Here we have over 10 minutes of lovely motifs bound together. At this point when watching RotK, I usually get a little distracted because I know that the film will end soon. We've been following a 11-hour-long story that began already in year 2001 (What! It's been over four years since FotR came into theatres), and it's quite sad, really, that this is the beginning of the last 20 minutes, or so. It's also the beginning of the many "endings" of RotK - you know, the film could have ended in Minas Tirith turning into a map, the Hobbits returning to the Shire, the last ship to Valinor setting off... Maybe it's a subtle way to remind the viewers that it's soon time to return to RL from Middle-earth. Heh, kind of when your alarm clock goes off in the morning and you don't want to wake up, you hit "snooze" and get to continue sleeping yet for a while before you really have to get up.
This can be heard in the score, too. Although the rest of the film is full of happy moments like the reunion of the Fellowship, the coronation and Sam and Rosie's wedding, we don't see or hear that kind of a spirited joy that we saw at Bilbo's birthday party, for example, but this is much more serene happines that is mixed with melancholy.
We hear Renée Fleming's last solo of Arwen, and as
Kitanna said, this is the same theme we heard when we first saw Arwen at Troll Shaw. The lyrics are exactly the same and Arwen's part in this story ends to the same words that it began with. We will not see her again.
One of the most interesting things on this track is that it's not the Tin Whistle anymore that plays the theme when the Hobbits return to the Shire, but the flute. The Hobbits have changed quite a bit and using another instrument here is a nice way to show that.
Here's what Howard Shore tells about Viggo Mortensen's solo:
"He sang it when they filmed it and I created a piece to accompany it. Viggo created the melody. This is when Aragorn sings acapella for a few bars and then chorus enters to join him in accompaniment."
So, like Billy Boyd, Viggo got to compose his own solo, too. Great job, I say. The solo is very nice, but he sings it so softly that it's hard to tell whether he's singing it for the people who are gathered to his coronation or if he's singing it to himself.