The Lord of the Rings Online Audio Library
The Lord of the Rings Online Audio Library | ||||
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No album art | ||||
Chance Thomas | ||||
Released | June 10, 2008 | |||
Length | 2:48:12 | |||
Label | Turbine, Inc. | |||
Lotro Soundtrack Chronology | ||||
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The Lord of the Rings Online Audio Library is a soundtrack containing music from the Shadows of Angmar, composed by Chance Thomas. It was released on June 10, 2008 for free with the Turbine Download Manager, a program intended to be used as an installer and updater for Lotro. This release contained most of the tracks from the earlier Shadows of Angmar soundtrack as well as many more previously unreleased.
The track "Far Ahead the Road Has Gone" was the original main theme for Lotro, played on the character selection screen until 2012 when it was replaced by "Lotro Legacy" from the Riders of Rohan soundtrack.
Production and Release
For information on pieces produced by Chance Thomas, see the production section for the Shadows of Angmar soundtrack. In addition, most of the synthesized tracks in this release were created by Turbine's in-house composer, Stephen DiGregorio. DiGregorio would stay on at Turbine for many years, finally leaving in 2013 after the release of the Helm's Deep expansion.
This release contained one of the most famous pieces in Lotro, "Let Us Sing Together" which plays in the house of Tom Bombadil. Chance Thomas has said that this was one of the earliest pieces composed for the game, back when it was still named Middle Earth Online. Originally, Thomas intended this piece to be played as a sort of homecoming, used when Hobbit players crossed back into the Shire, coming home after their adventures. Lotro's audio director Geoff Scott decided it would be better in Tom Bombadil's house, and that's where it ended up in the final release.
"Down Down to Goblin-Town" uses a slowed-down version of the track of the same name from the 1977 animated "The Hobbit" movie soundtrack. Brad Spear's "Silent Hope" uses Chance Thomas' theme from "Hills of the Shire" as a basis for the track. Stephen DiGregorio's "Mirkwood," with the theme based on a harp piece by Chance Thomas heard in the Trollshaws, was used in the 2009 Siege of Mirkwood expansion. The main theme from the track was also used as a basis for the music written for the expansion, although Chance Thomas was not involved in that expansion.
This soundtrack included multiple pieces that are fragments of Chance Thomas' "Valor of Men Suite" written in 1999 or 2000. The tracks include "Hammerhand" and "the Pelennor." In addition, Brad Spear's "Men of the West" and Stephen DiGregorio's "Over Fen and Field" were based on the Valor of Men Suite.
The Audio Library had a much wider selection of music from Shadows of Angmar than the previous soundtrack release. When the Turbine Download Manager first entered beta on June 10, 2008, this soundtrack was the first thing you could download, for free. It continued to be available for the life of the Turbine Download Manager but in 2010 when it shut down the soundtrack was no longer available directly from Turbine. Fortunately it was uploaded to FilePlanet and for many years this was the main source for getting the album. In 2017 after around twenty-five thousand downloads the download was removed from FilePlanet. The album continued to be available on the PyLotro website for some time, but that link is not currently active.
Track Listing
Composers are listed with each track. If no composer is listed the composer is unknown. Track 49 contains the voice of Harry Chase as Gandalf.
- "All Other Lights" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 3:44
- "Arvedui's Lament" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 4:16
- "Autumn Ale" (Geoff Scott) - 1:13
- "Baruk Khazad" - 0:43
- "Before the Storm" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 4:15
- "Bree-Land Jig" (Geoff Scott) - 1:59
- "The Brigand's Tale" (Geoff Scott) - 2:17
- "Courage of Men" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 2:09
- "The Creeping Gloom" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 3:39
- "The Crownless" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 4:24
- "Dark the Days" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 2:51
- "Deep They Delved Us" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 5:19
- "The Doom of Edhelion" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 2:02
- "Down Down to Goblin-town" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 4:18
- "The Dúnedain" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 2:54
- "East of the Sea" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 1:01
- "Elder Days" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 5:01
- "Far Ahead the Road Has Gone" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 2:19
- "Fell Deeds Awake" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 3:43
- "Fire and Blood" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 2:03
- "The Flammifer of Westernesse" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 4:28
- "Forsaken Paths" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 4:07
- "Garth Agarwen" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 3:17
- "A Glimmer in the North" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 5:08
- "Guardians of the Wild" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 3:11
- "Hammerhand" (Chance Thomas) - 1:04
- "Happy Village" - 0:18
- "Hills of the Shire" (Chance Thomas) - 1:07
- "Home From the Hunt" (Geoff Scott) - 2:16
- "The Ice Bay" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 3:42
- "Journeys Long" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 3:07
- "Khazad Doom" - 1:03
- "Lament for Oakenshield" (Chance Thomas) - 2:25
- "Land of the Lossoth" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 4:16
- "The Last King" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 3:33
- "Lay of the Free Peoples" (Geoff Scott) - 1:53
- "Let Us Sing Together" (Chance Thomas) - 1:48
- "Lone-Lands" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 5:17
- "The Long Winter" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 3:24
- "Men of the West" (Brad Spear, theme by Chance Thomas) - 1:16
- "Mirkwood" (Stephen DiGregorio, theme by Chance Thomas) - 1:26
- "Oakenshield" - 1:39
- "Over Fen and Field" (Stephen DiGregorio, theme by Chance Thomas) - 1:03
- "The Pelennor" (Chance Thomas) - 1:44
- "Red Stones and Golden Leaves" (Chance Thomas) - 1:44
- "Ride of the Nazgûl" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 0:48
- "The Road to War" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 2:02
- "Ruins of Old" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 2:23
- "Shadows of Angmar" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 0:48
- "Shadows on the Snow" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 4:53
- "Silent Hope" (Brad Spear, theme by Chance Thomas) - 1:40
- "Skies of Grey" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 3:14
- "The Sleepless Cold" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 3:36
- "Stars and Glory" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 4:33
- "Things to Come" (Chance Thomas) - 3:39
- "Those Who Wander" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 4:16
- "Vale of Imladris" (Chance Thomas) - 3:03
- "Vaults of Stone" (Stephen DiGregorio) - 5:42
- "War Pipes" - 1:18
- "Where Will Wants Not" - 1:02
- "Wreck and Slaughter" (Brad Spear) - 1:19
Personnel
- Chance Thomas
- Brad Spear
- Stephen DiGregorio
- Utah Film Orchestra
- Salt Lake Choral Artists
- Harry Chase - Voice of Gandalf
- Geoff Scott - Audio Director, guitar
- Daron Bradford - Penny whistle, Irish whistle, recorder, tin whistle
- Andrew Scott - Highland pipes
- Gael Shults - Hammer dulcimer
- Aaron Ashton - Fiddle
- Janet Anderson - Fiddle
- Holly Gornick - English horn
- Jenny Jordan - Voice
- Dona Kay Flint - Music Contractor
- Daniel Greenberg - Creative Director
- Scott Cuthbertson - Creative Director
- Glen Neibur - Chief Recording Engineer
- Steve Lerud - Engineer
External Links
- SoundCloud playlist
- PyLotro album download (Wayback Machine)
- FilePlanet download page (Wayback Machine)