Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | The Want Song (Sam’s Reprise)

As promised last week, this portion of the animated musical does not appear in the original text, nor in any of its drafts. Thus far, I have used few creative licenses during my adaption. Costumes and architecture rely on historical designs and the original text. “The Introduction Song” and “The Want Song” were summaries of what appeared in the Prologue, Appendixes, and “Book I, Chapter 1, The Long-Expected Party”, while “One Ring” and “The Road Goes Ever On” were taken nearly verbatim from the book. The one difference is the more obvious nature of my framing device, which features Elanor Gardner Fairbairn reading and editing the book as she chooses what will appear in the Red Book of Westmarch. Some scenes from this hypothetical original manuscript will not make her cut.

I have two reasons for adding a scene culminating in “The Want Song (Sam’s Reprise)”. Tolkien was concerned about the structure of the original text, and I am likewise concerned with the structure of my adaption as it relates to the structure of the modern Western musical. An important song must appear again at least once, and this second appearance is called a reprise. Additionally, one of my favorite parts of the legendarium was the description of Bilbo’s house at the beginning of The Hobbit because it reminded me of a house tour. Accordingly, in the rest of this essay, I will describe the origins of house tours in the United States and Great Britain along with explaining the concept of a reprise. Finally, I will describe the final song in this section and share screenshots of the animatic to appear alongside it.

Reprises

The word “reprise” appeared in English during the late 14^th century to mean a “yearly deduction from charges upon a manor or estate”, which seems to be the feudalistic equivalent to a tax return. The current meaning of “a repeated passage” arrived in 1879, while the modern verb meaning to repeat a musical performance came in 1965. Happy 60^th birthday to reprising! Before then, musicians used the term “recapitulation”, a synonym of “summary”. The related word “reprisal” is a legal term for a politically motivated act of retaliation as both words come from the Latin word reprendere meaning “to seize”.

Some musicians consider any length of repeated music to be a reprise, including verses of a song or motifs throughout an opera cycle. However, the most common usage comes from musical theater. Referring back to musicals that have made previous appearances on the blog, The Sound of Music (1965) uses reprises to show the shift in tone between the first half of the musical and the second half. The song “So Long, Farewell” is sung for the first time by the von Trapp children before they go to bed during a fancy party. The reprisal is sung by the entire von Trapp family during a talent show for Nazis who have invaded their town.

A shift in tone is also found in The Music Man (1962) with the song “Seventy-Six Trombones”. Initially, con man Harold Hill sings the upbeat tune to brag about his fictional accomplishments to the people of River City, Iowa. Later, as he falls in love with local librarian Marian, they both sing snippets of “Trombones” along with the song “Goodnight, My Someone”. The song even appears a third time at the end of the movie version with Harold and Marian walking down the street arm-in-arm in front of the actual marching band.

In contrast, no tonal shifts occur in the Gilbert & Sullivan musical The Pirates of Penzance (1879), which . During the second act, a chorus of Policemen sing their silly song “When the foeman bares his steel”, declaring their intention to attack the pirates and then quickly deciding against it. The song reprises when the policemen are called back by strong female protagonist Mabel, who shames them into doing their job.

A History of House Tours

Despite the house tours themselves being full of history, I could find very little directly stating when the modern concept of a historic house tour began. Instead, I investigated the concept of historic restoration, which goes together with the house tour like Harold and Marian marching in front of their band. Since the United States and Great Britain operate on vastly different timelines, I will explore both routes in the history of restoring houses for public viewing.

The first preserved historic house in the United States is widely cited to be Hasbrouk House or Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site in Newburgh, NY, which was purchased by the state in 1850. Because of the age of the house, the length of its time as a preserved property, and its status as the place where George Washington stayed for the longest time during the American Revolutionary War, from April 1782 to August 1783, this building is incredibly special in the world of old house enthusiasts. For accolades, the house has been a National Historic Landmark since 1961, on the National Register of Historic Places since 1966, and on the New York State Register of Historic Places since the list began in 1980. Alas, I have not yet visited.

While this was the first preserved house, it is not the most famous preserved house. Even I, the historic house expert, did not know of Hasbrouk House before beginning this research. The most famous of this earliest period of restoration is Mount Vernon, the plantation owned by George Washington. The house was saved by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association beginning in 1858, a mere eight years after Hasbrouk House. The association was founded even earlier through the work of Ann Pamela Cunningham in 1853, and she led the organization until 1894. She raised enough money for a down-payment on the $200,000 mansion — more than what I paid for my condo in 2024 and equivalent to about $8.4 million today — and paid off the house in five years. While the house tour has changed drastically over the years and given more focus to the legacy of slavery at the site, the concept of buying an old house, fixing it up, and charging a fee to see what was done remains the same.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the king of this concept, William Sumner Appleton Jr., founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) now doing business as Historic New England. I will take any excuse to mention that I have visited all thirty-eight of the HNE properties and cataloged them on this blog, but a more fruitful use of space would be explaining his methodology. Appleton was from a Boston Brahmin family, the old money New England socialites who are extensively referenced throughout my blog, and with this wealth came the ability to buy crumbling houses at will. He worked with other early 20th century preservationists to restore these houses to their former glory, or at least the glory that existed in his imagination, as modern preservationists would have made different choices than those made by Appleton and his colleagues. Even so, the work done during the Colonial Revival movement, or the late 19^th through early 20^th century, laid the groundwork for future preservation movements from the mid-20th century to the present day.

According to Historic England, the first attempts at historic building conservation across the water began by 1560 when Queen Elizabeth I gave a proclamation preventing people from destroying “monuments of Antiquity”. Thirty-six years later, a jailer named Robert Redhead who worked at the 13^th century castle Clifford’s Tower tried to break down and sell the building in 1596. Local people did not like this at all, and the resulting protection of the building given by the city council may have been the first of its kind.

Many of the names that I and other historians use to describe historic house were introduced by a single man. Architect and devout Quaker Thomas Rickman published his book on An Attempt to Discriminate the Style of English Architecture… in 1817, giving an already pedantic field something else to debate about. The most interesting gossip about Rickman was that he married his first cousin, Lucy Rickman, in a ceremony led by a priest from the Church of England. The other Quakers disowned him from the meeting, but he kept attending, and was readmitted after the death of his wife and upon his second marriage. Rickman would ultimately marry three times.

As for historical societies dedicated to proper preservation and restoration of buildings, Great Britain has plenty. Among the oldest is Society of Antiquaries of London, which began in 1707. Many were founded during the Victorian era as a reaction against the poorly designed additions or intended improvements added to historic churches. In 1877, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings was founded by William Morris, a man better known for his writing, art, and socialism along with a society in London, England that bears his name. Two years later, the Ecclesiastical Society was founded with a similar mission to study church architecture. Interest in historic houses continues today, with Historic England forming in 2015 as the successor to the organization English Heritage, while Historic Houses has created a network for independently owned properties since 1973.

The Final Scenes of the Chapter

In the original text, the chapter ended with Gandalf walking away into the darkening night, not to be seen again by Frodo for a long time. While this will appear in the animatic, as covered last week, I wanted a more hopeful ending and a clearer connection between the main plot and the framing device, even if the casual first-time viewer might not realize it. With everyone else having finally left Frodo in peace, the Gaffer arrives at the door with Sam in tow. After a brief discussion, the Gaffer hands over Sam to serve as the new gardener at Bag End.

A hobbit father and his adolescent son wear matching smocks look sadly at the viewer. The night grows dark

Until this point, Frodo has been sad and angry since the departure of Bilbo but now when faced with a visitor who has never toured Bag End, his mood considerably improves. An instrumental containing variations on the “Frodo & Sam Theme” begins as Frodo conducts a brief house tour, peeking into doors down the long hall and stepping into a pantry.

A tall adult hobbit-lad wearing fancy clothes guides a hobbit-child wearing a smock down a dimly lit red brick hallway with many round green doors.

The pair arrives in the back parlor where only closest family and friends are permitted to go. Sam would have no understanding of the ranking of rooms, since he lived in a small, single-room hole with his father, but Frodo has allowed him access to one of the most private sections of the house, the only other being his bedroom and en suite bathroom. This indicates that Frodo already considers Sam to be his “best of friends”, although this may be more akin to how other people refer to their dog rather than their classmate or coworker, as discussed in “Masters & Servants”.

A tall hobbit-lad wearing fancy clothes talks to a short hobbit-child wearing a plain smock. They stand in a red brick room filled with wooden barrels and lit by a candelabra on the floor.

I technically composed the music for this section in two parts. The instrumental is called “Touring Bag End”, while the song is called “The Want Song (Reprise). However, the first piece flows directly into the second piece for the recording. The instrumental begins with a key signature of D major and a time signature of 6/8 time at 50 beats per minute with the dotted quarter note getting the beat. A harp plays a set of six eighth notes in the “Frodo & Sam Theme” and then is silent for a measure. The harp returns three more times, each time adding another note below the chord until four notes play in each chord. The harp plays variations on the theme until the flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon each enter following the pattern of the notes in the harp chords. Next, the flute follows the melody line for a measure and then returns to the highest note, A or the dominant, often notated as V.

A tall hobbit-lad wearing fancy clothes looks out a round window towards the viewer, while a short hobbit-child peeks up at him. The night grows dark.

The song modulates to E minor. While at first seeming random, this is the relative of G major, a fifth below D or the subdominant (IV) of D. The modulation has a calming effect on the music, while the minor key makes the sound bittersweet. The only difference in the melody and ostinato, or repeating set of notes played by the harp, is that C sharp has become C natural. After the flute plays the melody twice, the instrumentation abruptly switches to a string orchestra with first and second violins, violas, cellos, and basses. These two sets of instruments comprise all of the hobbit instruments except for percussion. The first violins play the same melody as the flute in a single octave for the first time and double octaves for the second time.

A tall hobbit-lad wearing fancy clothes stands next to a small-hobbit child wearing a smock in front of a patio with an outdoor kitchen and sitting area. The stars shine bright.

The song then turns into a round. Woodwinds follow the ostinato played by the harp, while strings follow the melody. Upon finishing the round, woodwinds continue the ostinato and then fall silent, while strings follow the ostinato in pizzicato, or plucking the strings instead of bowing the strings. The rhythm towards the end of the instrumental matches the rhythm at the beginning with instruments playing six notes in a measure, then falling silent for a measure, then repeating the notes again. During this repetition, the tempo gradually accelerates to 60 beats per minute with the dotted quarter note still getting the beat. On the last measure of the instrumental, the chords abruptly modulate back into D major, setting up for the song.

A tall hobbit-lad wearing fancy clothes looks down at a small hobbit-child wearing a smock while pressing a hand to the smaller hobbit's chest to turn him.

The introduction to the song raises the dynamics from piano or quiet to mezzo forte or somewhat loud. All of the hobbit instruments return at once as the song shifts to the melody first sung by Sam and Rose during “The Want Song”. The original lyrics for this portion of the melody were “I want to be happy. I want to have a place where I can say, ‘Sam Gamgee, it’s yours!’ And maybe I’ll see your face there.” The lyrics in the reprise reflect that this dream seemingly has already come true: “The garden is all I have wanted. Master, can you read my mind? No, you’ll never know what you’ve given me. I will never leave this place behind!” Naturally, this foreshadows that Sam will have to leave Bag End behind to aid Frodo in the quest of destroying the Ring.

A close-up of a hobbit-child wearing a smock while standing in a garden and singing.

Despite the similarities in rhythm, the melody between the original and the reprise is drastically different. The original melody remained in the key of D with the final note being B. While this is a quirky note for the ending, remaining in the same key is expected. This parallels how Sam’s love for his best friend and fellow singer Rosie Cotton is acceptable to the community, even if the pair is considered a bit strange. In contrast, during the reprisal, Sam modulates to A major in the second half of the melody, beginning at “you’ll never know”. The final note is C, a figuratively unexpected place. Similarly, Sam’s love for the one who will become his other best friend and fellow singer, Frodo Baggins, would never be acceptable to the other hobbits, yet this love would literally take Sam unexpected places. While somewhat under-explored in the original text, Sam’s two greatest loves are the driving factor behind his ultimate success, and Elanor would have these loves in mind as she edited the book.

Watch the instrumental here: