Return of the King a Soundtrack as Enchanting as the Film Itself

The Voice of Middle-earth

One of the most satisfying aspects of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy is its score, through which Howard Shore developed the themes running through the films with the intricate textures of his music, evoking the rich tapestry of Tolkien’s world with breathtaking skill. Listening to the music on its own, it is easy to visualize the characters and situations that accompany it; in context, it provides more than a backdrop. Playing as vital a role in the success of the film series as the New Zealand’s majestic landscapes, it provides the voice of Middle-earth.

Most of this third soundtrack repeats and builds upon themes already established in the first two. We have the pastoral hobbit music, which makes brief appearances throughout the soundtrack before dominating the final two instrumental tracks. More predominant is the music of Rohan, a theme mixing valor and despair through the plaintive strains of a fiddle, and the tentatively triumphant theme used to indicate moments of great bravery. Here, too, are the dark, pounding choruses of the orc hordes and Sauron himself and the ethereal Elven choirs, not to mention the Gondorian theme characterized by Sir James Galway’s wistful flute. Most tracks interweave despair with hope, evil with good, building up the tension that will finally explode during the climactic tracks.

Track List

1. A Storm is Coming
2. Hope and Memory
3. Minas Tirith
4. The White Tree
5. The Steward of Gondor
6. Minas Morgul
7. The Ride of the Rohirrim
8. Twilight and Shadow
9. Cirith Ungul
10. Anduril
11. Shelob’s Lair
12. Ash and Smoke
13. The Fieldsof the Pelennor
14. Hope Fails
15. The Black Gate Opens
16. The End of All Things
17. The Return of the King
18. The Grey Havens
19. Into the West

I won’t review each of the individual tracks here, but I will give particular attention to those which had the most powerful impact on me. The whole of the soundtrack, indeed of this and the prior two soundtracks, builds up to tracks 15 through 18. In the first two, evil is unleashed with unmatched ferocity, yet the pervading aura of gloom and doom provided by the booming choruses and percussion gives way to moments of hope and victory accentuated by Galway’s flute and Renee Fleming’s soprano. These tracks resound with great and terrible majesty, making way for the final two, which bring resolution to the most beautiful themes in the trilogy.

“My Friends, You Bow to No One”

The nearly 10-minute-long title track begins on a hushed note with a return to the themes of courage, hope, and Gondor itself before yielding the floor to Viggo Mortensen, whose regal Elvish chanting gives a nice authentic flavor to Aragorn’s acceptance of the throne. Then it is the haunting chords of the elves themselves as Arwen and Aragorn reunite. But it is the theme of friendship which resonates most strongly here, the stirring melody featured in The Breaking of the Fellowship which I consider the main musical theme of the entire trilogy. It is whenever this theme reappears that the heart truly swells. Here, as it intermingles with the whimsical hobbit motif and the magisterial tones of Aragorn, the theme provides the support for his thrilling acknowledgment of the hobbits’ contribution to the quest, a gesture as simple and grand as the halflings themselves.

”We Come at Last to the Breaking of our Fellowship”

One of my favorite film finales is the ending scene of Ghost, which features a gentle orchestral version of Unchained Melody to accompany the image of Sam being engulfed in light and, after a touching farewell, making his way into the next life. Such is the scene here, although it is more than one theme being developed. Hints of the courage theme and the elegiac strains following Gandalf’s fall creep into The Grey Havens, but for the most part the track makes a very tender, hesitant transition from In Dreams into this film’s end-credits anthem, Into the West.

While there is an undercurrent of sadness, the pervading sense is one of acceptance and peace. Gandalf now leaves his friends on his own terms, imparting comfort in a scene as placid as his first departure was tumultuous, while Galway’s whistle acts as a whisper on the wind, summoning Frodo to a land far beyond the burdens this life has placed upon him. And so he follows, to meet the sunrise with his mentor, his dear uncle, and the noblest of elves, but carrying with him the undying love of Merry, Pippin, and most especially Sam.

”Death is Just Another Path”

Of the three songs that grace the credits of each volume of Lord of the Rings, Into the West is my favorite. A companion to both The Grey Havens and In Dreams, the song, performed by Annie Lennox, hearkens back to Gandalf’s heartening words to Pippin as they watch the enemy’s monstrous battering ram pound its way into the city. Having experienced death first-hand, Gandalf is uniquely qualified to give the comfort Pippin seeks. We cannot say for certain if the wizard speaks from this authority or has merely woven a beautiful web of words in which to entrap his young charge’s terror, but faith that he speaks the truth carries us until the end of the film, when we, too, can see it just beyond the horizon into which Frodo is about to sail.

I’m still not clear if the words address Frodo directly, in this particular instance, or are meant to apply generally, towards all those who fell over the course of the films in the struggle to defeat evil and all those who will eventually come to this journey themselves. I lean towards Frodo because, after all, this is the conclusion of his quest, and because he and Bilbo are unique among hobbits in their inclusion on the Elven ships departing West. The song’s courageous undertones seem particularly suited to these weary but intrepid travelers. Yet the film leaves us with the powerful sense that while Frodo has taken an unusually direct path, those distant shores are not for him and Bilbo alone.

”Why Should Your Songs Be Unfit for My Halls?”

I realize I have gone out of order here, but that is only appropriate given the surprising nature of this track. As inspiring and beautiful as those last three tracks are, they also provide exactly what I anticipated. I expected a glorious conclusion, a sweeping return to all of the trilogy’s loveliest themes, particularly In Dreams, and a haunting aural actualization of the Grey Havens with all its emotional import. No less did I presume the final end-credits song would focus upon Frodo’s departure from the Havens. My expectations were gorgeously met, but it was The Steward of Gondor that left me open-mouthed, in no small measure because it caught me completely off-guard.

After the extreme diminution of his role in Towers, I wondered if Pippin might be lost in the shuffle in Return. I decided to trust the scriptwriters to allow Sam to carry the day - and Astin, I knew, would rise to the challenge - but I wasn’t even certain what I wanted out of Pippin besides more air time than Towers allowed him. Although I fell instantly in love with Boyd’s cheeky portrayal in Fellowship, the depth and sincerity he brought to Pippin in Return astonished me, and the scriptwriters’ decision to give him some of the most powerful scenes in the film left me deeply impressed.

This track finds Pippin in the service of Denethor, depraved Steward of Gondor. In the face of the lord’s grief over the death of his son Boromir, Pippin rather rashly offers himself in payment of the debt left to him when Boromir saved his life. The finality of this decision causes him to stumble as he pledges lifelong allegiance to Denethor, whose unkindness to his remaining son shocks Pippin. The lord is decent enough to the hobbit, but watching him gorge himself in his empty hall as his son rides to near-certain death leaves a bitter taste in Pippin’s mouth. Adrift in the midst of this grotesque grandeur, finally aware of how bleak the future of Middle-earth looks, he receives the request of a song from his new lord and master.

We have seen Pippin sing before, once in the extended edition of Fellowship and once near the beginning of this film. Both times, it’s a rowdy drinking song which includes dancing on the table by him and Merry. We get the sense that Denethor finds Pippin amusing, and he probably intends to use him more for a court jester than anything else, so it is most likely this type of entertainment that he seeks from his young servant. But as so often is the case in literature, it is the “fool” who speaks most wisely here.

We sense that Pippin’s hesitation stems not only from a sense of inadequacy but a reluctance to accept the full burden of knowledge of the horror about him; once he puts his fear into words, there can be no going back to the bliss of ignorance. The two and a half minutes leading up to his performance are the aural equivalent of a looming thundercloud about to burst until the unsteady advent of Boyd’s dulcet tones which echo funereally through the hollow halls of Minas Tirith. The words are Tolkien’s, from an old walking song written by Bilbo, and the Celtic flavor suits Boyd’s exquisite accent perfectly. The lament is made all the more powerful in the film by phenomenal editing, which turns the song into an elegy for Faramir’s doomed troops.

Boyd’s stirring a capella delivery of the song imbues each word with such weight that we truly get the sense that the enormity of the war has all come crashing down on Pippin in this single scene. The word “edge” in particular carries a bone-chilling quality, reflecting Pippin’s fear that the end of all things is at hand, while “fade,” the heartbreaking final word which he is barely able to verbalize, carries with it the intensity of his love for the Shire, which he now believes he will probably never see again, even if, against all odds, the quest should be successful. He is an innocent swept up in matters far beyond his control, and his wistful vocals allude to all those whose simple lives have been interrupted and endangered by the catastrophe of evil.

The inclusion of this stunning track alone is enough to recommend the album by, not to mention the Kleenex-worthy final three tracks. But the entire soundtrack is a masterful work which eases the long wait until Return makes it onto DVD. A must-have for anyone moved by the film.