Track-by-Track: Soundtrack Discussion and Analysis

[Encaitare]

What I like about the FotR soundtrack are the location themes.

What I like about the RotK soundtrack is the encompassment of every emotion I have ever felt.

What I like about the TT soundtrack is the fact that it blends the two perfectly. We will later hear the Rohan theme (which, like ungoliant, I love to no end) and when the Rohirrim arrive at Helm's Deep, it's a wonderfully majestic version of the theme.

Just my random thoughts.

[The Tennis Ball Kid]

I don't really like May It Be....the coda with the Fellowship theme is nice though.


Foundations Of Stone, ahh, I love the way the music starts before the visuals do, and on further viewings it's like you already that you're zooming over mountains.

A reprise of the Gandalf v. Balrog music, but this time instead of etheral ooohs it goes to battle music! Booming brass, and violent choir as Angel and Demon wrestle within the depths of the earth! I love it!

And then the beautiful moment when the orchestra gives way and the choir is alone in the cavern with the lake and the falling star....


The Taming Of Smeagol, after a brief statement of the Shire theme to re-orient us after the fury of the last track we get a choral piece that isn't in the film, a nice melody that turns menacing (?with hints of Gollum's theme from Fellowship underneath the end?), some suspense music as Gollum's second theme plays as he stalks down the cliff. Then a rapid, dissonant piece as he attacks the Hobbits, then quiets again as they resume their trek to Mordor...

One interesting thing about the album is that, unlike FOTR, it's not in chronological order beyond these first two tracks. Shore used a lot of 'mini-suites' for TTT and ROTK.




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[Lathriel]

Since Encairtare will be back late tonight I have the honour of introducing the next track.

Track #3 The Riders of Rohan

It begins fast but then the melody slows down to make way for the Rohan theme. In this track the Rohan theme is first played by the brass,then the violins and lastly by the Hardinger. The Hardinger is a scandinavian fiddle and it has extra strings that vibrate to give the fiddle's unique sound.

The Rohan theme is central to the second movie and it also happens to be my mom's favourite theme of all the soundtracks. The theme certainly fits the moment in the movie and it gives you a feeling of being swept into ME if you aren't there already.

I myself really like the fact that a folk instrument is used for the theme instead of a more common instrument.

So how do you feel about this track? Is the Rohan theme your favourite?

[Aiwendil]

The theme for the Rohirrim might just be my favorite theme from the movies as well. The success of the theme at evoking the character of the Rohirrim continues to astonish me. In particular, something about the tone color of the hardinger instantly conjures up visions of the riders sweeping across the plains, at least for me. Part of what's so striking is, I think, the juxtaposition of the more rustic, perhaps more soloistic, tone color of the hardinger and the more familiar orchestra. My favorite moment is when the hardinger comes to the point where the brass ended the phrase, but instead of ending it leaps up over some climactic orchestral chords.

[Dûrbelethwen]

I too like the hardinger. It seemed to me that the sound is depressed state of Rohan in instrumental form.

[Encaitare]

I like the feeling of danger we have at the beginning of the track, since the Rohirrim first seem like they might be hostile towards our heroes.

All the music associated with Rohan is very beautiful, not just the theme played by the hardinger. The string theme at 1:42 is musically similar, and yet provides different images for me. This gentler theme seems to represent the practical side of Rohan, a place with strength that is being held under the surface. The theme the hardinger plays encompasses many other aspects of the society: majesty, beauty, honor. The melody does not sound happy, but it does sound driven and inspired.

The end bit of the track, if I'm not mistaken, is when Theoden has Grima thrown out of Meduseld. A bit jumpy, really. Grima doesn't really have enough of a part -- or even enough of a definite affiliation with anyone -- to have a full theme. The closest thing I can think of is the low brass like we hear in the Isengard theme.

[Anguirel]

I play this, and several other Rohan tracks, when writing battle scenes...

This is the first track, perhaps, which causes images to swell before the eye; I can see Eomer's eored speeding by; Eowyn in her white dress; the flag of the White Horse on the wind.

My only regret is that it feels too short and leads on to a piece of music I found as uninspiring as the scene it went with. All that unsubtle business with the corpse...

But that is later, and for the moment we are in Edoras, shorn of its glory but not of its romance. I love the point at about 2:24 when we are transported into the cramped, sorrowful, mourning of the golden hall; and the fiddle comes into its own here. But there's a beauty amid the tears; a feeling that hope is on the horizon. At about 3:36 the track feels like it's come to a slightly menacing end, but trickles on in a minor way, ever so slightly claustrophobic, smothering the chance of redemption we saw before.

Incidentally, I shuddered when Bernard Hill and others seemed to think that the Rohirrim were Celts. Was this a PJesque decision? The white horse motif and Norwegian fiddle would seem to hint otherwise.