The piece I'm writing is about the whole LOTR music project having been housed in London. It'll be for the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters members' magazine, but when it goes on-line I'll direct any interested folks to the URL.

But the reason for posting here is I wanted to relay an answer to a question I asked Howard specifically for some of the members of this Board.

After TTT, we entered into a thread or 2 about a particular theme. It plays as the moth flutters to Gandalf atop Isengard in FOTR. Then again as the Ents attack Isengard in TTT.

I speculated that this theme represented Nature, & it's role in Tolkien's perception of the Industrial Age. That idea was kicked about here for a while, & I recall "Nature Theme" sticking.

Guess what?

Howard was delighted that had been picked up from the 1st two movies. He calls it his "Reclamation of Nature Theme" or "Nature Theme".

It does indeed stand for those very things. It apparently hasn't made it to the album, but is most certainly featured prominently in ROTK. I won't spoil where - but it'll make beautiful sense when you hear it!

Just wanted to share.

Best to you all,

That theme would work very well when the Eagles appear, clash with the Nazgul in the skies, and save the better half of the armies of men. There would be a certain parallel to the appearance of the Moth in FOTR, which carried Gandalf's message to the Eagles.

***** END SPOILER *******

AND IF YOU DON'T WANT THE EXPERIENCE SPOILED, DON'T READ THE BELOW POST. (SORRY MATE, THAT'S JUST TOO MUCH DETAIL FOR MOST PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK.)

That wouldn't be for the reappearance of the Moth, which Harry Knowles refers to in his review of the film? The only other thing it could be that I can think of is when the cock crows as the sun rises over the Pelennor Fields... We can hear a fragment of it on the soundtrack in track 13 at around 0:50-1:00.

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Over at the forums of tolkienonline.com, a discussion led us to realize
that the theme everyone's been calling the "Nature" theme doesn't
represent so much a theme as an idea from Tolkien, that of hope (or
help) unlooked for.

The use of this theme now makes sense each time it shows up in the film,
despite the widely varying circumstances -

The moth flitting to Gandalf on Orthanc - a messenger to the Eagles
The Last March of the Ents
Theoden and Aragorn in the Helmburg at Sunrise on the Fifth Day
The Charge of the Rohirrim on Pelennor
The Moth again at Morannon, with the Eagles

Each of these indicate a shift in the tide, a turn for the better when
everything seems to be hopeless.

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So when Paul wrote his post here, I thought. Well. Nature theme after all. But I still liked my way of looking at it better and I couldn't fully reconcile the Nature aspect. Here's how I finally did it. It's from my site: http://www.geocities.com/a_magpies_nest/id54.htm

I see the instances where this theme is used as timely uprisings or arrivals of members of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth against overwhelming instances or forces of the Shadow. Low hope was a factor in these cases. (How can Gandalf possibly get off Orthanc - who knows he's there? What can Merry and Pippin do against a horde of Uruk-hai? Fanghorn, himself, says the Ents are probably marching to their doom. And the hold out of Helm's Deep can not endure against the onslaught of Saruman's army.) But if I take what I see as a battle of the Free Peoples against the Shadow (or more simply Good vs. Evil) and 'reclassify' it as a battle of Nature vs. Industry (terms I've heard used used by various members of the cast and crew of the films)... then HS and I are saying the same thing, just using different terms. So I happily acquiesce to Howard.

quote:

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Originally posted by Marian Schedenig:
Well, in "Ride out with me", it fits the sun...but I don't see a real connection to nature in ROTK.

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