THE MUSIC OF

THE TWO TOWERS

ANALYSIS

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DISC 1      DISC 2     

DISC 3

A shadowy figure on horseback moves across Rohan's plains. The music establishes a martial gait as Aragorn catches sight of a blight upon the land - at least 10,000 Orcs moving in snaking columns. Brego turns and picks up his pace, and Shore returns to The Heroics of Aragorn as the Dúnedan speeds towards Helm's Deep. This is the most powerful and propulsive setting of this Fellowship variant in the score - a very similar setting to that heard at Amon Hen - but there is still an impurity threaded within. The rising perfect fourth interval that first introduced Aragorn in Bree again opens the ascending line, and it is this interval that carries the remnants of Aragorn's reluctance and uncertainty. He rides to Helm's Deep not to lead, but to forewarn.

Nevertheless, the score grants him a hero's welcome. A short running line for bassoon and celli carries Aragorn across the causeway - a line which recalls the figures heard when Éomer and his Riders first encountered Aragorn and the Fellowship upon the plains of Rohan, neatly paralleling the events. A strong turn of the Fellowship theme sounds, the first we have heard of this theme since Gimli and Legolas mourned Aragorn after the Warg attack.

Aragorn informs Théoden that the Uruk-hai army will be upon them before nightfall. The King puts on a strong face, praising the impregnable defenses of Helm's Deep, but Aragorn and Gimli follow him, insisting that he should consider this matter more seriously. Over a slow-building bolero-like rhythm in low strings, Shore proceeds with a staid examination of the second half of the Fellowship theme. Inserted into this somber mélange are three trumpet calls. The first and third present the same rising perfect fourth interval that has tied Aragorn to his reluctance since Bree. The second call presents a rising minor third, the first two pitches of the Rohan Fanfare. Musically, the Rohirrim's predicament is portrayed as the Fellowship's responsibility.

The Ents, too, realize that Sauron is a force to be reckoned with. The impassive Ent theme returns, infused, this time, with a dramatic choral line. An Entmoot has been called. The Shepherds of the Trees may be slow to move, but they have at least now decided to consider the situation. With a great swell of Shore's orchestral forest, a grove of Ents converges.

Helm's Deep is prepared for war. Éowyn complains to Aragorn that she should be allowed to fight, not required to join the other women and children in the Glittering Caves. A particularly emotive setting of her melody begins this composition, though ten measures in it becomes clear that we're listening to a new Éowyn theme. In her plea, she blurts out that she loves Aragorn. This is the Éowun and Aragorn theme, in some ways the most courageous in Éowyn's catalogue. It rounds off the searching rise of her principle theme with earnest descending contours, but this kind of self-expression is still foreign to Éowyn. Immediately she shrinks back, resigned to her place in the Caves. The line dissipates, only to be replaced by a steady and abject setting of the Rohan theme for orchestral strings.

The Fellowship surveys the arming of Rohan, boys and old men alike. Swords are distributed, while low strings assemble a few steely phrases built off minor triads. "They are all going to die!" Legolas tells Aragorn. He shoots back, "Then I shall die as one of them!" As noble as the sentiment may be, the score sets it against a dark French horn Evil Times variant. Unless the situation changes, the Elf is correct. Théoden, too, is readying himself, privately fearful of what fate seems to promise. Again, low strings present a series of hardened figures based on minor triads, this time less militaristic and more fatalistic. Chorus rises with "The Call" over a heartbeat of timpani.

The soldiers convene upon the ramparts, but Aragorn has lost his resolve. He sits dejected, watching the troops until he sees Háma's son, Haleth, a mere boy, ready to join the men in battle. Another trumpet call sounds, aspiring to be a bold call to arms, but stuck on the first two pitches of the Rohan Fanfare, unable to complete the line. Aragorn speaks with the boy as low strings continue with an accompaniment, likewise attempting to complete the Rohan phrase, but again incapable. Fearful, Haleth looks to Aragorn for words of encouragement. The Heir of Isildur offers no false optimism, but tells the boy to never surrender hope. In this moment, Aragorn understands why he must lead. As he arms himself, the trumpet call returns, still unable to complete the heroic statement of the Rohan Fanfare, but enlivened, quicker, coupled with a bold snare drum tattoo. The three members of the Fellowship of the Ring reunite, and the down-and-back-up pitches of the Fellowship theme sound in reverberant strings. The odds of survival may not have improved, but there is honor, nonetheless, in doing what is right.

Hope is rewarded. Haldir of Lórien arrives with a band of Elf archers to assist the Rohirrim. The Lothlórien theme takes a heretofore unheard guise, its florid current solidified into a militant march. Voices and brass in Elf-like unison carry the theme over rhythmic percussion and strings. And yet, optimism is still tempered - The London Voices yet sing the grim "Footsteps of Doom" text associated with the Lothlórien theme.

As Haldir tells Théoden that the Elves have returned to honor their old alliance with Men, three chords rise through the high strings - nearly identical to the three chords heard when Gandalf, at the Doors of Durin, invoked the name "Fëanor," one of the Eldar. Aragorn rushes to Haldir, greeting him with a clear trumpet calling out the Fellowship theme. Neither the Elf archers nor the soldiers of Rohan are true members of the Fellowship, but in their alliance, they follow its spirit implicitly. The Elves, in flawless precision, snap themselves to readiness while Shore marks the alliance with one more lively salutation from the Fellowship theme.

None of this cheer, however, has slowed the Uruks; their torchlight and cries now deface the visible horizon, their footfalls shaking the ground. Ensconced deep within the Glittering Caves the women and children of Rohan cower in expectancy. The score sinks into a cheerless lull that is navigated by a single anticipatory double-reed statement of the Rohan theme. "It's gentle and emotional. These are families, and the score plays to their sorrow," Shore says. "There's going to be destruction and death very soon." With a handfully of chromatically rising chords, the Uruk-hai arrive at Helm's Deep.

The battle begins with the music of the first line of defence - the Lothlórien theme. The Elves release their first volley of arrows as the Uruks begin their charge. In war, brass takes the theme exclusively, the decorative women's voices, which tied the Elves' music to their loftiest aesthetics, are now shed. A percussive assault of timpani, two taikos, bass drum, and rolled tam-tam continues, and this brass devolves into violent pyramid clusters, sharpening like the warriors' resolve.

But the Uruks' numbers are great, and they quickly reach the outer wall, impaling the earth with their ladders. The score switches to the angular metallic storm of the Five Beat Pattern and the Isengard theme. Once this Pattern has worked its way into the battle, it takes hold, refusing to surrender ground. The Uruks gradually begin to bleed through the Elves' defenses, scrabbling deeper inside. Having passed the Elves, the Five Beat Pattern meets the Rohan Fanfare, trampling not up against it, but directly through it. The score sounds the two lines in counterpoint, deforming Rohan's rural beauty with the Uruks' cumbrous brutality.

With the Elves' assistance, it appears the Rohirrim are beginning to hold the Uruk-hai at bay. The armies evenly matched, the thematic material momentarily drops out of the score. However, a quick snare drum figure and a pair of chords (G-minor and E-minor) apply tension as the Uruks carry a set of metallic orbs to a drain in the outer wall of Helm's Dike. Aragorn senses something is not right and strings pick up the snare's taught rhythms. Legolas tries to bring down a charging Uruk-hai, but the Berserker reaches the drain, sets his torch to the orbs, and explodes the wall. Now reflecting the Uruks' advantage, the score is lacerated by the stinging dissonances of The Cruelty of the Orcs. The G-minor and E-minor chords return more malignly and the Uruks begin to hammer the main gate with a battering ram.

The Fellowship, meanwhile, is still recovering from the explosion along the wall. Buoyed by the score's three most fully developed atatements of the Fellowship in Rohan, Gimli leaps to Aragorn's aid. The Elves, regrouped, draw their blades and rush towards the Uruk-hai. Again an all-brass setting of the Lothlórien theme heralds their force, though nearby a Mirkwood Elf interrupts the line with a more specific melody. Riding a shield, Legolas swiftly descends a staircase, dispatching Uruks as he goes, while a brisk Fellowship quote follows. It is an isolated moment of unblemished heroism, and as the theme concludes, the mood darkens, the taut snare drum rhythm returning.

Treebeard's peers have reached their decision. The Ents will not help. Merry is crushed, but Pippin tries to lift his spirits by recalling the Shire. Strings accompany Pippin's efforts, trying to bolster the score with the Shire's theme, but the line comes out heavy, burdened, voiced lower in the orchestra than usual and unable to elicit anything other than a sad recollection of a faraway home. Merry tells Pippin that if this war isn't stopped, not even the Shire will be immune.

The war at Helm's Deep goes no better. The tide has turned in the Uruks' favor, and the score pauses amidst the fury of battle to mourn what seems to be the Rohirrim's inevitable defeat. "This is the despair of it all now," Shore says. Théoden calls upon Aragorn to announce a retreat and the down-and-back-up figure that binds Aragorn's emerging heroism to his valor is turned disenchantingly against him. His leadership has brought no lasting aid.

Aragorn sounds the retreat, but it comes too late for Haldir. He is caught from behind by an Uruk's blade. Elizabeth Fraser, who performed "Lament for Gandalf" in The Fellowship of the Ring, returns once again to honor a fallen hero. Shore's composition takes a similar shape, a call and response for solo soprano and female chorus, as Fraser performs "Haldir's Lament," set to excerpts of "Namárië." In death, Haldir's music returns to the Elves' ethereal mysticism.

Spurred to action, Aragorn swings wildly at the surrounding Uruk-hai, but to no avail. The G-minor/E-minor chords return beneath the martial drum patterns and the Uruks relentlessly continue to bear down the Hornburg's gate.

With a stifled high string setting of Evil Times in its bent, chromatic guise, Aragorn and Gimli sneakily approach the gate's attackers. Gimli, having all but resigned himself to an undignified existence at this point, suggests that Aragorn toss him over to the causeway, atop the Uruk crowd... as long as Legolas hears no words of it. Aragorn agrees and, with the strongest reading of the Fellowship theme since the Three Hunters searched the plains of Rohan, leaps after the Dwarf to attack the Uruks.

In the confusion the Rohirrim are able to shore up the door, but a new threat emerges. The Cruelty of the Orcs returns again as the Uruks bring forth carroballistas to permanently affix ladders to the wall. Aragorn continues to battle valiantly - his efforts still marked by the down-and-back-up phrase - but the Cruelty motif slides over the Five Beat Pattern. Isengard's theme spills out across the battlefield, the scales of battle now tipped even deeper in the Uruks' favor by an incursion of horns and trombones.

Aragorn and Gimli, having provided ample distraction, are pulled up the wall by Legolas. Passionate strings swash for a moment, but the Uruks are nearly unstoppable. The main gate is about to fall. With no choice left, Théoden commands all troops to fall back to the keep. French horn sounds a proclamatory call of the Rohan Fanfare, which closes with the opening three pitches of the Fellowship theme. Trumpet echoes the call, likewise beginning with Rohan's Fanfare, then concluding with a turn from the Lothlórien theme.

Treebeard carries the dejected Merry and Pippin through Fangorn, but Pippin has an idea. He suggests that they alter their route, requesting that the Ent take them South towards Isengard. Shore's score picks up four chords (E-flat minor, A minor, E-flat minor, F-sharp minor) which melodically recreate the "small stones" chords, but harmonically echo a minor setting of the tritone chords heard when the hobbits first entered the forest. Merry and Pippin, the "small stones" in hobbit form, are about to start the avalanche that will shock Treebeard just as he shocked them. The trio heads South, accompanied by a long-lined melody drawn from the Shire theme's opening pitches.

A stretched Evil Times motif updates Frodo's progress. Faramir leads him, Sam, and Gollum to the outskirts of Gondor, where they watch Osgiliath burn in the distance. Frodo again pleads for his release, but is refused.

Still chatting genially with Merry and Pippin, Treebeard reaches Isengard. A deep roll of the tam-tam brings him to the forest's edge earlier than he expected. Where many of Treebeard's friends once grew there only remains a grove of splintered stumps. Mournful strings quickly grow bitter as Treebeard is enraged. "A wizard should know better!" Brass adds a harsh pedal tone to the string line and Treebeard howls into the air.

"My business is with Isengard tonight," Treebeard promises, "with rock and stone." A deliberate march begins, celli and basses grounding the downbeats while a field drum cadence strides through. Female voices enter singing "The Ents," set to the Nature's Reclamation theme, but this is the theme as it has never before been heard. For the first time in the story, Nature has broken from its gentle, benevolent mode and has set itself upon the path to war. Isengard's encroaching industrialization has become an affront to Nature, and an unstoppable reckoning force now seeks to reset the balance. Nature's Reclamation continues to build. Male voices join in support of the women's and boy soprano, Ben Del Maestro, takes the melody line.

Meanwhile, Faramir's captives have reached the borders of Osgiliath. Frodo hardly notices; the Ring has now become such a weight that it takes all his concentration just to soldier on. Ever supportive, Sam tries to offer him encouraging words, but the sound is drowned out by an oppressive drone of open string harmonies that threaten to burst into the The Seduction of the Ring at any moment. Faramir tells his men to take the hobbits to his father, but with a poignantly hobbity line from the clarinet, Sam reveals to him that Boromir was killed after trying to take the Ring. Faramir is stunned, until a threat from the sky turns his attention away from his captives.

Brass erupts with the caustic harmonies of the Ringwraith theme as a Nazgül appears overhead. The score effects a mad dash as captives and captors alike scramble out of sight. The fell beast's rider scans the city for the Ringbearer, and though Faramir stashes him out of sight, Frodo is left unguarded.

Back at Helm's Deep, the Uruks have totally overrun the Rohirrim's first wall and are now hammering their way into the keep. In the Glittering Caves beneath, Rohan's women and children flinch with each impact. In a Rohan-esque voice the score stills itself, preparing for the worst with hushed, fatigued lines behind which timpani and field drum quake like distant battle.

The King is shocked at the reckless hate on display. Aragorn suggests that they ride out in one last assault upon the Uruks to draw them away from the women and children. Percussion figures build up energy and Théoden's attention is drawn back to the present. Gimli remarks that the sun is rising, precipitating the arrival of Nature's second most prominent motif, The White Rider (In Nature). The wizard's words echo in their minds: "Look to my coming at first light on the fifth day. At dawn, look to the East."

Choir forcefully builds Gandalf's theme with the text of "The Call" as Théoden and Aragorn prepare to ride forth and Gimli charges for the horn of Helm Hammerhand. The repeating triplets are higher and higher, mounting energy and resolve for what could well be the last ride of the Eorlingas.

The King's riders catch the Uruks by surprise, dislodging them from the causeway. A brilliant setting of the Rohan Fanfare carries the Eorlingas into the field of Uruks beyond. Expectantly, Aragorn casts his eyes eastwards toward the rising sun, where they are met by a horse, a rider, and a most welcome choral performance of a single word: "Sceadufæx," or Shadowfax.

Just as he promised, Gandalf the White has returned, and with him are Éomer and his 3,000 Riders of Rohan. Accompanied by the majestic return of the Fellowship theme, the sunlight breaks onto the darkened earth, scorching the Uruks. Gandalf and the Riders charge, laying waste to the Uruk horde. Ben Del Maestro and mixed chorus continue to sing a cresting setting of "The Mearas," above which luminous violins perform The White Rider (In the Fellowship). The connection is complete. Gandalf, remade by Nature, has borne Its will to the Fellowship and to the Rohirrim, uniting these forces against Sauron and his minions.

But Nature still has business with Isengard. Percussion resumes a martial stride and the Ents are unleashed. Orchestra and chorus swell, developing passages of the Nature theme, and rising across the score's most extended crescendo. As the melodic line endlessly climbs, effervescent arpeggiated figures flow through accompanying lines and the Ents burst the dam. The music, like the mighty waters, cleanses Isengard, extinguishing its fires, razing the wicked structures with which it has polluted the land. Brass chatters in rhythmic fanfares declaring that despite its sedentary and graceful formality Nature is capable of such force that even Saruman cannot stand against it.

Saruman, however, is but one finger of Sauron's fist. In Osgiliath, the Dark Lord continues to tighten his grip. The Nazgül searches the city for Frodo, who now wanders the streets, dazed. Shore again holds open string pitches, threatening to introduce the Seduction theme. Frodo's will holds strong, but nothing can stop the Nazgül from introducing his own abhorrent harmonies into the wind writing. With a dissonant burst the Rider finds Frodo atop a stone stairway. Frodo takes the Ring in hand, ready to slip it on as the open strings await his next move. Ever faithful, Sam races to Frodo's side, and with a careening string triplet the two tumble down the stairs.

The Nazgül has been turned away, the Uruks dispelled from Helm's Deep, and Isengard vanquished by the Ents. Middle-earth would seem to have granted its heroes a momentary respite from their ills, were it not for the broken hearts of two hobbits. Frodo and Sam lie collapsed at the base of the stone stairway. "I can't do this, Sam," the words fall weightily. Again it comes to Samwise Gamgee to carry Frodo over the precipice of despair. Shore's divided woodwinds and strings create a gentle air, flute giving way to clarinet as chords drawn from the Shire's reverent Hymn Setting take shape below. Sam tells his friend, "Even darkness must pass. A new day will come," and the expansive simplicity of A Hobbit's Understanding sings out for the first time since the two hobbits set out for Emyn Muil. "Fran felt it was important to tie this to the beach from Fellowship," Shore recalls. Faramir overhears the hobbits and finally understands Frodo's quest. The music offers a momentary sympathetic oasis as clarinet takes the Shire's Hymn Setting, now fully formed over the steady and solemn chords, and Frodo, Sam, and Gollum are set free.

Here begins a series of resolutions, each group of heroes tying up its story line. With a twitter of trilling strings and winds Gandalf, Aragorn, Théoden, and Éomer force the last remaining Uruk-hai back into the forest where gnashing brass spring upon them and the Huorns finish the beasts once and for all. A dignified Fellowship theme and a series of humorously halting chords perfectly represent the bond between Legolas and Gimli, who competitively compare their respective totals of Orc corpses. And even after witnessing the Natural world spring to life, unleashing its unstoppable flow upon Isengard, Merry and Pippin are back to their old ways, scrounging for a good bite to eat... and perhaps a pipe-full of Old Toby. Both are discovered in Saruman's storeroom, and with buoyant statements of the Shire's Playful Setting and The Hobbits' Antics - a the feathery tones of the whistle - the hobbits could not be more in their element. Even Treebeard's motif curls upwards like a curious smile, his interest piqued by the laughter and puffs of smoke now emanating from the storeroom.

Faramir sets Frodo and Sam off through an old sewer pipe that will take them out of Osgiliath and back to the woods. But he warns them of the dangers of Cirith Ungol, threatening Gollum with death should he bring harm to the hobbits. Could Gollum be leading them into a trap? Oboe appears, first presenting four pitches that we will soon come to recognize from "Gollum's Song," then segueing directly into his Pity theme. Strings continue, combining Pity and "Song" fragments as Sam speaks with Gollum, reminding him that Frodo has his best interests at heart. Gollum claims to understand, but the score's instability sends mixed messages.

Having finished his business at Helm's Deep, Gandalf the White turns his mind East to Mordor. He reminds all that this victory has only moved them one step closer to the greater threat of Sauron. The Fellowship theme appears one last time in a serious-minded vein, low in the orchestra. But hidden in the orchestra's body, at the very bottom of its range, a solo clarinet joins the Fellowship theme. Gandalf states, "All our hopes now lie with two little hobbits, somewhere in the wilderness."

The clarinet rises back to the key of D - the hobbits' most common key - back to the Shire's Pensive Setting and the score's only pure reading of the Hobbit Outline Figure. Again Sam has given Frodo the strength to carry on, and Frodo takes a moment to acknowledge his friend. The line continues into the strings, which continue with the same Hymn material that became "In Dreams" at Fellowship's conclusion. But the third member of their party bears no such warm feelings for his compatriots. Gollum, alone, skulks along the underbrush, trailed by a high dissonant violin line and the low grunt of contrabassoon and basses on Gollum's Menace/ "There is a little of the Gollum theme, and a little of Sméagol in here," Shore explains. Sméagol is no longer free of Gollum, and though the Pity theme tugs imploringly at the strings, an even older theme reminds him of his true allegiance. Once again the Pity theme winds slavishly into the History of the Ring theme, and Gollum's true master takes hold. Gollum decides the hobbits must die - the Ring must again be his. "We could let her do it..."

Gollum leads Frodo and Sam on as the orchestra picks up a series of fluid minor harmonies, pulling the stylistic tendencies of The Pity of Gollum down inky new avenues. "The writing seems solid, but it's always a little unstable. It's a searching piece," Shore describes. As at the end of Fellowship, boys choir begins humming a wordless melody line. The frame pauses on the distant fires of Mount Doom. Shore watches carefully. "We'll be there soon."

The boys draw back, handing the melody to Emiliana Torrini, who will sing "Gollum's Song," which marks an important turn for the character. It highlights the point at which Sméagol begins to adopt Gollum's views. As Sméagol abandons his obeisant nature, this theme will all but disappear, leaving Frodo and Sam at the mercy of Gollum's Menace.

To round out the credits for The Two Towers, Shore includes Éowyn and Téoden's theme, followed by the Seduction of the Ring. The Rivendell arpeggios then introduce a final presentation of the Evenstar theme, accompanied by female voices. An impressive iteration of the full Rohan Fanfare finishes up the score to the second installment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.