Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Instrumental, Gandalf Warns about the Ring

In this essay accompanying my next instrumental, available at the end of the post, I am discussing the music of the three licensed versions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: the Rankin/Bass version, the Ralph Bakshi version, and the Peter Jackson version. From my understanding, while other versions exist, the Tolkien Estate did not approve them. While my own hypothetical animated musical likewise does not have approval, it also is not intended for commercial purposes, as detailed in my discussion on fair use back in the project introduction. Other musicians and performance groups who have written their own music or song cycles to be performed independently during a concert or on an album, rather than as a part of a musical score, will be discussed in a future essay.

The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980) by Rankin/Bass

This animated adaption aired on NBC and was beloved by American audiences, garnering a Peabody Award for children’s television programming. The National Association of Broadcasters established the Peabody Awards in 1941 to honor philanthropist George Foster Peabody, and these awards are now considered the Pulitzer Prize of broadcasting. After the success of the show, Disney released the LP soundtrack through the Buena Vista Records label, now called Disney Music Group. Jules Bass had adapted Tolkien’s original lyrics with approval from the Tolkien Estate, while Rankin/Bass musical director Maury Laws composed the music. Laws is best known for composing the score for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), which still plays every Christmas. The Hobbit featured an original theme song ,“The Greatest Adventure (The Ballad of the Hobbit)” sung by Glenn Yarbrough, a tenor folk singer. In fact, most songs in the movie have a 1970s folk vibe, clashing with the ancient and medieval music appearing in the original text, although perfectly executed by Yarbrough.

Rankin/Bass returned in 1980 to release The Return of the King, an unofficial follow-up to Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings, Part I to be discussed in the next section. Unlike The Hobbit, Return was a commercial failure and slapped with a lawsuit from the Tolkien Estate since Rankin/Bass never secured North American television rights. Christian film reviewer Decent Films referred to the music as an “intrusive, overbearing folk-ballad soundtrack that doesn’t even gesture lyrically, as the Hobbit songs did, to Tolkien’s poetry”. The vocal of Yarbrough seem to be the only redeeming factor. I have nothing more to say about this, except that I have listened to the full soundtrack, and I don’t recommend it.

The Lord of the Rings, Part I by Ralph Bakshi (1978)

Bakshi initially had an unconventional approach to the material. He loved the band Led Zepplin and thought their music would make an ideal soundtrack for the medieval fantasy epic. While Led Zepplin is among the most commercially successful British rock bands of all time, resulting in their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, and their music likely would have drawn people to the theaters, I do not think “Stairway to Heaven” was the right choice for climbing the steps to Cirith Ungol, or wherever that song was going to go.

Fortunately, producer Saul Zaentz wanted a classical-style orchestra, if only seemingly to make extra money releasing the soundtrack, which came out as a double-LP in 1978. Later in his career, Saul Zaentz would win the 1984 Academy Award for Best Picture as the producer of Amadeus, which also received the 1984 Academy Award for Best Sound, the 1986 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Sound, the 1985 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama, the 1984 or 27^th Annual Grammy Award for Best Classical Album, and its inclusion on the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress since 2019, among a high number of other awards. LOTR (1978) was not Amadeus.

Zaentz hired composer Leonard Rosenman to score the chaotic animation. Rosenman was a prolific and successful composer with plenty of other movies and television programs under his belt. According to his memorial, he wrote over a hundred and thirty compositions. Perhaps his best work was for East of Eden (1955), which was selected to the National Film Registry in 2016 despite bearing little resemblance to the identically named 1952 novel by John Steinbeck, who would later win the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Instead of the glowing success of Eden, the music for LOTR fell flat likely due to budgeting and time constraints. An American Film Institute (AFI) Catalog article citing the November 23, 1977 issue of Variety magazine states that Rosenman wanted to “assemble a ninety-piece orchestra, adult and children’s choruses of one hundred members each, and a small orchestra of ancient instruments for the film’s musical accompaniment”. Obviously, the budget did not allow for that, although the actual budget for the film has been reported as anywhere between $3 million and $12 million, and Rosenman received a small orchestra instead. Outside of the impressive choral and instrumental piece “Helm’s Deep” and the catchy “Ring Theme”, the sound is small if sometimes charming, sometimes chaotic, and often clichéd or dated, more like a community cornet band than an epic adventure. If the “Ring Theme” had been used only for the Shire, and Rosenman had received more musicians, then the movie as a whole may have found more success.

The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and The Hobbit (2012-2014) trilogies by Peter Jackson

By far the most successful LOTR soundtrack was composed by Howard Shore for the six-movie series directed by Peter Jackson. While I imagine Shore may have preferred to work on a musical more similar to Tolkien’s original work, his use of leitmotifs and access to a wide range of musicians allowed him to create an award-winning masterpiece, ranking him among the most successful living composers. A shortlist of his awards so far includes winning the Academy Award for Music (Original Score) in 2001 for The Fellowship of the Ring plus winning Best Original Song in 2003 for “Into the West”; a nomination for the BAFTA for Best Original Music in 2002 for Fellowship and in 2004 for Return; winning the Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Composer in 2001 for Fellowship and 2003 for Return, plus a nomination in 2002 for The Two Towers; a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score in 2001 for Fellowship and winning in 2003 for Return along with winning Best Original Song for “Into the West”; and winning a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for Fellowship at the 45^th Awards in 2002, Towers at the 46^th Awards in 2003, and Return at the 47^th Awards in 2004, plus winning Best Song Written for Visual Media for “Into the West”. Yes, that is the shortlist.

Shore’s work on the films was so extensive that music expert Doug Adams wrote an entire book on the subject, The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films with an accompanying CD The Lord of the Rings: The Rarities Archive released by Alfred Music in 2010. The music for all six films combined has a run time of over twenty-four hours. If this was not enough, Shore demonstrates an astonishing range in the films he has scored, including Big (1988), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), and Hugo (2011). His style is fresh for each film, and yet he maintains consistency throughout a film series. My one regret is that he has yet to teach on MasterClass.

Obviously, I am not trying to compete with Shore (yet). The masterful composer has been writing film scores professionally since 1978 when he scored I Miss You Hugs & Kisses, a poorly rated “video nasty” or low-budget horror movie in the UK, which proves everyone has to start somewhere. Shore’s success can be attributed not only to talent, but years of hard work plus a budget for an enormous range of instruments. He could afford the massive orchestras and choirs that Rosenman longed for, which Shore reported in a 2001 interview as “a 100-piece symphony orchestra, a 60-voice mixed choir, a 30-piece all-boys choir, and 10 vocal instrumental soloists”. In the same interview, Shore mentioned using “instruments from North Africa and from East India” to create Elvish sounds, which does not align with the cultural coding of the original text but did produce a beautiful sound.

Additionally, Shore took a note from our old friend Wagner by creating so many leitmotifs for characters and places that fans argue over the number. Some count “a handful” of themes with multiple variations, while others believe up to eighty themes exist. No matter the number of leitmotifs, the interplay between them creates a cohesive soundtrack across a pair of lengthy trilogies, the most comprehensive film score collection in the world to date.

My Own Methodology

While operating on a budget of zero dollars and my free time, the wonders of modern technology afford me a mighty midi orchestra where I can select from a wide range of instruments and virtual musicians who never tire. The sound is not as high quality as a live orchestra but considering that this is a demo reel and not a commercial production, it suits me just fine. As with all pieces that take place in the Shire, the instruments appearing in this piece are played by hobbit musicians as I described thoroughly in “Musicians of the Shire”.

A wizard wearing a blue hat pokes his head into the room as a young adult hobbit wearing party clothes speaks to him.

The song begins in 4/4 time in the key of E-flat major at 120 beats per minute. The first melody is a simplified version of “The Decision Theme”, which was introduced during the instrumental for “Bilbo Gives Up the Ring”. That version of the theme featured a trumpet solo, as I use the trumpet to represent Bilbo, while this version features the harp, previously used during “The Introduction Song” and “The Want Song” to represent Frodo. While Bilbo’s trumpet stole the melody, Frodo’s harp plays an ostinato or repeated set of notes to support the melody. The harp begins in a high register similar to Frodo’s vocal range but soon adds notes two octaves below in a low register at the same time that the bassoon takes the melody line. This indicates that Gandalf has important input to the decisions that Frodo must make.

A tall wizard stands in a wood-paneled room as a young adult hobbit speaks while looking at his furry feet.

The melody repeats in the same key with emphasis on the bass notes as Gandalf continues imparting advice to Frodo. During the last line of the melody, its tempo slows to 100 beats per minute and then modulates up a major second or full step to F-major. A playful countermelody takes the place of the melody in the first violin, while the melody remains in the bassoon. Gandalf has given mysterious advice to Frodo, warning him to keep the ring a secret and rarely wear it, but Frodo seems more curious than scared. Frodo’s mood shifts when Gandalf announces that he intends to leave at once. Likewise, the melody shifts to F minor, producing a sadder sound while all instruments remain the same. The last measure of the minor melody tags four times while the volume decrescendos to pianissimo as Gandalf finishes explaining his growing unpopularity in the Shire.

A tall wizard sits on his heels beside a young adult hobbit. The wizard appears sad. His eyes are wide and his bushy eyebrows slant.

After a prolonged pause, the instrumentation changes abruptly as Frodo suddenly releases the anger and hurt he has kept mostly in check during the chapter. The tempo ramps up to a 130 beats per minute with a loud bass drum creating a heartbeat rhythm. The ostinato in the harp returns at fortissimo with staccato along with accents emphasizing the first and third beat, changing the gently repeating notes into a relentless attack. All other instruments have fallen silent. A simple melody on the harp rings out in an octave above the ostinato but is cut short as Frodo’s anger burns out as quickly as it sparked.

A close-up of the face of a young hobbit as he speaks angrily.

The final two sections of the piece are simple chord progressions in increasingly slower tempos with quieter dynamics. A gentle variation of the heartbeat rhythm returns in the bass drum while the other standard hobbit instruments play a prolonged C minor chord, also known as the dominant or V chord in F minor, while the harp arpeggiates this chord. (The use of Roman numerals in music theory was briefly explained in “The Road Goes Ever On”.) After another pause, the chord resolves not to F minor as expected but to an E-flat major chord. This is the V chord of A-flat major, the relative of F minor, along with the I or tonic of E-flat major, the key where the piece started. The notes have metaphorically returned home and yet the piece feels unresolved, as the key signature is different from where it began. Similarly, Frodo has stated about as explicitly as possible for a Tolkien character that his love for Bilbo is greater than his love of Bag End and the Shire, his home where he is not accepted. While Gandalf briefly agrees with Frodo, although not going so far as to comfort him, the wizard soon attempts to lighten the mood by loudly leaving.

A bent wizard sadly walks down a narrow path in the evening as the sky grows dark.

This scene marks the end of “Book I, Chapter 1, The Long-Expected Party”. All the music and illustrations previously appearing on my blog, along with yet to be released materials, will appear in an animatic to premiere on October 26. I will be releasing a bonus song next week, October 12, in line with my interpretation of the text and the form of the modern Western musical. On October 18, The Tolkien Society is hosting a free online seminar, Arda’s Entangled Bodies and Environments, and I hope to watch the replays on their YouTube channel to provide brief summaries and light commentary for my October 19 post. This will also give me time to finish assembling the animatic, which is currently in well-organized pieces rather than a cohesive video, and in some cases not yet illustrated or recorded. I hope you have enjoyed the journey to this point, and the production process looks to be much more efficient going forward.

Watch the instrumental here: