Stephen Gallagher said to be the composer for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

According to MovieScore Wire, they have recieved confirmation form Warner Brothers that Stephen Gallagher, composer and Emmy-winning sound and music editor for The Beatles: Get Back, will compose the score for the upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. This hadn’t yet been confirmed, but seeing as MovieScore Wire had previously confirmed Martin Phipps scoring Napoleon, and had the temerity of tagging Stephen in their tweet, it would seem to be legitimate. Previously, Alexandre Desplat’s name was briefly (and seemingly spuriously) rumoured for the project when his name popped-up in the film’s IMDb page for two days.^[1]Fellowship of Fans, ‘BREAKING: IMDB states that Academy Award Winner Alexandre Desplat will be the composer for Warner Brothers ‘The War of the Rohirrim’, Twitter, 1 June 2022.

Emmy-award winning composer Stephen Gallaghar, previously known for "Blunt the Knives" from The Hobbit, said to be the composer for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. https://t.co/CuADBordrl

— Fellowship of Fans (@FellowshipFans) February 5, 2023

Gallagher composed the score for the Christmas horror movie Puppet Killer (2021) and worked as music editor on Avatar: The Way of Water, Mortal Engines and The Hobbit, for which he also wrote “Blunt the Knives”, “Down, down, down in Goblintown” and “The Torture Song”, as well as working with Billy Boyd on “The Last Goodbye.” The War of the Rohirrim‘s executive producer, Philippa Boyens, previously said Gallagher’s a “wonderful composer himself.”^[2]The Songs of the Hobbit in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Appendices (Bluray). Warner Brothers, 2013. Also in the audio commentary, ibid.

His work on the songs features inventive orchestrations including, interestingly, using a fiddle and bowed-banjo in lieu of a Hardinfelle, the instrument used to score the Rohan scenes in The Two Towers. He also worked with Victoria Kelly, Billy Boyd and Howard Shore on orchestrating The Last Goodbye, ^[3]The Last Goodbye – Billy Boyd Behind the Scenes which could lead one to suspect either a reprisal of some of Shore’s musical material and/or (less plausibly) a possible collaboration with the veteran composer. Musicologist Doug Adams, an associate of  Shore’s, previously recalled Gallagher as a “wonderful composer” who reread The Music of The Lord of the Rings films ahead of working on The Hobbit. ^[4]TheOneRing, Hobbit An Unexpected Journey Music Commentary Watch Along, YouTube, 22 July 2022.

Gallagher joins a large number of veterans of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit productions to board The War of the Rohirrim, including Boyens (writer and co-producer), writer Phoebe Gittins (cameo appearance), Sir Richard Taylor and Weta Workshop (weapons, armour, creatures and models), John Howe and Alan Lee (conceptual design), Roisin Carty (dialogue coach), Carrolyn Blackwood (executive producer) and narrator Miranda Otto.

The War of the Rohirrim, directed by Kenji Kamiyama, is an anime adaptation of the story of Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox), set 250 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, and taken mainly from The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King: Appendix A: II – “The House of Eorl.” Written by Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, it is the latest Middle Earth adaptation to be distributed by Warner Brothers, and according to MovieScore Wire’s wording, is indeed still due in theaters in April 2024.

Credit for JNHFan2000 from John Williams Fans Network for alerting us to this exciting bit of news.