# The Music of Middle-earth > Companion app indexing leitmotifs from "Lord of the Rings" film scores. (iPhone/iPad app by Tizian Zeltner.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-music-of-middle-earth/id909933369 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Tizian Zeltner](https://appshunter.io/developer/909933372) - Category: Reference, Music - Price: Free - Rating: 3.20/5 from 15 App Store ratings · 20 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 17.6 · 27 MB - Languages: English - Released: 2014-08-25 - Data updated: 2026-06-01 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-music-of-middle-earth/id909933369/reviews.md ## What is The Music of Middle? The Music of Middle-earth is an unofficial companion app to index Howard Shore's music for the "Lord of the Rings" films. The score consists of more than 80 leitmotifs or themes that relate to specific characters, locations or cultures of Middle-earth. This app attempts to list occurrences of all themes throughout the soundtrack and provides an interactive way to listen to them: - Play sections that contain specific themes. - Go through all themes that are part of a single track. - Display currently playing theme(s) while listening to the full tracks. Important: None of the music is distributed as part of this application and all albums need to be acquired independently. The app includes information about the following albums: The "Original Soundtrack" (OST) albums released between 2001 and 2003. The "Complete Recordings" (CR) albums released between 2005 and 2007. The "Rarities Archive" album released 2010 together with 'The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films' by Doug Adams. If you own some of the albums, you can listen to the tracks and all indexed sections directly from the application in an interactive way. Additionally, when listening to a track, the currently playing themes are displayed. More information and a desktop version (macOS & Windows) are available at: https://musicofmiddleearth.com/ ## Key features - Index of 80+ leitmotifs - Interactive theme listening - Track-specific theme exploration - Display of currently playing themes - Supports OST, Complete Recordings, and Rarities Archive albums ## Recent user reviews (10 of 20) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-music-of-middle-earth/id909933369/reviews.md ### 5/5 — Brilliant for understanding the film score *2025-07-07, version 1.4.1* I love the music of the films and have Doug Adam’s book. But I find it difficult to identify all the themes and variations when listening to the score. This app (and the desktop version) have helped me really hear Howard Shore’s interpretation of Lord of the Rings for the first time. ### 5/5 — This is what I have wanted for a long time *2024-01-17* Great app ### 5/5 — Keeping the soundtrack in this app for free would be copyright *2023-10-07* All the low reviews for this app are from people who thought it would come with the LOTR soundtrack. That makes no sense, and the app would be taken down in months for massive copyright infringement. This app is exactly what I have been looking for. The sheer volume of organized themes is extremely impressive, and helps me study and understand the techniques Howard Shore used. I had been looking for maybe an Internet article that listed all the different themes, but this is even better; an app that links to your itunes and classifies and organizes all 80+ themes that represent different people, ideas, cultures and locations in Middle-Earth. One of the best things about this trilogy is the music, and the app lets me access and view all of it in a new lens. So stop acting like you expected the app to come with all of the Lord of the Rings music for free. ### 5/5 — Cool, useful little app *2021-05-18, version 1.4.1* This is a pretty useful little app for Lord of the Rings nerds, particularly for identifying where specific leitmotifs are located within Shore’s extensive scores. This must must have been painstaking work for the developer, so kudos. Added functionality of linking up to the soundtracks if you have them in your music library. Great app. ### 1/5 — Waste of time *2021-03-14, version 1.4.1* I probably should have read the description first but this app contains NO MUSIC. ### 1/5 — Tamamen kullanım dışı *2021-01-09, version 1.4.1* hiçbir şekilde açılmıyor. Müzik bulunamadı aplikasyon müzik uygulamasından ayrı kalmalı gibi değişik ve saçma hatalar var anlam veremedim düzeltilirse sevinirim. ### 4/5 — Great app, overall *2019-07-17* There seems to be confusion among ppl who previously downloaded this app. It does not give you the soundtracks. Rather, if you already have them on iTunes it links to them. It’s generally a great app. The albums it links to are: the “Original Soundtrack,” the “Complete Recording,” and the “Rarities Archive.” This last one doesn’t come up on my iTunes and I’ve never heard if it. I think there are a couple mistakes, like under the theme for “Rohan Fanfare,” the piece under the track “Uruk-Hai” is, I think, the theme for the Fellowship, not for Rohan. But I may be wrong. ### 5/5 — Very Useful *2019-05-26, version 1.4.1* This FREE app is indispensable when studying the various musical themes and motifs as composed by Howard Shore, especially when studying the The Music of Lord of the Rings book by Doug Jones. ### 5/5 — Haters don’t understand. *2019-04-14* The people who said this app is “pointless” clearly just don’t understand its point at all. This app does not come with full movie soundtracks (as that would be pirating) but rather groups them thematically in a very well-considered manner. You can either just use the app to find a song’s name and look it up or if the albums are purchased on iTunes, the app can play them directly. I use this app for Dungeons and Dragons. I like to play to music and this app is super helpful in finding which parts of which songs of which movie’s score will fit best with the vibe I’m looking for. For example, if my heroes are adventuring through Dwarven ruins, I can open the app, scroll to the “Dwarf” section and find a number of songs from throughout the trilogy that are mostly used during scenes involving Dwarves. Then I simply type the title into YouTube or Spotify and listen away! Those who disliked the app are certainly allowed to do so, but I’ve given it 5 stars because it performs exactly as described in the App Store and would think that those people simply didn’t understand or had no use for its function. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t provide any use *2018-09-01* Short of a more detailed break down of scores, just buh the music, this doesn’t provide the songs ## Frequently asked questions about The Music of Middle ### What is The Music of Middle-earth? The Music of Middle-earth is an unofficial companion app designed to index and explore the musical leitmotifs from Howard Shore's scores for "The Lord of the Rings" films. It helps users discover where specific themes appear within the soundtracks. ### Does The Music of Middle-earth include the music itself? No, the application does not distribute any music. Users must acquire the "Lord of the Rings" film albums independently to listen to the tracks and use the app's interactive features. ### What albums does The Music of Middle-earth cover? The app includes information for the "Original Soundtrack" (OST) albums (2001-2003), the "Complete Recordings" (CR) albums (2005-2007), and the "Rarities Archive" album (2010). ### How does The Music of Middle-earth help me explore themes? You can play specific sections that contain particular themes, go through all themes within a single track, and see which themes are currently playing while listening to full tracks. ### What is the user rating for The Music of Middle-earth? The app has a rating of 3.2 stars based on 15 user ratings. ### Is The Music of Middle-earth available on Android? The app is currently supported on iPhone and iPad devices. ### When was The Music of Middle-earth last updated? The app was last updated on October 2nd, 2025, with version 2.0.1. ### What is the age rating for The Music of Middle-earth? The Music of Middle-earth has an age rating of 4+. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 2.0.1 — 2025-10-02 Update for iOS 26. ### 2.0 — 2025-08-02 All new version built from the ground up. New features: - Information about choral pieces and songs - Option to link the music directly from the Files app ### 1.4.1 — 2016-07-14 This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon. * Fix album selection issue More information and a desktop version available at: http://musicofmiddleearth.com/ ### 1.4 — 2015-06-17 + Album Selection: Choose which specific albums should be displayed. More information and a desktop version available at: http://musicofmiddleearth.com/ ### 1.3 — 2015-02-27 * "Original Soundtrack" albums added to the index * "Rarities Archive" album added to the index * Some general index changes * New icon and design More information and a desktop version available at: http://musicofmiddleearth.com/ ## Related topics [middle earth](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/middle-earth) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-01.*