I was listening to the RotK soundtrack the other day, and it occurred to me that there is one way in which a representation of the book on film might, in some respects, convey more "magic" than the book itself. (Have you guessed?
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Unless you are an unfeasibly talented musician, I doubt that any of us imagines a score to accompany the words while we are reading the text. But, properly done, a film score can add greatly to the "magic" of the events being portrayed on film. And I think that Howard Shore acheived this "with bells on" throughout much of the trilogy. His Elven theme, for example, puts me directly in touch with that feeling of enchantment that I felt on first reading the book. For me, it stunningly evokes the sadness and the fading beauty of the Elves. It conveys sheer "Elvishness". And the score which accompanies the events at Sammath Naur is incredibly powerful, and serves to underline the gravity and the sheer significance of those events. There are, I think, many other examples of this too. I only have to listen to that overrriding theme which starts each film of the trilogy to feel a sense of marvel and wonder.
So here, I think, is one area, where the film does have an added ability to convey the "magic" over the books. Although I still feel that the books win out because, even though we might not have our own score running in our head while we read, the sense conveyed by the score is still there, I think, while we read. For me, it was Shore's genius which actualised that sense in musical form.