Musical scenery: Utopia vs. Arcadia in The lord of the rings (dir. Peter Jackson)
Musical scenery: Utopia vs. Arcadia in The lord of the rings (dir. Peter Jackson)

Summary/Abstract: One of the most impressive component of MiddleEarth in the original novel byJ.R.R. Tolkien was detailed scenography – creation of world with a full geographical,cultural and artistic description. P. Jackson in his film version re-created this imaginativeworld with great care and precision. It has however constructed another scenography– the added value which could not appear in any novel – musical one.Music in any movie plays very important role. It can emphasise or modify theaction, or in can suggest the movie’s structure. Music also can influence the viewer’ssubconscious with different patterns denotating various cultural spheres or symbols.The excellent example of the latter is music for The Lord of the Rings by Howard Shore.The analysis of composer’s idea opens the new dimension of the movie – besides theaction, scenography, costumes, movie props or sound landscape. The pieces describingvarious parts or heroes of MiddleEarth have been composed with use of deliberatelychosen instruments, motives, scales or styles. Such a combination creates the variousmusical worlds which are subconsciously recognised by viewers – even those musicallyunprepared.One of the most interesting musical cliché created by H. Shore is a musical Arcadiaor Utopia. The composer’s consideration of various musical imaginative worlds accomplishthe action of the movie and the its scenery. It is however important to noticethere is no one way of creation the “musical Utopia”. Composer not only uses differentmusical elements to generate various effects – what is quite obvious – but also selectsseparate elements of music as precisely as possible, to create diverse worlds. It is worthto discuss the method and the music vocabulary of such composer’s activities concerningworlds as dissimilar as Elfish world contrary to the Shire. Such the oppositioncan be seen as the Utopia versus Arcadia. The example of “old human civilization” willbe – within the above construction – Rohirrim musical culture. H. Shore uses not onlythe elements of various musical styles but also creates the subconscious links betweena range ofmusical elements and elements of imaginative world.

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