THE MUSIC OF

THE RETURN OF THE KING

ANALYSIS

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DISC 1

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The Return of the King begins with an uncharacteristically gentle and bucolic tone. Oboe and strings introduce a purling waltz that soon sweeps a familiar melody to the fore. As it has twice before, the History of the Ring theme accompanies the on-screen title, and the final third of The Lord of the Rings begins.

But this is not the tumultuous Middle-earth of present day. This is Middle-earth centuries earlier, a land that has not known the burden of the One Ring for over two thousand years. Shore's music is bright - playful, even. Sprightly woodwinds and flute performed by Sir James Galway dance around two small hobbits fishing upon the Gladden River. This is hobbit music, but of a different breed. The lilting waltz gives way to two-step phrases, more characteristic of hobbit music, and a chipper variant on the Hobbits' Antics figure (introduced in The Two Towers) playfully builds until, with a twittering trill, it deposits one hobbit in the river's waters.

The music darkens for the first time, only to be parted by another of the hobbits' signature sounds, the solo fiddle. But the melody offers no playfulness, no buoyancy. Once again the History of the Ring sounds - the One Ring has lured another hand. Déagol pulls the Ring from the silt and scrambles up the riverbank to examine his find... and to find himself examined. The Seduction of the Ring sounds in the boys chorus as Déagol peels his fingers back, exposing the powerful ornament. Close behind, Sméagol, Déagol's fishing companion, spots the glinting Ring. If Déagol is intrigued, Sméagol is bewitched. The transfixing Seduction theme continues as Sméagol leans in close and demands, "Give us that, Déagol, my love."

Sméagol lurches towards the Ring, initiating a rhythmic stirring in the strings and low double reeds. Low brass chords now begin to gnaw at the texture as Déagol ducks away. The hobbits inexplicably cast their friendship aside as the two diminutive characters begin to wrestle tooth and nail for ownership of the Ring. Unrelenting, Sméagol's attack is met with a chilling musical counterpart - an intersection of the Seduction and Evil themes for the One Ring. This is to be an overriding trend in Howard Shore's score to The Return of the King. The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers illustrated, through the hobbits' eyes, the ever-expanding scope of Middle-earth, and the limitless extent to which the One Ring had affected it. But here, as the story draws towards its conclusion, that scope, that breadth of storytelling, has come to singularly focus upon the plight of the One Ring. Shore's diverse thematic catalogue begins to fold inwards, combining material as it reaches a common terminus.

Behind Sméagol and Déagol's conjoined Seduction and Evil themes another line forms, crawling and scratching along the orchestra's bottom. The Descending Third figure is but one of many ancillary lines associated with Mordor, yet to hear it here, so far from its home, associated with two simple characters who were, only moments ago, fishing upon a cool blue river, is cruelly upsetting.

But the angular music of Mordor is appropriate to this setting. Under the Ring's overwhelming influence, Sméagol murders Déagol. Pinched settings of the History theme mark a new hand bearing the Ring. A spindly oboe line descends, trickling down through the orchestra as Sméagol flees for the Misty Mountains and begins to change. Time passes as the History theme reemerges, encountering a new rising and falling line outlining minor harmonies upon its return. As Sméagol twists and withers we hear the earliest incarnations of The Pity of Gollum.

Back in the present day, Gollum leads Sam and Frodo on their voyage to Mordor. it is a wearying journey, but Frodo is restless, obsessed with the Ring he bears around his neck. As the trio camps on the outer borders of Osgiliath, Frodo furtively examines his precious Ring. Shore's score, still transforming back to modern times with a rising French horn line that hints at Ring music, pulls aside as violins reach up to form a cool, still reading of the History of the Ring. Gollum's scuffling breaks Frodo from his trance, and the score discards the History theme, leaving in its place that which it has wrought - the music of long-suffering hobbits.

The remainder of this composition abounds in the sounds of the Shire, but raggedly deconstructed, reformed as pained reminders. The solo clarinet of the hobbits' Pensive Setting wanders through dense minor harmonies, while gathering strings allude to the edges of the Journey There, the Ring Quest theme heard in Fellowship when Sam and Frodo first ventured past the Shire's landscape.

The defeated strains of the clarinet return once again. Sam tells Frodo he's rationed their food to properly provide for the journey home. Frodo pauses, pondering the likelihood of a return trip. But the strains of the fully-formed Journey There remind us that the hobbits have not yet even reached their destination. With this slow-rising theme, the trio sets back to the road.

Elsewhere another troupe is likewise traversing Middle-earth. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, accompanied by a compliment of Rohan's finest riders, make their way through the woods as the score's first statement of the Fellowship theme sings out. As the camera tilts back and The Return of the King title card appears, the theme shifts and French horn intones the opening of the Realm of Gondor, and de facto central theme of the third film.

But Gondor will have to wait, for once again the score shifts, now overtaken by the puckish sounds of hobbits. Clarinet jumps to its high tessitura where it is met by pizzicato strings and the tin whistle. It can be none other than Merry and Pippin, discovered assembling a feast from the wreckage of Isengard. Yet for all the music's playfulness, it seems to be suggesting something more profound. Merry and Pippin's whimsical tones are infused with something sterner. In mixing thematic bits from the Shire and Fellowship themes, Shore suggests that these two hobbits are about to lend themselves to Middle-earth's needs in a significantly more meaningful way.

Isengard's debris houses more than a hobbit-worthy banquet. Enshrouded at Orthanc's summit, Saruman and Gríma Wormtongue still lurk about. Saruman emerges to hurl taunts at Théoden and the Fellowship. The Isengard theme, which was once imbued with an overpowering militaristic weight, appears beneath string harmonics, now whisper-soft, but still in the darkest registers of the London Philharmonic's low woodwinds. A subtle pulsing in the strings adds a sense of urgency to the proceedings.

Saruman knows of the hobbits. His homeland is ruined, his minions defeated, but empowered by his servitude to Sauron, he is still strong. A static variation on the Threat of Mordor announces this cache of evil power from deep in the orchestra's throat. Saruman reveal his palantír to the crowd, maniacally grinning as aleatoric horns thicken the texture. With the conversation's power shifting to Saruman, brass again state the Isengard theme, now more robustly. Saruman knows, too, of Aragorn's right to Gondor's throne. Mocking him as a mere Ranger, French horns eviscerate the Gondor theme, swallowing it into their lowest, darkest possible register.

And Saruman knows of Rohan's weakened state and Théoden's personal doubts. Even after losing his staff to Gandalf, the evil wizard continues to predict the heroes' downfall. The orchestra reestablishes its dark pulsing as Théoden calls to Gríma, asking him to renounce his master and come down from Orthanc. Saruman belittles Wormtongue, knocking him to the ground. Incenced, Wormtongue produces a dagger from beneath his cloak. As he approaches Saruman, the orchestra convulses with a short statement of the Threat of Mordor in the lowest possible range - as if Mordor, foreseeing Gríma's next step, were suddenly recalling all power issued to Saruman on loan. Wormtongue plunges his blade through Saruman's back. The wizard's last air departs his body. With a clacking tumble of aleatoric brass and strings, Saruman falls from Orthanc and is impaled on a spiked wheel at the base of the tower, a victim of his own metal and wheels.

With a deepening series of minor chords beneath dissonant high strings, Saruman's spiked wheel turns, sinking his body into the flood waters, and causing his palantír to fall from his robe. Pippin spots the vile orb glowing beneath the murky waters and hurries over to retrieve it. Gandalf quickly confiscates the object, but Pippin is intrigued. The camera pushes in on his widening eyes as the orchestra condenses to an obsessivly enveloping D-natural.

The mode shifts to A minor and the rasp of the Hardanger fiddle sings the score's first statement of the Rohan Fanfare. The story returns to Edoras, the capital of Rohan. The Rohirrim are honoring the bravery displayed at Helm's Deep, and remembering their fallen comrades. Shore sets the Rohan theme in an elegant six beats per measure, lending it both a heroic lilt and a songful, elegaic quality.

Éowyn presents Aragorn with a drink, honoring him for his service to her people, and indicating her own feelings towards him. While Aragorn remains silent, Shore's music presents the longing Éowyn and Aragorn theme, the melody associated with her unrequited love. Though Éowyn's expression indicates that she believes Aragorn shares her romantic inclinations, the music informs us otherwise. Just as Théoden steps in, the incomplete Éowyn and Aragorn theme shifts ever so slightly, introducing English horn and a slightly different contour, becoming Éowyn and Théoden. Reading her face, Théoden congratulates Éowyn on what he assumes is a shared love.

Other corners of Meduseld, however, are experiencing far more light-hearted celebrations. Gimli and Legolas have agreed to compete against one another in a drinking contest. While Legolas is distantly intrigued, Gimli's interest borders on obsession. He is ready to take on the Elf on a contest he is certain to win. The music returns to Dwarf style for the last time in The Lord of the Rings. As Gimli ravenously gulps his ale, Shore's score bounces with excitement, the Dwarves' open fifth intervals rebuilt into something resembling the Hobbits' End Cap: the Dwarf End Cap. Constant modulation and a warbling cor anglais line place the Dwarf on unsteady footing as it quickly becomes clear that, despite his abiding love for drink, Gimli's constitution is no match for an Elf's. With a final dizzying trill, Gimli's head meets the floor of the Golden Hall at an uncomfortably high velocity.

Collaboratively penned by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and the members of Plan 9, "The Green Dragon" is Merry and Pippin's ode to their favorite Bywater pub. And though it's a moment of pure celebratory joyousness, the song contains a dark moment. Pippin pauses mid-song, distracted, as if lost in his memories of the palantír.

This song features fiddle accompaniment by Dermot Crehan, who performed all the prominent fiddle work in The Lord of the Rings.

As Frodo and Sam sleep en route to the Cross-roads, Gollum and Sméagol hold their final internal dialogue. Shore's Menace theme begins this composition, though it's soon intercepted by the opening triplets of the Pity of Gollum. Sméagol's transformation into Gollum illustrated the pity of the creature's servile devotion to the One Ring. The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers presented that needy creature in all his sadness. This was the Gollum represented by Shore's Pity theme. By The Return of the King, Gollum has made a choice. He has put aside the neediness, the vestigal traits of Sméagol, and has decided to kill Frodo and Sam in order to retrieve his precious Ring. Shore's Pity theme appears very little in this score, though its broiling, seething relative will dominate a later sequence. The cimbalom-based Menace of Gollum overtakes the creature's musical representation, vellicating with deadly intent. As Sméagol enthusiastically agrees to follow through with Gollum's plan to deliver the hobbits to "her," the Pity theme all but hands the reigns of this ravaged creature over to Menace.

Sam overhears this conversation, and attacks Gollum, branding him a murderer. Pinched brass over trilling winds and strings and rumbling percussion recall Sam and Gollum's first violent encounter in The Two Towers. Angry brass chords accompany the accusations Sam spits at Gollum, but Frodo won't hear them. Gollum turns the tables, accusing Sam of having a vendetta against him.

Frodo steadies Sam. A tender string passage begins as Frodo reminds Sam that they need Gollum's guidance. Harp arpeggios over emotive triads play to the emotional weight that both Frodo and Sam are carrying, and the rift it threatens to tear in their friendship. With a final dissonant suspension, Gollum retakes the lead, shooting a sneering half-smile back at Sam.

The celebration at Edoras has subsided. Most of the revelers have long since bedded down. Aragorn wanders alone, pausing to stoke the dying fire in the Golden Hall. Nearby, Éowyn stirs, waking from a dream. As she tells Aragorn of her dream, in which she saw herself alone, thrust into an utterly dark abyss, a lush setting of the Éowyn and Aragorn theme plays. Aragorn comforts her, telling her to return to sleep, and the second phrase, the section of the theme that was cut short during the party, finally completes the melody.

Éowyn clutches Aragorn's hand, and falls back to sleep.

Pippin too, it seems, is now awake. In his eye is the same look as before. Restlessly he pulls back his bedding and begins to walk toward the sleeping Gandalf. In two-part harmony, strings coupled with flute play the score's first strains of Evil Times, with a slightly stretched contour, intimating that Pippin is not entirely himself. The writing becomes increasingly chromatic until Pippin's goal becomes clear - he wants another look at the palantír. As Pippin pulls the orb from Gandalf's hand, a new Ring theme coupling begins. In a streamlined four-note phrase Shore introduces a line that lies somewhere between the Ring's Evil and History themes, yet at the same time suggests the shape of Evil Times. Does the theme suggest that the Ring's yet-unwritten history will inevitably bring it to evil purposes? Is it simply a musical warning, highlighting the imperative nature of the heroes' quest? A threat lobbed from Mordor?

But there's no time for such considerations. Pippin's vision in the palantír overwhelms his senses, and exposes him to the Enemy. The orchestra lurches, igniting into a blaze of furious string and wind textures over hammering timpani attacks. Bisecting the musical madness, the Descending Third figure marches out of Sauron's mind. The Evil of the Ring plays out in its traditional guise, creating a semi-canon by allowing the rhiata to enter just after the orchestral winds. Snare drum and tam-tam make four sweeping rolls, the last preceded by a long, glassy tremolo portamento in the violins.

Pippin is free of the vision and the palantír is again covered. But what of the aftermath? Gandalf shakes Pippin, waking him, and demands to know what he has seen. A haze of low and high clusters shroud Pippin's vision in mystery, but one line rises horrifyingly to the surface. The History/Evil hybrid, now in a more developed six-note guise, again plays as Pippin describes his vision of the White Tree of Gondor engulfed in flame.

Gandalf confers with Théoden and Aragorn, tells them of Pippin's vision, and explains that they now know that Sauron will strike Minas Tirith. Aragorn offers to journey to Minas Tirith, but Gandalf refuses the offer. Beginning with a pedal C, the Gondor theme descends ominously through the orchestra, creating a collective pyramid cluster. Its conclusion is intercepted by an eerie brume of high strings, introducing in miniature the music of the Army of the Dead. Gandalf tells Aragorn that he must come to Minas Tirith by another road. "Follow the river. Look to the black ships."

Gandalf himself will ride to Minas Tirith to issue the warning. At his side will be Pippin, now deemed too mischievious to be left unsupervised. Shore's music picks up a bright clip as the wizard users his new companion towards Edoras's stables. But Pippin doesn't understand, so it falls to Merry to explain to him what's happening. Once again, strings and clarinet apply the Fellowship theme to the two hobbit friends; they've taken their next step towards responsibility. As Merry presents Pippin a packet of Longbottom Leaf for the trip, solo clarinet swerves back towards the stepwise motion of the Shire theme while the strings reiterate the Fellowship material. Pippin is afraid, but Merry can offer him no more than this creature comfort. He doesn't know what's going to happen.

Shadowfax launches out of the stables and, with a propulsive compound-meter setting of The White Rider (In the Fellowship), wizard and hobbit are off. Merry races up to a lookout tower to watch his friend depart. As he speaks with Aragorn, the Fellowship theme plays again. Merry worries about his friend's ability to take care of himself, but he seems to understand that what must be must be.

The procession of the Elves of Rivendell winds its way through the forests as the former caretakers of Middle-earth travel to the Grey Havens. Reluctantly, Arwen Undómiel has joined her kin. But on her journey the noble woman of the Elves experiences a vision - a potential future spelled out before her eyes. Though she was led to imagine her future on Middle-earth as fraught with death and isolation, she learns that that same future was to hold a son, Eldarion, for her and Aragorn. The beautiful voice of Renée Fleming introduces Shore's new maturation of the Evenstar theme; the melody that once spoke to the gulf between the two lovers has now come to represent the distance between disparate futures.

Fleming's appearance in The Return of the King is indicative of the subtly modulating vocal sound of Middle-earth. The music of The Fellowship of the Ring embraced the pure, almost folk-like tones of vocalists such as Enya and Isabel Fraser. The palette in The Two Towers became more varied and exotic. Vocal performances from Emiliana Torrini, Sheila Chandra, and Isabel Bayrakdarian underscored the emphasis on Northern European, Eastern Asian, and Easter European tones. The Return of the King represents the peak of this progression - The Lord of the Rings's vocal music at its most developed and resplendent. Renée Fleming's voice is that of a coloratura soprano, one of the most revered and complex tones in music. Says Shore: "She has such an amazing voice, but I couldn't have used her in Fellowship. I couldn't start there - I had to get there as the story became more complex."

Arwen, stunned by her vision, turns Asfaloth back towards Rivendell, back towards her father. Strings absorb the Evenstar melody, weaving beneath it the Rivendell arpeggios. Arwen accuses her father of denying her the full truth. Elrond concedes, "Nothing is certain." Tender woodwinds elaborate the end of Evenstar as Arwen begs Elrond to help mankind in the only way he can. The orchestra again stirs with the Rivendell arpeggios. Elrond turns away and Arwen collapses. He comes to her, only to find her hands cold, her Elvish immortality having being surrendered. Fleming's voice returns with an even gentler, more sober reading of Evenstar as Elrond is shocked, but moved. His daughter's gesture can only be honored if he is to act.

The Rivendell theme begins in earnest, swelling and rolling as in the theme's prime. The shards of Narsil are brought before Elvish metalsmiths. They will be forged and returned to the world of Men. Shore's Minas Tirith theme is rhythmically compressed, as if it too is born anew and yet to stretch its limbs.

But the Fellowship is still to reach Minas Tirith, though Gandalf and Pippin are charging towards it. An excitedly muscular Fellowship theme presses the duo across Middle-earth until, via Shadowfax's swift footfall, they cross into Gondor. Horns and strings immediately announce their arrival with a proud summoning of the Realm of Gondor theme. Any yet their first view of Minas Tirith is met by an odd inversion of the Gondor theme. All is not well in the White Tower and Gandalf knows it. Over the rails of rhythmic string patterns, brass charges forth with a canonic examination of the Gondor theme, and Gandalf and Pippin ascend the great burgh. As Shadowfax's hooves meet the city's stones the Realm of Gondor theme again crystallizes, clarified into a march-like rigor. But the theme ends differently than it has in the past: rising after its opening with down-and-back-up three-note figures. The Fellowship has finally brought Gondor's aid: a worthy interim leader. Gandalf the White's arrival temporarily shifts Gondor in Decline to Gondor in Ascension. The same down-and-back-up shape that opens the Fellowship theme, and forms the basis of the Heroics of Aragorn and The White Rider (In the Fellowship) now closes Gondor's theme. Gondor has suddenly - if momentarily remembered its place as the seat of justice and decency in Middle-earth.

Gandalf's arrival at the top of Minas Tirith earns the climax of Shore's crescendo, a rich A major chord sounding in all ranges of the orchestra. But this opulence is short-lived. At the summit, Gandalf and Pippin find a wilted tree, the same tree from Pippin's palantír vision. As Gandalf explains the significance of the White Tree of Gondor, Shore returns to a mournful, recollective setting of the Minas Tirith theme, now all the sadder compared to the rousing version heard back in Rivendell. Gondor, whatever its potential, is as weak as the steward who currently oversees the throne. Like distant war, drums rumble under a thin string cluster, and Gandalf and Pippin head into the throne room to meet with Denethor, the Steward of Gondor.

Denethor receives Gandalf and Pippin, but upon their arrival he is heavily distracted, lost in thought. The Steward's heart is as broken as the cloven horn settled in his lap, for this horn belonged to Boromir, his eldest son. Flashing back through Pippin's memory, we see Boromir back at Amon Hen, pierced by the Orcs' black arrows. After a brief introductory passage, Shore's score returns to that long-ago tragedy with the same heart-wrenching boys chorus that depicted it in The Fellowship of the Ring. A Noble End, Shore's music for mankind's sacrifice, makes its second appearance in The Lord of the Rings, but it is not to be its last.

Pippin tells Denethor of Boromir's sacrifice, and swears his allegiance, if somewhat naïvely. Gandalf brushes the hobbit aside, telling Denethor that this in not the time for mourning. He demands that Gondor begin preparing for the assault that will soon be upon it. The sonorous music of Denethor's grief begins to give way to the acrid music of his fury. Dissonant clusters form in the high strings, their entrances becoming increasingly staggered until, with a jagged assault of down-bowing strings, Denethor rises form Gondor's throne, accusing Gandalf of seeking to supplant him with Aragorn. "The rule of Gondor is mine and no other's!"

With a surge from timpani and suspended cymbal, Gandalf turns his back on Denethor and exits the throne room. Low brass accents mark their footsteps with another quasi-inversion of the Gondor theme. They return to the courtyard, overlooking the White Tree, Gandalf disgusted with Denethor. "All has turned to vain ambition," he decries, and yet he regards Gondor's once-prominent nobility reverently. The sight of the White Tree is heralded by a clear trumpet solo, perhaps unable to yet muster a Gondorian theme, but at least willing to turn the melodic contour upwards once again.

Soon the Minas Tirith theme is able to find its way back into the mix, French horns carrying the melody in their singing register, celli and basses entering on the consequent phrase and continuing the line with a somber heft. Solo trumpet returns, now able to recall the theme, painting the final phrase with its clear-headed heraldry. The theme begins again, but is intercepted by the wider scope of the Realm of Gondor theme. But are we now seeing Gondor in Ascension or in Decline? Before the issue can be resolved, the music turns once more, clouding over, darkening. Mordor's bleak catalogue of material corrupts the palette. In the depths of the orchestra Shore introduces another hybrid theme, a martial line somewhere between an inverted Threat of Mordor and the Mordor Skip Beat. Concurrent to the Ring, Mordor's power is focusing, its peak nigh. Underlining this parallel, Shore reaches over the new Threat theme and deposits his inky History/Evil hybrid, this time emphasizing the Evil. Gandalf explains to Pippin just how Gondor came into such corruption and decay. High atop the city, the two spot the fires of Mordor on the horizon and a ponderous black cloud seeping across the sky towards them. "Help must come to us."

Finally reaching the Cross-roads, Frodo and Sam pause. Supported by the Hymn Setting of the Shire theme, Sam reassures Frodo, telling him that they will make it both to Mordor and then back home. Frodo seems unconvinced, but continues forward as the Fellowship theme honors the hobbits' resolve.

Down the path a little, the troupe encounters a statue, once erected by the men of Gondor to honor their king. The monument is now defaced, however, decapitated and marred with blood-red Orc scrawl. Half buried in the forest's detritus, the head now wears a crown of wild flowers, its stone eyes ever looking toward the darkening sky. But in a fleeting moment, Sauron's fume of smoke parts, and a single beam of light strikes the statue's fallen head, illuminating it. Here Shore introduces a proposed theme, the first in his collection dedicated to the upcoming Fourth Age of Middle-earth. Gondor Reborn brightens the orchestra with a glistening line beaming high in the ensemble that at once resembles the Minas Tirith theme and is yet unlike anything we've heard before. The melody dissipates as quickly as the sky shrouds over again, but in it lies the promise of a new tomorrow for Middle-earth.

Gollum, acting in servile mode once again, urges the hobbits not to dawdle among such observations. Subtle hints of the Pity theme's opening triplets lope beside him, likewise playing the Sméagol role without genuine commitment.

Back in Gondor, Gandalf and Pippin once again ponder the growing fires glaring at them from the east. Sunless melodies for low strings and rolling timpani grumble through the orchestra, though an isolated moment of sprightly hobbit-esque clarinet and flute writing colors a hopeful mention of Frodo and Sam. But Gandalf tells Pippin of the coming of the Witch-king of Angmar, and the orchestra sinks back to its sonic depths, the six-note Evil/History of the Ring hybrid sounding in the brass.

Scrambling up rock, Gollum leads the hobbits to the entrance of Minas Morgul. Frodo staggers towards the front gate, entranced, his mind overwhelmed by the Ring. Sam and Gollum pull him back, but something is amiss. Minas Morgul shakes, violins begin to divide into eight-part clusters, chorus and brass clotting beneath them, their own massive textures thickening the palette. An ensemble-wide crescendo begins as the orchestra and chorus' ground lifts upwards, spiking into the sky. Minas Morgul sends up a beacon of coiling green light, and from the pits below rises the Witch-king, mounted on the leathery back of his winged beast. The Descending Third motif tramps through the score, bracketed beneath a muted brass and rhiata statement of the Evil of the Ring theme in its classic setting bedecked in exotic harmonies. Low strings begin to anchor the music, odd asymmetrical accents slowly resurrecting an old ally - the Five Beat Pattern. But the refugees of Isengard no longer have its theme to drive them. Shore, instead, offers this composition's second potential Fourth Age theme, The Witch-King/The Orcs of Mordor. Climbing in an unchecked bid for supremacy, this new theme combines the inverted Threat of Mordor motif with rhythmic suggestions of the old Isengard theme. As before, Mordor is summoning its power, moving to crush mankind once and for all.

While the Orcs begin their march to Gondor, Frodo, Sam, and Gollum begin to climb the secret staircase along the Morgul Vale. The One Ring slips by Sauron's forces undetected, marked only by Shore's Ring Quest Theme, Dangerous Passes, the same theme that played as the Fellowship began to traverse the steep inclines of Caradhras.

Sam and Gollum separate from Frodo for a minute, falling behind his pace on the winding stairs. Gollum encourages the hobbits, and the orchestra breathes in and out in musical sighs. The composition begins with A minor and F minor harmonies, the opening harmonies of the Pity of Gollum, but the theme does not materialize. Even in subservient mode, Gollum is wittingly leading the hobbits to their death. The harmonies complicate as Sam pushes Gollum's back to the rocks. If he has any reason to suspect Gollum's treachery, and reason at all, Sam will not hesitate to finish him. Gollum's rotted teeth protrude past his curled lips, sneering at Sam's threat, emboldened by the cor anglais' four-note Evil/History/Evil Times hybrid motif.

In the streets of Minas Tirith, another hobbit is about to begin a perilous climb. Gandalf, having seen Minas Morgul's signal, has sent Pippin on a mission. He is to light the city's beacon and summon Rohan's aid. Throughout the beacon lighting sequence, Shore strikes up a churning rhythmic patter, which constantly refers to a four-note motif consisting of an arpeggiated triad (either major or minor) and a flat sixth, a half-step above the triad. In fact, this figure is woven through numerous themes in The Lord of the Rings. It represents Tolkien's recurrent theme of a fall from grace and a subsequent redemption. In this sequence, its purpose is crystallized. Gondor's star in Middle-earth has fallen, sunk under the weight of its own decadent history. But it still embodies the greatest hope among Middle-earth's assets. With a swell of brass, Pippin dashes down Minas Tirith's streets, off to fulfill his mission.

Atop the city, ensconced in the throne room, Denetor berates Faramir, his youngest son. The One Ring was within his grasp, and yet he sent it away with the hobbits. The steward is outraged. He claims he desires the Ring for no other reason that to keep it from the Enemy; he'd only have to use it "...at the uttermost end of need." His eyes stare deeply, the Evil/History theme revealing that his mind, too, is already bent on the Ring. For a moment he hallucinates, seeing Boromir approaching him. A tragic ebb of strings dissolves along with Boromir's image. Denethor tells Faramir to leave.

Outside, Pippin continues his climb. The four-note Weakness and Redemption figure spins through continual variations, darting through accompaniment and melodic lines alike. The hobbit has reached the peak of Amon Dîn and the first beacon fire. He stumbles at first, but manages to light the beacon. The orchestra tautens, and one of The Lord of the Rings's signature musical moments begins. Machine-like, woodwinds and strings churn, beginning the machinations of Gondor's salvation. Weakness and Redemption braces the low brass, underpinning constantly modulating chords in the French horns and trumpets. With a lattice of rising figures, the brass steels upwards, emerging in a powerful, magniloquent statement of the Gondor theme. Yet, the phrases still end with the Gondor in Decline figure. This is Gondor both summoning its pride and calling for help.

The message is carried across Middle-earth, one beacon at a time joining the relay. Finally it reaches Rohan. Aragorn is the first to see it, and with a giddy series of Weakness and Redemption lines, he bursts into Meduseld to inform King Théoden.

Théoden hears the news and pauses in thought. Should he provide aid to Gondor, which so recently failed to send help to Rohan? A sforzando tremolo string chord awaits his word. Théoden, unlike Denethor, understands what must be done - he will muster the Rohirrim and ride to Minas Tirith. The Rohan Fanfare erupts in the brass over martial percussion and strings.

Aside tender string and horn writing, Aragorn and Éowyn share a few parting words, during which he discovers a sword hidden beneath her horse's saddle. She may have more in mind than simply offering the men a farewell.

Merry seeks out Théoden amidst the din. He offers his sword to the service of Rohan. Pippin may have unwittingly enlisted himself in Gondor's defense, but Merry understands what he's asking. Solo piccolo intones the stepwise motion of the Shire theme, but supported by the more worldly harmonies of the Fellowship theme. Théoden accepts the gracious offer, dubbing him Meriadoc, Esquire of Rohan.

The Rohirrim begin to ride, but it is not the Rohan Fanfare that carries them. Middle-earth's cavalry sets out to battle Sauron's industry to the tones of Nature's Reclamation, as if Nature itself has now accepted the Horse-lords as allies. The theme begins with a steady build, rising unfettered through the orchestra's registers. With a final twirl of the Rohan Fanfare, Théoden's troops are on their way.