Hi. I thought I’d kick off my first “official” post by talking about the track that inspired my blog title. (Trust me, you don’t want to know about the terrible music puns I considered before I decided on this one.) “Concerning Hobbits” is the second track in the score for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which was composed by the brilliant Howard Shore. If you’ve never heard it (GASP. You poor soul!) or need to refresh your memory, here it is for your listening/Shire-viewing pleasure:
This track is one of my favorite score pieces from a film, and the main reason is that Shore uses it to bring the Shire to life so incredibly vividly that listening to the track alone can give you the character of the place. The flute (though Wikipedia says tin whistle?) at the beginning is simple and beautiful with drawn out notes, which instantly tells you that the Shire is a peaceful place. With all the crud going down throughout Middle Earth (rampaging Orcs, Saruman burninating the countryside to build his army, the Nazgul horror violin-ing everywhere they go in search of the Ring, Gondor trying frantically to hold back the eeevil coming from the Black Gate and the EYE), Hobbiton is this oasis of happiness amidst a lot of ‘do not want.’ Hobbits don’t have it easy having to farm and make their living out of the dirt and hillsides, but darn it if they don’t have a great time doing it. They read, garden, throw parties, sit on their porches smoking Old Toby (best pipeweed in the Southfarthing!), and eat. Man, do they eat.
I love how the violins take on a playful nature in the song as the hobbits prepare for Bilbo’s party, but also stretch out into elegance and hop into adventure at different points too. The song’s tone points to the Shire being a pocket of innocence and contentment not yet touched by the evils of Sauron (that is, until Gandalf comes rolling in…oops) – about thirty seconds in when the song’s tempo speeds up, it sounds like a waltz (waltz-ish?) or a kind of formal hobbit folk dance. I interpret that beat as a relaxed order to hobbit life, and once the song slows down again, it sounds a little melancholy (even foreboding). The idea of the calm before the storm makes sense since the next track, “The Shadow of the Past,” features some of the lovely Mordor BWAH NAH, BWAH NAH NAH NAAAAHHH with Creepy Choir vocals. “Concerning Hobbits” is the most joyous and serene pocket of good that appears during the first film’s score, making it all the more beautiful and cherished after that happy bubble gets popped by darkness coming to Hobbiton (I’m looking at you, The Nine). The Shire theme pops back up in The Hobbit with a delightful adventurous twist during the track “The Adventure Begins,” but that’s likely to be a post all its own.
(But gosh, when Bilbo was running pell-mell across Hobbiton, the contract trailing behind him as the music swelled and he shouted, “I’M GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!” in the happiest tone we’d heard from him thus far, I wanted to give Howard Shore and Peter Jackson the biggest hugs. My heart was full of music and LotR-induced glee.)
I think what differentiates a good soundtrack from a great one is the intention behind it. You can tell when you listen to Shore’s score for the Lord of the Rings films that he (and the other people involved) put so much love and care into making it. There’s a behind the scenes video he did on making music for The Hobbit films where he talks about having the story open as he composes, and I think that’s incredibly important. He wanted to get the heartbeat of the story into the music, and in my opinion, he definitely succeeded. Shore has breathed such musical life into Tolkien’s work that has the tone dead on. Alright, I’d better stop gushing before I write pages of this thing.
Lastly, as a related note, I saw a production of “The Scottish Play” last night, and the musician who did the pre-show had an electric violin with one of those cool looper recorder pedal things. After he played one song, he introduced the next by saying that it was a “cover from an independent film that you’ve probably never heard of. It’s called The Hobbit.” Ha. Then he started playing “Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold” and threw in the Fellowship theme a little later. It hit me right square in the feels. So good!
Concerning Soundtracks 