The Words and Magic of Music in The Rings of Power

 Everyone loves Bear McCreary's score to the Rings of Power. I’ll let you into a secret. Bear writes his music in code. Let me help you decode the soundtracks to The Rings of Power in this educational guide. Each character, place or idea in Bear’s scores has a recognisable melody or tune that sets it apart from all other characters and he has a pattern or blueprint that he uses for many of his themes. In interviews, Bear described how he sat down at the beginning and wrote all of the themes before he actually started to score the episodes. Part of this process was talking with the show runners about the trajectory of characters so that he could include at the inception those future ideas as musical developments. Each podcast I will examine one musical theme and discover what the music is telling about the character, the place or the idea. Some of these are mind-blowing. Join me in a journey through Bear’s score so you can better understand what is happening and get greater enjoyment from the show as this window gives you a glimpse into the hidden areas of the stories.