Featuring the music of Howard Shore, the soundtrack plays a key role in the highly anticipated film. In the liner notes for the soundtrack, Jackson writes: "Howard Shore - what can I say? His music soars and enriches way beyond it's connection to our images. He truly has created an epic musical world of his own. A unique sound like no other. A year from now, we will be able to listen to well over 20 hours of musical storytelling that starts with An Unexpected Journey, and concludes with the Return of the King. That is Howard's genius - he is carefully shaping this 6 part epic score as a fully unified narrative. This is the second chapter." Along with Shore's music, the soundtrack features "I See Fire," an original song by Ed Sheeran, who had the opportunity to work with Jackson. "It was such an honor working with Peter Jackson on this song. Not only is he one of my favorite directors of my favorite films, the Hobbit was the first book I ever read as a child, so it means a lot that I get to produce music for the motion picture," Sheeran said in a press release. "I was allowed complete freedom to create what I thought was fitting for the film, which is very rare, and Peter, Fran and Philippa were always on hand to give notes and pointers."