Howard Shore composed the musical scores for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Shore wrote the music for The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. His scores use recurring themes for places, peoples, objects, and ideas, including the Shire, the Fellowship, Mordor, and the One Ring. These musical leitmotifs help connect stories and characters across the trilogy.
The music earned Shore Academy Awards for Best Original Score for The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King. He also won Best Original Song for “Into the West,” performed by Annie Lennox, from the final film.
Shore later composed the scores for Jackson’s three Hobbit films, extending the musical language of Middle-earth. His work is often discussed alongside the films’ visual effects and production design as a major reason the fictional world feels unified across six movies.