The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey Hindi Audio Track Download 18
Patrizia Leones
Here is the second part of my analysis of Howard Shore's score for the first part of the Hobbit trilogy. Unfortunately I could not present it in one piece as it was too long for a single post. I am just that verbose.
Firstly I attempt to analyze the music mainly as heard on the Special Edition of the soundtrack album, but I will be making some comments on the score as heard in the film and the changes made to the score compared to the music heard on the CDs.
Secondly it is worth noting that the soundtrack release for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey came out in two different releases, the Regular Edition, which to surprise of many contained two CDs and the Special Edition that was also comprised of 2 CDs but contains about 20 minutes more music, including several bonus and extended tracks. Curiously the Regular Edition had sections absent from the Special Edition as well so having both would be required for the most complete experience of this music outside the film. I will make note of the major differences between these two releases in the analysis since both albums contain some music that is missing from the other.
Thirdly I must impress upon the readers this is just a piece born out of my personal love of Shore's music for Middle-earth. Although I am an ardent fan of film music but I am no musicologist so much of the below analysis focuses on the relation of Shore's thematic architecture to the narrative of the film and not so much on the theoretical side of the music as I am not qualified to say anything extensive or authoritative on that account.
Opening logos and credits roll and the curtain raising figure of the score, a warm, flowing and graceful melody of The House of Durin Theme appears in optimistic glowing major mode and Shore weaves subtle hints of the History of the Ring harmonies into it in the accompanying figures and thus draws connections to things to come from the very first notes. The House of Durin Theme will reveal its true prominence in the sequel, The The Desolation of Smaug, but here it is a subtle suggestion which sets the dwarves and their heritage squarely at the centre of the story.
Here in the dark roots of the mountain the dwarves discover the heart of mountain, The Arkenstone, a magnificent multifaceted glowing jewel and Shore captures the luminous essence of the gem with a simple scintillating string line and a high choral cluster (3:03-3:11) that is awe inspiring and bewitching at the same time. And so many nations come to honour the power of the dwarven king, the glimpse of King of the Woodland Realm in Mirkwood, the Elven king Thranduil and his emissaries, earning ethereal swelling string layers above which a female choir sings a lyrical line (presumably in Sindarin), introducing the musical idea for the Woodland Realm (3:23-3:31), the music here a mirror of their slightly otherworldly graceful demeanour. But the might and prosperity of Erebor is not to last, darkness falling over the king, a deep male choir chanting in Khuzdl, the voices rising in the familiar perfect fifths, the tone reminiscent of Moria music from Lord of the Rings, the grim tone presaging sorrow as Thrr becomes obsessed with his wealth but also anticipating another calamity as the treasures of Erebor have aroused the greed of something else.
Leading survivors through the smoke and burning Thorin struggles out of the mountain with his father and grandfather and we hear the first appearance of Suffering of Durin's Folk motif rising and falling in the orchestra (6:39) as the choir mourns for the tragedy of the dwarves in elegiac tones, the male and female chorus exchanging phrases over the orchestra. The theme is repeated deep in the double basses and celli full of grim regret when we see the prince, desperate, begging for help for his people from the Elven king Thranduil, who has arrived with his folk to bring help but after seeing the sheer destruction the dragon has wrought, refuses his aid in fear of facing the beast's wrath and retreats with his army and thus earns the enmity of Thorin, the fateful and grim strains of Suffering of Durin's Folk slowly fading away on solo horn and moody strings when we see the dwarven prince and his companions becoming a wandering folk bereft of glory and riches, their race scattered into the wind.
Since Shore had to re-score a new longer cut of the film later the whole sequence has musical edits, omitting choir and changing the order of some sections and replacing sections with re-scored material. E.g the Suffering of Durin's Folk theme at the end contains an additional extended passage to cover the extra footage added to the scene. The Extended Cut of the film also repeats some parts of the composition(such as the repetition of the Woodland Realm material for the extended scene with Thranduil and the wood elves featuring the jewels of Lasgalen) to cover for the additional footage but no actual new music was composed for the longer version of the film.
After the opening lesson in ancient history we are back in the Shire and the beginning of the score is full of familiar sounds and themes, the frame story functioning as a welcoming reintroduction to the life and home of our protagonist at the eve of his 111th birthday and the composer naturally reprises the different variants of the Shire theme in all their verdant glory.
A very traditional jaunty beat of the Rural Setting sees Frodo off to wait for Gandalf in the East Farthing woods at 1:53, growing into an passionate and warm reading of the Pensive Setting of the Shire theme on strings, showing us the bucolic splendour of Hobbiton and Bilbo relaxed on his porch smoking a pipe. When the old Hobbit continues his story and blows a smoke ring into the air, Shore making another musical reference to FotR, this time to some pipes and smoke rings, as his music on the tin whistle and strings recalls the moment when Gandalf and Bilbo sit on the very same veranda at the evening of his birthday but here a title card An Unexpected Journey appears. Doug Adams offered insight into this moment on his blog in 2013: The Lydian dissonance of the final notes (G#A) is in a higher key than when we last heard them in FotR and gains a hidden meaning, both the billowing smoke ring and the harmonies drawing now a veiled connection to the History of the Ring Theme.
The film version of the reintroduction to the Shire is quite different in places as several sections seem to have been revised. E.g. the ruminative music from the FotR for Gandalf's inspection of the map of Erebor is reprised several times in the film to underscore old Bilbo's strange behaviour in the frame story before we move to the actual Hobbit's tale. On the Regular Soundtrack album the shorter version of the piece includes alternate passage, a bucolic solo flute rendition of the Pensive Setting of the Shire theme and another reprise of the Fireworks motif.
But Bilbo Baggins is more than a bit absent minded and soon forgets his close brush with adventure. And so after a stroll to the market at Hobbiton, the night falls on the Shire and Bilbo is preparing to eat a delicious fish for dinner, when he hears the doorbell. Behind the door stands a strange dwarf, who introduces himself as Dwalin and the music open with a subtly ascending expectant figure, Shore referencing the harmonies of the Erebor Theme with light pad of the percussion underneath providing a sense of momentum. Something important is taking place.
The final discussion between Gandalf and Bilbo was re-scored and uses the Shire themes instead of Bilbo's thematic material as the film makers often decided to emphasize the general idea of hobbit nature rather than Bilbo specifically, which necessitated new variations of the Shire themes to be written to replace Shore's original intentions using Bilbo's themes.
Radagast flits through trees and bushes, collects mushrooms, investigates tree sap and finds dead or dying animals, all to the agitated tune of Radagast the Brown Theme (0:52-1:13) a jittery collection of musical devices, solo fiddle scratching a repeating cyclical melody on the top of a ticking, pecking collection of percussion instruments (shakers, gourds and woodblocks) and all the while lower strings perform short pointed up-and-down flitting figures underneath. When the wizard finds a dying friend, a hedgehod called Sebastian, Radagast the Brown's Secondary Theme appears again (1:14-1:39), this time in the strings, to note the strange affliction of the forest and the animals. It is slowly overtaken by the snapping percussion that propels Radagast to his home at Rhosgobel where he tries to save Sebastian.
Radagast the Brown Theme scurries on (1:40-2:04) as the man tries feverishly in many ways to heal the hedgehog, the exotic series of remedies underscored by a see-sawing solo violin line and urgent string figures inherent in the theme. But nothing seems to work and Radagast is at a loss, when a sudden string cry halts his theme and another subtle compressed variant of Radagast the Brown's Secondary Theme appears (2:05-2:14) in the string section as he finally understands what is at the root of this suffering.
Pizzicato celli and basses (1:42) over fluttering woodwinds and violins repeat the Trolls Theme as Bilbo is sent by Fili and Kili after the lumbering creature, the music scoring the humorous predicament but keeping the threat of the Trolls clearly focused, the string section rising to a slight swell as Bilbo traipses after the beast.
The track opens with another rendition of the transposed version of the Trolls Theme in waltz time plays on low brass over tremoloing string section as Bilbo sneaks closer to the clearing where the trio of Trolls is preparing their supper over a large fire. The full reveal of the monsters earns a ponderously low variant of the theme on double basses, which is answered by the violins, a cut switching quickly to pizzicati strings as Bilbo creeps around the clearing towards the troll's makeshift paddock in his attempt to save the ponies.
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