2022-04-26 17:11:09
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey returns composer Howard Shore to the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the compositional world he established in The Lord of the Rings. Shore’s sweeping score to The Lord of the Rings followed an operatic model by establishing an encyclopedic network of leitmotifs: dozens of themes that represented cultures, characters, objects, and dramatic concepts in Middle-
earth. This stirring opus is both expanded and returned to its foundations in the composer’s score to The Hobbit. “I have looked forward to returning to the imaginative world created by J.R.R. Tolkien for quite a while. I read all of Tolkien’s books, including The Hobbit, when I was in my twenties,” says Shore. “Tolkien’s deep love of nature and all things green resonates deeply with me.”
Sixty years before The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo Baggins lives a life full of comfort — and utterly devoid of adventure. The music of the Shire, the Hobbits’ verdant home, is never more lush or peaceful than it is in Bilbo’s younger days. The land is painted in the sweet green tones of a stepwise theme, and is adorned by folk instruments such as penny whistle, recorders, concertina, musette, mandolin, dulcimer, guitar, and bodhrán. But the quaint plainness of Bilbo’s life ceases when a wandering Wizard comes calling.
Gandalf the Grey is better known in the Shire for his fi reworks than for his wizardry. Mere mention of his name evinces a sprightly recurring theme for his beloved pyrotechnics. But this trip to the Shire has been precipitated by Gandalf’s search for “someone to share in an adventure.” He brings with him, this time, his own theme — a gentle turn that rarely exceeds a subdued mezzo forte dynamic level and is orchestrated for light woodwinds, French horn, or violins. Gandalf’s theme is unassuming yet subtly disruptive. Like the Shire, it is built on simple pitches; but where the Hobbits’ music forms linear patterns, Gandalf’s theme twists and curls over ambiguous harmonies. It is a musical nudge out of the door — a phrase that opens the Shire music to a mysterious new development.
As Gandalf marks Bag End with a rune, the Shire theme is stretched over minor harmonies better suited to a Wizard than a Hobbit (B minor–G minor). It is the first time this variation has appeared in the Shire, but it will not be the last, for it becomes synonymous with Bilbo’s “odd” behavior. But how could he behave otherwise? Alerted by the Wizard’s mark — and accompanied by a touch of uilleann pipes — a throng of hungry Dwarves soon comes trundling into Bag End to blunt the knives and crack the plates. The Dwarves, however, intend to assault more than Bilbo’s cutlery. Led by Thorin Oakenshield, the company has assembled to plot their return to the lost kingdom of Erebor. Gandalf has decreed that Bilbo is to join the Dwarves’ quest as their resident burglar — despite his complete lack of burgling experience. Bilbo protests that he is a Baggins, and thus better suited to plush chairs and musty books. But Gandalf knows that the son of Belladonna Took is tempted by the opportunity to see the world beyond his windows.
Bilbo will always be a citizen of the Shire, and its theme will always defi ne him. The pull-and-push inherent in Bilbo’s dual natures creates a unique two-part variation of the Shire theme that stretches its pentatonic-flavored harmonies into something more expressive and thoughtful. For better or worse, Bilbo is no ordinary Hobbit. The first half of his theme wraps itself tightly in safe, warm harmonies and cozy melodic contours. However, after a subtle harmonic turn, the theme moves into a new key and exposes Bilbo’s emerging thirst for excitement with leaping intervals and a stout, confident tone.
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