The fundamental successes Williams achieved in Harry Potter can be recognised in Howard Shore's epic score for the Lord of the Rings trilogy but Shore achieves it on a far grander scale. He captures the majesty and the opulence of Tolkien's universe in a comprising score that brings together and represents the culture and personalities of the characters that populate this world. He does it with such a natural understanding of Tolkien's lore that his music flows across Middle Earth, from 'Concerning Hobbits to 'Rohan's Fanfare', and picks up on the diverse music of its people like one could in our own world. The score predominantly serves to draw the film's extensive narrative together, inconspicuously conglomerating the arcs of its characters through shared elements of their musical themes. Frodo and Aragorn, Gollum and The Ring, Gandalf and Sauraman are all connected narratively but also through the subtle similarities in the score that further encourage the audience's awareness of the these relationships. It achieves an auditory context to the narrative that is not always present in film scores and is tantamount to the precise detail Shore devoted to the project. The sheer scale of Shore's undertaking is not to be overlooked either. Where many composers spend about a month on a major motion picture, Shore committed a year to each instalment and the dedication to his craft is obvious. There are few moments across the entire trilogy when Shore's score is not present, and with nearly nine hours of running-time, his stamina in producing an entire soundtrack that at no point grows stale, is nothing short of masterful.
