Lord of the Rings Online Music Interview

14 June 2007

Developed by Turbine, Inc. (Asheron’s Call) and published by Midway Games Inc. The Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar (LOTRO) is the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” In development for over four years, LOTRO opens up the mystical world of Middle-earth and creates the opportunity for endless adventure. To match the epic ambition and stature of this long awaited release the game’s extensive soundtrack demanded the musical talents of several talented composers including HUGEsound’s Audio Director/Composer Chance Thomas, Turbine Entertainment’s Lead Composer Stephen DiGregorio, Turbine Entertainment Audio Director/Composer Geoff Scott, and freelance composer Brad Spear. M4G recently managed to round up two of the game’s composers, Brad Spear and Chance Thomas, to discuss their respective contributions and overall musical spectrum for the game’s soundtrack.

M4G: How does it feel to provide your musical aesthetics and audio expertise to a LOTR fantasy adventure?

Brad Spear: My involvement with the LOTR games goes back to 2001 with the first Fellowship of the Rings games for Xbox, PS2 and PC. I did the music, some sound design and music direction for those games. After that I did the music for The Treason of Isengard for Surreal/Vivendi-Universal. That game was never released so the music I did for it was passed on and used in other LOTR titles like The War of the Ring. It was a real disappointment when Treason of Isengard got shelved. Now that LOTRO is using so much of what I wrote and using it so prominently, I’m really happy and very proud to still be apart of the franchise.

Chance Thomas: To me, Lord of the Rings represents the absolute pinnacle of fantasy adventure. It is such a broad, deep and vibrant world. To be able to play in that world, to create music for that world – it’s pure enchantment.

M4G: There were several composers working on this game score. How were your roles defined?

Brad Spear: In this case, Turbine’s Audio Director Geoff Scott contacted me to let me know my music would was being used.

Chance Thomas: Turbine’s Audio Director Geoff Scott had the job of parsing out and coordinating everyone’s music contributions. But I can talk meaningfully about my own work on the game.

My initial role was to define how the music for each key culture in Middle-Earth should sound. Any resulting definition had to relate directly to the literature, based on Tolkien’s many references and inferences to music in his writings. It also had to be purely original, avoiding any approach to the New Line films’ music.

So I did lots of reading. I gathered, cross-referenced and eventually made sense out of hundreds of snippets of text relating to musical instruments, vocal quality, timbre, mood, emotion, and so on – as they related to the sounds, songs and music of each key culture in Middle-Earth. All of this information was then distilled and translated into concrete musical terms in a fairly ponderous document entitled, The Tolkien Music Style Guide.

With an authentic Style Guide in place, my next job was to create the live orchestral and choral music score for the game. We used a 65 piece orchestra and 24 voice choir, doubled, with some additional specialty instrument overlays. Some of the key people involved were music contractor Dona Kay Flint from LA East, creative directors Daniel Greenberg and Scott Cuthbertson, and our chief recording engineer Glen Neibur.

Next was a collection of smaller ensemble pieces to give the various territories some local color. For instance, for the Shire we recorded music with penny whistle, mandolin, hammer dulcimer, papoose and fiddle. For a Dwarven chamber, we recorded some music with cello, English horn, clarinet, Ttuba and wire strung harp. For an Elven palace, concert pedal harp, solo voice and flute. And so on. Standout performers include Daron Bradford on penny whistle, Irish whistle, recorder and tin whistle. Andrew “the flying Scott” on Highland pipes. Gael Shults on hammer dulcimer. Aaron Ashton and Janet Anderson on the fiddle. And our long suffering engineer Steve Lerud. Everyone was wonderful.

To really fill out the world, I went back to some of the best soloists we had contracted, and I recorded them playing literally hundreds of variations of key music themes. We got bass flute, concert pedal harp, English Horn, fiddle, and of course, solo voice. I’d like to mention Holly Gornick and Jenny Jordan, who respectively turned in some incredible tracks on English horn and voice. I sifted through and edited all of these recordings back at HUGEsound – probably a thousand tracks in all – and pulled out those that seemed most fitting for our virtual Middle-earth.

Toward the end of my involvement with the project, I finally contributed a handful of tracks produced with digital samples for the Dwarf and Elven territories. I hated to do it without live instruments, but the live budget was shot by then. Money. What can you do?

M4G: Did you provide any cinematic music or more in-game music for Middle-Earth?

Brad Spear: In addition to in-game use, Turbine used a lot of my music in the pre-release videos. I am already playing the game and was pleased to see that the very first, main cinematic that plays every time you start the game, opens with my music…very cool!

Chance Thomas: The music I contributed was multi-purposed. I think it was that way for everyone involved. I’ve heard both my music and Brad’s music during gameplay and also in some of the movies. I think Geoff took a lot of what he needed for the movies from our gameplay tracks.

M4G: How did this experience differ from your previous contributions with other game titles?

Chance Thomas: For starters, this is The Lord of the Rings!!!! I mean, c’mon, what’s better than that? I’m such a Tolkien geek. But to better answer your question, I’d have to say that in every title you are trying to capture the essence of its story, its heart, its I.P. You want to get inside that universe and then paint it with music in a way that fits like a glove for every project. But with this property, because the world is filled with millions of devoted fans who have all imagined Middle-Earth in their own special way, and because Tolkien was so completely thorough in his descriptions, I found myself constantly consulting the Tolkien Music Style Guide, to make sure the music being written not only had its own original flavor, but also did so strictly within the parameters of being truly reflective of Tolkien’s writings.

M4G: Did you have to go through Tolkien Enterprises for any kind of approvals or did Turbine have music autonomy?

Chance Thomas: The Tolkien Music Style Guide and all of my orchestral and choral music went through a strict approvals process with Tolkien Enterprises. Some of the small ensemble music I composed also went through this process. After that I was given more independence.

M4G: What kind of instrumentation was used in bringing Middle-Earth to life?

Brad Spear: Beyond what you would expect - orchestral instruments and some medieval and renaissance instrument - one of the fun things I did when working on really scary and dark for battle music, was I bought assorted links of chain from my local hardware store and recorded those being shaken and beaten against various pieces of scrap metal. Add the right reverb and some big Japanese Taiko drums and “ta-da”…music from the pits Khazad-dum!

Chance Thomas: In the early stages of development, each race, each culture had its own instrumental palette, including a list of appropriate solo instruments and a list of instruments to be emphasized within the orchestra. Each had it’s own vocal definitions as well. Home keys, harmonic signatures and even harmonies to be avoided were all laid out.

For example, here are a few of our instrumentation and harmonic notes for the Elves:

Emphasis within the orchestra – violins, flutes, woodwind choir accompaniment, pedal harp.

Emphasis in ensemble, accompaniment or solo instruments: Rivendell - gemshorn, oboe d’amour, lute and pedal harp. Lothlorien – viola di gamba, oboe, pedal harp. Mirkwood – recorder, piccolo, pedal harp.

Singing voices – Counter-tenor, tenor, boy soprano, light female soprano for melodies. Clear, pure melodic line may be underpinned with profoundly low and distant chanting.

Harmony – Tonic center for the Elves is the key of “A”. Harmonic signature is the augmented 5th suspension in either major or minor harmony. No use of the major 7th.

M4G: Tell us about your music background or influences through the years that brought you to this point, writing music for video games.

Brad Spear: Even though most all of my video game music has been symphonic in nature, I listen to and am influenced my just about every style of music there is: Symphonic, Film, Jazz, Blues, Rock, Bluegrass, Acid-Jazz, Triphop, Chill, Pop, Country. It doesn’t matter to me what the label is. If I like it…I like it and it all influences me and enables me to do all kinds of music projects…not just games.

Chance Thomas: I spent about 10 years performing live in rock bands, jazz clubs, cruise ships and ski resorts. I spent another 10 years writing music for commercials and industrial videos. And it’s been just over 10 years now that I’ve been writing music for video games.

The Lord of the Rings Online is now available for purchase at major retailers in both a Special and Standard Edition. The Special Edition of The Lord of the Rings Online includes the game on a single DVD, 30-days of free play, the official ‘Making of The Lord of the Rings Online’ DVD, and the official game soundtrack featuring music from the Shire, Rivendell, Bree, Thorin’s Hall and Angmar. For music samples click here. Also, look out for M4G’s review of the official soundtrack CD in the near future!

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