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Saturday, July 12, 2025

Lord Of The Rings: How Music Elevates Story

Image result for Lord Of The Rings: How Music Elevates Story



Lead in:


Listen to the Fellowship theme from the film The Lord of the Rings.

Listen from 2:48 - 3:31

The Fellowship Theme

What instruments / sounds can you hear?

Which is the most prominent?

Which are the most subtle?

What's the tempo?

What's the mood?





After listening:


Can you hum the theme?





Other questions:

1. What are minor and major keys in music?

2. What is a theme in music? What kind of music has themes?

3. What is harmony in music? How can harmony augment a melody?

4. What is a time signature?

5. What is a score?

6. How can music influence your mood?

7.How can it elevate your experience of a movie?


but not before

after

finally

Now

Now

as soon as

The next time

When

until the very end of

Immediately

time

eventual

until

As

before it

before


 

Before you see one single image in the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy you hear a chorus singing in a somewhat unsettling harmonic minor key over black. This is a musical theme that signals the Lothlorian Elfs. It's the theme of Galadriel, who's about to narrate the story of the One Ring in prologue, ___________ the Ring's own theme fades in with the first title.

Themes

____________the prologue ends and an e flat minor chord shifts to an E flat major, the narration shifts also, from Galadriel to Bilbo, and the mood changes. The lighter "Shire Theme" is introduced as Bilbo places us there on a map, and finally _________ he places us in time. The "Fellowship" theme plays in full statement as its corresponding subtitle fades in, bracketing the opening of the film.

Light Motifs

___________, if this masterful interplay of themes isn't enough to prove to you already that composer Howard Shore is a genius, that's okay. There's a lot more to say. The first thing is that these four themes that I've mentioned are actually what's called Leitmotifs - an operatic technique popularized by Richard Wagner, that fuses musical themes with specific people, events, or places to aid, and in some cases, augment the dramatic development of a story.

In order to show how Shore develops his Leitmotifs, I'm going to isolate one: the "Fellowship" theme, which has the most variations and focus on its development in the "Fellowship of the Ring."

Now, ___________ the "Fellowship" theme can come together in its full heroic glory, Shore builds it up with a few variations. The first time we hear it after the title is __________ Frodo and Sam leave the Shire on the road to Rivendell. Shore presents a small snippet of the "Shire" theme as foreshadowing of that theme's final variation at the end of the film and then transitions into a humble statement of the "Fellowship" theme, using just French horn and cor anglais.

Variations

This is almost _____________ contrasted with another, darker variation as Gandalf rides into Isengard to take counsel with Saruman. Shore adds crashing cymbals and plays the theme off Gandalf's galloping horse, and this tense variation prefigures Saruman's eventual betrayal, and the two versions playing off each other anticipate the ___________ fracturing of the fellowship later in the film.

____________ we hear the theme, Frodo and the hobbits have accepted Strider (or Aragorn) as their temporary leader. The Fellowship is growing so the brass section is growing too. We started with one French horn, now we have three. But the stately melody of this theme is upset with the timpani drumbeat that adds urgency.

The Fellowship

The fellowship Leitmotif doesn't appear again until after Frodo has been stabbed by the Ringwraiths. As Arwen races to get him to Rivendell the fellowship theme mixes with a Wraith Theme threatening to overtake it. The fellowship might dissolve _________ even has a chance to fully form.

At the middle of the film, the fellowship ___________ comes together and Shore echoes that by presenting a string of three "Fellowship" theme statements in their full orchestration and full glory. First, as Elrond announces the fellowship.

And third as the fellowship strides heroically away on their quest. But the second one is the most interesting to me, just as the Fellowship is about to depart Shore softly teases the "Shire" theme before it is overpowered by the "Fellowship" theme, suggesting that the hobbits priorities have shifted and they __________ have to live with the consequences of that.

And it ends with the unique harmony on the second half of the full statement, as if to sow a seed of doubt right into the middle of the team as it comes together.

We're going to get another exciting full statement in the Mines of Moria, the only ___________ that the nine members of the fellowship will be in action together. But the 3/4 time signature of the Fellowship is quickly swallowed up by the 5/4 time signature of the orcs. And from now on, after Gandalf is lost, the "Fellowship" theme will only appear in fragmented form _____________  the trilogy.

For example, after what's left of the fellowship departs Lothlorien, the theme can only muster violins and cor anglais, and Shore has this already weak variation trampled on ____________it starts.

Then as they rest on the shore, the Leitmotif can't find its footing. It wanders away from its full expression as uncertainty and suspicion creep in. These insecure variations on the theme herald the breaking of the fellowship.

First with the death of Boromir, then with the departure of Frodo and Sam. In fact Shore links these two moments with a severely deflated, but poignant rendition of the Leitmotif that fades into silence.

Conclusion

Like the fellowship itself, the "Fellowship" theme builds to its full formation and then is deconstructed ___________ it's only a shell of its former self. Shore does this with instrumentation, with tempo, and with harmony, and he does it for several other Leitmotifs in the trilogy, weaving them back and forth and through one another so that the result is a complex web that entwines with the story.

I think that we hardly grasp the importance of music in film. It's an invisible layer of pure emotion that guides us, or challenges us, or guides or challenges the drama itself. In the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Howard Shore gave us perhaps the most complete and complex exploration of Leitmotifs in the history of cinema.

And the result is a score that's as alive as the world Tolkien gave us.





How Music Elevates Story


0:00 - 2:00

1. What is the first theme you hear in the film? Is it in a minor or major key?

2. Is the Shire theme in a major or minor key?

3. What is the fourth theme you hear in the introduction?

4. What two things can leitmotifs do in films and operas?

__________ / __________


2:00 - 2:51

Why focus on the fellowship theme?

How does the speaker contrast the two early versions of the fellowship theme?

foreshadowing
prefigure
anticipate

What does playing the humble and darker versions of the fellowship theme prefigure in the story?


2:50 - 3:30

1. What does the timpani drum add to the theme?

2. Which theme tries to overtake the fellowship theme? Why?


3:30 - 4:35

1. How many times is the fellowship theme played in the middle of the film?

2. Why do we hear the Shire theme softly the second time?

3. Why does the composer introduce an unusual layer of harmony in this moment in the film?


4:35 - 5:55

1. Where else do we hear a full statement of the theme? What happens to it?

2. What happens to it after that?

3. In what order do we hear these words?



____ find its footing
____wanders away
____ insecure
____herald
____muster
____deflated
____poignant
____trampled on
____departure






5:55 - end

1. In what sense is the Fellowship theme like the fellowship itself?

2. The fellowship becomes "a shell of its former self". What does the expression mean?




Discussion:

1. Were you surprised by how much thought has gone into the score of this film?

2. Do you think this kind of deeply thought out musical development makes a real difference to your experience of the film?

3. How can something we barely notice, like complexly interwoven music development in a film, have any influence on us at all?

4. Do you rewatch movies you really love? How does your appreciation for them change?



Quizlet

Language review





Crossword



G1
2
3
C4
F5
S6
F7
8
9
10
11
12
W
13

Across
3. tread on, crush... (7)
5. Sometimes you can't find this. (7)
6. piece, morsel, fragment... (7)
9. Give a spoken or written account of. (7)
10. what cymbals do (5)
12. gulp down, consume, devour... (7)
13. it can be minor or major, or it can open something. (3)

Down
1. magnificence, splendour... (5)
2. A long or arduous search for something. (5)
4. Sometimes you have to live with these. (12)
7. breakage, splintering, splitting, separation... (8)
8. the way a horse runs (6)
11. What you do with a seed of doubt (3)


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