Projecting Tolkien's Musical Worlds: A Study of Musical Affect in Howard Shore's Soundtrack to Lord of the Rings (Book Review)

PROJECTING TOLKIEN'S MUSICAL WORLDS: A STUDY OF MUSICAL AFFECT IN HOWARD SHORE'S SOUNDTRACK TO LORD OF THE RINGS. By Matthew Young. Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag Dr. Muller, 2007. ISBN 978-3836424967. Softcover. 92pp. $54. 00. ROJECTING TOLKIEN'S MUSICAL WORLDS BEGAN AS Matthew Young's master's thesis in music theory at Bowling Green State University. He earned that degree, and the Bowling Green School of Music's award for Best Thesis of the Year, in 2007; he is now a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. I said that his book began as a thesis, but I should perhaps add that it has also ended as one. Young has taken no opportunity to update or expand what is, after all, quite a short monograph. Moreover, apart from the difference in title pages, the book as published by VDM Verlag Dr. Muller is identical to the original master's thesis, right down to its typographical and grammatical errors, margins, fonts, layout, page numbers--and the peculiar and conspicuous omission of the definite article in the title. It even opens with the same abstract, identifying Young's thesis advisor. Quite literally, this is Young's thesis published without a single change that I could find--other than the addition of a publisher and a hefty price tag!