The Music of the Lord of the Rings

http://themusicofthelordoftheringsfilms.blogspot.com

Here's another source of musical inspiration: The Lord of the Rings Scores. Both the music itself & people talking about the music from a theoretical & experiental viewpoint. This blog in particular has some really great interviews with Howard Shore & Douglas Adams (who's written a soon-to-be-published book about the music of the films). Film music has always been something I've been into (since I discovered it) & it often receives very little substantive/informative press, so this is really great to read. Particularly, it's inspiring since the music is so large-scale and so classically-influenced. (It also means I'm really going to have to start exploring Wagner & the rest of Opera soon ... this is going to be a very big journey!).

Howard Shore talks a lot about his musical development & the fact that he'd been composing music since he was ten (I find that to be so cool!) & what he was influenced by & stuff like that ... go check out the interview transcripts ...