The music for all of the "Lord of the Rings" films does an admirable job in regard to enhancing the films. The epic, fantasy atmosphere is evoked by the music, and the individual pieces or sections fit the scenes extremely well, from the friendly, pastoral peace of the Shire, to the skulking trickery of Gollum, to the dread doom and gloom of Mordor. The score for "The Fellowship of the Ring" accomplishes the enhancement task admirably. There are definite trends in the music, starting with lightheartedness, a touch of melancholy, then sudden danger and terror, moving on to constant toil and risk, and ending with dread and resignation; all fit the story perfectly. That's where the score gets the "5 stars" I mentioned in the title.
How well does the music stand alone? It is technically well-done, and it is imbued with that ethereal feel of fantasy mixed with a sense of grandeur that makes it reminiscent of Wagner, but it just does not stand out as original or distinctive for me, although it is striking. Hence the "4 stars" of this review's title.
Finally, it is a surprise to me that, for a series of films that are truly well-done and memorable, I do not find the musical scores to be memorable. There are dozens of films that have musical scores I can clearly recall and hear in my imagination (e.g., "Jaws", "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", "Star Wars: A New Hope"), but this is not true for the scores of any of the "Lord of the Rings" films. When I watch the films, I enjoy the scores and feel they enhance their films, but that is all they do for me.
