Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Music: The Adventure Song
I return from my winter holiday break with new music, aptly named “The Adventure Song”. This piece covers the first few pages of “Chapter 2: The Shadow of the Past” as Frodo spends seventeen years at Bag End hosting parties with his twenty closest friends, visiting Elves and Dwarves in the woods, and not aging. As much as Frodo seemed to enjoy his life, he was curious about the land beyond its borders that his ‘uncle’ Bilbo had described in his stories. This essay details other adventure songs found in modern Western musicals that I used as a reference while composing this piece, along with a quick note about how I am voicing the Elves, and an explanation of the song’s structure.
Other Adventure Songs
Adventure songs are common in modern Western musicals. These establish the desires of characters to experience changes in their lives, whether they assume a new position in society, travel beyond the borders of their community, or alter their regular schedule. Accordingly, “The Adventure Song” is similar to “The Want Song” but with more action required on the part of the singing character. When it comes to writing a peppy adventure song that will have the audience singing along, Frodo’s adventure song has some stiff competition.
An example of an adventure song where the character wants to assume a new position is “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” from Disney’s The Lion King (1994). The movie opened with an introduction song, “The Circle of Life”, describing the balance of animals living on the African savanna. During “I Just Can’t Wait”, an impatient young male lion cub named Simba describes how he will someday be king of the land, seemingly unaware that his father would have to die before Simba could inherit the position. The cheery song with a dark implication was a collaboration between colorful pop star Elton John writing the music and longtime Disney employee Sir Tim Rice writing the lyrics. Both John and Rice were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in part for this work, while Rice was inducted as a Disney Legend in 2002. When comparing the two songs, the protagonists have opposite opinions about their current situations. Simba is thrilled to live in his homeland but wants a different position, while Frodo is content with his position, at least on the surface, but is curious about leaving his homeland.
This makes Frodo more similar to the many characters who sing in “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” from Hello, Dolly. Young store clerk Cornelius tells his coworker Barnaby in the first verse, “Put on your Sunday clothes / There’s lots of world out there”. Subsequent verses explain the many nice things people can do while wearing their Sunday clothes, such as having their picture taken, riding a train, and visiting famous restaurants in New York City. In the outro, Dolly leads the entire cast in singing “We’re gonna find adventure in the evening air”, cementing the tune as an adventure song. The group even gives their ultimatum in the final line, “No, we won’t come home until we fall in love!”, which ordinarily would be a concern, except that this is a musical, and everyone gets married in the final scene. In this way, Frodo is unlike the singers. While he did “settle down”, as preferred by his hobbit neighbors, he “lived alone, as Bilbo had done” instead of the expected course of getting married and having many hobbit-children.
While Frodo settled into a routine, he also craved a change of schedule in the Shire, as he “began to feel restless, and the old paths seemed too well-trodden”. He even told Gandalf, “there have been times when I… have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them”. A similar notion was described by the male lead Tony in “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story. Tony grew tired of routine gang warfare and tried to leave his former gang, the Jets, only to be repeatedly pulled back into their troubles. While enjoying a brief moment by himself, Tony sang, “Something’s coming, something good if I can wait / Something’s coming, I don’t know what it is.” Later that night, Tony met and fell in love with Maria, a young woman from a rival gang, the Sharks. This was the first step on the path to his death at the end of the musical.
With Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Leonard Bernstein providing lyrics and fellow inductee Stephen Sondheim providing music, it was no surprise that this song was selected as part of the Music GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) curriculum in Great Britain for 2008. (The song has since been removed, as the modern curriculum uses “Defying Gravity” from Wicked and “Naughty” from Matilda as musical theatre examples.) Like Tony, Frodo sensed that changes would happen in his life, but he could not predict what these would be. He had “strange visions of mountains that he had never seen” and believed he would eventually “cross the River”, although this time had not yet come.
How Elves Talk
Between verses of “The Adventure Song” are instrumentals with dialog as Frodo talks to Sam, Elves, and Dwarves. In my quest to unite linguistics with Western music and provide a fresh interpretation to a heavily studied, over seventy-year-old story, I have decided to have the Elves speak in an unusual but quickly identifiable style to those familiar with expressionist music of early 20th century Austria. Since this is likely not a favorite genre of general audiences, I will give a brief explanation. After the popularity of more widely recognized mid- to late 19th century Germanic composers like Richard Wagner, who has been prominently featured throughout this essay series, Arnold Schoenberg led music in a different direction after serving in the Austrian army during World War I from 1914 to 1918. While Tolkien used his experience in the same war to create a fantasy world with magic people, Schoenberg created a “twelve-tone method” which used a chromatic scale of twelve evenly spaced notes instead of the traditional octave scale with eight unevenly spaced notes.
The piece inspiring my elvish dialect interpretation appeared before the war in 1912, perhaps evidence that Schoenberg was struggling with mental health even then. Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21, French for “Petey Moonstruck”, was based on a set of twenty-one poems written by Belgian poet Albert Giraud and published in 1884 as part of the book Pierrot lunaire: rondels bergamasques [Petey Moonstruck: Bergamasque Round-Poems]. The character Pierrot or Pedrolino had been popular in France and Italy, as the character spoke in the ‘rustic’ Bergamasque dialect from the same language family, and dated back to the late 16th century. One of the earliest books featuring the character, La gran vittoria di Pedrolino… [The Great Victory of Petey...] by Giulio Cesare Croce was published around 1607 and featured a woodcut of Pedrolino beating a doctor in the street, which was supposed to be funny.
When choosing the freely atonal singing/speaking style of Schoenberg’s piece as part of elvish accents, I noted the parallel between Pierrot becoming drunk with moonlight and Elves often coming out at night to behave wildly. Another similarity is the deviation from modern Western gender norms, as Elves appeared androgynous while Pierrot is typically sung by a woman despite being a male character. The controversies of the song do not end there with Pierrot singing about sex, violence, and blasphemy; Tolkien’s “translation” is tame in comparison.
The Structure
The song is similar in form to “The Introduction Song”, in part because these occur at the beginning of the episode and are used to convey similar information: updating the viewer about the opinions of characters and providing information about Middle-earth. The song begins with the “Hobbiton & Bywater Theme” (A). This is the same ostinato in “The Introduction Song” when the ‘rustic’ hobbits congregated in the Ivy Bush. While no patter song is sung during this iteration, the Bywater Quintet sings their chorus (B) between verses to share the common beliefs of the hobbits: Frodo has never quite settled down, and his annual parties are outrageous.
Meanwhile, Frodo sings his theme (C) to describe his life after Bilbo’s shocking departure. The young hobbit has been seemingly abandoned by Gandalf and is hated by his older relatives. However, he does have many close friends, who also happen to be his younger cousins, and enjoys partying with them. Even with this hedonistic lifestyle, Frodo is bored by his life in the Shire, wishing he could travel beyond its heavily guarded borders. During his whimsical chorus (D), he flippantly remarks how he will someday disappear on an adventure, and his ungrateful neighbors will be happier with him gone.
During the second time through his chorus, Sam interrupts, remarking how he will miss Frodo. The subsequent instrumental (D') follows the same chord progression as the chorus but at a gentler tempo, 80 BPM instead of 130 BPM, to match Sam’s gentle but firm nature. Despite coming of age, a time when post-medieval young adults often left the masters of their childhoods, Sam insists on remaining with Frodo. Even with this reassurance from Sam, Frodo maintains his desire to leave during the third verse (C). The subsequent instrumental is a variation on his theme (C') and reflects meeting in the woods with Elves and Dwarves to learn more about Middle-earth. His ‘special friends’ Merry and Pippin, now nearly adults, share a verse (C) voicing their concerns about their cousin’s connections with foreigners, not to mention that he does not age. In the distance, a chorus of elves faintly harmonizes in thirds to support the lead singers.
The tone of the song shifts after this verse, never returning to the cheer of the earlier melodies. Frodo’s chorus once again inspires a slower, contemplative instrumental (D"), this time with a tempo of 100 BPM and modulated down a major second from A Major to G Major. The chorus was originally played with standard hobbit-instruments, including a flute, string quartet, and a harp to indicate Frodo’s presence. Now, the string quartet drops out, and the Elves become louder, singing in perfect fourths to create an empty or open sound. As the Elves fade, a completely new sound (E) enters: a group of bass drums playing a bolero rhythm, or syncopated common time beat from Arabic culture. This rhythm indicates the arrival of Dwarves and will receive much more attention in future essays. The tempo accelerates to 140 BPM as Frodo runs through the woods, and the key signature rapidly modulates to d minor, then g minor, then g minor with a C♯, creating instability. At the same time, the string quartet returns, bringing a pair of clarinets with them to create a slightly modified Dwarfish ensemble, also to receive more attention later.
Frodo’s conversation with the Dwarves quickly turns to the evil powers lurking on the edges of Middle-earth, and a second new sound creeps in. Quintuplets in bass and snare drums compete with the bolero in the group of bass drums, creating a complex polyrhythm. One clarinet, the viola, and the cello follow the new drum beat with the volume steadily increasing from pianissimo to mezzo forte. A trumpet enters to play a dissonant melody and is soon joined by a second trumpet. This interloping theme (F) stands for the evil embedded into the fantasy world of Arda, the planet containing Middle-earth. The theme fades as the older dwarf silences his younger companion. A gradual ritardando slows the remaining Dwarf theme to 75 BPM until the music pauses in a moment of prolonged silence.
Finally, Frodo returns home and to a quiet variation on his chorus (D'") in the key of D Major, a fifth below its original key, with only the quiet string quartet to support him. He laments that he still waits for his adventure, despite having learned of great danger from the Dwarves, as he implicitly believes leaving the place where he does not belong is worth the risk. Frodo momentarily erupts with rage as he claims not to care what others think. The string quartet briefly becomes a round, playing the same tune with different starting points to create confusing overlap. This dangerous cycle is soon broken by Sam, who interrupts Frodo and puts his master at ease. Frodo calmly finishes the chorus, and Sam gives a final plea for him not to disappear.
The full piece is completed in four cycles:
Cycle 1: ACD
Cycle 2: ACBBDD'
Cycle 3: CC'CD"
Cycle 4: EFD'"
Cycle 1 presents the model that other cycles are to follow. Cycle 2 expands upon the model but is largely faithful to it. Cycle 3 drops A, foreshadowing that Frodo cares not for public opinion. Cycle 4 begins in chaos but resolves in the same way as previous cycles. In this way, the piece conveys significant information about Frodo and his world while including the elements found in other adventure songs: his desire to leave his often boring daily life at Bag End, travel beyond the borders of his homeland, and find a place where he is accepted.
Watch the music video here: