If Middle-earth had a soundtrack album...

[Thenamir]

In the ill-spent days of my high-schooling, circa 1980, there was a group I'm sure no one here has ever heard of (Arkangel, and yes, that's the correct spelling) that made an single album (to this day one of my favorites) named Warrior. The title cut from that album contained a long roll-out at the end -- so long, in fact, that that section of the tune merited its own separate title - "The March of the Ents".

It was a slow marching cadence, with a single rolling snare drum marking the time, punctuated on the downbeats with a bass drum that sounded as if it were 9 feet in diameter being struck by a cave troll on steroids. A thrumming single note bass line accompanies a stirring bagpipe lead (an electric guitar lead is added later to counterpoint the bagpipe), while a quartet of basso profundo voices chants

Ta-run-da! Ta runda-runda-runda rom!

This song became part of what transpired in my brain whenever I read The Two Towers forever after.

As I reflect on the Two Towers movie, I remember thinking that is was practically a crime to omit the marching song of the Ents as it appeared in the book. But of course, that whole affair with the Ents in the movie was a sad travesty of the scenes as written by JRRT,

We come, we come with roll of drum: ta-runda runda runda rom!
We come, we come with horn and drum: ta-rūna rūna rūna rom!

To Isengard! Though Isengard be ringed and barred with doors of stone;
Though Isengard be strong and hard, as cold as stone and bare as bone,
We go, we go, we go to war, to hew the stone and break the door;
For bole and bough are burning now, the furnace roars – we go to war!
To land of gloom with tramp of doom, with roll of drum, we come, we come;
To Isengard with doom we come!
With doom we come, with doom we come!

That scene could have been incredible, and the music something truly glorious. As it was, the only marching scene that comes close is the march of Mordor on Minas Tirith. Sad.