The Garden Gate

Most composers spend just 10-12ish weeks working on a film’s music. John Williams spent around 14 weeks on each Star Wars movie, 40ish weeks total for the whole OT……but composing the LOTR trilogy’s soundtrack took four years

The vocals you hear in the soundtrack are usually in one of Tolkien’s languages (esp. Elvish). The English translations of the lyrics are all poems, or quotes from the book, or occasionally even quotes from other parts of the films that are relevant to the scene

When there were no finished scenes for him to score, Howard Shore would develop musical themes inspired by the scripts or passages from the book. That’s how he got all Middle-Earth locations have their own unique sound: he was able to compose drafts of “what Gondor would sound like” and “what Lorien would sound like” long before any scenes in those places were filmed

Shore has said his favorite parts to score were always the little heartfelt moments between Frodo and Sam

Shore wrote over 100 unique leitmotifs/musical themes to represent specific people, places, and things in Middle Earth (over 160 if you count The Hobbit)

The ones we all talk about are the Fellowship theme, the main Shire Theme, and the themes for places like Gondor, Mordor, Rohan, and Rivendell…but a lot of the more subtle ones get overlooked and underappreciated

Like Aragorn’s theme. It’s a lot less “obvious” than the others because, like Aragorn himself, it adapts to take on the color of whatever place Aragorn is in: it’s played on dramatic broody stringed instruments in Bree, on horns in  battle scenes, softly on the flute with Arwen in Rivendell….

Eowyn has not just one but three different leitmotifs to represent her

Gollum and Smeagol both have their own leitmotifs! Whose theme music is playing in the scene can often tell you whether the Gollum or Smeagol side is “winning” at the moment

The melody for Gollum’s Song in the end credits of the The Two Towers is the Smeagol and Gollum themes smushed together (it’s Symbolic)

And then there’s the really obscure ones. Like there’s a melody that plays at Boromir’s death that shows up again in ROTK in scenes that foreshadow a major death or loss

Wikipedia actually has a list of these leitmotifs, click this link and scroll down to check it out if you’re bored

Shore wanted the theme music to grow alongside the characters– so that as the characters changed, their theme music would change with them.  

You can hear that most clearly in the Shire theme. Like the hobbits, it goes through A Lot 

Like compare the childish lil penny whistle theme you hear in Concerning Hobbits/the beginning of FOTR with (throws a dart at random Beautiful Tragic Hobbit Character Development scene because there WAY TOO MANY to choose from) the scene when Pippin finds Merry on the battlefield, where you hear a kind of shattered and broken but more mature version of that same theme in the background 

I could write you a book on how much I love the way the Shire theme grows across the course of these films 

Unlike the hero’s themes, which constantly change and grow, the villain’s themes (The One Ring theme, the Isengard theme, etc) remain basically the same from the very beginning of FOTR to the end of ROTK. Shore said this was an intentional choice: to emphasize that evil is static, while good is capable of change

House Bolton: “Our Blades Are Sharp”

solid but workmanlike house words. good implicit threat. could have been a bit more poetic, but then again, so could most of the Boltons 7/10

House Greyjoy: “We Do Not Sow”

really just a sentence that deserves a polite “oh?” in response 3/10

House Lannister: “Hear Me Roar!”

a good and fearsome lion image, but undercut by the exclamation point which frankly by lannister standards is trying too hard. if you asked tywin lannister about this, he would tell you with quiet irritation that the exclamation point was not his doing 9/10

House Arryn: “As High as Honor”

very poetic and elegant, and a nice reference to the Eyrie. clearly means to instill admiration rather than fear, and it works. unfortunately, also invites humorous drug-related double entendres 8/10

House Tyrell: “Growing Strong”

needs serious reconsideration! implies that house tyrell is not already strong! all for the sake of a weak pastoral pun! 2/10

House Stark: “Winter is Coming”

unbelievably goth. not only promises the destruction of you and all your loved ones but also possibly of the starks and all their loved ones. the ultimate buckle the fuck up house words 11/10

House Tarly: “First in Battle”

nicely aggressive! but ambiguous. does this mean house tarly is first onto the field, or first numerically when the winners are ranked, because that’s not really how battles work. it must also be said that these house words sound like a high school superlative. 6/10

House Targaryen: “Fire and Blood”

good use of dramatic standalone nouns. very threatening, if a tad unhinged, which is a decent summation of house targaryen. at least they’re honest about it 8/10

House Martell: “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken”

are you tho.

9/10 if read alone but 5/10 when read with the cruel dramatic irony of the series

House Tully: “Family, Duty, Honor”

the worse of the two mottos separated by two commas. unlike “Fire and Blood,” none of these nouns is romantic or exciting enough to inspire my loyalty. sounds vaguely like a westerosi sequel to eat pray love 4/10

House Baratheon: “Ours is the Fury”

the perfect house words. confident, dynamic, and unifying. also thrillingly catchy and filled with the thirst of war itself. would be so satisfying to scream before riding onto a battlefield 10/10 

House Wode: “Touch Me Not”