Embedded Files
The penultimate episode of the season is here, and while perhaps not as great as the previous one, it's still interesting, and has great developments for the story that I'm sure will culminate in a great season finale next week. We have the aftermath of the Orodruin explosion, the consequences this has had on the Harfoot storyline, and their confrontation with the mysterious characters after the Stranger, and then we have the growing conflict between Durin and his father, over the mithril Elrond needs for the elves.
The music is not as complex as in the battle sequence from previous episode, but McCreary makes the most of all his themes, with a couple of great new variations on them, that I will analyse in a minute.
By the way, Bear is releasing weekly albums with complete score for each episode, so I definitely recommend to give it a listen while you read this, so you can better understand the narrative and the thematic development I analyze. And in case you need it, I'm working on a spreadsheet comparing the tracks on the complete releases to the tracks already released in the first soundtrack album.
SHORT DISCLAIMER: The transcriptions are not always in the same key as the pieces I put as example, and sometimes they are simplified to make it clearer and more concise
The first storyline I want to analyse it's the Khazad-dûm one. Here McCreary supports all the different conversations and conflicts between the characters with extended developments of his four different ideas for this storyline. Durin's theme, Elrond's theme, the Khazad-dûm theme, and finally the Rings of Power motif.
The Khazad-dûm theme here appears as a stark contrast to Durin and Elrond's more cheerful material, and serves as a representation of Durin's father, and his refusal to help them in the mithril extraction. You can hear some appearances of the theme at the beginning of "Fire and Rock", at 2:57 of "The Vein", or at 7:40 of "A Leaf Burn" (this is the same as 7:20 from "In the Mines").
But in fact, the theme that gets featured the most is Durin's theme. It's used to represent Durin's noble heart, willing to disobey his father in order to help his friend. The theme opens "In the Mines", and gets played a lot of times, but probably my favorite one is at 2:20 of that cue (6:06 of "Fire and Rock"), when he realizes the mithril really works, and decides to help Elrond find the ore.
Durin IV's Theme
Elrond's Theme
The theme even gets playful (joined by its associated percusive accompainment) at the beginning of "The Vein" (at 2:35 of "In the Mines"), but for me, the highlight of this cue are the variations on Elrond's theme, which is slowly becoming one of my favorites of the whole show (and to think I disliked the theme at first). "Fire and Rock" has a couple of appearances of the theme (at 0:33 and 4:35), but the one that stands out is the emotional variation of the theme after he is expelled of Khazad-dûm, after Durin's father finds out about their disobedience at 3:33 of "The Vein" (5:43 of "In the Mines"). This gorgeous passage is followed by a subtle appearance of the Rings of Power motif, which also gets a couple of moments to shine through the episode, in "Fire and Rock" and "The Vein".
The theme is used to represent the mithril, and the mysteries surrounding it, and McCreary uses the theme as a sort of wonder motif, accompanying Elrond and Durin's discoveries in the mines. You can hear straightforward statements of the motif at 2:59 of "Fire and Rock" and 2:23 of "The Vein", but the moment where it takes the center spot is when Durin sees how the darkness that was consuming the leaf from Lindon slowly disappears, when it's exposed to the mithril. At 5:34 of "Fire and Rock" (1:48 of "In the Mines"), McCreary allows the choir to carry the theme with wonderous beauty, leading to the statement of Durin's theme I mentioned above.
The next storyline I want to tackle is the Harfoot one. After being missing from the previous episode, they are featured quite a bit, and their story goes through a couple of interesting developments. First of all, we have the Stranger's departure, which then leads to the appearance of the Mystics, searching for him, and their confrontation with the tribe. McCreary uses 4 different ideas to support this scenes, with some great developments of them. Both "The Grove" and "The Apple" have extended variations on Nori's theme, the Harfoot theme and the Stranger's theme. The Harfoot theme has a couple of cheerful renditions like the one that opens "The Extinguished Torch", but I particularly also enjoy the emotional statements of the theme that open "The Apple" and "A Leaf Burns", or the tragic variation at 3:55 of "The Extinguished Torch".
Harfoot Life
The Stranger's Theme
Nori's Theme
"The Apple" features extended emotional statements of the Stranger's theme, which sometimes intermingles with Nori's theme, as she bids hims farewell and offers him an apple. Nori's theme gets a couple of more mysterious statements in "The Extinguished Torch", a cue which greatly develops an idea introduced in episode 5, the Mystics theme.
Their material is based around a chanting motif, which sometimes includes a three-note insidious motif, some unnerving string passages, and percussion. Their material is developed extensively during their encounter with the Harfoots, which culminates in them burning the tribe's carriages, and then disappearing.
The aftermath of the encounter (first part of "A Leaf Burns") is scored with emotional statements of the Harfoot theme and Nori's theme, before they decide to go back into the woods in search for the Stranger, with a joyous statement of the Harfoot theme, joined by its usual percussive accompainment.
And finally, we get to the aftermath of the eruption, where we slowly discover the whereabouts of all the main characters. The themes for evil, like Sauron's theme or Adar's theme, appear briefly here and there (at the beginning of "Crimson Aftermath" and near the end of "A Leaf Burns" respectively), but this is an episode for the themes of good. Galadriel's theme is broken, never really showing the strength that accompanied her in the cavalry in the previous episode, and we can hear the theme briefly at the beginning of "Only Grey", in the middle of "Memories of Dancing" or at 2:20 of "The Veil of Smoke". Something similar happens to the Númenor theme, which never achieves its former glory, even when it intends to at 5:41 of "Infirmary" or 2:25 of "A Leaf Burns"
Galadriel's Theme
Númenor's Theme
Other themes get more room to be stated, like for example the Bronwyn and Arondir theme. It's missing for the most part of the episode, since we dont really know what has happened to them, but when Theo reunites with them, we hear a gorgeous statement of the theme at 2:54 of "Infirmary" (1:40 of "The Veil of Smoke"). Something a bit similar happens in that cue with Elendil and Isildur's theme. During most of the episode, it's fragmented and incomplete, but when Elendil lets Berek go, thinking Isildur is gone, McCreary allows the theme to bring a bit of hope, with a soaring statement of it that develops during the first part of "The Veil of Smoke" (or "Infirmary" from the complete score).
Finally, the last important theme is the Halbrand & the Southlands theme. During the episode, the theme gets associated with Theo, as Galadriel reassures him, and makes him realize his bravery and courage, in "Only Grey" and "Infirmary". When Galadriel sees Halbrand (at 3:33 of "A Leaf Burns"), his theme plays, weak and unstable, but as he walks out of the tent, the theme turns stronger, culminating in a heroic fanfare as he and Galadriel ride out of the settlement (the ending section of "The Veil of Smoke")
Bronwyn and Arondir Theme
Elendil and Isildur Theme
Halbrand and the Southlands Theme
This is it for the seveth episode! While not as gripping to watch as episode 6, this one had a lot great character developments, with the storylines building towards something I hope will be explored in the final episode of the season next week! I hope you enjoyed and definitely feel free to check out my analysis of previous episodes, and be sure to stay tuned for my analysis next week. Cheers!
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