THE MUSIC OF

THE RETURN OF THE KING

ANALYSIS

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DISC 1      DISC 2      DISC 3     

DISC 4

Sam enters the chamber to find Frodo standing over the fire. The orchestra spins dizzily, a nauseous mix of harmonies swarming about its many ranges, as overwhelming as the broiling fires themselves. Frodo holds the Ring out over the flaming pits. Here, returned to its fiery womb, the multifaceted Ring is refocused, its history, its seductiveness, and its great evil melded into a singular existence. Horribly, uncontrollably, the orchestra's high strings and winds begin the History/Evil of the Ring hybrid in a canon at the octave, while below low strings and voices sing the Seduction of the Ring. The overlapping motifs and tonalities create a sonic blur, a hallucinatory slice of disjointed time. Frodo turns.

"The ring is mine."

The Mount Doom theme howls its two mammoth chords - the same harmonies that drove Gollum's Pity theme - the same harmonies that now press Frodo's actions. The Mordor Outline pounds beneath, the timpani's strokes falling like hammers. The hobbit places the Ring on his finger and disappears. Sauron's gaze turns instantaneously back towards the Cracks of Doom, the Nazgûl pulling away from the Black Gate and rushing southwards.

From the acrid smog, Gollum emerges, bashing Sam on the head then, using his footprints as a guide, leaping onto the invisible Frodo. The vile creature locates Frodo's arm, extends it forcibly, and bites his ring finger, his teeth sinking through flesh, through muscle, through bone. Gollum hews the finger from Frodo's hand and spits the Ring back out. Frodo falls aside, and Gollum holds his precious skyward, beaming.

Mount Doom's boisterous music halts. A single voice becomes the sole focus of the score. Renée Fleming sings the Ring's purest celebration. It has stayed its destruction. It has won its existence. It is victorious.

But the music of the Ring is not done yet. With an eight-note reading of the Ring's History theme, Frodo returns to his feet, his snarling face turned towards Gollum. He rushes him... either to destroy the Ring or to reclaim it, even in his own heart, Frodo may not know. Mount Doom's theme fumes forth again. The two struggle furiously until they both pitch over the edge.

Gollum and the Ring fall into the molten rock below. With one last twinge of Ring-lust, Gollum attempts to extend his hand above the fires. But to no avail. Gollum sinks below and dies, his precious Ring deposited upon the lava's surface. But Frodo has not fallen. With his one good hand he clings to the rocks. Sam scrambles to the precipice and extends his arm towards Frodo. In the intense fire below, the Ring's inscription glows brightly like an inarticulate scream. The Ring's themes attempt to collect themselves, the first pitches of History - or Evil - sliding glassily in the violins. Reduced to its quintessence, the Ring's melodic line rises a half-step up-and-back-down. It is the antithesis of everything the Fellowship has represented. Through hours of music, the Fellowship's whole-step down-and-back-up has come to represent Middle-earth's honor. This, then, is everything is battles against - Middle-earth's would-be nadir. "Don't let go," Sam screams to Frodo. The orchestra lifts through adjacent major chords, a melody of gladdened perserverance on the cusp of existence. Frodo reaches up to Sam and begins to climb back to solid ground.

The chorus catches in a harmonic stasis, intoning a chant-like line. Holding perfectly still upon the fires of Mount Doom, the One Ring, the source of Sauron's power, the root of evil in Middle-earth, melts into nothingness.

It is destroyed.

The adjacent chords sound again, the perserverence melody now honoring the battle at the Black Gate. Sauron's host turn their attention to Barad-dûr where the great eye peels wide, trembling in pain. The full force of the orchestra and chorus gathers the melodic line that once represented the Fate of the Ring and reforms the Ring themes' despair to embracing hope. The Fate of the Ring is revealed in unchecked splendor as The Destruction of the Ring - the final Ring theme, its Fourth Age theme. Barad-dûr shatters and falls; Middle-earth opens the land and swallows the Orcs. Sauron's eye is extinguished. The Destruction of the Ring has ushered in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth.

Gondor Reborn, its Fourth Age theme, now sounds to its full length, a silver trumpet at its head.

The joyous Destruction of the Ring celebrates once again the carillon of Middle-earth's victory. Mount Doom explodes into a crest of fire... and the heroes pause. Did Frodo and Sam, their task complete, escape? Did the Ring claim them as its final victims?

Evil Times begins again as a reluctant chaconne - one which recalls another figure from the past, Gandalf's Farewells. With four similarly mournful chords, Gandalf the Grey once bid his friends goodbye. It now appears that he and the rest of the Fellowship, must say goodbye to Frodo and Sam.

But Frodo and Sam are not yet gone. With their last ounce of strength, the two run from the Cracks of Doom, only to find themselves trapped on the steep outer wall of Mount Doom. Rivers of lava pour down the sides, plumes of ash and rock fuming from its vent. But even here, at the end of all things, Frodo is beholden to fate. "It's gone. It's done," he tells Sam. "I can see the Shire."

Gandalf's Farewells continues, now peacefully set for soprano voices. The two hobbits, the saviors of Middle-earth, prepare to accept death. Frodo hugs Sam. Wordlessly the voices sing of the Fellowship. All fades to black.

...But all does not end. Renée Fleming joins the score again to sing the Sindarin text, "The Eagles" over delicate strings and chorus. Three great birds appear, Gandalf at their lead. They grasp Frodo and Sam in their talons and carry them away from the death and destruction that pits Mordor.

Frodo awakens in the Houses of Healing. Gandalf the White stands at the foot of the bed. Frodo is overwhelmed - he thought Gandalf to have perished long ago. The old friends are nearly speechless. Merry and Pippin enter, giddily jumping up and down on Frodo's bed, relating stories of great adventure while Sir James Galway's nuanced flute performance reveals how far the hobbits have come. Gimli enters, clapping his rough hands in joy. Familiar harmonies begin to reassemble in the flute and strings. Legolas arrives, his Elvish detachment betrayed by his warm smile.

Aragorn enters, and the Fellowship theme finds itself sitting comfortably in the brass, neither declamatory nor forceful. It does not flare up in a great sweep... it sighs. The Fellowship's adventures are behind it now. This is the music of placid victory. Lento strings sing the B phrase until a tender flute begins the Shire theme. Samwise Gamgee waits at the door. Frodo and Sam smile at each other.

The flute lifts upwards, strings joining it in a new Ring Quest theme: The Journey Back Again. A great crowd has gathered upon the top of Minas Tirith. Gondor Reborn soars freely. Upon the steps of the throne room, Gondor's new king awaits his crown. Gandalf lowers the Crown of Gondor onto its rightful heir, Aragorn, King Elessar. Gondor in Ascension is finally unveiled, its B phrase harkening to Aragorn's heroic path to the throne. The new King of Gondor turns to his people, and sings, "Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien, Sinome maruvan at Hildinyar tenn' Ambar-metta!"

Aragorn turns to Legolas, who stands with a group of Elves, including... Arwen. Aragorn's love steps out from behind a white Gondorian pennant. Renée Fleming sings "Arwen Revealed", the same melodic strain that first brought her into the story back in The Fellowship of the Ring. Mixed chorus joins Fleming's solo voice as Arwen approaches. This is Elvish music, yet the addition of men's voices indicates that something has changed. Arwen is shy, reluctant, even. She has given up her immortality for this man, but does he still love her? Aragorn takes her chin in his hand, and as the strings reenter, kisses her passionately. She is to become his Queen.

The orchestra pursues a familiar stepwise motion, Sir James Galway's flute at its lead. Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Frodo nod their heads reverently before the King. But Aragorn will not have it. He falls to his knees before the hobbits... and all of Gondor follows. The Shire theme rings out in a heroic beauty never before afforded hobbitkind. The worlds of Men, Elves, and Dwarves are indebted to these four amazing creatures, who, through their adherence to the tenets of friendship and love, were able to restore peace to Middle-earth. Spread throughout the full orchestra ensemble, Shore's simple tune blossoms, maturing into a gentle anthem for these tiny heroes.

But it is time for these heroes to return home. The Journey Back Again returns, now fully articulated, and the familiar vision of the map of Middle-earth takes the screen. We push westward, back through Fangorn Forest, across the Misty Mountains, through Bree, until, thirteen months after leaving it, the hobbits return to the Shire. The whistle sings the Pensive Setting of its friendly tune, just as it did before. The Shire is just as they left it, untouched by the hate and war these four have seen.

But the four hobbits, themselves, are not the same. The grass seems just as green, the Green Dragon's ale just as sweet, but the Shire seems smaller, quainter, less a world unto itself, more a quiet spot in a larger land. Dermot Crehan's fiddle sings the Shire's sweet melodies over the musette and strings, but they're laced with hints of the Fellowship theme. Silently the hobbits drink a toast to the pride, the pain, and the deeds only they will ever know.

The Hobbit Outline figure quickens the pace via the pluck of pizzicato strings. The Shire's Rural Setting follows. Sam sees Rosie Cotton across the Green Dragon. Emboldened by experience (and perhaps the Dragon's ale), he starts toward her determinedly, leaving behind the shocked grins on his three friends' faces. Sam and Rosie are soon after married.

The somber chords of the Hymn Setting follow while Frodo narrates. His friends have all found happiness in the Shire, returning to their homes wiser, more experienced, but essentially unchanged. But Frodo is changed. "There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep."

Frodo is met by two visitors to the Shire, one a former resident, while whistle picks up an alternating two-note shape. Gandalf arrives in a horse-drawn cart and the Shire theme quietly heralds the return of Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo is to journey with the Elves upon the last ship departing Middle-earth. He wonders aloud if Frodo might show him that old Ring one last time before he leaves. Frodo manages a haunted stare. "I'm sorry, Uncle. I'm afraid I lost it."

Gandalf, Bilbo, and the four hobbits of the Fellowship arrive at the Grey Havens, the Elves' ancient port. They lead Bilbo by the arms as the Fellowship theme is softly recalled. A great ship sits empty before them, awaiting its passengers. Elrond, Galadriel, and Celeborn stand on the dock to greet Gandalf and the hobbits. French horn echoes the alternating two-note figure before passing the line to double reeds. It is the music of departure, a last look back at the Ring Quest. Elrond guides Bilbo aboard. Galadriel smiles knowingly at the crowd, then with her husband boards the ship.

Gandalf turns to his friends. "Farewell, my brave hobbits." The chorus hums the final statement of Gandalf's Farewells, thus marking the first time the theme has been used literally. This time, Gandalf will not see the hobbits again. Wrapped in the soft chords, the hobbits cry.

Gandalf steps towards the boat, but halts. "It is time, Frodo." Too hurt from the Ring, too changed to ever again know the Shire as home, Frodo too will journey to the Undying Lands with the Elves. It is his reward for his role in the War of the Ring. The Shire theme drifts warmly in its finality behind the four friends. James Galway's flute has now replaced the whistle entirely in this theme, its chipper simplicity lost to the passing Age. The flute recites the alternating pitches of the departure, and Frodo hands Sam his book. Sam must write the last pages. The four chords of the Shire's Hymn Setting are hummed again by the chorus, and the hobbits cry tears of pain for their loss, tears of joy for their friends, and tears of release for the bygone Age and their changing lives.

Frodo and Sam embrace, but try as it may, the Shire theme cannot sound purely. The Hymn Setting turns around new bends, directed down unfamiliar avenues. The Third Age of the Shire is gone, its theme will sound no more. Oboe and whistle explore the departure music again. Frodo takes Gandalf's hand and boards the boat.

On board he pauses, then turns to his friends, beaming with an enthusiastic grin. His pain subsides; his renewal has begun. The Grey Havens theme sings out in the celli once again, the hobbits' former hope now rewarded. Frodo is at peace. Chorus hums open harmonies, as still and pure as the waters that will carry the Elves' ship hence. The Grey Havens theme continues as the hobbits turn back and the ships pass into the West.

Sam returns to the Shire, his young daughter Elanor ready to greet him before the yellow door to his hobbit hole. Frodo's voice is heard reading the inscription left in Bilbo's book. Frodo tells Sam that he must now care for his family. Rosie walks towards him, their infant son in her arms. The whistle begins a new hobbity theme. As Sam willingly releases his old life, the Shire is ready to enter its own Fourth Age. Sam draws his family near and smiles his humble, simple smile. "Well, I'm back."

With a rich swell of a D-major triad, Tolkien's story concludes as only such stories can...

"The End"