I heard music. I think it's vital to any Tolkien adaptation that the songs, music, and poetry bleed into your experience as much as possible. I'm honored that part of what I do on the show can contribute to that becoming a reality.
Developed for television by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 is available to stream on Prime Video.