{"id":772,"date":"2023-02-09T10:23:29","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T10:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/?p=772"},"modified":"2024-01-04T14:02:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T14:02:58","slug":"minimalist-moments-return-of-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/?p=772","title":{"rendered":"Minimalist Moments: Return of the King"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Howard Shore is a frequent collaborator with David Cronenberg. He\u2019s scored every single one of his films apart from one since 1979. He\u2019s composed an opera, and he\u2019s composed for television, working as the musical director for SNL for five years. Shore has established a glittering and varied career, but the composer will inevitably be most known for his work on Peter Jackson\u2019s Lord of the Rings<\/em> trilogy, with his music playing an essential role during scenes with minimal dialogue, or no dialogue at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

His work comes to the fore, however, with his masterful \u2018The Grace of Und\u00f3miel\u2019, sung by Ren\u00e9e Fleming in Return of the King<\/em>. A voiceover of her father Elrond is heard ordering her safe passage to the Grey Havens, where she will be carried across the sea to the land of the undying. The scene suddenly switches to slow motion, however, as a vision of Arwen\u2019s future son, Eldarion, runs across the forest. \u2018Grace\u2019 starts playing as the camera focuses on Arwen\u2019s transfixed face watching her boy run into the arms of his delighted father Aragon, before appearing to stare at her with a blank expression. Arwen notes the Evenstar around his neck, confirming without doubt that the boy before her is her future son. She closes her eyes in anguish as she remembers her father\u2019s lie that the world of man holds no promise for her, ultimately deciding to ride back to Rivendell and confront him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s difficult to hear Fleming\u2019s lyrics here, which sing of Arwen\u2019s dimming light and the coming darkness due to her indecision, but ultimately, you don\u2019t have to. Ultimately, the emotive power in her voice combined with Arwen\u2019s determined actions do all the storytelling by themselves. She then manages to persuade Elrond to reforge Isildur\u2019s blade, Narsil, as the score becomes mightier and the lyrics continue to explain the narrative. But again, we don\u2019t need to hear the words to gain their emotive affect. Ultimately, it is the opening scene where \u2018Grace\u2019 first begins to play that has the most impact, where hope is conveyed through a single, silent glance between a mother and her earnest son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Howard Shore is a frequent collaborator with David Cronenberg. He\u2019s scored every single one of his films apart from one since 1979. He\u2019s composed an opera, and he\u2019s composed for television, working as the musical director for SNL for five years. Shore has established a glittering and varied career, but the composer will inevitably be … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Minimalist Moments: Return of the King”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}