Solo clarinet returns the story to Frodo, Sam and Gollum. The clarinet, of
course, relates to the two citizens of the Shire, but the melodic line is anything
but hobbit-like. Lifting through an F-minor arpeggio then descending,
the clarinet seems to be toying with the opening of The Pity of Gollum. "It's
tying the two of them—Frodo and Gollum—together," Shore acknowledges.
"Frodo could become Gollum."
Soon the hobbits retire for the night and Gollum is alone with himself.
Fractures of the Pity theme tumble through the orchestra. Violins and bass
clarinet examine the telltale ascending minor arpeggios under flittering
celesta trills as the subservient Sméagol and the treacherous Gollum vie for
dominance—the winner being announced, not with a blast of trumpets, but
with the squawk of a contrabass clarinet.
Needy Sméagol has cast nasty Gollum aside, and is busy at work pleasing his
master. The contrabass clarinet, supported from below by pizzicato bass, plays
an irreparably damaged variation on the chipper Hobbit Outline figure, the
highest pitch swinging downwards on its rotting hinge. Over this, Sméagol
has repurposed the cimbalom from
Gollum's Menace, wrenching it into a
servile, toothless grin. Contrabassoon enters the mix, deepening the composition's timbre
just before Sam cuts short Sméagol's moment of giddy triumph. "It is a strange little thing,"
Shore says with a smile, "almost comedic."
In the bustle, Frodo wanders off to follow the odd calls of the forest. Field drums stiffen
the writing alongside a militaristic motif based off ascending minor triads, and the forest
unlooses a band of Haradrim soldiers.
But with a shudder of timpani and
bass drum, two elephantine beasts
emerge following the soldiers. These are Mûmakil, the Haradrim's beasts of
burden, and Shore's scoring for them sets up not a permanent melody, but
a distinct treatment of the orchestra. Weighty lines in the depths of the orchestral
palette (here unison celli and basses) sway beneath a prickling haze
of aleatoric flute and clarinets, discordant harp glissandi and sizzling dilruba
(bowed sitar).
The forest's odd calls sound again, signaling a group of Rangers of Ithilien
to ambush the Haradrim. Again the score adopts a militaristic edge with a
strikingly similar motif. The Haradrim emerged with the pitches of a minor
scale ordered 1-3-5, the Rangers with 1-3-2. It's an odd symmetry that ties
the new villains to the new heroes. Upon Faramir's appearance, this is clarified.
At the skirmish's end, Faramir stands over a fallen Haradrim soldier and
wonders how the man may have come to follow this path. "You wonder what
his name is... where he came from. And if he was really evil at heart." Shore's
score roams questioningly through minor harmonies, uncertain and restless.
Faramir continues, "What lies or threats led him on this long march from
home. If he would not have rather have stayed there..." and for two chords
the music compassionately warms with low brass and timpani, "...in peace."
He pauses. "War will make corpses of us all.

UNUSED CONCEPT :
In the film the sequence
featuring Gollum's warped
contrabass clarinet variation
of the Hobbit Outline
was not used

IN THE MAKING :
The militaristic minor triad figure meant
for the Haradrim's first appearance was
cut from the film and replaced by the
Mûmakil's low, swaying music minus a
few of the accompanying instruments.
Since the Mûmakil's music makes its
intended entrance just seconds later, the
film edit results in two sequential readings,
which appear to lend the line greater
significance than Shore intended. In fact,
this line is only meant to play once in The
Two Towers, although it sets up a scoring
style that returns, like the Mûmakil, with
a vengeance in The Return of the King.
The Complete Recordings features "The
Forest of Ithilien" as Shore composed
it—the military motif plays as the Haradrim
enter and the low 3/4 music plays
as the Mûmakil enter

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