The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Track-by-Track: Soundtrack Discussion and Analysis

01-23-2006, 10:18 PM

I've been reading along... wanting to take time to post my own thoughts but not ever doing so. Partly, I tell myself, it's because I'm so busy and I never like to do things unless I can do them properly. But I think, it's a bit of Legolas... for me the grief is still too near. What I mean is, the last few tracks of ROTK hold tremendous emotional power over me and I stand in awe of it almost. I don't know if I can do it justice. I don't know if I can bear a close look.

But so many of you are writing what I'm feeling and I love reading it. I wrote very little of my emotional responses to the soundtrack when doing my website. This track was one rare exception. I wrote a lot of really personal stuff but I'll copy out the part pertinent to Track 17, The Return of the King.

I've been listening to ROTK a lot at bedtime. It swirls in my ears as I fall asleep. Often, I wake up at the beginning of "The End of All Things", perhaps because it has such bombastic opening music. But I think I know it's coming... the end, and my mind needs to take it in. When I list my 'favorite' music from the soundtrack, I rarely list the battle music, or the 'contentious' music. It just doesn't drift up the list. But "The End of All Things" really fits the emotions of the activity on screen so well. My brain sits up and takes notice. Then... it comes. "The Return of the King". It's a long track and it holds, for me, the essence of the goodbyes. It's during this track that we see the last of Gimli, then Éowyn and Faramir, and Éomer... Legolas... and finally, Aragorn and Arwen. It's during this track that we hear the last (bar a few echoed notes) of the Fellowship Theme.

The rest of the soundtrack is sweet. But I've already endured the hardest, the breaking of the Fellowship. I'm resigned now. It will end and I will go on.

For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream.

It isn't often that something evokes a strong emotional reaction and then continues evoking that reaction after repeated exposures. Repetition breeds familiarity, numbness, comfort... whatever. But these last tracks, End of All Things, Return of the King, and The Grey Havens don't lose any of their potency for me. It makes me wonder what it was like for Howard Shore to write, orchestrate and record this music. I wonder if he was as caught up in it as we are. I think maybe he was.

01-23-2006, 10:18 PM	#247
Magpie Guest Posts: n/a	I've been reading along... wanting to take time to post my own thoughts but not ever doing so. Partly, I tell myself, it's because I'm so busy and I never like to do things unless I can do them properly. But I think, it's a bit of Legolas... for me the grief is still too near. What I mean is, the last few tracks of ROTK hold tremendous emotional power over me and I stand in awe of it almost. I don't know if I can do it justice. I don't know if I can bear a close look. But so many of you are writing what I'm feeling and I love reading it. I wrote very little of my emotional responses to the soundtrack when doing my website. This track was one rare exception. I wrote a lot of really personal stuff but I'll copy out the part pertinent to Track 17, The Return of the King. I've been listening to ROTK a lot at bedtime. It swirls in my ears as I fall asleep. Often, I wake up at the beginning of "The End of All Things", perhaps because it has such bombastic opening music. But I think I know it's coming... the end, and my mind needs to take it in. When I list my 'favorite' music from the soundtrack, I rarely list the battle music, or the 'contentious' music. It just doesn't drift up the list. But "The End of All Things" really fits the emotions of the activity on screen so well. My brain sits up and takes notice. Then... it comes. "The Return of the King". It's a long track and it holds, for me, the essence of the goodbyes. It's during this track that we see the last of Gimli, then Éowyn and Faramir, and Éomer... Legolas... and finally, Aragorn and Arwen. It's during this track that we hear the last (bar a few echoed notes) of the Fellowship Theme. The rest of the soundtrack is sweet. But I've already endured the hardest, the breaking of the Fellowship. I'm resigned now. It will end and I will go on. For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream. It isn't often that something evokes a strong emotional reaction and then continues evoking that reaction after repeated exposures. Repetition breeds familiarity, numbness, comfort... whatever. But these last tracks, End of All Things, Return of the King, and The Grey Havens don't lose any of their potency for me. It makes me wonder what it was like for Howard Shore to write, orchestrate and record this music. I wonder if he was as caught up in it as we are. I think maybe he was.