THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

DISC 1

The film's Prologue plunges the audience into the world of Middle-earth and the plight of the One Ring in a standalone sequence establishing the enormous tale about to unfold. Shore's music acts as a prelude, introducing brief clips of the thematic material that will populate the score as the story progresses. Heard here for the first time are a choral rendering of the Elvish Lothlórien theme; Mordor's Skip Beat accompaniment, the Descending Third accompaniment, the Sauron/Evil of the Ring theme; the Ringwraith theme; the bitter Fall of Men motif; and even the fleeting shape of the Fellowship theme - all bristling and shuddering amongst the violent conflict on screen.

Most prominent in this sequence, however, is the History of the Ring, which makes its debut appearance following the opening Lothlórien clip. Throughout the Prologue, Shore highlights a single purpose of his History theme: "It's showing you how the Ring has traveled from hand to hand." Galadriel continues her narration, as again this History theme introduces the Ring to its new owners: Isildur, and then Gollum/Sméagol (skulking in his dank cave and accompanied by his Pity theme). The Nameless Fear passage plays under the Lady of the Galadhrim, for though it looks as if the Ring has receded from Middle-earth's everyday life, we well know that it shall again make its presence known. Sure enough, with another cor anglais statement of the History theme, the Ring passes to Bilbo Baggins of the Shire.    

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The story moves forward to the waning years of the Third Age of Middle-earth as we are introduced to the Shire. The short piece of music that ushers us into the hobbits' homeland was originally written for the theatrical cut of the film, but the early Shire scenes were shortened when the Prologue was lengthened, so Shore's introductory music went unheard until the DVD edit. "We had the piece and I'd almost finished orchestrating it," the composer recalls. "It didn't have much of the full Shire theme in it yet, because it was just showing the history of the Shire in a montage. Now, you actually hear the Rural Fiddle theme first, then the Pensive Setting theme developing from it." Here too, Shore begins to utilize his Celtic assortment of instruments, including bodhrán, fiddle, dulcimer, Celtic harp, musette, celesta, mandolin, and guitar.

Also introduced are the Two-Step Figure, the End Cap, the Hobbit Skip Beat, and a more developed statement of the Fellowship theme used under the film's title graphic.

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While Frodo reads beneath a shady tree, the whistle makes its first appearance, revealing the hobbits' serene internal life - a quality upon which Middle-earth will soon rely. "The whistle seemed right. It had a nice peaceful sound to it, simple and not too orchestral."

Gandalf's cart pulls up the road as the grey Wizard sings some of "The Road Goes Ever On" to himself. Though Shore provides orchestral support with a few glowing string chords, the melody comes from Fran Walsh and the lyric from J.R.R. Tolkien. As Gandalf and Frodo struggle to suppress their smiles, Shore's jocund Hobbit Outline figure begins. "Here Frodo is giving a little history," says the composer, "so I just paced it with the pizzicato Outline figure."

Back at Bag End, Bilbo, in a moment of paranoid tension, believes he's lost his beloved magic ring. Shore drums obsessively through building phrases of the Hobbit Skip Beat figure, but the trinket is found, and all is well in the Shire. The Outline and Two-Step figures bumptiously usher Frodo and Gandalf about town until the two reflect upon the Wizard's return. "He's looking at Frodo leaving and getting dreamy about it all, so you hear this bucolic setting - a slower version of the Shire," says Shore.

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Gandalf arrives at Bilbo's doorstep. "Here's the Shire theme without whistle," points out the composer. "It makes it seem a little more nostalgic with just the strings, like an older version of what you heard earlier for Frodo. It's a bit statelier - a little more elegant than with the whistle." Once the action moves inside Bag End, Shore plays up both the humorous and enigmatic airs of this little hobbit and the quest he will soon set into motion. "It's the expectation of the chord progressions, because you know you're in a new place and you're excited," he explains. Of course, yet another kind of experience is articulated in a passing glance at a rather familiar-looking map adorned with a dragon. Shore smiles, "It's just a little hint of mystery and intrigue."

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Bilbo's long expected party begins with diagetic music from Plan 9. "They've worked with Peter and Fran for years," explains Shore. "They're talented writers and had the right feel for it. It was nice that there was a difference between this music and what I was composing."

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In the midst of the excitement, Bilbo and Frodo share a thoughtful moment and an unspoken farewell while Shore introduces the first tender chords of the Shire theme's Hymn Setting and hints of A Hobbit's Understanding.

Enter Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin "Pippin" Took, the Shire's resident pair of youthful rapscallions. Shore presents the hobbits' characteristic open fourth and fifth intervals (derived from the Skip Beat and Outline Figure) around the orchestra's strings and winds. "I wanted to make it hobbity - but orchestrally hobbity! - so it didn't overpower, but add excitement," Shore describes. The phrases playfully pick up speed as an unexpected display of pyrotechnics disrupts Bilbo's soiree.

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After stammering his way through a birthday speech Bilbo dons the Ring, and Shore responds with a fluid ripple of open fourths and fifths in the woodwinds and celesta - a dark take on the hobbits' playfulness. Bilbo returns to Bag End, ready to make his way out of town when Gandalf intercepts him, questioning his intentions toward the Ring. As the Ring attempts to sway Bilbo, the chorus hums its parts of the Seduction of the Ring, exerting an influence over the simple hobbit, but unable to articulate the seductive message. The aged hobbit, however, is not completely immune to the Ring's beguiling prowess, and as he lets the word 'precious' slip over his lips, Shore weaves in phrases from the Pity of Gollum. "Bilbo's been just a bit corrupted," the composer admits, almost disappointingly.

Gandalf gathers a fraction of his power to remind the hobbit of the seriousness of his choice. Interestingly, Shore never uses a specific theme for Gandalf the Grey. "Gandalf is a mediator," he explains. "He's a facilitator. He's a character that moves the action and he's very fleeting. There isn't anything that's specifically tied to Gandalf the Grey because he's the one that moves between all the characters." As The Two Towers will illustrate, however, Gandalf the White is a very different character.

Bilbo decides to leave the Ring behind as Shore mixes a few last dissolving flute wisps of the Pity of Gollum into the Shire material. The hobbit departs, and leaves the Ring under Gandalf's watchful eye. Here Shore features the first bit of Mordor music heard in the Shire: Bilbo relinquishes the Ring, dropping it to the floor while Mordor's Descending Third ostinato appears, announcing the terrifying quest Bilbo has just set in motion. "You heard a little of this earlier in the Prologue," Shore reminds us, "so this is just a bit to hint at the power of this object. What is this thing? This little bit of darkness helps you remember the beginning of the film." Bilbo sets out on the road, and the gentle Shire theme wins out. "It's just in the strings with very little harmony. Just a little touch of this melody just as he leaves - the two old friends parting."

Still in Bag End, Gandalf's thoughts are ensnared by the Ring, but, perhaps prophetically, Frodo Baggins enters and breaks its grasp on the Wizard's mind. Gandalf gives the hobbit the Ring, still shaken, contemplating what secrets this tiny bauble may hide. "Now that Frodo's taken the Ring you hear the History of the Ring theme. He's physically touched it and is holding it in his hand, so it's passed from Bilbo to Frodo," Shore explains. The ethereal tune soon makes way for even more threatening writing.

The score darkens with bassoon picking up a five note portion of Gollum's Pity theme as Gandalf sets out to find the creature. These fragments are interrupted by the rhiata's first appearance: The Sauron/Evil of the Ring theme is introduced as Minas Morgul disgorges nine riders in black. The mixed chorus heard in the Prologue returns as well, their sacrilegious tone intact. "The singing is in Adûnaic for the Wraiths. It's the ancient speech of men because they were corrupted kings."

Back in the Shire a more common language and a more cheerful tone prevails. Merry and Pippin, thoroughly enjoying an evening at the Green Dragon (as well as the finest liquid refreshment the establishment can offer) sing Fran Walsh's boisterous tune, the "Drinking Song."

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After a clear rendition of the Shire music bids the hobbits goodnight, Shore turns to a shadowy bit of writing that includes some of the score's most unusual orchestrations. Alto flute creates a smoky air of mystery while a rubbed tam-tam and eight timpani (two players) spike the impending danger as Gandalf reveals the true nature of Bilbo's favorite trinket.

Gollum's Pity theme makes a particularly chilling entrance here under a lingering shot of Frodo awaiting Gandalf's reassurance that no one knows of the One Ring's Shire residence. The gnarled line reminds us, distressingly, that no such reassurance is forthcoming. The Threat of Mordor motif projects the dread that Wizard and hobbit feel.

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The bass drum strokes underpinning the first appearance of the Seduction of the Ring each coincide with a shot of Frodo's vest pocket, boring a palpable sense of danger into an otherwise innocuous image. These echoing impacts - marked in Shore's score as "low, distant disturbance" - underpin the first hummed setting of the Seduction of the Ring. (Here again, the One Ring struggles to articulate its seductive message to the less corruptible hobbits.)

After the first use of The Journey There, Shore presents material from two of the story's most significant themes. Reluctantly, Sam steps through a Shire cornfield and remarks that he's never before been this far away from home. "You're hearing a little bit of the piece from the end," remarks the composer. "It's the Hymn Setting, or 'In Dreams,' and it's the first time you hear it." Immediately following, Shore's music suggests that the Fellowship of the Ring has begun to form. Cor anglais and French horn announce a brave, but humble take on the Fellowship theme. "This is the first time you hear it because it's the two of them setting out together," the essence of the Fellowship.

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Plan 9 assembled "The Elvish Lament" for the Wood-elves whom Frodo and Sam spy departing Middle-earth. This text is adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Here again, Shore presents bits of the still-forming Fellowship theme. "When Gandalf rides we hear a dark take on the Fellowship theme - he's off on his own now. The hobbits have the cozy Fellowship, but he has this darkness because he's going into Isengard, and he knows there's serious business ahead."

Gandalf is met at the feet of Orthanc by a most undesirable host - the Threat of Mordor motif. Saruman has fallen under the shadow of Mordor. The orchestra sinks into its depths, painting the revelation in the duskiest instrumental tones available.

Saruman attacks Gandalf and the mixed chorus erupts with a portentous choral line. "It's Black Speech," Shore comments. "Certain sections just felt right for chorus - it was part of the palette. I had a 100-piece orchestra and 100 singers." Gandalf is flung atop the tower and the music concludes with timpani pounding out the first use of the Mordor Outline.

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While an unseen Farmer Maggot pursues the four newly-united Halflings, the score briskly churns with the light hobbit-specific sounds of the orchestra: suspended cymbal, high woodwinds and strings, celesta, etc. However, the quartet's makeshift escape route provides ineffective and leads them off the edge of a steep cliff, and directly into the path of the Black Riders. Low brass and strings enter at the bottom of the hill as the group is pelted with all manner of dispiriting Mordor material, orchestrated for the hollow tone of string harmonics and swelling chorus. Some sections of this music were mixed out of the film, as Shore explains. "Peter used more of the sound effects. He liked the quietness of this - the rider and the breathing."

Heard in this track is a rendition of the Wraith theme scored only for orchestral instruments and no chorus. It was decided that restraining the voices until the end of the piece would help build tension as the hobbits dashed through the woods.

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Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin reach Bree, accompanied by caliginous variations on their Skip Beat figure. Inside the Prancing Pony the group encounters a mysterious new ally, Strider, and his equally enigmatic musical theme, The Heroics of Aragorn, here stripped down to the slimmest lines of its early incarnation.

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Frodo slips on the One Ring, revealing his whereabouts to the Ringwraiths. Seeing what's just occurred, Strider pulls the hobbit aside to await the Wraith's arrival. Shore counts this building sequence, which presents a particularly forceful rendition of the Wraith's music (including the text, "The Revelation of the Ringwraiths"), among the film's most operatic. "I love that, when the music is all under the dialogue and it keeps dramatically moving the scene, it's so much like opera." A musical aftershock follows the Wraith's futile attack as Shore drops their signature line into the lowest rumbling tones of the orchestra.

After the riders depart, Strider and the hobbits leave Bree, setting out toward Rivendell. The Fellowship now numbers five members, so again the the theme rings out in an inchoate setting. "The Fellowship theme is a little fuller now," Shore notes. "It's the first time you're heard it filled out, but it's still pretty slow. It's not completely assembled, but it's getting closer because now Strider has joined them. The orchestration is fuller - you hear a little more of the brass. In earlier sections with Frodo and Sam you heard one French horn playing. Now there are three."

The journey is arduous, and while the hobbits' innately chipper natures buoy their spirits, Strider remains distracted, almost haunted by his thoughts. As he and the hobbits make camp at night, the Ranger sings "The Song of Lúthien" into the night. Here the a capella melody was composed and performed by Viggo Mortensen.

Elsewhere, weary Gandalf is trapped atop Orthanc, peering down at the destruction that surrounds him while Shore introduces the Evil Times motif from his collection of Ring Quest Themes.