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?







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)