One of Tolkien’s main aims in Lord of the Rings seems to have been to build a world both in and outside of time: it comments on many human histories from the ahistorical vantage point of myth. Howard Shore achieves a similar balancing act in his colossal body of work for the early-2000’s film trilogy. His score synthesizes many historical voices — golden neo-Romantic glow, Stravinskian drive, microtonal clusters — into a distinctive idiom. Even if it were a terrible score, it would be historic on its dimensions alone: 90 different musical themes across the three films, a 330-person armada of musicians, more than 13 hours of music. Fortunately, it doesn’t collapse under its own weight, most of all because of Shore’s skillful manipulation of his durable themes.