Footage emerges of boy soprano recording breathtaking vocals for ‘Lord of the Rings’ score

22 August 2024, 13:22

Imagine being a fly on the wall for the original studio recording of The Lord of the Rings...

The Lord of the Rings soundtrack featured the pure vocals of a boy soprano, the unforgettably named, Ben Del Maestro (surely, he couldn’t have had any another career).

Footage has resurfaced on social media of the young singer, in a recording booth in the early 2000s, singing one of the franchise’s soaring vocal refrains – and it’s making everyone fall in love with Howard Shore’s epic score all over again.

The angelic line, which is sung in one of Tolkein’s many Middle Earth languages and features in the track ‘Minas Tirith’ in The Return of the King (2003), marries so perfectly with Peter Jackson’s cinematography.

As Gandalf rides in, sending out a divine ray of light to save the rangers from the dreaded Nazgûls on the road to Minas Tirith, a young voice cries: ‘Their race was over; all courage gone. A light shone in the west – The White Rider had come.’

Watch the clip below.

Read more: Orchestra’s symphonic ‘Lord of the Rings’ turns Royal Albert Hall into epic Middle Earth

Del Maestro’s voice is breathtakingly beautiful, lending itself poignantly to the moment of relief and rescue on screen.

Underneath his vocal, you can hear the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Voices and London Oratory School Schola – the orchestra and choirs deployed for all three films.

Howard Shore won three Academy Awards for his extraordinary music for The Lord of the Rings, as well as four Grammys and three Golden Globes. The Canadian composer’s soundtrack has topped many film music charts including the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame in 2023.

Del Maestro’s voice features throughout the franchise, in the tracks ‘The Last March of the Ents’ and ‘Théoden Rides Forth’ in second film The Two Towers (2002), and in two further songs, ‘For Frodo’ and ‘Osgiliath Invaded’ from the third film.

He also contributed the vocals on ‘Inner Universe’, the title track from the series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

The young singer hasn’t had any IMDb credits since 2003, and he seemingly stopped singing professionally after his voice broke as a teenager. But his early recordings have made many music and film fans very happy, over the years…