This was great! All the emotions are so accessible, but so deep and true to the story also. Even my ten year old brother could tell what part of the story we were at by listening to a little bit.

Very good version of the story, great classical music, sounds like an movie soundtrack. Best of the music I've heard out there inspired by this masterpiece of a story. Thank you, Mr. Peters! God bless.

If you're into the the Lord of the Rings you probably know that there's a lot of 'fan' based music out there and while some of it is pretty good, the majority of it isn't. A lot times you get the epic 'rock n roll of the rings'style. (Gosh, I hate those!) I'm sorry but rock n roll and the Lord of the Rings do not match. Other times you get the cheesy 'fan fiction' ballads. (Annoying) And then every once in awhile you'll get a nice Celtic/Folk style piece which is pretty good but you never really hear anything too professional. I guess what I'm trying to say is that good fan music is usually few, far and in between. So where does 'Journey of the Ring' stand in the line of all this? Way up front. This CD is the most original, professional and enjoyable piece of fan music I've ever heard. Most of the time when you buy a CD there's usually only a few good tracks out of the whole bunch. But with 'Journey of the Ring' practically every track is memorable and moving and it does an outstanding job of taking the listener through the many locations and events of J.R.R. Tolkien's books. It really doesn't even sound like 'fan' music. It's more like the 'unofficial soundtrack to the books'. While it may have the structure and flavor of a soundtrack, it differs from a movie soundtrack in that there are no images to go with the music. Soundtracks have kind of a curse where the listener can't help but see in their mind the scene from the movie that fits the track. It is almost as if a soundtrack is incomplete because the movie half of it is missing. But in the case of 'Journey of the Ring' that curse does not exist because without pictures the listener must use his own imagination to put the music to the words of the books. Now one may try and compare this CD to Howard Shore's movie soundtracks but if you stop and think about it, how can you compare them? Howard Shore has his vision of the books, Jonathan Peters has his. Sure we may all think that no one can beat Howard Shore's Hobbit theme but I look at it as a fresh approach to the subject. A chance to re-enkindle the wonder which the books brought to us. And boy does it do it in a sweet way. I put this CD on my "must own" list of fan music and soundtracks. Congratulations to Mr. Peters for this outstanding achievement and I look forward to his future projects. This is one composer to keep your eye on.

This is not the first symphony to have been based on _The Lord of the Rings_; nor, I’m sure, will it be the last. _Journey of the Ring_’s distinction lies rather in its being the first orchestral score to emerge in the shadow of Howard Shore. The ubiquity of Shore’s film score makes it inevitable that a listener of Tolkien-inspired music in its wake – irrespective of a composer’s intent – will draw comparisons between the two works. In the case of Jonathan Peters, a perceptive listener may also ask to what degree his new symphony is engaged in a dialogue with (or counterpoint to) Shore’s opus. There are moments in _Journey_ that sound unmistakably “Shorean.” I’m not alleging imitation here; but the structure of Peters’ symphony seems to betray some influence of the films. For example, his tripartite division of the movements follows Peter Jackson’s sequence rather than Tolkien’s. A more apt comparison is Bill Brown and Jamie Christopherson’s orchestral score for the EA video game, _The Battle for Middle-earth_, which takes a few recognizable Shorean motifs and then weaves them into its own, independent composition. As orchestral Tolkienian works go, _Journey_ is much closer in spirit to Craig Russell’s Middle Earth suite than to de Meij, in that it presents a series of sound portraits rather than a traditional, four-part, symphonic progression. However, unlike Russell, who is almost exclusively character-centered, Peters opts for an event or scene-based narrative, following the well-trodden _cursus_ of the books from the Shire to the Grey Havens. Peters recorded his symphony without the luxury of live musicians, making judicious use instead of orchestral samples from the Vienna Symphonic Library. The result is generally quite pleasant. Sampling tends to sound more artificial the louder its source. Peters manages to overcome this handicap by and large, especially in his avoidance of bombastic overkill (a temptation Shore does not always resist). The result is a full, warm sound with depth and texture. You still have to suspend disbelief at times, but hey, that’s what fantasy is all about folks! It is difficult to gage whether a _Lord of the Rings_ virgin would be able to fully appreciate the development of each scene, since making sense of some of the tempo changes and shifts requires some knowledge of the books (or the movies). I myself preferred Peters’ more thematic pieces – like Lothlórien – which allow the listener more time to enjoy the moment than some of the action sequences. During the latter, I often found myself trying to keep up with the plot. Much more work for the listener, but a tribute to Peters’ musical storytelling. The Battle of the Pelennor Fields is articularly intricate in structure, capturing each moment of that prolonged combat, the fair and the foul. Overall, _Journey_ is worth a listen; or more likely several listens. Tolkien-Music.com says check it out. Reviewer: Chris Seeman