Variation 1: “The History of the Ring” (Adams, 2011)
This theme is extremely crucial to this movie as the entire plot-line orbits around it. Shore remarks that he “writes in a breathing sort of rhythm so it feels natural. It’s a human feeling” (Billboard, 2018).
The way the music for this tiny gadget is written, speaks a lot about the bigger meaning of the ring. Because this human-like nature is given to the ring-a small object-it indicates that it possesses powers as deep as influencing humans around it by its mere presence.
Harmonically, this theme is in minor mode, with the melody occurring on a raised fourth atop a minor triad. With the continuation of this melodic line, we face an area of harmony where two harmonic areas overlap; A minor and F minor. Moreover, when merging together the first nine notes of the melody, an A minor triad with augmented ninth results (Adams, 2011). First, we are presented with a murky chord, which then settles into a nice consonant chord and therefore, the music exactly translates what the ring is supposed to represent; maliciousness and lies.
Nevertheless, “The History of the Ring” is merely the commencement of the journey of the ring and is only the revival of it. This tune stays consistent in the first movie and starts to display notable moulding in The Two Towers, as the storyline intensifies. Another fact deserving mentioning is that this variation of the Ring’s theme intertwines with Gollum’s theme (Adams, 2011). This is because, in the film, Gollum’s past is very much interweaved with the Ring.
Variation 2: “The Evil of the Ring” (Adams, 2011)
This adaptation of The Ring theme is limited to four pitches and is employed in an Eastern-tinted harmonic way (Adams, 2011). This can be shown by the augmented second (moving from bar three to bar four). Besides, what provides this variation with an Eastern feel is the utilization of the North African double reed rhaita, “ A kind of oboe, a double reed horn with a flared bell” (Katz, Aykroyd and Landis, 2016). Later on in the story, this theme is also blended with “The Story of the Ring,” played in horns, trombones, and tuba. This application of darker instrumentation serves to amplify the rings growing cryptic powers. It suggests that now instead of the ring being something that may jeopardize everyone, it is definitely something that will put everyone in danger.
Variation 3: “The Seduction of the Ring” (Adams, 2011)
This version is presented by a chanting boys choir, punctuated by bass drum strokes (Adams, 2011) resulting in an alluring atmosphere, portraying the victim’s (possibly) fatal attraction to the ring. The chosen instrumentation of using boys to sing the theme brings a form of purity to the theme-something bewitching and raw-to lure people into the rings trap. This theme stays more or less consistent throughout the story and seldom remodels orchestration or notation (as, contrastingly, most other themes do). Additionally, when taking the second phrase of The Fellowship theme, it quotes the first three notes of The Seduction theme. This indicates that the ring with all its alluring dangers is connected to the people in the Fellowship, putting their collaboration in jeopardy. In terms of harmony, whilst this theme at first appears to have all the characteristics of a D minor harmonic line, it truly begins on the fourth degree of an A minor scale with the B natural concluding this (so it is a Bb against a suggested A minor harmony).
Towards the end of the story when the ring is destroyed, the Orcs are swallowed by the Middle-earth, Sauron’s eye is extinguished, the fourth age of the middle earth has begun, and Gondor is reborn, all the material from: “The History of the Ring,” “Evil Times” and “Seductions”, combine to create a harmonic plate to release the suffering and horror that has been brought upon everyone by the ring. In closing, this theme very much translates all the temptation and evil that the ring stands for. Throughout the movies, several characters refer to their desires and temptations to take the ring but are scared to be corrupted by it. This scary responsibility of the ring bearer, as well as how easy it is to get enchanted by the ring, is an ongoing theme throughout the movies. Through the boy’s choir singing the tune, this enchanted-ness is portrayed as something innocent and pure (as a child) and therefore serves to provide the ring with a sense of not being as dangerous as it is made out to be. Consequently, this theme greatly helps to add to the deceiving nature that the ring is supposed to reflect, and therefore aids to support the movie, as it is so central to the movies whole plot line.
Conclusion
In closing, throughout the LR franchise, Shore not only manages to consistently develop his music but also succeeds in sustaining continuity, providing deeper meanings of the story as a whole, as well as the journey of many individual characters. This is accomplished through his leitmotifs and the way in which they intermingle with each other, forming a complex web of musical themes to not only foreshadow events, moods, and outcomes of the story but most importantly assist the audience in subconsciously creating these connections, before they are given the visual evidence for it/event takes place in the movie. Through the music, this is done by employing several techniques through instrumentation, harmonic choices, textural devices and more. The way in which many of the themes overlap and connect, as for example the Fellowship theme with The One Ring theme at one point, helps to not only highlight connections to the audience but also create new connections that otherwise would not be made. Therefore, through this technique of not only having different themes for different purposes but intertwining those themes with one another, helps to elevate the story to a higher form and create deeper meanings to the audience’s subconscious. Overall, however, it is apparent that this is all reached by Shores exceptionally complex and highly organized approach to the technique of using leitmotivs and expanding on these, throughout the movies.
____
Works Cited (for all 4 posts combined)
Adams, D., Walsh, F. and Shore, H. (2011). The music of The Lord of the Rings films. Van Nuys: Alfred Music Publishing Company.
Bernhart, W. (1997). Word and Music Studies Defining the Field: Proceedings of the First
International Conference on Word and Music Studies at Graz, 1997. p.242.
Billboard. (2018). ‘Lord of the Rings’ Composer Howard Shore Talks Hobbits, His Start on ‘SNL’ and Working With Martin Scorsese. [online] Available at: http://www.billboard.com/articles/6304248/the-hobbit-howard-shore-the-battle-of-five-armies-score-lord-of-the-rings-music%5BAccessed 3 Apr. 2018].
Fleurant, G. (2018). Dancing Spirits: Rhythms and Rituals of Haitian Vodun, the Rada Rite. London: Greenwood Press, p.131.
Foster, R. (2003). The complete guide to Middle-earth. London: HarperCollins.
Judith Bernanke, “Howard Shore’s Ring Cycle: The Film Score and Operatic Strategy.” In Studying the Event Film: The Lord of the Rings. Ed. Harriet Elaine Margolis, Sean Cubitt, Barry King, and Thierry Jutel. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008), 176.
Katz, S., Aykroyd, D. and Landis, J. (2016). The Blues Brothers. [Solna]: Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Nordic.
Ling, J. (2007). A history of European folk music. Rochester, N.Y: University of Rochester Press.
Pushak, Evan. (2016). Lord Of The Rings: How Music Elevates Story. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7BkmF8CJpQ [Accessed 3 Apr. 2018].
Thsmusic.net. (2018). Torrington High School Music Department. [online] Available at: http://www.thsmusic.net/film-scoring [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018].
Vallely, F. (2011). Focus: Irish traditional music. Irish Studies Review, 19(2), pp.238-240.
Woodzie.org. (2018). Rohan. [online] Available at: http://www.woodzie.org/lotr/rohan.htm [Accessed 2 Apr. 2018].
Allegro media music 