Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Music: After Breakfast (Instrumental)
This nine-minute instrumental uses musical themes found throughout the work, some of which have already appeared in previous pieces. I will review past themes, explain the history and inspiration behind new or updated themes, connect the technique appearing in the composition to the emotions I intended to convey, and provide careful analysis to the structure of the piece. If you find this essay too technical and would rather simply listen to the music, feel free to jump to the bottom of the page where I have embedded the sheet music video.
Reviewing Past Themes
The “One Ring Theme” appeared in the first scene, as the character Elanor Gardner Fairbairn sang “The Epigraph”, which appears at the beginning of each book. The theme plays whenever the “One Ring to rule them all” influences the actions of characters, from Celebrimbor crafting the other Great Rings to mortals succumbing to its power. A horn generally carries this melody, which is supported by timpani and bass drum or “Drums of Doom”. When the discussion on screen takes place at Bag End, I give the melody to the contrabassoon to symbolize Gandalf and add a descant in the harp to symbolize Frodo.
During a flashback to Celebrimbor crafting the Great Rings, I added a musical anvil to the theme referencing his busy workshop. Anvils are not common instruments, but they have been used in opera and modern classical music. German opera composer and regular blog guest Richard Wagner incorporated anvils into his work, with up to eighteen anvils in Das Reingold and a single anvil played onstage by Siegfried showing bad smithing technique in “The Forging Song” during Siegfried. Gustov Holst wrote Second Suite in F for Military Band Op. 28, where “Movement III Song of the Blacksmith” includes anvil. John Cage used an anvil in his avant-garde First Construction (In Metal). Perhaps most importantly, Howard Shore wrote a five-beat anvil motif as part of the “Isengard/Orcs/Mordor Theme” for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings.
“The Shire Theme” initially appeared in “The Introduction Song” as an ostinato underneath the patter song performed by the Gaffer. The theme returned as a brief instrumental at the beginning of “The Adventure Song”. In “After Breakfast”, the melody is carried by the most common instruments played by musicians of the Shire: strings, woodwinds, and a tin whistle. An additional contrabassoon acting as the bass note in the chord progression references the presence of Gandalf, while a descant played by the harp refers to Frodo. Near the end of the piece, a countermelody in the horn shows Frodo’s slow increase in understanding the danger and his resolve to protect the Shire.
Since the One Ring and its maker, the current Dark Lord Sauron, threaten to corrupt the Shire, the two themes sometimes blend together. The instrumentation of the “One Ring Theme” is unchanged, but “The Shire Theme” in the tin whistle is subtly altered to match the chord progression of “One Ring Theme”. While this is necessary to prevent the blended theme from sounding dissonant, it also symbolizes the ability for evil to quietly corrupt even the most pristine places.
Morgoth’s Ring Theme
During “Instrumental: Bilbo Gives Up the Ring”, I promised to further discuss “Morgoth’s Ring Theme”. Here it is! This theme represents the evil at the center of Arda, the planet where Middle-earth is a continent, which was corrupted by the original Dark Lord Morgoth thousands of years before the events in The Lord of the Rings.
While the five-beat rhythm bears similarities to Howard Shore’s theme for evil, my inspiration came from “Danse de la terre [Dance of the Earth]” and “Glorification de l'élue [Glorification of the Chosen]” in Le Sacre du printemps [The Rite of Spring] by Igor Stravinsky. This piece debuted in 1913, only a few months after Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 by Arnold Schoenberg, a piece with a unique singing style that inspired my vocal performance for the Elves. The original ballet performance of The Rite of Spring may have caused a riot, although the extent of the panic is debated, but the first concert performance in 1914 was better received. The “primitive” choreography likely bothered the posh audience more than the music.
The haunting sound of “Morgoth’s Ring Theme” comes not only from the accented five-beat rhythm but the dissonance of the notes. In this version, since the key signature is D major, I began with an A7 chord (A, C#, E, G) or the dominant chord (V), that would usually resolve to a D7 chord (D, F#, A, C) or the tonic chord (I). I included those notes and then added an unholy mishmash of other notes to make even the most tone deaf listener uneasy (C#, G, G#, B). This creates the feeling that the chord has resolved but in the wrong way.
The White Council Theme
This complex theme is in A minor, 4/4 time, and combines six simpler themes, one for each member of the council. The theme appears twice: when Gandalf describes the White Council driving the dark powers from Mirkwood and later when Saruman shares his knowledge of ring-lore. Saruman and his tower, Orthanc, are represented by the horn playing an eighth note pickup and then leaping up an octave to a long, lonely blast over a barren landscape. Radagast is represented by a bassoon playing opposite Saruman’s horn. Gandalf’s run of sixteenth notes in the contrabassoon, first heard in “The Want Song”, provides the lowest notes.
For the elves, the “Grey Havens/ Círdan Theme” first appeared during “The Conversation at the Green Dragon” as Sam told his friends of places far away. Like in its debut, the glass armonica cries an eerie tritone, this time G♭ with C. This tritone serves as the foundation for the notes played by all other instruments.
The new “Lothlórien / Galadriel Theme” combines a kantele or Finnish dulcimer with a frame drum playing an accented quarter note followed by a pair of eighth notes. The frame drum is similar to Sámi drums or goavddis played by healers or noaidi. Both the healers and their drums were believed to have magical abilities and were highly respected in their communities, although their practice became less common during the 17th and 18th centuries. The rhythm of Galadriel’s instruments follows a pattern to be used during “Song of Eldamar (I Sang of Leaves)”.
The “Rivendell / Elrond Theme” uses the same instruments, since Elrond and Galadriel are in the same family. However, his kantele and goavddis play sextuplets, creating a polyrhythm with Gandalf’s sixteenth notes. His rhythm is based on the “Tra-la-la-lalley” sung by his people to visitors entering Rivendell, which appeared in The Hobbit. I am really proud of the complexity that Elrond’s part adds to the theme, just as his diverse ancestry adds complexity to the hierarchy of Middle-earth, so I am taking a moment to describe it further.
Elrond’s kantele carries the melody (C C C G♭ A B) and makes the tritone sound less empty by adding a third note to create a chord progression (C♭5/E, C♭5, Am/C, Em). Using Roman numeral analysis, this is III(♭5)⁶ – III(♭5) – i⁶ – v. The chord progression begins with C, the mediant (III) of A minor, which is also the tonic (I) of C major, its relative major key. However, the G is flattened (G♭), creating instability and unease. The harmony moves to more stable chords: the tonic (I) Am and the minor dominant (v) Em. This stability is structurally weakened, as Am appears in its first inversion (6), while Em is a minor dominant (v) rather than the major dominant (V), which would contain the leading tone G#.
The four repetitions of the C♭5 outweigh the weakened stability heard in the single Am and Em chords, just as the rising dark powers threaten the Free People of Middle-earth. The melody reinforces the harmonic tension by sustaining C before landing on G♭, which is the most dissonant pitch in the chords. The melody resolves stepwise or going up the scale, moving to A and then B as the harmony stabilizes before returning to C at the repeat of the chord progression. Despite the instability, the progression is unified by smooth voice leading: E is sustained throughout the chords, while the half-step motion from G♭ to A connects the chords and softens the dissonance. In the same way, the White Council appears powerful and cohesive, but the alliance is uneasy due to ongoing tension underneath the formidable surface.
Analytical Description of the Full Song
The full song can be divided into five sections. Each section begins with “The Shire Theme” (A). This theme is generally followed by a second major theme, usually “One Ring Theme” (B), and once “The White Council Theme” (D). Themes may overlap each other (/), such as “Morgoth’s Ring Theme” (C) or the “Drums of Doom” (E) playing underneath the melody, or “The Shire Theme” becoming corrupted (c) by the “One Ring Theme”. These overlaps sometimes happen at the beginning of a new subsection (→). More often, the overlaps fade into each other (>). Additionally, some themes have alternative melodies, countermelodies, or descants (' or "). Using this notation, the map of the entire piece is:
Section 2. A→B>B'→D
Section 3. Ac/B>Ac/B/C
Section 4. A'→D'>D"/B>B/Ac/E
Section 5. A>A'>A">A"/E→E
Let me explain that madness.
Section 1. The instrumental begins in A major and 4/4 time at 120 BPM for the quarter note with “The Shire Theme” (A), including the harp playing a simple descant. During the second iteration, the descant remains in the harp but becomes more complex. During the third iteration, the harp is joined in the descant by the tin whistle and flute. By the end of this iteration, the “Drums of Doom” (E) comprised of timpani, bass drum, and anvil enter and crescendo, signaling the arrival of the “One Ring Theme” (B). This melody is in D minor and 6/8 time at 90 BPM for the dotted quarter note. The strings drop out, leaving the woodwinds to carry the chord progression, while the melody is carried by the horn. During the second iteration, the horn modulates up by an octave. After two lines, “Morgoth’s Ring Theme” (C) enters in the strings with dissonant quintuplets as the “One Ring Theme” (B) continues. The combined theme fades out.
Section 2. The instrumental returns to “The Shire Theme” (A) with the same key signature, time signature, BPM, and instrumentation as before, picking up exactly where it left off. The theme does not last long, as it soon fades back into “One Ring Theme” (B), which also picks up exactly where it left off. However, the tin whistle immediately joins the horn on the melody, while the bassoon joins for the final two lines. Additionally, the harp joins the chord progression at the same time as the bassoon joins the melody. On the second iteration (B'), the harp begins a descant that becomes increasingly complex as the song progresses. The piece then abruptly pivots to “the White Council Theme” (D) in A minor, 4/4 time at 65 BPM for the quarter note, but the new melody lasts for only four measures.
Section 3. After a short pause, as if to catch our breath, the standard “One Ring Theme” (B) plays with the tin whistle supplying a corrupted version of “The Shire Theme” (AC). In the last two lines, “Morgoth’s Ring Theme” (E) returns threateningly, but the combined theme once again fades out, replaced by a calming transitional chord.
Section 4. When “The Shire Theme” returns, the chord progression and descant are the same as the previous iterations, but the horn enters with a countermelody (A'). This may seem triumphant and preparing to resolve, but the theme only lasts for two lines. Instead, the melody returns to “The White Council Theme”, first as a solo with Saruman’s lonely horn (D'), and then as the combined theme with all council members (D"). Underneath the combined theme plays the melody of the “One Ring Theme” in the first violins. Then, “The White Council Theme” drops out, with the contrabassoon and horn joining the first violins on the melody, while the flute takes the chord progression, and the second violins and tin whistle play the corrupted version of “The Shire Theme” (AC). After a line, the flute is joined by the oboe, clarinet, and bassoon to form the full chord progression, while the “Drums of Doom” (E) play underneath. Even this combined melody cannot last and soon fades out.
Section 5. At last, the instrumental arrives as a gentle, stripped down version of “The Shire Theme” (A) now in the key of C at 115 BPM for the quarter note. Only the contrabassoon, tin whistle, harp, and bass drum of pending doom play for the first three lines. Then in the fourth line, as Gandalf declares shockingly and yet subtly that “there is no Power in the world that knows all about hobbits”, the strings and woodwinds return to the chord progression. During the second iteration, the resolute countermelody reappears in the horn (A'). During the third iteration, the violins and violas modulate up an octave to create an ethereal background (A"). All would seem right with the world, except the “Drums of Doom” (E) enter during the second iteration and slowly crescendo from pianissimo to forte, cutting off the melody with a sharp accent as Gandalf mentions how the hobbits are in danger of becoming “enslaved”. After a dramatic pause, the timpani, bass drum, and anvil return as the “Drums of Doom” perform solo for the rest of the piece, a persistent reminder that the Shire is no longer safe: only a willing hero, or sacrifice, can save them.
Watch the music video here: