The Return of The Lord of the Rings

It's 20 years since the launch of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings so Matthew devotes the whole of this week's programme to one of the most ambitious of all film scores - Howard Shore's remarkable 10 hour Wagnerian epic. Matthew is joined by the musicologist Doug Adams who worked alongside the composer deconstructing some of the incredibly complex ingredients that constitute Shore's musical story-telling. It's a system based on Richard Wagner's leitmotif, where musical themes and statements are used to represent characters and ideas in the films. When these themes are combined and varied symphonically, they present a complete aural picture of the narrative to complement and enhance the story on the screen. Together, Matthew and Doug unpick some of the main musical ideas in Shore's score and reveal just how far-reaching the music for LOTR is.