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Comment by larusso | Hacker News Reader

My other favorite example in Film is The Lord of the Rings. Especially in the first movie with the theme for the fellowship. It starts out as some single French horns and becomes this great theme when the complete fellowship walks the iconic scene over the mountains towards Moria. Then in Moria we hear it the last time played in full when it abruptly stopps. After Gandalf fell so does the theme. It’s beautiful done.

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Yeah it’s pretty much perfect. You hear it from the first seconds: Galadriel/Lothlorien theme as the the voiceover starts over black screen, turns into the ring theme as the title card appears, and changing into the lighter Shire theme when she talks about it, waving different themes into each other, after finally ending in Fellowship theme as the title ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ appears.

Even after Boromir’s death you hear a sad and dark hint of the Fellowship theme as it fades away into the moment the fellowship truly breaks and Frodo decides to leave on his own.

Imagine my disappointment when they used the Nazgul theme in the Hobbit, in the final warg/orc fight scene. Just threw it all away because it’s something that sounds ominous.

Yeah because they had to throw that scene in and they had no music for it. If I remember correctly it was 2 minutes of movie means 2 weeks of sound work. Or something like that. And the hobbit was plagued with issues from the very start. I still like the soundtrack from the hobbit but it didn’t follow the leitmotif as much. When listening to it while working I have no idea where in the story the music belongs to. That is different with Lord of the Rings.

Yes it sure feels like that too. I like Hobbit music too, like how Misty Mountains Cold song is sung by dwarves at the start and it then develops into a full-blown hero theme later. It’s just they kinda overuse in not-so-impactful scenes and it loses its … well, impact.

My favorite theme/tune is in the song the Forest River from the extended soundtrack of part two. It only plays very shortly and comes back every now and then later in another track. It wasn’t in the first movie so I assume it belongs to Legolas or his girlfriend ;) but I’m not sure.

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