.
.
.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Almost Out of the Woods

A quick update on the legal end of things... We've almost untangled this complicated web and expect to have announcements soon. Please watch this site in the coming week or so.

It's been a rough road to a lovely--if unexpected--destination, and I'm finally starting to return to my average 6 hours of sleep a night. Ok, maybe that's not so great, but it's a marked improvement at any rate.

Stay tuned and I'll soon regale you with the tales of derring-do from the legal realm.

Wolf Trap TTT Reviews

Here's my official call for Wolf Trap TTT reviews. Please send your considered words, and I'll post them for all to see!

Large Water Music

I presume that most have already seen this outdated news by now, so please forgive my tardiness. However if you've been under the same rock as me, then please rejoice in this new-to-you announcement: Fellowship Live will be in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Friday, October 16 at 7:00 p.m. Please see the right sidebar's concert lineup for informational and ticketing links.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Sinking Its Teeth In



Staple of the carnage crowd, Fangoria Magazine did a short piece on the upcoming Radio City Fellowship concerts. They asked me a few questions as well, and I was only too happy to answer. See the full piece here. [Warning, occasional gooey background imagery ahead.)

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Examiner on Wolftrap


Short and sweet version: click here. Additional updates from my end in the coming days. Thanks for your patience.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Told Ya!

UPDATE: More info available here.

I've repeated promised that there is more good stuff to come with regards to the upcoming Radio City Music Hall concerts. As I'm not at all a fan of being proven incorrect, may I humbly submit the following.

How's that, then? :)


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Still Waiting...

I offer my apologies to those whom I owe phones calls, emails, texts, tweets, posts, and so on. It's been another incredibly long day.

The multi-lawyered meetings scheduled for this week have been moved to next week while more information is gathered. But as the time passes, the view gets clearer, and I get more hopeful. As Tom Petty says, the waiting is the hardest part. So I'll try to find some silliness here and there in the interim, just to keep our minds busy. I'm at the mercy of others' schedules right now, so we may as well make the best of the situation.

For the moment however, bed beckons!

Back soon!

-Doug

Friday, August 14, 2009

About Last Night...

Hi everyone,

The original purpose of this blog was to keep everyone involved and informed as The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films took shape. In that spirit, I figure it's only fair that I should report triumphs and frustrations alike.

As you know, we've been dealing with the legal end of publishing during the past couple of weeks. It's been difficult. Extremely difficult, in fact. And, with the clock ticking away, we're still having problems. We seemed to have worked everything to a good spot until we experienced another cave-in late yesterday afternoon.

I cannot go into specifics right now, and I ask that you please avoid predictions and presumptions in the comments. (Not to be dictatorial, I just want to avoid any potentially negative thoughts at the moment.) I simply ask that, should you be so inclined, please spare a positive thought or two for us as we head in to Monday. That will be a big day for us, and a silent smile or two spread across the globe would help us more than I can tell you.

Thanks, everyone.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Starlog



Sci-fi stalwart Starlog brings us another look at the upcoming Radio City concerts... and another mention of the book! Read here.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Magpie's Message

Any followers of this blog who are attending the LOTR: FOTR Live concert at RCMH in NYC are welcome to join an informal, unofficial, off-the-board discussion where we hope to arrange meet ups and handle other matters of importance and nonsense. For more information, email Magpie at a.magpies.nest@gmail.com

EW



Entertainment Weekly has a brief piece on the Radio City concerts in their August 11 PopWatch section. Read here. I'm voting NO on the shenanigans, for what it's worth. :)

Special thanks to whoever mentioned the book/blog in the comments section!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Pentatonic Posting

I'm very close to being able to come up for air now... I think! I'm hoping I'm about to enjoy my decent night's sleep in over a week. I've even been allowed to introduce a bit of recreational web browsing into tonight's schedule, and was lead to the following website/video. Those of you with musical inclinations already know that the Shire theme is based around a five-note, or pentatonic scale. Bobby McFerrin's experiment below would seem to suggest that our brains are either hardwired or sociologically conditioned to be attracted to such scales.



Interesting stuff, this! And if you find it flying over your head a bit, don't worry, the book will help explain things. There I got my plug in as well!

Back soon, I promise. The stressful legalities of the past few days will, I sincerely hope, soon be a thing of the past. I, for one, am very ready to put this time behind me, and to refocus on more musical concerns!


Thursday, August 6, 2009

Double, Double...

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates. We're still toiling away here making sure "i"s are dotted and "t"s crossed.

I'm promise to tend to blogging and emailing very soon!

Monday, August 3, 2009

ROTK Live Now On Sale

Tickets for Lucerne's world premiere performance of The Return of the King: Live to Projection have recently gone on sale on Art Production's site. Order away!

Once again, I'm planning to attend -- book in tow, finally! And who knows, with my newly relaxed schedule (relatively speaking) I may actually stay healthy enough to make it this time... knock on wood!

Penultimate Magnet



Here it is, the next-to-last time you'll see a single magnet for sale. FILMS will debut in September, and the whole set will be up for sale in October to celebrate the book's release.

Where does the time go!?

Click here to acquire.


Saturday, August 1, 2009

Ongoing Discussion Thread [August, 2009]

I freely admit it, I'm feeling a little glum today.

Last night I was soaring. The book was done, it came out beautifully, we made it! But I woke up today, and for the first time in nearly a decade, was no longer someone writing a book. I was someone who wrote a book. I know the technicalities of printing schedules and release dates call the accuracy of that statement into question, but I'm sure you get the point. The former is vital, so full of potential. The latter, a done deed.

Maybe I don't desire legacy. I'm designed to crave the embroilment and creativity of a project en media res. Crazy as it sounds, I like to finally set my head on the pillow at 4:00 a.m. knowing that 30 minutes later I may be awakened by a panicked phone call regarding a misplaced comma. I like the frantic searches through conductor's scores when I really should be leaving for the airport. I relish loudly looping a 27 second clip of music, racing to properly describe the harmonic implications before the neighbors stave in the wall and force me to stop.

Now I'm mourning my newfound freedom.

As I've mentioned before, I'm a musician by trade. That's really how I think of myself. Writing has been like another instrument for me -- a form of musical expression. The research is my practice room. The words, the images, the literary structures -- these are all notes and phrases. I came to this book for musical purposes. I wanted to see if I could elevate the existing discourse. I must admit, I was a little mercenary in my approach. I adored Tolkien, of course, but I approached The Lord of the Rings largely as a vehicle. It was my battering ram -- my way of cracking open up a certain musical world. That eventually changed when I realized that in discussing a piece of art, you could also create a work of art. The book became infused with the sprit of its subject, much to its betterment.

But now it feels positively odd to be eyeing non-Tolkien projects. Even though my publishers are submitting some remarkable musical collaborations, once you plant your flag in Middle-earth, it's always your home. It claims you. Of course, it's probable that I'll venture away from that home at some point. I suppose I really have to, right? I mean, my proclivity for embroilment is hardly addressed if I only write one book.

I think Howard Shore feels much the same way -- though I certainly don't pretend to speak for him on the matter. To the public-at-large, Howard will always be the composer of The Lord of the Rings. But he didn't come to that post until his mid 50s, and he has an immense and varied body of work that predates LOTR. Likewise, he's continued to create ingenious works in the 6 years that have passed since the series closed. But he loves the world of Middle-earth dearly, and it takes almost no provocation at all to set him musing about Tolkien's world. He's a composer first, and always will be. He will forever look upon all his musical children with equal love and familiarity, but there's just something about Middle-earth...

I guess that comes down to "legacy" versus "vitality," too. In order to create, we must move forward. Progress doesn't equal abandonment, per se, but it does require us to divert our focus. Or at least widen our gazes. That can be a difficult transition.

These heady thoughts and their brethren seized and wracked my head around 9:45 this morning. I was lost in a cloud through most of the afternoon, my mood moored to the bleak grey skies above. About 3:30 the phone rang: "Hi Doug, it's me!" Howard was calling to offer his congratulations... and to chat, since so much of our contact in the past weeks has been business-based. Inevitably our conversation turned to the future -- to The Hobbit, which he spoke about in surprising detail, since things are finally beginning to solidify on the production. "Are you ready to do this again?" he asked. I don't know if my response was much smoother than it was 8 years ago when we first spoke about collaborating on LOTR. Literally, I don't know. I never remember what I say in situations like this. Clearly, I made some sort of affirmative utterance, because pretty soon we were off planning how we could do this one differently. How can we get started earlier? Can we establish a regular schedule from day one? Can I attend the sessions again?

My work on The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films has defined my creative life for many years. I began the work shortly after grad school, literally from my bedroom in my parents' house. As I've intimated, I may look at a non-Tolkien property before the heavy lifting on The Hobbit really sets in, but in many ways I feel like I'm not going to break stride at all. Middle-earth is going to continue to be my creative home -- our creative home -- for years to come.

That feels right to me, and I hope you agree.



The book is now in the printers' hands. I don't know when it actually hits the production floor, but the next time I see it, I'll be holding a physical book. I've promised myself that I won't look at the digital file again. Don't want to start second guessing myself at this point! Early next week, we'll finish the design on the Rarities CD art and envelope. And that will be it.

Actually, let me clarify. That will be it for the product. We will then enter a phase wherein I have to learn a whole new skill set. It's time to promote our creation. I'm already getting better versed in press releas-ese, but radio and t.v. are entirely different matters. If current plans hold, I'd better start studying up. Looks like a number of public appearances are going to be integrated as well. In the coming weeks, I'm going to add a request form to the blog. If you think your local book store or college class would benefit from a signing/lecture, we now have a way to make that happen.

The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films is an incredibly unique beast. It's a rare attempt at mass marketed musicology, but it's also the first time a film score has been examined in this way. If we'd come out the gate with The Music of Manos: The Hands of Fate, we may have been neatly tucked under the rug and ignored. But this is Tolkien, and people are starting to pay attention. The initial feeling is that maybe we've got something special on our hands, and maybe, just maybe, we can connect with a wide audience in a very big way. Maybe this goes beyond the standard niches. Or maybe in my eager naiveté, I'm far too ready to chomp down on a heaping spoonful of deluded, self-generated hype and don't realize it! Just after Fellowship hit theaters, one of its creators confided in me, "You never know whether you've got Star Wars, or whether you've got Dune." So I followed their model and put my nose down, threw my soul into the work, and hoped for the best.

Pretty soon, you'll let me know what we've got. Be gentle, ok?

In the meantime, we have a few more pre-Radio City magnets to distribute. [See here.] And blog updates should continue regularly, since we'll have plenty to talk about. The road goes ever... well, you get the idea.

See you on the boards!

-Doug
 
Image copyrights and trademarks are held by their respective owners and their use is allowed under the fair use clause of the Copyright Law | Original Blog Content Copyright 2007 - 2012 Middle D, Inc. | Original Blog Template by www.blogerthemes.net