Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical

After many weeks of anticipation, the next song in the animated musical is ready to debut. “The Want Song” is possibly the biggest musical number in the production in terms of length and number of singers. It functions as a foil to “The Introduction Song”, a literary device typically meaning a character who contrasts another character, but in this case, I used it to describe a song that contrasts another song. I have a degree in the field, so I can change words like that. While “The Introduction” juxtaposed a wordy solo by Frodo describing Middle-earth with the ‘rustic’ hobbits talking about their local community, “The Want Song” features solos by all of the major characters appearing in the scene along with a closing section from the wealthy hobbits talking about their desires. These two songs cover the complete range of attitudes about the Shire and its people. Going forward, most songs will be short solos or small groups, although several larger group numbers are slated for the future. I will describe the four melodies that appear in the piece, how these melodies connect to musical conventions in the Real World, and technical aspects to how I created this song.

“I Want” Songs

Returning to the work of musical theater expert John Kenrick, songs where the characters declare what they want are incredibly common in modern Western musicals to the point of nearly being required. Ariel from Disney’s The Little Mermaid wants to be where the people are in “Part of Your World”. Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz wants to be “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady wants a house, a husband, and decent food in “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly”. The rest of the story determines whether or not the characters receive their wants.

Based on my interpretation of the text, I wrote a verse for most of the main characters appearing in these scenes. The melody was first sung by Hamfast Gamgee during “The Introduction Song”, as he wanted his son, Sam, to stay safe by not getting into the business of his ‘betters’. In “The Want Song”, Sam wants to have his own place with a garden where he can be happy with Rose, who wants the world to be more just. Bilbo wants his party to go well and for Frodo to enjoy it, or even express enjoyment in anything not involving Bilbo. Frodo seems convinced of his destiny to die young and accordingly does not know what he wants. Gandalf wants to accomplish his list of things to do, including speaking with Bilbo and saving Middle-earth. The wealthy hobbits at the party want Bilbo’s speeches to be brief. Purists may complain about these verses not being ambiguous enough, or for elaborating on Rose’s canonically outspoken personality, but the typical musical viewer would appreciate that this song adheres to a structure commonly found in musicals.

“I Am” Songs

As the title implies, these types of songs allow characters to tell the audience exactly who they are. Examples include the call and response song “I Am the Pirate King” plus the patter song “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance along with “I’m an Ordinary Man” sung by Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. Since “I Am” songs are scarcer than want songs, I have included only “I Am” verse in this section. Merry is among the most privileged characters in this sequence and therefore wants nothing. He lets his younger cousin Pippin know that he will grow up to rule Buckland and have adventures, and Pippin is invited to join him.

Sam’s Love Theme

At this stage in the entire musical, the theme “Sam’s Love” has not developed into a full love song, so a more in-depth discussion about love songs will appear much later. Instead, I will touch on musical motifs or leitmotifs here. Richard Wagner is best known for his leitmotifs, discussed in detail during “The Epigraph” and “The Introduction Song”. He used leitmotifs about love throughout his work. In Der fliegende Holländer [The Flying Dutchman], a four-measure leitmotif representing the unwavering, obsessive love between a young woman and a sailor whose curse to aimlessly roam the sea can only be broken through the selfless sacrifice of another. Both the leitmotif and “Sam’s Love” first appear in the key of D major and start with a similar note sequence: the leitmotif begins AGGFE while “Sam’s Love” begins AEGGF. A major difference is that the leitmotif has a 2/2 time signature, while “Sam’s Love” has a 6/8 time signature.

Just as Wagner recycled his leitmotifs through multiple key signatures and tempos, “Sam’s Love” will continue to appear in different forms. A sped-up version of the chords in this melody first appeared towards the end of “The Introduction Song” when Sam declared, “Everyone’s going to be invited to the party…” Here, the melody appears twice at its standard speed and is accompanied by lyrics. It is appended to the end of Sam and Rosie’s duet at the beginning of the piece, and Sam interjects it between Bilbo’s first verse and Frodo’s only verse.

While the melody appears in these locations because it sounds good, those who want a deeper interpretation will notice the strategic placement. The tune is matched with the three things Sam loves the most: gardening, Rosie, and Frodo. Its placement at the beginning of the song shows how Sam’s motivations to protect the three things he loves will ultimately save the world, which in turn allows the wants of the other characters to be fulfilled. Its placement between the verses of Bilbo and Frodo shows the complex relationship between these three characters. As discussed during “Masters & Servants”, Bilbo may have gifted Sam to Frodo as a pet or at least intended him to be a lesser companion, but their relationship would eventually develop beyond expectation to become best friends, as equal as they could be in their society. Years later, Frodo’s obsession with Bilbo would hamper his friendship with Sam, or maybe his dependency on Sam affected his relationship with Bilbo, to be discussed in future essays.

The Goodbye / Farewell Theme

Bilbo is not the in-universe inventor of this theme, but if my script does not undergo significant changes, he will be the first and last person to sing it. The origin of this theme will appear many months from now. Wagner’s famous farewell sequence occurs in Die Walküre [The Valkyrie], the second of the four operas in his epic Der Ring des Nibelungen [The Ring of the Nibelungs]. The titular Valkyrie Brunhilde rescued her pregnant half-sister Sieglinde who had accidentally married her twin, Siegmund. Their philandering immortal father, Wotan, loved all his messed up children and put Brunhilde into a magical sleep so the other gods would not kill her as they had done to Siegmund and later Sieglinde. A set of leitmotifs representing destiny and renunciation of immortality played right before he invoked the sleeping spell.

As for modern musicals, goodbye songs are fairly common and can range in tone from cheery and upbeat to depressing. “So Long, Farewell” appears twice in the Sound of Music, while the musical Bye bye, Birdie is fully dedicated to the concept, especially its opening and closing song by the same name. I would argue that “Anatevka” from Fiddler on the Roof qualifies as a goodbye song, as the villagers were forced to leave their home and lifelong neighbors during an expulsion of Jews from Russia. While “Time to Say Goodbye (Con te partirò)” is not from a musical, the English-Italian song written by Andrea Bocelli and often performed in duet with Sarah Brightman is well-known as a closing number.

I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing

This is the opening line to a 1971 Coca-Cola advertising jingle featuring the voices of the New Seekers and a group of lip-synching young adults from around the world assembled specifically for a television commercial. According to the blog This Is Not Advertising, the song was first imagined by William Montague “Bill” Backer, an award-winning creative director for the advertising agency McCann Erickson, now called McCann. Joining him to complete the lyrics was Roger Cook, now a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Billy Roquel Davis, who also wrote jingles for Miller Beer. The tune had been written by Cook and fellow songwriter Roger Greenaway, also a Songwriters Hall of Fame member.

The cheerful melody with positive lyrics about uniting the world, if for capitalistic purposes, struck a chord with consumers. It has even appeared in the hymnal Songs edited by Yohann Anderson and published in 1988. Maybe the line about buying the world a Coke was replaced with a different line for telling the world about Jesus. Two versions of the song were recorded for commercial release and both spent time on the Billboard charts. Since the message of the song, minus its aim to sell Coke products, was in line with the message of global unity found in The Lord of the Rings, and the lyrics suggest that this is a want song as found in modern Western musicals, I took inspiration from the melody. Both songs have a time signature in common time, also called 4/4 time. “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” is in the key of C and begins with the notes AGACAGACCDEDED for “I’d like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love”. “The Want Song” begins in the key of G with the notes DBDGDEDDBDGDE for “I want to have a garden that I can call me own.” The movement of the notes up and down the scale is similar, but “I’d Like to Buy” pivots around the tonic (I) or the note representing the key signature, while “The Want Song” pivots around the dominant (V) or the note a fifth above the key signature. This allows the songs to create the same feelings while not being so close that my song becomes a copyright infringement.

Conclusion

Like past songs, I wrote the sheet music in MuseScore 4 and exported both images of the sheet music and an MP3 sound file of the piece minus the vocals. I must put a disclaimer here on the potential level of annoyance some audience members may experience. Because I believe hobbits are intended to have high pitched little voices owing to their size, I used Audacity to pitch up many of the vocals. The effect is similar to the mice in Disney’s Cinderella, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the animated cast of VeggieTales. Also note that characters are mostly voiced by me using silly accents. I am not a professional singer, but neither are the hobbits. You will notice that some characters are capable of singing in tune, and some are not. Special thanks to my editor, also known as my dad, for portraying Gandalf.

For other sound effects, I used a crowd noise recorded by Freesound user toonothing pitched up a third, which last appeared in “Places: Hobbiton” during the funeral scene. I also used some pitching for background music, as I wanted to modulate the somewhat repetitive theme to get a little variety, and I did not feel like manually transposing sheet music for my digital orchestra. Finally, if you are not a fan of this section, don’t worry! You may remember all the way back to the “Introduction by Peter S. Beagle” that reviewer W.H. Auden called the first chapter “a little shy-making” with “initial archness” but ended up adoring the rest of the book and other works of Tolkien. I have no issue with viewers skipping sections they do not care for, but they will miss out on the delight of peeking into the life of festive and sometimes aggressive hobbits.

Watch “The Want Song” here: