Howard Shore again supplies the musical complement to Peter Jackson's film work in this soundtrack for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. As with The Lord of the Rings films, the music is lush and richly orchestral -- with the occasional choir -- utilizing similarly pastoral themes for the hobbits and rhythmic, suspenseful ones for the threatening creatures and characters. Undoubtedly, some of these motifs will be heard in the soundtracks for the other two films in Jackson's Hobbit trilogy. The overall scope of
Shore's music isn't quite as sweeping and epic as that for The Lord of the Rings, perhaps a natural reflection of the smaller scale of Bilbo's adventures with the ring when compared to its fuller story as laid out in Lord of the Rings. Yet, it still has some grandeur and hits all the right emotional notes, lest you forget that this is an adventure story about the eternal struggle between the forces of dark and light. The requisite end credits song is by
Neil Finn of New Zealand's
Crowded House.