Of Returning Kings, Evil Rings, and Musical Things

So, how 'bout that Return of the King filmscore, anyway? It's probably a foregone conclusion that I would love it, but there is still a lot of surprising and wonderful stuff about the score as presented on the CD. Time for some random observations.

:: Each film's score opens similarly: a brief "setting of the mood" followed by a statement of the Ring Theme as the title The Lord of the Rings slowly fades in. Here the very first music heard is a sad waltz-like section; then the ring theme, and then some pastoral music that becomes a bit more spritely (shifting to duple time) before a solo fiddle again sounds the Ring motif. Then the music suddenly turns much darker with the Sauron theme heard while a more frantic motif sounds above it. (The Sauron motif, incidentally, is a variation of the Ring motif. Shore put so much thought into his themes for these scores!) Presumably this music accompanies a flashback to the scene where Smeagol and Deagol went fishing, Deagol found a pretty gold ring at the bottom of the pond, and Smeagol murdered Deagol for it.

In fact, there is a great deal of pastoral character to this CD, much more than one might expect for the ultimate chapter in the story. This is actually very appropriate, though, because Shore has a great deal of work to do. Tolkien's story in Return of the King isn't just a tale of war, but a tale of loss and of the End of the Third Age. "Many things are passing from Middle Earth", and thus it wouldn't be right for Shore to give upbeat, muscular epic music for much of the time (although there is quite a bit of that here).

:: The pastoral content of the score is also appropriate given that it is in this story that the Shire, long ignored by nearly every person of power in Middle Earth (save for a single gray-cloaked wizard), is to play the most central role in the War of the Ring.

:: Shore actually does a few bits of more "traditional" scoring here, with some thrilling material in "The White Tree" (a track which showcases Shore's brass writing) and in the "Shelob's Lair" track, which sounds to my ears almost Herrmann-like. Very cool. Also, there are places where the melodic progressions remind me of John Barry.

:: There are two major new motifs present on the CD: the theme for Gondor (which was actually heard during Boromir's speech at the Council of Elrond) and an elegiac, but hopeful, theme I'll call "Into the West", since it receives its fullest treatment during the song of the same title at the end (performed by Annie Lennox). Here again we see Shore weaving new themes out of more basic core material, for the Gondor theme is very similar in its intervals to the Rohan theme he introduced in The Two Towers. Two related themes, for the two kingdoms of Men. Very cool.

:: Film music fandom's reaction to Annie Lennox's performance of the last track seems mixed, but I like it immensely. This song really seems to capture the hope that the passengers of Cirdan's ship must feel. Lennox's voice might not feel right to some, but I found her an interesting choice. (I've been a big fan of Annie Lennox, though, since the very first time I heard "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", way back when I was in fifth grade.)

:: Oh, and that Lennox song ends with about two minutes of pure orchestral material that remind me of Wagner – the very end of The Ring or Tristan, perhaps.

Well, that's about all. I must admit that when I first heard that Howard Shore had been named as the composer for these films, I was a bit baffled, since he'd never done anything remotely like these epic fantasies before. Well, as far as I am concerned, he turned in a classic trilogy of scores. Bravo…and I'm sorry there won't be any more.