A Ring resounds in Middle-earth:
An artistic response to the thematic theatrics of
Howard Shore's scores
by John Cockshaw
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| Ring Cycle (2014) |
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| Ascension and decline (2014) |
A scene quietly unfolds
onscreen.
A well-known wizard sits
in front of a warmly-lit hearth in concerned contemplation,
The focus of his thoughts
is simply a ring.
The orchestra stirs gently,
The strings swell ever so
slightly,
An ancient-sounding musical
theme is heard, circling with a breath-like regularity.
This is an early
appearance of the History of the ring
as identified and analysed by musicologist Doug Adams chronicler of Howard
Shore’s score for The Lord of the Rings, and this breathing quality is a
trademark of much of Shore’s music but also stands as one of the components
that brings his Middle-earth writing to life so enticingly.
This is a theme of many
guises and permutations over the course of a 10 hour plus film score that gives
a musical voice to that most central of objects in Tolkien’s Middle-earth; The
One Ring. Through this theme the ring of
power is bestowed with anthropomorphic qualities and assumes its central spot
in the weighty drama with ever increasing diversity as the storytelling
progresses.
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| Variations on a theme of The Ring of Power (2014) |
Howard Shore’s film score
taken as a telling of J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings in its own
right is a tremendously vast operatic work, a masterful orchestral powerhouse
of a score written in the digital age of film music. Tied to the film trilogy
it works beautifully and away from it works exactly the same on account of its
multi-textured and thematically rich presentation. It is a kingly gift to devotees of Tolkien’s
books as well as enthusiasts of the film it accompanies and also to lovers of
grand symphonic film music who might lament the lack of that trend in film
music today. Each of the separate scores
for The
Fellowship of The Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King form a separate act in a unifying and
immensely satisfying whole.
Concert performances,
lectures, a symphony, a whole book by Doug Adams and a trio of ‘complete
recordings’ releases have sprung from this grand musical work – the legacy of Shore’s
work has extended much further beyond the film trilogy it accompanies, but of
course wouldn’t have been afforded the necessity or budget to come into being
without it. There will always be other
fine orchestral interpretations of Tolkien’s Middle-earth to give it company,
such as Johan De Mej’s Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings,
Stephen Oliver’s music for the much-loved BBC Radio adaptation and Leonard
Rosenman’s score to the Ralph Bakshi animated film. But none of these offer such an extensive
effort at world-building through music that Shore achieves, and that is another
particular aspect of Howard Shore’s score that defines its brilliance. The benefit of in-depth planning and roughly
a year-long period of preparation for each of the film scores is a circumstance
that happens all too rarely on film projects simply for the lack of time,
impossibly short deadlines and other conspiring circumstances. Shore’s The Lord of the Rings
is a product of its unique circumstances with the composer being involved in
the film production from an early stage in its development. Canadian composer Shore came to the
production with prior experience of composing music for literary adaptations
and approaching projects with an operatic sensibility. In his 2010 book The Music of The Lord of the
Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of Howard Shore’s Scores Doug
Adams comments that the search for the right composer for the project was a
crucial element for the production team to get right, “the author’s complex
literary structure required a worthy musical equivalent. And then there was the epic tale itself,
overflowing with cultures, customs, friendship, sacrifice, adventure and
danger.”
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| A Ring resounds in Middle-earth (2014) |
It is no accident that a
staggering amount of thematic and motivic components are alive in the score,
approximately eighty at Adams’ and Shore’s count and more than I will even
scratch the surface of here. The
approach to the score involved the use of the leitmotif and an impressionistic
use of themes and musical ideas, particularly for the choral writing that
referenced Tolkien’s own invented languages.
Cultures of Middle-earth possess unique instrumental ranges,
orchestrations and rhythms that release a whole manner of musical alchemy when
they interact and collide. The softer
and more introspective elements of the score express the overall themes and
propel the weighty drama just as much as the most urgent clashes of orchestral
might. In terms of sheer scope, let
alone the aspect of a central ring being the feature, it brings to mind Wagner’s
grand opera Der Ring Des Nibelungen.
Shore’s work can certainly be described as Wagnerian on account of its
thematic treatment but it is understood that if Shore’s Ring work has any
comparative qualities to a Wagner operatic work then it is not the
aforementioned Der Ring Des Nibelungen or Ring cycle but Parsifal. In 2011 Doug Adams contributed to a concert-based
lecture Of Myths and Rings: Shore and Wagner that examined comparisons between Shore’s Middle-earth music and
Wagner’s Ring opera with
a focus on the mythology that acted as inspiration for both composers’ epic Ring
works.
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| The finding of the ring (2012) |
Given my enthusiasm for
Howard Shore’s complex film score as a partner work to Tolkien’s writing it was
inevitable it would extend its influence to my approach for building a
collection of Middle-earth-inspired artwork.
It was Shore’s music for Middle-earth as conveyed by musicologist Adams
that introduced me for the first time to the idea that, conceptually, music
could be described in landscape terms – that it could undulate like rolling
hills, ascend great vertical heights (think Caradhras and the winding stair of
the Western mountains of Mordor) and descend to deep cavernous depths of sombre
dread (the Balrog deep in the Mines of Moria).
This was an incredibly useful concept to draw upon when forming an
artistic approach that was very much landscape focused and used photography in
an impressionistic manner. As an artist
I became compelled to make small references to the analysis of Shore’s musical
storytelling in my work because the score has had exactly that kind of impact. Some of my work references this music in a
less oblique manner and is noted as such.
Many pieces from my body of work make reference to the titles of themes
identified in Shore’s work and express ideas connected to the music. With references to the following pieces I’d
like to illuminate a couple of points exactly how this has been approached alongside
other art pieces that reference musical ideas found in Tolkien’s source text in
general.
The History of the Ring
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| The History of the Ring (2012) |
In musical terms The One
Ring is the most active element in Shore’s score and presented in many states,
whether it be purely passive or recombining with a host of other thematic
material in its striving to return back to Mordor. The theme may begin in isolation from all
elements around it but in the progression of Shore’s score and its story arc in
interacts quite actively with the musical landscape of middle-earth. The third age of Middle-earth is very much
deeply affected by the plight of The One Ring and so this musical element
weaves through a great many aspects of middle-earth’s musical identity. In the ring’s dormant, slumberous state it is
alive with the aforementioned breath-like movement and it is notable too that
the melody cleverly draws a circular ring shape in music. The theme hooks the attention of the listener
with a set of multiple characteristics; it is seductive and sorrowful and
alludes to a grand passing of time. For
all its pleasantness as a musical element it easily transforms into a sentient
force intent on plotting its next movements. The theme also has a dangerous edge revealed
in its harmony where tell-tale signs uncover its underlying roots to the evil
of Mordor. The power of the ring and the
evil of Mordor are exactly the same thing in story terms but also literally
presented as such in music. One of the
additional themes for the ring and built from the same foundation of the history theme (4-5 pitches to be exact)
is referred to as The evil of the ring
and represents the musical identity of Sauron and Mordor. There is ultimately no separating The One Ring
from Mordor and a very close relationship musically is highly inevitable; for
all the beauty and seductiveness the music of the ring offers the sense of evil
and dread bound up with it is ever present – like a sting in the tail.
Wraith notes
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| Wraith notes (2014) |
As enlightened by the
analysis presented by Adams’ commentary the initial nine notes of The history of the ring theme become,
when played simultaneously, the pitches that comprise the Ringwraiths theme a ceremonial chant for chorus and orchestra and
the musical representation of the nine black riders.
In Wraith notes the dark spectral figure of one of the nine wraiths
stands in combination with ghostly stave elements. It is a response to the music expressing
death and dread with a single-minded purpose, and as the wraiths are servants
of Sauron the music reflects this lifeless slavishness; this is literally music
without life and as Adams point out ‘the melody line is almost mono-rhythmic
and without contour, and creates its sense of deadly anticipation through
ever-expanding voicings’.
Dark places of the world
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| Dark places of the world (2014) |
The title of the artwork Dark places of the world references a
very specific thematic element in Shore’s writing – although it does not
correlate exactly to what I have shown here visually rather its reference is
much more impressionistic. Shore’s theme
of this name is a three-note brass element, layered vertically to provide a
rising threat of dissonance for the most evil of moments in the mines of Moria;
the fellowship’s fleeing from danger in the Khazad-Dum sequence. Despite the theme title being directly
referenced in this piece the content of the scene is set much earlier when the
fellowship venture through the great halls and cavernous chambers of the dwarf
city of Dwarrowdelf. The impending
encounter with the Balrog is foreshadowed ominously by the fire-like glow
reflected upon the pillars of the scene and the hint of fire to the back of the
composition. The beast is out of sight
for now but its presence and the threat it represents is perilously near. The scene of the artwork also references the
musical theme for Dwarrowdelf itself. The halls of this city bestow an ancient
grandeur and typify the industry and aspirational craft of the dwarves. Howard Shore’s section of the film score for
this specific location expresses this in expert strokes, the music of Dwarrowdelf reaches high to mirror the
ambition of the dwarves but falls short of its reach only to fall solemnly into
despair. Any sense of majesty still
evoked is twinned firmly with tragedy and the whole scene is now ominously
empty and quiet – all but for the company of the fellowship who are truly
dwarfed by the scale of the pillars and the enveloping empty space. At this point in the story events will take a
dire turn before they get better.
Appropriate to the ascending and descending characteristic of the music
for Dwarrowdelf a subtle musical
reference has been coded into the artwork by way of the huge pillars; rotate
and view the artwork in landscape orientation will reveal the suggestion of
musical staves. When the piece is viewed
in portrait orientation as intended these elements stand vertically to express
the music’s ascending lift and simultaneous dismal fall into gloom and ruin.
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| DETAIL: Dark places of the world (2012) |
The dreams of trees unfold
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| The dreams of trees unfold (2012) |
Treebeard uses song in his
exchanges with Merry and Pippin upon their meeting in Fangorn Forest and the
meeting is cause of a fair amount of wonder and bemusement upon finding the
hobbits or ‘hole-dwellers’ don’t belong on any of the old lists that categorise
the residents and beings of Middle-earth.
A song is also the point of one of the most poignant moments of
Treebeard’s parsing with the hobbits; the lament of the loss of the entwives is
a deeply tragic aspect of their existence.
The sorrow of this predicament is evident in the verses of the song in
Tolkien’s text and it is also emphasised in the film and Shore’s score as a
deep-rooted sadness and searching existential sorrow exemplified by forlorn
string writing accompanying sweeping wide shots of the expansive forest. There is no such expansive treatment in my
image The dreams of trees unfold a
reference to a line of the verse rather than any assigned musical theme. Depicted is a sense of enclosed woodland
space on the edge of a much more expansive scene and Treebeard is almost disguised
in the surrounding trees, his focus searches outwards as expanses of time pass
in middle-earth and yet the entwives remain lost. The sorrow of the situation sits in what is
also a scene of pleasant fresh-morning daylight and this mirrors the functioning
effect of the music, for although this part of Shore’s score is sorrowful it is
also one of the more lush and peaceful sections of music in an otherwise
weighty and dramatic act for The Two
Towers.
“When summer lies upon the world, and in a
noon of gold
Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the
dreams of trees unfold;
When woodland halls are green and cool, and
wind is in the west,
Come back to me!
Come back to me and say my land is best.”
The Two Towers Chapter IV Treebeard p.467
The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R.Tolkien)
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| The dreams of trees - portrait and figure (2013) |
Encounter in a woodland glade
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| Encounter in a woodland glade (2012) |
A meeting of two
characters in J.R.R Tolkien’s wider middle-earth writing possesses a tenderly
appealing musical aspect and is the focus of the artwork Encounter in a woodland glade.
It can be said that the identity of the meeting couple presented here is
not rigidly assigned and many possibilities may be presented, but the scene is
ultimately very resonant of the encounter between Beren and Luthien. Beren, in his far travels, chanced upon the
dancing figure of Luthien Tinuviel in the woodland of late evening and was captivated
upon this encounter. To express the
meeting of this mortal and elf-kind the couple are seen at a distance enveloped
in the evening-hued colours of the surrounding woodland, and I’ve deliberately
chosen Autumn colours for their rich tones and captivating beauty. The musical beauty inherent in the natural
world is one that I always feel inclined to interpret in Tolkien’s writing and
is summarised in this intimate artwork.
“Tinuviel’s joy was rather in the dance, and
no names are set with hers for the beauty and subtlety of her twinkling
feet...the ground was moist and a great misty growth of hemlocks rose beneath
the trees...there Tinuviel danced until the evening faded late, and there were
many white moths abroad...now did he see Tinuviel dancing in the twilight, and
Tinuviel was in a silver-pearly dress, and her bare white feet were twinkling
among the hemlock-stems”
Chapter 1 The Tale
of Tinuviel p.10-11
The Book of Lost
Tales Part II J.R.R Tolkien (Unwin Paperbacks)
A very definite biographical
slant on the artwork is made in reference to Tolkien’s own life. The village of Roos in Holderness, East
Yorkshire is well known to be the location of a similar scene to that of Beren
and Luthien where Tolkien’s wife Edith performed a song and dance in a wood
full of hemlocks, which made a great impression on Tolkien to the point of it
inspiring his written work and extending to the touching story of ‘Beren’ and
‘Luthien’ being engraved on the respective gravestones of John Ronald (J.R.R)
and his wide Edith in reference to The
Tale of Tinuviel in The Book of Lost Tales Part II by J.R.R Tolkien.
Works cited and sources referenced:
The Music of The
Lord of the Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of Shore’s Scores by Doug Adams.
Carpentier / Alfred Music Publishing 2010
The Lord of
the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien
(Paperback) HarperCollinsPublishers
London 2007 (based on the 50th Anniversary Edition published 2004)
The Book of
Lost Tales Part II by J.R.R
Tolkien George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) (Unwin Paperbacks) London 1986
Yorkshire
Tour proves East Yorkshire can be Hobbit forming http://m.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/ 30 April 2012. Johnson Publishing Ltd
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