Scoring With ‘Power’

How composer Bear McCreary is expanding the sonic world of Middle-earth in Lord of the Rings

BY JOE LYNCH

FOR THOSE WORKING behind the scenes, Amazon’s sprawling fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is marked by a secrecy not unlike the clandestine creation of the titular gold bands in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world. “I would come [home] after working for 12 hours and my wife would go, ‘How’s it going?’ And I’d say, ‘The project is going OK,’ ” composer Bear McCreary recalls of the show’s first season, which aired in 2022. “My daughter was 7 at the time — she would [have gone] to school and said it. The secrecy was crazy.” The second season, which premieres Aug. 29 on Prime Video, was a similarly stealthy production. When woodwind and brass players gathered at London’s AIR Studios Lyndhurst (a deconsecrated Victorian church that producer George…

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Billboard (Digital) - 1 Issue, August 24, 2024

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