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Faculty of the Arts:

Masters in Music

MU5599: Special Study Dissertation

Middle-Earth vs. Pandora:

Exploring Musical Conceptualisations of Place in Alternative Worlds.

Caroline Draude

Candidate Number: 1602114

Word count: 17,978

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Abstract

Alternative worlds in classical Hollywood cinema are built from a variety of cinematic

constructions. The credibility of such worlds depends on the extent to which the film’s

creators wish to stray from the concept of reality. Abstract notions of colour, dimensionality,

light and sound contrast more complex cinematic concepts such as narrative, character roles,

credibility and geography. It is the specific combination of these elements chosen by

filmmakers which determines whether audiences are able to become immersed into the world

by perceiving it as a real and coherent entity.

This thesis is an exploration into how composers James Horner and Howard Shore

use music to help build conceptualisations of place in their two fantasy film series’, Avatar

and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It offers three hermeneutical levels of analysis which

provide different insights into how the composers musically construct a sense of place:

through establishing spatial identities, through music’s relation to the narrative, and from a

more conceptual viewpoint relating to power struggles in the real world. It ultimately aims to

evaluate the extents in which music’s contribution toward creating a sense of place not only

influences the construction of the worlds themselves, but how it is capable in altering the way

audiences perceive them as credible entities as a whole.

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Contents

List of Figures and Tables……………………………………………………………………..3

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………..…..5

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………....6

Chapter 1: Directly Evoking Place……………………………………………………...…11

Chapter 2: Place Relating to Narrative…………………………………………………....31

Chapter 3: Reading Fictional Worlds………………………………………………..……61

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………..…..74

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………….......…..77
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List of Figures and Tables

Figure 1: Avatar, Jake awakes on the spacecraft………………………………………………….…..13

Figure 2: Avatar, deafening sound effects……………………...……………………………………..14

Figure 3: Jurassic Park, Hammond’s helicopter……………………………………………………...16

Figure 4: Avatar, Trudy’s helicopter flying over Pandora…………………………………………….16

Figure 5: Fellowship, visual confirmation of place……………………………………………..…….21

Figure 6: Fellowship, ‘Concerning Hobbits’…………………………………………………….……22

Figure 7: Fellowship, “It is no bad thing”……………………………………………………….…….23

Figure 8: Fellowship, ‘Mordor’s Theme’……………………………………………………………..25

Figure 9: Fellowship, Introduction to Mordor………………………………………………………...25

Figure 10: Fellowship, Isengard’s Theme………………………………………………………….….26

Figure 11: Fellowship, The Caverns of Isengard………………………………………………….…..27

Figure 12: The Two Towers, Isengard’s theme pervades the foreign landscape………………………35

Figure 13: Fellowship, “If I take one more step”……………………………………………….....…..38

Figure 14: Fellowship, Shire theme accompanies Frodo……………………………………………...38

Figure 15: Fellowship, “Sam, I’m glad you’re with me”…………………………………………..….39

Figure 16: The Two Towers, “What are we holding onto, Sam?”………………………………...…..40

Figure 17: Return of the King, Gondor bows to the hobbits…………………………………….…….41

Figure 18: Avatar, “Welcome to your new body, Jake”………………………………………..……..44

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Figure 19: Avatar, “Jake, you’re not used to your avatar body………………………………...……..45

Figure 20: Avatar, “We’re not supposed to be running!”……………………………………………. 48

Figure 21: Avatar, Jake’s defence………………………………………………………………..……50

Figure 22: Avatar, Jake discovers bioluminescence……………………………………….………….52

Figure 23: Avatar, “Sky people cannot learn”……………………………………………......……….54

Figure 24: The Two Towers, Gandalf the White………………………………………………………65

Figure 25: The Two Towers, Gandalf’s army descend upon the Uruk-Hai……………………….…..66

Figure 26: Return of the King, Gandalf gallops…………………………………………………...…..66

Figure 27: Avatar, Bulldozers rampage across Pandora’s landscape……………………………..…..69

Figure 28: Avatar, A musical lament accompanies after Hometree has fallen………………………..70

Figure 29: Avatar, “sooner or later though”……………………………………………………….….71

Table 1: Avatar, Comparative use of the I See You chords………………………………………..…..46

Table 2: Avatar, montage sequence……………………………………………………………......….58

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my parents for providing a constant stream of encouragement

throughout the year, and for offering the most brutal grammatical scrutiny possible as the

deadline loomed ever closer. Thanks to those particular friends who (not so) willingly

accompanied me on the road to insanity. Lastly, thanks to Dr. Tim Summers, whose

continuous inspiration and engagement with this project shaped it significantly into the

identity it now holds.

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Introduction

“Cinema does not just present images, it surrounds them with a world.”

– Gilles Deleuze 1

James Cameron’s Avatar and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy begin by starving their

audiences of all sensory information by presenting a black screen. And then, startlingly in the

former and mystically in the latter, the music begins. Avatar’s silence is punctured by two

Swedish-influenced cascading heterophonic vocal lines, 2 while out of Fellowship’s stillness

emerges a female chorus floating gently up and down a Locrian scale. The music provides

our first experience of both Pandora (Avatar’s world) and Middle-Earth (LOTR’s world),

accurately setting the tone for the histories, cultures and places existent in the respective

fictional worlds.

The subject of space and place has received varying amounts of critical appraisal

throughout the film music discipline. Notable theorists, such as Claudia Gorbman, discuss

music’s locational power through its ‘connotative values via cultural codes and through

textual repetition and variation [which] largely determine atmosphere’. 3 Much existing

literature on the subject focuses on the negative implications surrounding music’s function in

depicting existing cultures and geographical locations. In Burnand and Sarnaker’s article,

‘The Articulation of National Identity Through Film Music’, for example, they claim that

music’s representative role in depicting place often leads to composers promoting misleading

1
G. Deleuze, The r stals of ti e , Cinema II: The Time-Image (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1989), pp. 68 – 155.
2
W. Bryant, Creati g the Musi of the Na i i Ja es Ca ero s A atar: A Eth o usi ologist s ‘ole ,
Ethnomusicology Review, vol. 17 (2012).
3
C. Gorbman, Narratologi al Perspe ti es o Fil Musi , Unheard Melodies, pp. 11 – 30.
 7

racial stereotypes through their scores (such as Native Americans, who are usually musically

signified through duple metre tom-toms, orchestral timpani and pentatonic diads played on

‘far from authentic instruments’ such as French horns).4 They explain how, in most cases,

this musical depiction ‘tells an audience next to nothing about [the race] as human beings,

and yet its inaccuracy in using non-traditional instruments may well underpin the racial

stereotyping typical of many such films.’5 Kalinak furthers this concept by suggesting that the

classical Hollywood score relies ‘not so much on actual imitation of music [which is]

indigenous to other cultures as on a more generic concept of exoticism’, 6 which presents the

danger which comes with generalising otherness by way of this potentially degrading

utilisation of music.

This thesis concerns itself with how composers use music to construct ostentatiously

fictional worlds, which despite arguably minimizing the potential for cultural and spatial

misrepresentation, brings its own critical and conceptual issues to the table. Composers James

Horner and Howard Shore were presented with the task of musically evoking their respective

large-scale fictional worlds in ways which had to convince audiences of the credibility of

their worlds in order to immerse them into the narratives. The most pressing task faced by

both composers therefore concerned whether audiences could be immersed into fictional

settings which are so obviously fantastic and therefore logically unidentifiable.

Both Avatar and LOTR are films which have created compelling virtual worlds. One

critic writing for the Radio Times describes Middle-Earth as a ‘living, breathing universe’

which boasts computer-generated images that ‘transform the New Zealand locations into

4
D. Burnand and B. Sarnaker eds. , The Arti ulatio of Natio al Ide tit Through Fil Musi , National
Identities, vol. 1, no. 1 (2012), 7 – 13.
5
Bur a d, Natio al Ide tit , p. .
6
Kali ak, K., The Classi al Holl ood Fil “ ore , Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), pp. 66 – 112.
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views that will take your breath away’. 7 Cameron defines Pandora as ‘the Garden of Eden

with teeth and claws’8, while a critic described it as ‘a wonder world of flora and fauna: a rain

forest of gigantic trees and phosphorescent plants, of six-legged flying horses, panther dogs

and hammerhead dinosaurs.’9 While conceiving of how they were going to approach their

scores, both composers were faced with the issue of authenticity. When Howard Shore came

to score Peter Jackson’s LOTR, he was faced distinct requirements for the music derived from

the original J. R. R. Tolkien novel’s description. 10 Indeed, in Jones’ and Smith’s article on the

authenticity of the film trilogy, they describe how the spirit of the films not only had to ring

true to books but also to the Anglo-Saxon myths of culture, location and historical lineage

which they assert.11 Shore’s music would therefore have to echo Tolkien’s legacy, to evince a

sense of living with an organic style of composition inseparable from the craggy world that

hosted it.12 He would need to invent a rich musical history that was just as varied and detailed

as Middle-Earth’s own, which meant that the concept of location would have to be central to

the ways that this authenticity was to be fabricated musically. 13

Horner faced slightly different issues when creating the music for Avatar. Cameron

hired an ethnomusicologist, Wanda Bryant, to work alongside Horner in constructing a

musical “voice” for Pandora’s indigenous people (the Na’vi) before marrying it to the general

orchestral score.14 Because the director was intent on pairing his visually foreign landscape

with an equally foreign soundscape, both Horner and Bryant had to experiment with

7
A. Collins, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring , RadioTimes, http://goo.gl/L1h3zs (accessed
August 2016).
8
M. Caro, Avatar builds on Pandora fever , Chicago Tribune, http://goo.gl/Ethfcv (accessed August 2016).
9
R. Collis, Collis Appraises Avatar: A world of wonder , Time, http://goo.gl/ZB9YWu (accessed August 2016).
10
K. J. Donnelly, Musi al Middle Earth i E. Mathijs, The Lord of the Rings: Popular Culture in Global Contexts
(London: Wallflower Press, 2006), pp. 301 – 316.
11
D. Jones a d K. “ ith, Middle-earth Meets New Zealand: Authenticity and Location in the Making of The
Lord of the Rings , Journal of Management Studies, vol. 42, no. 5 (2005), 923 – 944.
12
D. Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings (Van Nuys: Alfred Music Publishing, 2010, p. 2.
13
Jo es, Authe ti it a d Lo atio , p. .
14
Bryant, Creati g the Musi of the Na i , p. .
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countless samples from various cultures around the world in order to find ‘unusual musical

sounds that no one has ever heard before [which are] not readily recognizable by the average

American movie-goer as belonging to a specific culture, time period, or geographical

location.’15 However, their refined list of samples were mostly dismissed by Cameron as

either too recognisable or too “weird”, thus demonstrating the problematic restrictions

inherent within Horner’s task of producing a score which had to be utterly unique but

simultaneously emotionally familiar. 16

Despite these different contextual issues, both composers committed to structuring

their scores in accordance with the films’ respective narratives which both hinge upon binary

oppositions. Avatar’s binary concerns the futuristic and post-colonial characteristics

belonging to the human world vs. the importance of nature inherent within the Na’vi world,

whereas LOTR’s binary concerns the broader yet more traditional notions of Good vs. Evil. It

is within these narratological boundaries that both Horner and Shore project a sense of place

to their audiences through the clearest lens, with the intention of not only drawing viewers

into the respective worlds, but also encouraging them to adopt particular narrative

perspectives from the outset of the films.

The following analysis offers a hermeneutical exploration into the three different

ways in which music contributes toward building a sense of place within the respective

fictional worlds. The first chapter focuses on the most direct method adopted by both Shore

and Horner in evoking musical conceptualisations of place as a way of inducting audiences

into the worlds. Stemming from this, the second chapter offers an analytical insight into how

these initial musical spatial identities are altered when perceiving the world through focalised

perspectives of the films’ protagonists, thus offering a tailored experience of our

15
Ibid, p. 1.
16
Bryant, Creati g the Musi of the Na i , p. .
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surroundings while simultaneously assimilating identifications with the most significant

characters in the films. The final chapter adopts a method of wider scrutiny by offering an

opportunity to interpret the way the music’s relation to the narrative binary functions on a

broader level, a concept which enables the audience to grasp a sense of the particular

widespread themes which encourage investment through a method of interpretive

engagement.

Alongside this exploration into how music evokes different facets of place features an

emerging insight measuring the extent of co-dependence existent between the audio and

visual in constructing alternative worlds. Indeed, the visual spheres in both cases use

immersive techniques in order to draw viewers into the worlds, witnessed particularly

through Avatar’s stereoscopic special effects and LOTR’s stunning panoramic shots. This

essay, in adhering to both Chion’s and Winters’s view, is therefore not an attempt to justify

the musical significance over the visual stimuli but rather constitutes an exploration into the

various ways in which the music ‘unscrolls alongside the other narrative elements’ in creating

a sense of place. 17 As well as this, I aim to look beyond purely narratologically-influenced

models of film music and, instead, argue for wider conceptions of music’s engagement with

narrative in order to fully appreciate the its contribution toward constructing place in tandem

with other cinematic elements employed in both film series. 18 Ultimately, this dissertation

presents a comparative analysis exploring the various methods in which Shore and Horner

score Pandora and Middle-Earth which completely alter how audiences identify with them,

demonstrating the extents in which both Avatar and LOTR are intrinsically defined by the

worlds they create as much as the narrative plots they depict.

17
Wi ters, B., Musi a d Narrati e: A I trodu tio , Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, Vol. 6, No. 1
(2012), 3 – 7.
18
Wi ters, Musi a d Narrati e , p. .
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Chapter 1:

Directly Evoking Place

The most direct way in which both Shore and Horner use music to construct a sense of place

is by attaching musical themes to significant narrative components in their respective fictional

worlds. This directly representative utilisation of music is a convention which has been adopted

by many composers in classical Hollywood cinema (such as Herrmann, Korngold, Steiner and

Williams). This is because creating clear-cut, recognisable themes and attaching them to their

visual counterparts encourages the audience to audibly recognise the most significant narrative

concepts within the film. 1 Shore adheres to this cinematic convention when scoring The Lord

of the Rings [LOTR], meticulously providing over 50 themes and Leitmotifs for almost every

key character, concept and location in the trilogy. 2 In Avatar, however, Horner devises themes

more organically which emerge through a musical process. Instead of coining themes for

individual characters or concepts, he aligns certain sounds with broader narrative subjects;

musical themes are only applied to specific concepts as aspects of the plot are unveiled

throughout the film.

The following chapter will explore the extent to which music forges notions of spatial

identity through initial musical conceptualisations of place in the films. It is the aim of this

first-level audio-visual analysis to reveal the effects of this musical evocation of place, and the

potentially problematic concepts embedded within this conventional cinematic scoring-style

practice. Despite such a surface effect’s discernibility, it is my intention to interrogate whether

1
K. Kalinak, The Classi al Holl ood Fil “ ore , Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), pp. 66 – 112.
2
D. Adams, The Music of The Lord of the Rings (Van Nuys: Alfred Music Publishing, 2010).
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it is truly the most effective way in which audiences are propelled to form an engagement with

the fictional world in which they are immersed, ‘to perceive the worlds as real and coherent

entities.’3

Discussed in the introduction were the ways in which the initial musical requirements,

placed on Horner, before composing Avatar’s music, manifested themselves in the construction

of the film’s central themes. The finished score constitutes two different musical styles: the

tribal palette, representing the Na’vi soundscape, and a traditional cinematic score which

frames the narrative from a more human perspective. The first section of analysis here will

explore how music interweaves concepts embedded within this binary, illuminating how the

same restrictions faced by Horner when creating the voice of the Na’vi actually end up being

present in the score’s depiction of the human world. An appraisal of the music’s reflection of

this narrative binary can be sought by analysing the contexts in which the contrasting locations

are initially established musically. This section seeks to question whether Horner’s fluid

approach towards harnessing narrative elements jeopardizes the clarity of the narrative binary

and, as a result, impacts how the audience initially identifies with the world.

The ‘human world’ (which, in this context usually specifies scenes enacted from a

human perspective), often comprises a colour scheme of light blues and greys – tones which

suggest a cold, mechanical and man-made environment. One of the opening scenes, which

serves the function of explaining Jake’s position within the narrative context, is set against this

backdrop.4 In the first shot, the audience is pulled into an uncomfortably enclosed space with

the protagonist. At first, both the visuals and audio deprive the audience of sensory information;

the former provide us with a limited palette of blues and we hear some machine-like sound

3
A. Davidson, High fidelit ? Musi i s ree adaptatio s i D. Cart ell a d I. Wheleha , The Cambridge
Companion to Literature on Screen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 212 – 225.
4
Avatar. Dir. James Cameron. Twentieth Century Fox, 2009.
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effects and a voice-over informing us that Jake has been ‘asleep’ in this mechanical case for

six whole years (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Avatar, Jake awakes on the spacecraft [00:57].

The limited palette of sounds presented in these opening images therefore forces the audience

to forge an immediate link between restriction and humankind. The following set of shots,

providing the necessary contextual information, outlining how Jake is currently being

transported to Pandora through space, features an emerging synthesized rising string pattern

which audibly enhances the futuristic aesthetic through its emotionless and electronic timbres.

A flashback to a scene back on Earth depicts Jake being coerced into agreeing to take Tommy’s

(his dead brother’s) place on Pandora before he is cremated, and includes an icy and detached

solo soprano vocal line above the melancholy string melody, lending ethereal significance to

the scene. The non-diegetic music in these opening images lacks any apparent motivation; in

place of a memorable musical theme to characterise Jake, we are provided with a sequence of

bland harmonic string timbres. As a result, we are audio-visually introduced to the human

world as a cold, uninviting and rather hollow environment.

Notably, the following set of fragmented shots, oscillating between long-distance shots

of the spacecraft nearing Pandora and the flashback scene, are musically punctured by a rolling

timpani followed immediately by staggered hits layered over suspended strings. These timpani

hits have audible connotations of forced impact, the unwelcome spacecraft, driving towards
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the moon, coming up an invisible barrier, alluded to only sonically. Indeed, when the scene

ends dramatically with bright orange flames engulfing Tommy’s coffin in the flashback, the

deafening roar of the sound effects overrides the tepid non-diegetic musical accompaniment.

The immediate cut to a second smaller aircraft penetrating Pandora’s atmosphere layers the

intrusive noise across to the roar of the plane’s engine – functioning as an audible pivot between

the two scenes (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Avatar, deafening sound effects act as audible bridge [03:20].

This cinematic emphasis on man-made machines is interesting when related back to the

establishment of the human/Na’vi binary. The image of the unstoppable aircraft, bruising

Pandora’s atmosphere, demonstrates the superiority of human industry over nature right from

the outset. The lack of a thematic character from the non-diegetic score, paired with the

astringent diegetic sound effects, therefore presents this microcosm of the human world as

utterly unsympathetic; little attempt is made to encourage the audience to identify with the

film’s protagonist or the setting. Horner therefore lays the foundations of the prevailing

narrative binary by distancing the audience from a feeling of familiarity or kinship with their

own race.

These musical signifiers of restriction – lack of distinct thematic identity, restrained

score and limited timbral variety – presented in the audience’s first glimpse of the human world

may only be properly actualised when contrasted with the enriched orchestration of Pandora’s
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landscape. What is particularly peculiar, however, is that Horner does not introduce the Na’vi’s

musical tropes in tandem with the audience’s visual induction into their world. Our first

impression of Pandora, as the spacecraft navigates its way through its uninviting mists, is not

met with any welcoming audio-visual spectacle. At this point, the viewer can only experience

the new world from the limited human perspective, a concept presented literally through how

the humans are only permitted a tiny view of Pandora out of the small windscreen of the

spacecraft [03:38]. This notion of limitation is reflected musically by a cold, instrumental

timbral quality as the spaceship comes into land at Hell’s Gate (the main centre for all human

colonial activities on Pandora), although here the rising chordal progression is accompanied by

a pulsating drum pattern with a repetitive string motif lacking a proper melody – elements

which all have to compete with the blaring diegetic noise of the aircraft’s engine. The supressed

musical accompaniment therefore continues to contribute towards this representation of the

bleak, industrial, colonised space from the perspective of the colonisers, so as to remain true to

the narrative binary.

A following scene which obscures this initial narrative clarity, however, is when Jake

and the team of biologists make their first excursion into the jungle to gather samples while in

their Avatar bodies [24:08]. Here, away from the scorched terrain, monstrous machinery and

avaricious humans, the audience is finally visually introduced to the extraordinary natural

world of Pandora. Appearing as a homage to director Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, a series

of spectacular panoramic and tracking shots follow the biologists’ helicopter as it soars over

the moon’s rainforests and waterfalls (see Figures 3 and 4) – even one including a zooming

shot of a flock of pterodactyl-like creatures.

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Figure 3: Jurassic Park, Hammond’s helicopter leading the audience through this new undiscovered

territory. 5

Figure 4: Avatar, Trudy’s helicopter flying over Pandora.

Although the visual effect achieved in both these films is intended to astonish the

audience, as they properly experience these foreign lands for the first time, one prominent

factor which divides them is the non-diegetic musical accompaniment. John Williams pairs the

Jurassic Park scene with the film’s most iconic theme, displaying the music alongside the

magnificent visual shots, which encourages the audience to forge an association between the

heroic brassy theme and the place in which the music helps to conceptualise. Horner, on the

other hand, negates such heroic possibility, failing to deliver Avatar’s main theme, depriving

the audience audio-visual unity. In place of musical grandeur, Horner scores the scene with the

5
Jurassic Park. Dir. S. Spielberg. Universal, 1993.
 17

same timbres heard previously in the human world. Undistinguished and generic synthesized

strings are accompanied by a drum pattern which drives us through the scene with a sense of

urgency. The further use of human musical signifiers is also forced to compete with the diegetic

whirring of the helicopter, thus demonstrating yet another example where music cannot

conquer diegetic sounds dominated by the man-made machinery. The fact that the audible

construction of Pandora fails to parallel the visuals therefore encourages us to question

Horner’s seemingly unclear musical intentions regarding the human vs. Na’vi narrative binary.

If his aim is to promote the disparity between two opposing worlds, why is the music belonging

to the human world encroaching onto the sublimity of an admittedly alien nature?

Because the non-diegetic music seems only to be complicating narrative coherence at

this arguably crucial moment in the film, it seems as though the diegetic realm must bear the

responsibility for constructing a credible sense of place through its unique palette of sound

effects. When describing the process of using diegetic sound to paint Pandora in this way,

Avatar’s sound designer Christopher Boyes describes how the landscape was ‘like a rainforest

10 times over…every nuance of [the Na’vi world] was explored sonically and given a signature

and a life on its own.’6 Following the helicopter scene, where Grace, Jake and Norm venture

deep into alien foliage, strands of animal-like diegetic sound effects are layered over each other

to provide a hyper-rainforest soundscape. The lack of non-diegetic music in this scene draws

the viewer’s attention to the natural soundscape. As Mel Slater argues in her Note of Presence

Terminology, ‘when you are present your perceptual, vestibular, proprioceptive, and autonomic

nervous systems are activated in a way similar to that of real life in similar situations.’7

The ways in which Horner introduces Avatar’s binary through music therefore rubs

against the grain, in that the most significant narrative concepts are not initially presented with

6
The “ou d of A atar , Soundworks Collection, http://goo.gl/ZF64GF (accessed July 2016).
7
M. “later, A Note o Prese e Ter i olog , Presence Connect, vol. 3 (2003), 1 – 5.
 18

musical clarity. This establishes an inchoate presentation of supposedly contrasting worlds, and

in doing so, puts the audience’s sense of the narrative at risk. A question of musical credibility

could therefore be raised, regarding Horner’s musical score. That is to say, although the

audience is encouraged to trust the diegetic sound effects, representative of the flora and fauna

of the moon, the non-diegetic music fails to provide much in the way of representational or

narrative truth.

In order to understand the composer’s unconventional methods regarding his musical

construction of Pandora, we must readjust our analytical perspective. Despite presenting

ambiguity, the fact that Horner neglects the opportunity to present two clear-cut musical

depictions of the contrasting worlds is an aspect, which ties in with the narrative complexity of

the plot. It is only when relating the music to the progression of the film’s narrative (through

the eyes of protagonist Jake Sully) that we are able to form an understanding of how the music

constructs distinct notions of place: a concept that will be discussed at greater length in Chapter

3. At this stage, it seems as if the viewer has to somewhat earn the privilege to hear the non-

diegetic music which will eventually emanate out of the Na’vi world, but not until grasping a

greater understanding of this world’s ideology will we be graced with such a privilege.

The complex process Horner chooses to embrace, in place of what would usually be

deemed as a fairly fool-proof method of evoking musical conceptualisations of place, arguably

prevents the audience from immersing themselves within the fictional world. If Pandora cannot

‘exist’ independently from character or plot, then how can the audience be convinced of its

overall credibility? Horner’s second musical palette (which serves to musically represent the

Na’vi) can therefore only properly be understood when relating it to a further point in the film’s

narrative (a concept which will be discussed in Chapter 2.)

Howard Shore’s approach towards introducing the vast array of places in the LOTR

trilogy differs to James Horner’s in Avatar regarding a number of different factors. Donnelly
 19

describes how the composer ‘provides a full range of heroic, bold orchestral themes with a full-

blooded orchestral sound and massed choirs’, 8 while Brownrigg describes the music as a

‘saturation score [which moves and evolves] with the action on screen, constantly shaping and

shading tension and emotion in the narrative.’ 9 Doug Adams’s book The Music of the Lord of

the Rings10 looks to taxonomise this grand leitmotivic structure, acknowledging every character

and conceptual theme by tracing their initial presentation, narrative function, and development

throughout the trilogy. By contrast, this study maintains that:

Audience members do not need to be musically “literate,” i.e. possess the ability to

compose, or analyse music in specifically musical terms, they need only musical

“competence,” i.e. the ability to decode musical meaning typically gained through basic

acculturation. 11

This chapter therefore aims to re-work the significant observations presented in Adams’s

analyses in order to present concepts which can be comprehended by a much larger audience,

procuring meaningful connection between viewers and the mythological domain of Middle

Earth.

The following analysis will focus on Shore’s representations of the cartography of

Middle Earth. Unlike Horner, who musically manifests Avatar’s narrative binary somewhat

straightforwardly (at least in a structural respect) by splitting up the score into two contrasting

musical palettes, Shore is faced with the more complex task of musically depicting all of

8
K. J. Donnelly, Musi al Middle Earth i E. Mathijs, The Lord of the Rings: Popular Culture in Global Contexts
(London: Wallflower Press, 2006), pp. 301 – 316.
9
M. Brownrigg, The Musi of Middle-Earth: Hearing Lord of the Rings , Media Education Journal, Issue 33
(2003), 11 – 15.
10
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings.
11
Davidson, Musi i s ree adaptatio s , p. .
 20

LOTR’s significant locations in which categories of good and evil are largely permeable.

Donnelly notes how:

Shore conceived of The Lord of the Rings music as a single organic piece rather than a

fragmentary selection of cues, as is the case in the vast majority of contemporary

mainstream films. He worked on the three films as a single entity and the musical score

as a central aspect of the trilogy. 12

By focusing primarily on The Fellowship of the Ring [Fellowship], in which the audience is

introduced to the largest number of places within Middle-Earth, this section will question the

various ways in which Shore’s representative musical depictions of place encourage audiences

to forge particular associations with the various racial groups, upon initial audio-visual

presentation. It is my aim to determine whether Shore’s stricter approach in designating themes

for the copious narrative components manages to heighten the fictive reality of the film’s

narrative, or whether it actually hinders the process of immersion.13

Shore’s thematic approach to LOTR illuminates its fictional world from an

anthropological viewpoint.14 Hobbits, elves, men, dwarves and orcs all belong to distinct

locations spread out across the land, with each racial group designated by their own musical

timbre and contour, in order to denote the qualities and traits inherent within their respective

cultures. One of the simplest ways in which Shore uses music to contribute towards building

these different notions of place is by aligning each location’s audible construction to its unique

visual depiction. The two share a goal in introducing the audience to each location as clearly

as possible. This fidelity to the acme of defining each place and its race in such a concise

manner is not just a nod towards the authenticity of Tolkien’s original text, but also ensures

12
Donnelly, Musi al Middle Earth , p. 308.
13
Davidson, Musi i s ree adaptatio s , p. .
14
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 11.
 21

that the audience forges associations between the musical, visual and contextual elements, all

contributing towards the creation of autochthonous spatial identity.

Firstly, let us consider the introduction to the Shire. A visual transition from the

previous ‘Prologue’ scene depicts a close up of a map slowly panning across from ‘Rivendell’,

settling briefly on ‘Hobbiton’, before zooming out so the shot can encapsulate the entirety of

Middle Earth’s geography (see Figure 5).15

Figure 5: Fellowship, Visual confirmation of place [07:38].

This zooming-out shot confirms that this map is a tangible element of diegesis. Simultaneously,

we hear Bilbo’s voice-over as he begins his new book:

“The twenty-second day of September, in the year 1400 – by Shire reckoning. Bag End,

Bagshot Row, Hobbiton, West Farthing, The Shire, Middle Earth. The Third Age of this

world.”16

While the visuals and voice-over work in tandem, placing the viewer firmly in the scene, the

non-diegetic musical accompaniment also alters in character to reflect the change of setting. In

the prologue, Shore manifests many of the ‘evil’ themes to accompany the rather hasty

historical contextual background of Middle-Earth, while skirting around a range of minor keys

to establish the musical voice of the world: ‘a melancholic tone that speaks of lore and

understated nostalgia in equal measure.’17 In order to audibly confirm the credible transition

15
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Dir. P. Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2001.
16
The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001.
17
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 136.
 22

into the setting of the Shire, the music seamlessly shifts from Eb minor to glowing tonic major,

which parallel the warm, sepia colour scheme of Bilbo’s hobbit hole. Thus, the audience is

lured into a sense of security and comfort away, metamorphosing out of the disjointed turmoil

witnessed in the previous scene.

Bilbo’s voice-over continues to provide informative context as he begins the

‘Concerning Hobbits’ section of his book, an opportunity which effectively transfers Tolkien’s

true description directly to the screen by visually introducing the audience to the gentleness of

Hobbit-kind and the Shire.18 As the two are indelibly intertwined, they are represented by a

single body of thematic material (see Figure 6): 19

Figure 6: Fellowship, ‘Concerning Hobbits’.20

Brownrigg describes the musical flavour of the hobbits as ‘simple, homespun and childlike’, 21

while Donnelly discusses its ‘bucolic flavour [which] suggests something of the rustic

wholesomeness of the hobbits, no matter how far they might be from their homeland’. 22 In this

setting, Shore devises Celtic instrumentation for the hobbits: bodhrán, dulcimer, Celtic harp,

18
Co er i g Ho its , https://goo.gl/j2h1AZ.
19
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 22.
20
Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Full Score (New Line Tunes, 2001), quoted in
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 25.
21
Brownrigg, The Musi of Middle-Earth , p. .
22
Donnelly, Musi al Middle Earth , p. 308.
 23

mandolin and guitar, in order to reference the culture’s folk-influenced roots. As well as this,

Adams notes how harmonically the Shire material is built off an anhemitonic pentatonic scale

that can be read as a condensed stack of perfect fifth intervals. 23 While the straightforward

harmonic structure (generally I-V-IV in this sequence) and simple 4/4 rhythm musically

embodies the hobbits’ simple way of life, the step-wise melody combined with the rustic

instrumentation, serves the crucial purpose of establishing a sense of home, a regular and safe

way of life, belonging to a race which chooses to turn its head away from the unknown terrors

of the outside world. 24 The simple rising motifs in the melody and skipping-like quality

parallels the humorous, light-hearted nature of the culture’s uncomplicated ideology and the

things they hold most dear: food, drink, pipe-weed, peace, and a love for things that grow (see

Figure 7).

Figure 7: Fellowship, “It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life”.

A final interesting aspect in this initial presentation of the Shire is that this particular rustic

setting of the theme does not reappear until the end of Return of the King, when our four leading

hobbits eventually return home, implying that the true nature of the race can only be witnessed

within the boundaries of their home, as ‘it’s too much a part of daily life in Hobbiton to journey

23
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 27.
24
Adams, p. 22.
 24

past its borders.’25 This audio-visual construction of this simple-natured race (in which the

viewer undoubtedly recognises several of their own human qualities – albeit ones of an

idealized and romanticized pastoral past) therefore not only maintains an informative function,

but also creates a locational dependence on the music.

If this demonstration of the hobbits’ near-childlike innocence places it firmly on the

Good side of the narrative binary, then the following audio-visual introductions to both Mordor

and Isengard encapsulate all that is evil within Middle Earth. Although snippets of Mordor are

witnessed in Fellowship’s prologue scene, it is established properly about 30 minutes into the

film after Gandalf has told Frodo to ‘keep [the ring] secret, keep it safe’ while he ventures off

to discover whether it is truly the one ring he fears it is. The audience is introduced to the setting

audibly as the shot zooms in on the envelope containing the ring (still located in the now not-

so-safe location of the Shire). Here, Shore’s menacing score fills the frame with a dense string

section drawing out the first notes of the Mordor theme (see Figure 8):

Figure 8: Fellowship, ‘Mordor’s Theme’. 26

A cut to the tower of Barad-dûr depicts the ominously dark landscape of this evil setting. The

onyx colour scheme, lit only by the bright orange lava flowing down Mount Doom and by the

pinpricks of torches held by orcs ready to rebuild Sauron’s army (see Figure 9).

25
Adams, p. 22.
26
The Fellowship of the Ring Full Score, quoted in Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 99.
 25

Figure 9: Fellowship, Introduction to Mordor.

Adams provides a fitting description for the theme:

Mordor’s hoard of leitmotifs favours low strings and deep brass; minor modes distorted by added

tones and augmented intervals; and mixed choruses erupting with primal rhythms and ritualistic

furore. Its music is a hostile, suffocating fume of tone colours that threatens to engulf all of Middle-

earth.27

The musical accompaniment to the blackened skies of this iniquitous stronghold could not

provide a more starkly contrasting evocation of place than the ‘welcoming’ dotted violin motifs

used to accompany the hobbit holes of the Shire.

A second place, set firmly on the ‘evil’ side of the binary, is Isengard, although this is

confirmed by the score only once Saruman, Lord of Isengard, turns against the forces of good

and wages war on Mankind in Sauron’s name. Although the audience is introduced to Isengard

at earlier points in Fellowship (namely when Gandalf visits seeking his fellow wizard’s

counsel), Shore only coins its iconic theme when it transpires to whom Saruman pays his

allegiance and when his evil plans come into fruition. This musical adherence to the narrative

therefore ensures that the audience are properly introduced to Isengard’s true form in a scene

at 01:15 where the camera provides a bird’s eye view over Isengard’s deep caverns. Although

27
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 98.
 26

this scene bears a striking resemblance to Mordor’s semiology, its musical theme maintains a

rather different quality (see Figure 10):

Figure 10: Fellowship, Isengard’s Theme. 28

Adams describes the vigorous five-beat pattern – which consists of an assortment of bass

drums, metal bell plates, taiko, distressed piano and a group of anvils – as a ‘purely rhythmic

creation to which pitch is a mere afterthought’.29 Intertextually, the ruthless beat is reminiscent

of both ‘L’adoration de la Terre’ in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and also the Niebelung motif

when it is played on anvils in Wagner’s Rheingold, capturing something of the same primordial

state depicted in both texts. The bleak, brassy motif combined with the rigorous percussion

permeates the scorched terrain of Isengard in a way which accurately evokes this place’s

industrialized body, seeking to attain just one goal – to destroy all of mankind. Indeed, as the

tracking shot pulls the audience down into the caverns [01:10], the diegetic sound effects of

the orcs welding and hammering their weapons bounce off the same timbres in Shore non-

diegetic score, thus encouraging the audience to feel doubly overwhelmed by presence in this

scene (see Figure 11).

28
The Fellowship of the Ring Full Score, quoted in Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 93.
29
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 93.
 27

Figure 11: Fellowship, The Caverns of Isengard.

Like Mordor, Isengard’s music therefore functions to encourage the audience to fear every

visceral element of this place’s construction, while making the inexorable threat of the orcs

much more tangible due to the audio-visual close-up display of their brutal characteristics in

their debut scene. Simultaneously, the music places itself firmly within the ‘evil’ borders of

Middle Earth and the overall narrative binary.

Both Shore and Horner therefore adopt similar approaches in evoking initial concepts

of place through musical characterisation. They both rely extensively on orchestral colour to

provide their respective worlds with specific audible identities; they both mould their music to

the pre-existing visual aesthetics so as to bring out certain qualities contained within the images

and to heighten their effect; they both benefit from shaping their musical evocations of place

to the binaries which structure their respective film narratives.

However, the differences in the composers’ alternative approaches are most prominent

when evaluating how they musically introduce audiences to these worlds in parallel with the

visuals. The restrictions inherent in the way Horner obscures the initial audio-visual induction

into Pandora exist because of the way the music is inextricably tied to the developing narrative.

The non-diegetic musical soundscape of Pandora will only be revealed once Jake gains an

understanding of the Na’vi way of life, and thus the audience is dependent on the protagonist

to provide us with that vision; we must see this world through his eyes in order to hear it.
 28

Shore, on the other hand, musically defines each contrasting location in Fellowship in

the clearest way possible in order to fulfil a dual intention: firstly, he needs to ensure that his

music brings out certain qualities in the different races which remain true to Tolkien’s original

text (meaning concise representations and audio-visual synchronisation are necessary), and

secondly, the vast number of settings within Middle Earth require clear-cut themes so that the

audience can be situated in each place musically, if the visuals are unable to do so. Shore’s

devotion to clarity is, therefore, an expectation which offers little room for narrative ambiguity.

Where opportunities arise to musically depict those places which inhabit cultures who fall on

neither side of the binary, such as the mysterious Elves or the stubborn Dwarves, Shore

references their otherness. For example, the Elves of Lothlorien are coined with exotic and

‘emotionally unreadable’ music scored with plaintive female chorus and a trickle of

monochord, ney and sarangi, seeking to represent their aloofness, whereas the music for the

Dwarves includes unsettling melodies sung by Maori vocalists, which director Jackson wanted

to sound like “voices from the depths of hell”, to evoke the other-worldly atmosphere within

the mines of Moria. 30 Each place gets its own musical identity regardless of which side of the

narrative binary it aligns itself with.

It could be argued that Shore manages to evoke musical conceptualisations of place,

which are capable of defining themselves independently of narrative constraints, unlike Avatar,

where Horner sacrifices locational clarity in order to reinforce narrative ambiguity. Indeed,

rather than adhering to music’s conventional function of reinforcing aspects of a film’s

narrative, in LOTR this concept is reversed in that the construction of each place relies on its

musical identity. The characterisation of the Uruk-hai would be far less terrifying without their

blasting theme to accompany their rampages across Middle Earth, in the same way as the

audience would not feel so empathetically attached to the hobbits without their whimsical

30
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 57.
 29

theme, which appears to emanate straight out of the Shire itself. The audience is encouraged to

acknowledge that music forms an integral part of the identities of these places to such an extent

that we become dependent on the music to act as a bearer of truth. In an interview, the composer

refers to this concept himself: ‘what I’m trying to do is have the same feeling so that when you

watch [the film], it feels seamless, it’s almost like the film was created to music.’ 31

As a whole, this particular level of analysis, regarding initial musical conceptualisations

of place, therefore enables us to grasp an understanding of how the composers approached the

prospect of audibly introducing their respective fictional worlds in tandem with pre-existing

narrative binaries. Although this method proves especially effective, with regard to the

straightforward compositional task faced by Shore to musically depict Tolkien’s lengthy list of

cultures in Middle Earth, it is less effective when applied to the complexity involved in

Horner’s task. Indeed, the composer himself has not simply chosen to obscure narrative

cohesion, but has adopted a compositional approach which must abide by the rules of the

narrative, therefore enforcing credibility in a different way to Shore in Fellowship. Perhaps,

then, the overall effectiveness of this first analytical step can only truly be discerned when

related to Chapter 2, where an exploration, deep into the processes in which music parallels the

fluctuations of both narratives, will weigh up whether the credibility of the respective fictional

worlds is either enhanced or diminished by the soundtrack.

31
Howard Shore, quoted in Donnelly, Musi al Middle Earth , p. 308.
 30

Chapter 2:

Place Relating to Narrative

The first chapter demonstrated the different ways in which both Shore and Horner use music

to introduce their audiences to the respective fictional worlds and inhabitants. Although this

method of research reveals insights into how the composers encourage their viewers to

initially conceive of significant narrative components from a certain perspective, it only

provides a surface-level preliminary perception of place which does not require the linking of

the musical constructions of place to the films’ plot designs. This limits our understanding

regarding how the musical depictions function in the respective developing narratives of

these fictional worlds. A second line of enquiry is, therefore, required in order to explore how

the composers evoke place by relating music to the fluctuating narrative threads at work in

both film worlds. This level of analysis allows us to perceive narrative events through the

eyes of the protagonists of the films, thus providing the audience with a tailored experience of

their surroundings – what Guido Heldt defines as ‘internalized focalization’. 1 This chapter

therefore aims to weigh up whether focalizing audience perception allows us to appreciate

music’s ability to construct the respective worlds on a greater level, which as a result, has the

potential to immerse audiences into the narratively significant worlds.

As discussed in Chapter 1, Howard Shore uses the premise of Fellowship to establish

a sense of place in each of Middle-Earth’s contrasting geographical locations. The focus in

this chapter aims to extend our comprehension of his thematic process by questioning how he

1
G. Heldt, The Co eptual Toolkit: Musi a d Le els of Narratio , Musi a d Le els of Narratio i Fil : “teps
Across the Border (Bristol: Intellect Ltd, 2013), pp. 119 – 134.
 31

approaches scoring the developing narratives in both the The Two Towers and Return of the

King. It aims to weigh up whether his definitional utilisation of music is able to fluctuate in

accordance with the plot, or whether each theme’s arguably restrictive function to define each

one’s location in tandem with the visuals results in hindering the music from evolving.

Inversely, it also aims to question whether this approach inhibits the locations themselves

from contributing towards the developing narrative process. Furthermore, it explores the

extent to which focalizing the audience’s perception of the world through the eyes of our

protagonist, Frodo Baggins, affects the way the music reflects the narrative events.

As mentioned in the introduction, adapting the film from its text-based origin was a

topic which was handled with great caution by the LOTR creators. Ian Hunter discusses how

‘trying to photocopy the novel on screen might [have stifled] the adaptation process

completely’ and the way in which, in order to prevent this, the complicated narrative of the

books was reorganized into a relatively classical narrative that drew on established

Hollywood genres.2 This reorganisation satisfied Tolkien readers by capturing “the essence”

of the literature, while simultaneously producing a blockbuster action movie accessible to

viewers with no emotional investment in the novel.3 The restructuring of the trilogy meant

that Fellowship became what Hunter describes as ‘Frodo-centric’; the plot was streamlined as

a sequential character-driven quest narrative where events are focalized primarily through the

film’s protagonist.4 This narrative structure therefore promotes the music’s ability to

introduce each location’s unique musical identity to the audience at the point in which each

one becomes relevant to Frodo’s narrative progression. 5 Shore’s score musically accompanies

2
I. Q. Hunter, Post-classical fantasy cinema: The Lord of the Rings in D. Cartmell and I. Whelehan (eds.), The
Cambridge Companion to Literature On Screen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 154 – 166.
3
Hunter, Post-classical fantasy cinema , p. .
4
Ibid, p. 158.
5
This is not the same as introducing the locations as Frodo experiences them. For example, we are introduced
to Mordor after it is referred to in a conversation between Frodo and Gandalf [32:09]. Because it becomes a
 32

Frodo’s journey from place to place by providing musical depictions of each location as an

episode in the protagonist’s narrative thread. Contrastingly, Hunter describes how the original

storyline of the second film in the trilogy, The Two Towers, is ‘hewn into blocks of self-

contained narrative that relate […] to different groups of protagonists’, which in the film

were ‘straightened out into chronological, cross-cut parallel story-arcs’.6 The narrative

structure of The Two Towers therefore reflects the growing complexity of the plot, a concept

which Doug Adams summarises through the following description:

[…] even as the Company [the Fellowship] is pulled apart, Middle-earth’s cultures have

begun to draw together. So continues the gradual commingling of civilizations, as neatly

compartmentalized social structures are dissolved, cultural strata are folded inwards and the free

people of Middle-earth respond to the growing power of Mordor. 7

We are therefore no longer presented with a single narrative projected through Frodo’s

perspective, but are instead invested in several storylines which all maintain key positions in

the overarching plot. The dependence on the music to audibly confirm each location therefore

requires the score to maintain pace with the fluctuating narrative. Donnelly effectively

describes how Shore was ‘constantly shifting back and forth between [narratives, which] the

music has to do seamlessly, taking it from one place to another’. 8 Shore is required to

introduce new musical themes in parallel with the visual inductions into unforeseen locations

as they become narratively relevant, the most significant instance of which belongs to

Rohan’s theme which is a Nordic-influenced latticework of interweaving phrases set for mid-

range brass and Hardanger fiddle. 9 Simultaneously, however, he ensures the musical

part of Frodo s orld, the audie e are i trodu ed to its e a i g lo atio – despite the fact that Frodo
himself is still within the safe realms of the Shire.
6
Hu ter, Post- lassi al fa tas i e a , p. .
7
D. Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings (Van Nuys: Alfred Music Publishing, 2010), p.
8
K. J. Do ell , Musi al Middle Earth i E. Mathijs The Lord of the Rings: Popular Culture in Global Contexts
(London: Wallflower Press, 2006), pp. 301 – 316.
9
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 60.
 33

character of each theme previously established in Fellowship is duplicated in The Two

Towers, a function which serves as an effective memory aid for the audience. Because of this,

the musical themes are necessarily restricted so they can continue delivering spatial clarity, as

undergoing significant thematic development would jeopardise the audience’s already-

stretched understanding of the numerous narrative and spatial components embedded in the

trilogy.

At this point, it is necessary to provide an interdisciplinary bridging argument relating

to how Shore contributes toward providing these permanent musical representations of place.

In geographer Doreen Massey’s text, Space, Place and Gender, she poses the problems

inherent in popular exclusivist claims regarding places which she claims are all ‘attempts to

fix the meaning of particular spaces, to enclose them, endow them with fixed identities and to

claim them for one’s own.’10 Massey disagrees with this widespread tendency to identify

places as sites of nostalgia by arguing that this conceptualisation rests, in part, on a bounded

view of place as stasis. 11 She rather believes that ‘the particular mix of social relations which

are part of what defines the uniqueness of any place is by no means all included within that

place itself’, thus promoting that the identities of place are always unfixed, contested, and

multiple.12 Relating this perspective back to musical conceptualisations of place in film thus

promotes the problematic dispute contained within Shore’s definitional musical procedure in

LOTR. His meticulous approach of musically imparting precision to narrative clarity binds

the audience’s perception of Middle-Earth’s locations into self-contained and fixed positions

within the world – a concept which somewhat interferes with the trilogy’s intended message

10
D. Massey., I trodu tio , Space, Place and Gender (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), pp.
1 – 16.
11
Massey, Space, Place and Gender, p. 5.
12
Ibid, p. 5.
 34

of cross-cultural co-operation emphasized throughout the unfolding narrative. 13 Surely the

cinematic constructions of each place should reflect how each one must adjust in accordance

with the turbulent political climate? Shore’s insistence in retaining the musical flavour of

each place therefore seemingly restricts the narrative from depicting its processual events.

Indeed, the composer’s insistence on enforcing inextricably linked associations

between each place and their inhabitants in Fellowship ironically ends up resulting in an

unclear presentation of place in the subsequent films. Two particularly interesting examples

which depict this ambiguity concern the way in which Shore is forced to uproot certain

themes from their locations in tandem with their culture’s necessary venture across Middle-

Earth, a narrative disturbance which causes the music to shift its allegiance from directly

representing place itself to supporting race. The first example of this is the unforeseen Warg

attack on the Rohirrim which occurs as the latter flee their home in pursuit of refuge at

Helm’s Deep [see Figure 12].

Figure 12: The Two Towers, Isengard’s theme pervades the foreign landscape. 14

Here, the five-beat Isengard pattern, previously scored to accompany the setting’s

industrialized abrasiveness, parasitically attaches itself to Middle-Earth’s terrain as

Saruman’s orcs rampage across its landscape. 15 The music sacrifices its locational clarity in

13
Ki , “., Be o d Bla k a d White: ‘a e a d Post oder is i The Lord of the ‘i gs Fil s , Project Muse,
vol. 50, no. 4 (2004), 875 – 907.
14
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Dir. P. Jackson. New Line Cinema, 2002.
15
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 93.
 35

order to depict the characteristics of the orcs themselves, despite the fact they are pervading

completely foreign territory. A second instance of locational uprooting occurs when

Lothlorien’s elves come to aid the Rohirrim at Helm’s Deep just before the commencement

of the film’s battle. Here, the exotic quality of the Lothlorien theme adopts what Adams

describes as a ‘heretofore-unheard guise, its florid current solidified into a militant march,’ 16

thus effectively altering the theme’s original representative function. In Fellowship it served

to enhance the ambiguous setting of the Lothlorien itself, whereas in this case it adjusts its

instrumental quality to match the contextual setting of war. Although Shore’s utilisation of

music in both of these cases further promotes the dependence on the music to clarify the race

involved in the scene, it arguably muddies the audience’s sense of place by intentionally

dislodging the musical themes from their respective locations.

The way the score now undertakes an altered referential function devoted to depicting

races rather places arguably jeopardizes Shore’s definitional utilisation of music to confirm

spatial clarity which he so meticulously established in Fellowship. This therefore threatens to

diminish the significance of each place in the world and, instead, promotes the diverging

narrative threads. Shore’s attempt to maintain pace with the rapid narrative therefore presents

a score which arguably detracts from contributing toward a seamless narrative process. With

this in mind, it therefore seems like Shore’s music functions most significantly when

establishing notions of place in Fellowship, but is less effective when relating these initial

conceptualisations to the expanding narrative in The Two Towers.

If this is the case, however, then what holds the narrative, and indeed the world,

together? Why is it that the audience feels so emotively invested in the story; why do we care

whether Frodo succeeds or fails his quest to Mount Doom? The answer to these questions

16
Ibid, p. 248.
 36

relates specifically to the musical significance of the Shire theme, and how its presence

throughout LOTR functions by grounding the audience with a sense of purpose which is

focalized through the smallest and supposedly most insignificant race in all of Middle-Earth.

Indeed, the music written for the Shire does more than just depict the qualities inherent in the

simple-natured hobbits themselves, but it is also the only theme which manages to evoke an

encapsulating sense of its place every time it features prominently in the score. The following

analyses of the most emotive presentations of the Shire theme will demonstrate how Shore

manages to evoke a sense of its place through the concept of nostalgia, therefore departing

somewhat from the directly referential function of other themes.

The way in which the concept is developed throughout the trilogy occurs through its

own unique audio-visual process. In Fellowship, the aforementioned rural setting of the

theme accompanies our introduction to the Shire and the hobbits in a way which audibly

encapsulates their simple nature and appreciation of their home. A gentle strings and solo

horn setting of the theme projects a mournful farewell to the Shire as Frodo and Sam cross its

border on the first leg of their journey [44:22], thus shifting its original representation of

‘safety’ into one which plants a notion of apprehensiveness and longing into the audience’s

association of this place [see Figure 13].

Figure 13: Fellowship: “If I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been”.
 37

A particularly poignant instance occurs after Frodo has awoken in Rivendell, a point

in Fellowship’s narrative which offers the first reflective episode in the film after the hobbits

have endured a host of Middle-Earth’s evils [01:25]. At first, the iridescent Rivendell string

arpeggios lyrically underscore the slow-motion captivated shots as our protagonist

experiences the sepia tones enriching the tranquil home of the elves. When Frodo is reunited

with his Uncle Bilbo, however, the Rivendell theme lifts and reveal the enriching harmonies

of a hymn-like arrangement of the Shire theme played on the strings (see Figure 14).

Figure 14: Fellowship, Shire theme accompanies Frodo as he reunites with his friends and his uncle.

Notably, this is the first time the Shire theme has been stated properly since Frodo and Sam

crossed its borders. It is almost as if Bilbo himself invokes a physical embodiment of the

Shire, causing the music to respond to his presence. The use of the Shire theme therefore not

only enhances the poignancy embedded in the touching reunion of the two hobbits

themselves, but also evokes in the audience a pang of longing for the security and comfort of

their home.

The next significant occurrence of the Shire theme in Fellowship furthers this essence

of longing by establishing a structural trend. After each film’s major plot climax or battle

scene ends, a concluding scene offers an opportunity for the hobbits to reflect on their

journey. In Fellowship, the theme enters after Sam nearly drowns by refusing to let Frodo

complete his task as ring-bearer alone (see Figure 15). The strings provide a hymn-like
 38

accompaniment while the solo flute whistles the profound Shire melody as the two lock each

other in a forceful embrace. The poignant instrumentation combined with the reflective

moment in the plot therefore provides the audience with an opportunity to empathise with

these hobbits, and to appreciate the distance they have travelled in spite of their race’s

stubborn desire to remain stagnantly within the Shire’s borders. The theme therefore manages

to evoke a metaphysical essence of the Shire itself, thus conjuring its sense of place despite

being leagues away from it.

Figure 15: Fellowship, “Sam, I’m glad you’re with me”, the Shire theme melody accompanies

the emotional concluding scene.

The theme builds upon its established ability to evoke nostalgia in the subsequent two

films in the trilogy. After Sam prevents Frodo from giving up the ring to a Nazgul in The Two

Towers, he makes a powerful speech while the Shire theme’s hymn setting takes shape

beneath. The scene diverges from its focus on the hobbits in order to provide a montage

sequence displaying each narrative thread’s moment of triumphing glory (the Ents

overthrowing Isengard and Théoden King’s army defeating the Uruk-hai at Helm’s Deep) ,

thus promoting the music’s structural function by smoothing over the transitions between cuts

while simultaneously lending an epic quality to the diegetic events. As the montage ends and

the images settle back onto Frodo and Sam reconciling, the expansive simplicity of the Shire

theme played by woodwinds yet again instils in the audience a strong desire for home. Shore

comments that this instance is the first time the theme has been stated properly since the two
 39

hobbits set out from the beach scene in the Fellowship, thus building upon its previous ability

to induce poignant notions of nostalgia in the audience.

Figure 16: The Two Towers, “What are we holding onto, Sam?”

The final example which solidifies this established musical function of the Shire

theme occurs during Aragorn’s commemoration at the end of Return of the King, a glorious

celebration held atop Minas Tirith rejoicing the beginning of the new Age and Sauron’s

defeat. As the four hobbits nod their heads reverently before the newly-crowned king,

Aragorn responds with his eminent line: “my friends, you bow to no one”, before kneeling

with the rest of Gondor before the hobbits. 17 Here, the Shire theme casts away its melancholic

woodwind timbres in favour of an entirely new aesthetic: triumphant horns provide bass

harmonic chords which move steadily beneath the Shire melody played on a dense string

section, ringing out ‘in a heroic beauty never before afforded hobbitkind.’ 18 In this case, the

alteration of timbres reflects the theme’s shift in its representative function; rather than

signifying a doleful sense of nostalgic longing for the Shire it now audibly celebrates the

physical and metaphorical distance the hobbits have travelled away from the comfort of its

boundaries. Frodo has completed his quest, saved Middle-Earth, and can now finally venture

17
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 350.
18
Ibid, p. 350.
 40

home – narrative events which are fully realised by heart-wrenchingly emotive setting of the

theme.

Figure 17: Return of the King, Gondor bows to the hobbits.

The impact made by these four little hobbits in the world is therefore fully realised by

the score which enhances the enormity of their influence in the world. The different settings

of the Shire theme all maintain powerful referential functions when placed alongside

particularly poignant moments in the narrative, encompassing a physical sense of the Shire

itself through evoking feelings of nostalgia in the audience. Although Shore refrains from

thematically developing the Shire’s musical disposition, he enhances the way the hobbits are

forced to adapt to Middle-Earth’s uninterpretable state of changing war and conflict by using

his pre-established musical identifier of security and home as a measurement of contextual

change. Focalizing our moral perspective through the hobbits understanding of their own

insignificance in the world – the fact that they “shouldn’t even be here” as the significant

world-changing narrative events unfold – therefore effectively promotes the music’s ability to

shape and enhance our understanding of the world through the hobbit’s relatable

perspectives. When Doreen Massey argued against the concept of identifying places as sites

of nostalgia, she was concerned with how this concept may constrict notions of place by

defining them with fixed identities. 19 Shore’s Shire theme, however, is a cinematic construct

19
Massey, Space, Place and Gender, p. 5.
 41

which can evoke notions of nostalgia by audibly referencing its spatial locus from afar. The

fact that we are not graced with visual images of the Shire in parallel with its theme’s various

statements proves the theme’s power in being able to accurately represent the qualities and

aesthetics of the shire with music alone. This unique Leitmotivic technique therefore contests

the argument that nostalgic associations create a view of place ‘as stasis’, but rather promotes

music’s profound ability to evoke a musical conceptualisation of place which is able to

fluctuate in accordance within a changing narrative while simultaneously bearing associative

connotations of a far-away sanctity of home.

Although Shore strictly adheres to his method of making most of his themes directly

representable of races and places in order to retain LOTR’s narrative clarity, he tasks the

Shire theme with a slightly different function which, by focalizing audience perception, offers

an emotively enhanced perception of the world. The next section of this chapter will focus on

the extent in which Horner also utilises music’s ability to offer an altered perception of

Pandora by focalizing our perception through the film’s protagonist.

The way that James Horner initially sacrifices locational clarity in Avatar by refusing

to musically introduce his audience to Pandora is a decision which only becomes clear when

relating the music directly to the protagonist, Jake Sully. It is only upon reflection that the

initially enforced concepts of restriction witnessed within the human world’s musical

aesthetic are revealed as belonging to a series of cinematic elements all contributing toward

one particular narrative process. This exploration therefore explores a view of music’s ability

to depict place as part of a narrative process, which contrasts with Chapter 1’s more

phenomenological analysis. The following discussion will appraise the manner in which the

music is inextricably linked to this process of developing depiction, as well as explore the

subsequent effects this relationship has on how the viewer identifies with the world through

Jake’s eyes.
 42

Film theorist Veracini describes how Avatar goes to ‘extraordinary lengths to

facilitate the viewer’s identification with the protagonist’. 20 The primary concept which

drives the story forward is the focus on Jake’s narrated transformation from mere ‘human’ to

becoming a respected member (and eventually chief) of the Na’vi’s Omaticaya clan. 21
The

fact that Jake is a paraplegic ‘others’ him at the outset of the film and hinders him in the

context of the militarised organisation in the human world – an aspect which encourages an

empathetic response from the audience as we accept the fact that we will be sharing his

perception of Pandora. The way that the audience’s perception is so tightly aligned with

Jake’s experience therefore allows the music to audibly parallel his gradual induction from

human to Na’vi world. Importantly, however, this initiation does not happen instantaneously.

Instead, Horner invests in creating a musical score which only very gradually begins to take

the form of the Na’vi’s tribal musical palette, a concept which is narratively reflected in how

Jake must earn his way into the clan by learning about their culture before he is considered as

one of them. Only upon adopting a fresh perspective will he be able to perceive Pandora’s

sense of place. The following analysis will chronologically trace the most significant points

of this process by illuminating how the music shifts from the undistinguished symphonic

human medium across to the trimbral enrichment belonging to the Na’vi domain.

The scene which somewhat predictably starts this musical process is when Jake

transforms into his Avatar body for the first time – an act which physically initiates the

beginning of Jake’s narrative progression. 22 Mirium Ross offers a scientific description of

Jake’s transformation: ‘the material body is divorced from its natural sensorium and the

ensuing disembodiment means that the cognitive centre can be projected into a new space.’ 23

20
L. Veracini, District 9 and Avatar: “ ie e Fi tio a d “ettler Colo ialis , Journal of Intercultural Studies,
Vol. 32, No. 4 (2011), 355 – 367.
21
Vera i i, “ ie e Fi tio a d “ettler Colo ialis , p. 357.
22
Avatar. Dir. J. Cameron. Twentieth Century Fox Film Cooperation, 2009 [16:00].
23
M. Ross, The -D aesthetic: Avatar a d h perhapti isualit , Screen, Vol. 53, No. 4 (2012), 381 – 397.
 43

When Jake ‘wakes up’ in his new body, Horner initially scores the non-diegetic

accompaniment with a delicate woodwind melody lightly supported by sparse strings

sustaining chords in the upper register. The instrumentation therefore emphasises the mystical

transitory process, a concept emphasised by the point-of-view shot (see Figure 18) which

provides the viewer with the sensation that they too are experiencing the effects of Jake’s

transformation – literally ‘through his eyes’.

Figure 18: Avatar, “Welcome to your new body, Jake” Celestial accompaniment parallels Jake’s first

experience in his new body. 24

However, chaotic movement ensues as soon as Jake realises his new humanoid body’s lack of

physical limitations. As he clumsily stands, swinging his tail around and hitting medical

equipment, the score responds by slowly introducing a tribal drum pattern played on congas,

two wooden flutes playing repetitive motifs and using flutter-tonguing technique, as well as

sporadic bursts of diminished broken chords in the piano – music which encourages the

audience to acknowledge the primitivism apparently inherent in avatar Jake’s newly

discovered body. 25

24
Avatar. Dir. J. Cameron. Twentieth Century Fox Film Cooperation, 2009 [16:25].
25
Ross, Avatar a d h perhapti isualit , p. 394.
 44

Figure 19: Avatar, “Jake, you’re not used to your avatar body – this is dangerous!”26

Significantly, the use of the tribal palette here is not representative of Pandora’s landscape

(visually the audience is very aware of their scientific surroundings within the lab) but rather

presents a narrow-minded human perspective of its indigenous people which only recognises

potential danger in a very physical sense. Theorists Burnand and Sarnaker outline this

particular strand of racial stereotyping in their work on musical articulations of national

identities in film. 27 They describe how ‘in most cases this is designed to tell an audience next

to nothing about [the indigenous] as human beings, and yet the inaccurate musical depiction

using non-traditional instruments may well underpin the racial stereotyping typical of many

such films.’28 Establishing the musical palette in this scene demonstrates the power it

maintains in navigating audience subjectivity, transporting the perception of Jake from one of

peacefulness to considering him as animalistic and threatening in mere moments.

However, the brief scene which follows on from this realigns our perception with

Jake’s view of the world through the first fully-orchestrated version of the I See You theme

while simultaneously depicting music’s ability to represent nature. As Jake breaks out of the

lab, he begins running across the avatar training grounds. The musical accompaniment, which

seems to quicken in tempo and thicken in texture in parallel motion with Jake’s footsteps,

26
Avatar, Cameron [17:33].
27
D. Burnand a d B. “ar aker eds. , The Arti ulatio of Natio al Ide tit Through Fil Musi , National
Identities, vol. 1, no. 1 (2012), 7 – 13.
28
Bur a d a d “ar aker, Natio al Ide tit Through Fil Musi , p. 7.
 45

introduces an assortment of luscious timbres: a playful 4/4 drum pattern, flickering harp

embellishments and triumphant horns are all supported by that same emerging string pattern

which accompanied the spacecraft coming into land at the beginning of the film. At this

point, however, they are presented as the enriching I See You chords which are at last relieved

from the restricted human perspective and are able to adopt their own quality. Here, Horner

establishes the chords properly because the concept of Jake’s physical freedom triggers their

ability to represent the outside world through his perception. This training ground, despite

belonging to the human domain on Pandora, provides both the audience and Jake with the

first essence of Pandora’s natural landscape which is manifested by the visual depictions of

the rich soil, the luscious fruit and the rainforests looming peripherally on the horizon. This

space is therefore located in-between the binary worlds. We are still technically placed within

the human world, but the enhanced elements of nature combined with the musical

focalization through the I See You chords promotes a sense of liminality which bridges the

audience’s perspective across both sides of the binary.

The function of the initial statement of these chords (discussed in Chapter 1) therefore

becomes clear on reflection by relating them to the perceptive and locational context. This is

a concept which can be comprehended with clarity in the table below (see Table 1).
 46

Contextual Setting Musical Quality

Human setting Established as the The emerging chords include augmented intervals, and
of I See You spacecraft comes into are played by synthesized mechanical-sounding strings
chords land at Hell’s Gate with a pulsating drum pattern underneath.
[03:38].
Na’vi setting Established properly The chords here consist of entirely consonant harmonies
of I See You as Jake experiences [Dorian in D: I-VII-IV-I], played by strings in a higher
chords running in his avatar register and contribute toward a denser textual timbral
body for the first quality (described above).
time [18:19].

Table 1: Avatar, Comparative use of the I See You chords.29

The contrasting instrumental quality of the I See You chords in these two different

arrangements therefore emphasises the music’s power in reshaping audience subjectivity in

contrasting contexts. Notably, there are still some timbral similarities between the two

presentations of the chords; they both employ symphonic strings to play the chordal sequence

and the rising harmonic contour is maintained. This resemblance creates a link between the

human vision of Pandora and Jake’s similar perception at this point in the film.

Alongside the non-diegetic music, the first-person narrative emphasis returns in order

to enhance what Ross describes as ‘an overwhelming sense of physicality’ – a concept

heightened by diegetic sound effects like the thumping of Jake’s footsteps, his rapid intakes

of breath, and the burrowing of his bare feet into the soil after he skids to a halt (which,

notably, the score realises by halting too).30 Because of this, the audience is able to witness

the raw elements of nature through Jake’s perception, making us feel more present within the

scene. 31 It is therefore a combination of the newly-introduced timbral quality of the I See You

theme, paired with the diegetic realm’s emphasis of Jake’s own physical experience, which

29
Avatar, Cameron.
30
Ibid.
31
M. “later, A Note o Prese e Ter i olog , Presence Connect, vol. 3 (2003), 1 – 5.
 47

not only introduces the soundtrack’s ability to represent nature itself but also initiates the idea

that we can only truly appreciate this perception of the natural landscape through Jake’s

experience. The I See You theme therefore establishes its significance by providing the

audience with a new audible experience of our surroundings which we appreciate through

Jake’s perception of the world [see Figure 20]. The broader significance of this theme is

paramount to realising the extent of the music’s power in Avatar. Not only does it function

primarily by focalizing the viewer’s experience of the world through Jake’s perception, but it

also provides an extra layer to the audience’s overall experience of the film which cannot be

provided by the visuals. Philip Rosen offers a fitting description to this use of music in film:

‘[it] supplies a perceptual-psychological human ‘depth’ which augments the literal

immediacy of the pictorial illusion of reality.’ 32 This concept is thus especially relevant to the

I See You theme when relating it specifically to a spatial conceptualisation of depth, which

will be explored in more detail as Jake’s emerging narrative progression develops throughout

the film.

Figure 20: Avatar, “We’re not supposed to be running!” The first credible instance of the I See You

theme accompanies Jake running through the avatar training grounds [18:13].33

These two scenes therefore demonstrate the complexity inherent within the

relationship between the music, the narrative and the overarching binary, and the intricate

32
‘ose , P., Ador o a d Fil Musi : Theoreti al Notes o Composing for the Films , Cinema/ Sound, No. 60
(1980), 157 – 182.
33
Norm, quoted in Avatar, Cameron.
 48

connection between Jake’s perception and the musical representation of Pandora. The ‘human

world’ music therefore effectively distances the audience against Jake after he transforms

into his avatar body. This is then contrasted with how our perception is so effortlessly merged

into identifying with him as he undergoes the exhilarating experience of using functioning

legs after a long time, ultimately demonstrating the non-diegetic music’s power in shaping

the viewer’s perception of narrative events in ways which conform to the human vs. Na’vi

binary. Consequently, some degree of dependence is placed on the music regarding how the

audience is intended to perceive their protagonist and, by way of extension, his perception of

his surroundings and embodiment in the world.

The next section of this Chapter will investigate the ways in which the score relates

to the narrative binary while representing Jake’s initiation into Pandora’s landscape. Indeed,

although the music in the above scenes evokes a sense of place by forging associations with

nature through Jake, it does not set in place a fully-formed musical representation of Pandora

which can now underscore the rest of the film. This is again due to the music’s close

affiliation with Jake: although he has physically transformed into a replica of one of the

Na’vi, he is still worlds away from actually comprehending their way of life; it takes more

than a mere visual likeness between our protagonist and the indigenous for the music to be

able to encourage the audience to achieve a sense of Pandora’s exotic setting. The following

analysis will explore how various cinematic elements contribute toward removing some of

Jake’s more human characteristics at this stage in the process – a narrative function which is

necessary in order to expand his narrow-minded vision of this world. This function will, in

turn, allow the music to begin to comment upon the world’s construction audibly.

The first instance which contributes toward dehumanizing Jake occurs just after he

takes his first steps among the rainforest’s undergrowth while accompanied by his fellow

team of biologists. As mentioned above, this scene is accompanied by the diegetic sounds
 49

saturated in Pandora’s natural soundscape – a function employed to heighten both Jake’s and

the audience’s senses in this foreign atmosphere. After a short while of venturing through the

undergrowth, Jake comes face to face with a thanator, a ferocious panther-like predator which

challenges and pursues Jake through the foliage (see Figure 21).

Figure 21: Avatar, Jake’s defence exudes man-made diegetic sound effects of gunfire [29:30].

This chase scene, which serves as the first proper action sequence in the film, is accompanied

by traditional symphonic Hollywood action underscoring: layered brass, frantic string

writing, panicked flutes and fast-paced percussion – music which fulfils its conventional role

in providing the right dramatic aesthetic required for the scene’s tempo while also identifying

itself from the musical human side of the narrative binary. Indeed, this is music which

encourages the viewer to feel our protagonist’s fear as he attempts to flee this supposedly

alien killer. Noted in numerous examples above is how Pandora’s diegetic soundscape has

been previously penetrated by the powerful sounds of man-made machines (such as space-

crafts forcefully pushing their way into the atmosphere and helicopter propellers drowning

out sounds of nature), thus presenting a clear audible display intended to musically enforce

the narrative concept of man’s power over nature. This scene, however, includes two

particular audio-visual narrative cues where natural diegetic sounds finally retaliate against

the oppressive machine-like sound effects pertaining to the human side of the binary - a

concept which is integral to Jake’s narrative progression in order for him to eventually secure

a Na’vi’s understanding of his surroundings.

 50

The first incident which demonstrates this concept occurs as Jake attempts to shield

himself from the thanator’s violent lunges under some tree-roots. To defend himself, he

ruthlessly opens fire at the creature, which responds by ripping Jake’s weapon from his grasp

with its jaws and tossing it into the undergrowth, replacing the blasting sound of merciless

machine-gun fire with its own cry of bloodlust for its prey. This therefore marks the first

occurrence where a force of nature has both visually and audibly overpowered a creation of

mankind. The second incident which develops this notion is when Jake is forced to jump off a

waterfall cliff in order to escape the thanator. Although the symphonic music enhances the

epic quality of the slow-motion jump through a sustained stinger played by the strings, the

non-diegetic music is completely stifled as Jake impacts the water [31:00]. The way that this

shot pulls the audience from their spectating position enforced by the non-diegetic

accompaniment right into the diegesis itself not only enhances our feelings of presence in the

scene (indeed, our sensory experience becomes muffled alongside Jake’s), but also reinforces

the concept of the nature side of the binary combating against the human aesthetic suggested

by the symphonic medium of the underscoring. The fact that the diegetic underwater sounds

literally drown out the non-diegetic accompaniment functions as another element contributing

toward distancing Jake from the human side of the binary. In this scene alone, both diegetic

and non-diegetic spheres are therefore attacked by nature’s forces through its natural diegetic

sounds, which contribute towards stripping Jake’s human defences from him in order to

reshape his perception of the world.

At this stage in the narrative process, the nature side of the binary has therefore

contributed alongside the visuals in substantially transforming Jake’s initial state as an armed

and accompanied avatar into a defenceless and solitary alien in the midst of this foreign

environment. His perception of place is therefore pressed upon the audience; as the night

draws in we feel his sense of vulnerability.

 51

A third particularly interesting dehumanizing cue, which concludes the previous

audio-visual contributions by providing the first instance of Jake’s appreciation of nature,

witnesses the first use of the Na’vi musical aesthetic on Pandora. As he once more finds

himself pursued by Pandora’s lurking predators (this time by a cackling pack of viperwolves)

he makes a final attempt to defend himself with a lit torch. As the wolves stalk their prey,

elements of the tribal side of the Na’vi palette begin to accompany the scene; sporadic drum

rolls played by the djembe and motivic woodwind bursts provide the audience with the same

perception of fear felt when Jake transformed into his avatar body. This time, however, our

perspective is aligned with our protagonist rather than positioned against him.

At this point, Neytiri reveals herself by reluctantly rescuing Jake from the ensuing

attack before tossing his torch into a nearby pool, which immediately extinguishes it and thus

provides yet another symbolic reference to nature triumphing over mankind. Yet this

particular action has a more significant narrative effect regarding Jake’s process than the

previous two examples. As he reaches down into the pool to redeem his man-made creation,

he realises that it is now, in fact, entirely redundant; nature itself has already provided him

with the ability to see among the darkness (see Figure 22):

Figure 22: Avatar, Jake discovers bioluminescence.

The iridescent and magical effects of the bioluminescence emanating from the surroundings

is perhaps the most astonishing of all Pandora’s natural effects. In order to enhance its

significance audibly, the Na’vi musical aesthetic is reintroduced to the audience for the first
 52

time since the avatar training scene (18 minutes previously). Twinkling chimes and use of

xylophone are supported by delicately sustained string chords played in the higher register –

musical equivalents of light which seem to stem directly out of the foliage itself. The

sequence of events in this scene therefore reinforces the nature vs. human conflict in a

particularly poignant fashion. It is only after Jake’s own torch has been extinguished that he

finally notices the beauty provided by the landscape around him, implying how this new

source of light gives him a fresh perspective of his surroundings. Because of this, the non-

diegetic music allows itself – albeit incredibly subtly – to conceptualise a sense of nature’s

power through its referential and enriching musical aesthetic. The notion of our protagonist

‘seeing’ for the first time (despite how here it literally references the concept through his

eyes, rather than later comprehensions regarding a more conceptual understanding) therefore

constitutes a particularly significant point in Jake’s narrative process in that he has developed

at least a small level of understanding of nature’s power. The Na’vi musical palette therefore

responds to this visual cue by referentially emerging out of the landscape itself.

Ethnomusicologist Michael Macdonald refers to this concept of musical emergence as ‘the

idea that musical practices and musical subjects arise from a scaffolding of complex

interconnections’, therefore capturing the exact essence of the music’s function at this point

in Jake’s narrative process.34

However, the score is by no means defining Pandora through this particular tender

musical aesthetic in the same referential way in which Shore ascribes musical themes to the

locations in LOTR. Nor is it announcing the completion of Jake’s narrative process by finally

pairing the Na’vi palette with the natural world and, thus, announcing his firm induction into

its setting. Rather, hints of the Na’vi timbres are rewarding Jake’s ability to experience the

34
M. Macdonald, K o i g Pa dora i sou d: a ouste olog a d e o usi ologi al i agi atio i Ca ero s
A atar i B. Ta lor, Avatar and Nature Spitituality (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2013),
pp. 261 – 276.
 53

world in this new light. The increasing of the Na’vi musical palette’s timbral variety will only

gradually begin to help forge Pandora’s sense of place if Jake can prove that he is capable of

understanding the world itself.

This concept is developed in the scene following Jake and Neytiri’s first meeting.

Elements of the Na’vi palette stir playfully amidst the musical backdrop as he runs after her

while pleading to teach him the Na’vi ways (use of sporadic guitar strums, marimba and

intermittent herding calls played by a piccolo), although something – perhaps Jake’s obvious

dim-wittedness and lack of insight – prevents the material from developing (see Figure 23):

Figure 23: Avatar, “Sky people cannot learn; they do not see” [40:00].35

Here, hundreds of bioluminescent seeds momentarily lay themselves on Jake [40:31], which

Neytiri interprets as a ‘sign from Eywa’. 36 Because this sign suggests some notion of greater

allegorical significance relating specifically to our protagonist, Neytiri decides he is now

worthy of her attention and so instructs him to follow her back to the Na’vi base. The non-

diegetic music which enters here develops the timbres of the Na’vi palette which were merely

hinted at in the previous bioluminescence scene by shaping them into the first statement of

the I See You theme presented within the Pandoran atmosphere. In this setting, the tone is

36
The non-diegetic music which accompanies this moment is incredibly significant, and will be addressed in
Chapter 4 where it serves greater relevance.
 54

more delicately instrumented than when it was last presented in the avatar training grounds,

perhaps to represent the poignancy inherent within this first realisation of Jake’s potential. A

flute is added to the gentle rising chord sequence and the symphonic instrumental quality is

embellished by the diegetic natural timbres of Pandora’s soundscape – elements which both

promote the organic narrative concept of ‘nature equated with power’. The granting of this

significant thematic material after the metaphorical approval from the Na’vi deity herself

musically signifies that Jake has passed this first level of becoming initiated into Pandora.

However, there are still ethnographical set-backs which prevent Jake from being integrated

into Pandora. He is still technically perceiving the world from a novel human perspective,

and so the theme is still somewhat restricted in order to reflect how Jake does not yet share a

true Na’vi understanding of the world.

This segment of Jake’s narrative process has demonstrated how elements from both

diegetic and non-diegetic spheres work together to gradually introduce aspects of Pandora’s

landscape audibly. The concept of suppression is altered from merely presenting the inherent

characteristics pertaining to the human side of the binary (discussed in Chapter 1), to one

which interweaves through Jake’s induction into the world via the non-diegetic musical

timbres of the Na’vi palette. The function of the I See You theme establishes itself as music

which does not just accompany Jake’s progress in a definitional sense, but rather as a

rewarding mechanism which will reveal insights into Pandora as our protagonist fulfils

certain requirements necessary on his journey to becoming one of the people. The complexity

of the multi-dimensional relationship between the soundtrack, the protagonist and the

audience is somewhat unified in presenting this one narrative goal with clarity. Rather than

presenting Pandora’s restrictive musical conceptualisation of place as a negative concept

which is preventing the audience from identifying with its setting (a concept which we were

encouraged to accept when regarding Chapter 1’s direct representations of place), it is now
 55

depicted through its ability to grace the audience with enriching audio-visual moments of

spectacle. 37

The final segment of Jake’s narrative progression contrasts in form to that of the

gradual audio-visual build-up. This is because the period of time which witnesses Jake’s most

significant integration into the Na’vi lifestyle is condensed into a five-minute montage

sequence. The function of this sequence is straightforward; it aims to present Jake’s growing

appreciation of the Na’vi’s basic philosophy in a limited timeframe in order to propel the

narrative. The non-diegetic music scored for the scene holds a dual function. It seamlessly

unifies what would otherwise be an incredibly disjointed sequence of shots by lending ‘an

epic quality to the diegetic events’38, while also encouraging the audience to witness

Pandora’s sense of place through the way it fuses the I See You theme with an incredibly

enriching variety of the Na’vi musical timbres. This use of the theme therefore functions as

the most powerful narrative device employed to evoke change by acting as an audible bridge

which transgresses Jake’s limited human perspective to his more developed Na’vi perspective

of Pandora’s way of life. The following audio-visual table is broken down into a series of

non-diegetic musical phrases which structure the sequence of images. Displaying the diegetic

on-screen events alongside the musical accompaniment’s presentation of the I See You theme

in different instrumental formats enables us to appreciate the extent to which the music

manages to translate Pandora’s natural power to the audience through Jake’s enhanced

perspective of the world (see Table 2).

37
K. Kalinak, The Classi al Holl ood Fil “ ore , Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), pp. 66 – 112.
38
C.Gorbman, Wh Musi ? The “ou d Fil a d its “pe tator , Unheard Melodies, pp.53 – 69.

TIME & IMAGE & DIEGETIC VOICE DIEGESIS
PHRASE OVER
a) “The language is a pain…” 1. First shot shows Neytiri
teaching Jake the Na’vi
01:00:22 language, followed by a cut to
– her teaching him how to hold a
01:01:04 bow and arrow.
2. Cut to Norm attempting to
teach Jake the concept of “I See
You” back in their human
forms.
3. Shot of Jake eagerly hoisting
his legs back into the avatar
tube.
b) “My feet are getting tougher. I can 1. Neytiri leads Jake through
run farther every day.” the trees; he copies her
01:01:05 movements.
– 2. Cut to Jake learning to ride a
01:01:49 direhorse.
3. Cut to Jake and Neytiri
“reading the trails and tracking
the waterholes” in the rain,
followed by a shot of them
watching a mother viperwolf
with her cubs.
c) [Grace intercepts]: “You need to 1. Shot in portable lab back in
listen to what she says. Try to see the human world from video-
01:01:50 the forest through her eyes.” log camera perspective.
– 2. This momentarily pulls the
01:02:00 audience out of the Pandoran
atmosphere and abruptly back
into the human world (see
alternative worlds book?)
d) “With Neytiri it’s learn fast or die.” 1. Jake follows Neytiri as she
jumps off a tree using leaves to
01:02:01 break her fall.
– 2. Jake fails to land as
01:02:46 gracefully and picks himself up
attempting to retain some
dignity.
56
MUSIC
A new melody is introduced
which is played antiphonally
by the flute and strings (the
two forces dovetail off one
another and answer each
other’s melodic contour).
A pattering drum pattern,
similar to the one introduced
in the avatar training grounds
scene, supports the 6/8
rhythm and is further
accompanied by a small
string section supporting the
major harmonies.
I See You chords enter in the
strings and are – for the first
time – doubled by Na’vi-style
singing. Each chord is held
over one bar.
The drum pattern becomes
more embellished and
cymbal crashes announce the
beginning of each phrase.
Use of piccolos playing
herding call motifs at the end
of each phrase.
Na’vi palette is momentarily
interrupted to reflect the
change in setting.
In its place, the
accompaniment provides
functional accompaniment in
the form of flourishing strings
playing broken chords.
Re-entering of I See You
chords played by strings.
Triumphant horn plays rising
fifth motifs at the end of each
chord statement.
Pattering drum pattern does
not return, although cymbal
crashes do.
The chords momentarily
subside as Neytiri falls,
where the music reflects her
movements via mickey-
mousing.
 57

Crescendo in the tribal drum

pattern features before Jake
jumps.
e) “I talked Moat into letting Grace 1. After a quick shot which Returning of I See You
into the village”. shows Jake waking up in his chords, stated in a similar
human body in the human fashion to Phrase b), although
world, a cut shows Grace without the singing and
01:02:47 greeting a group of Na’vi cymbal crashes.
youth.
– 2. Cut back to human world
depicting Grace ensuring Jake
01:03:07 eats the processed packaged
food while in his human body.
– 1. Jake and Neytiri disturb a I See You chords completely
bioluminescent fan lizard. subside for a moment before
01:03:08 2. Cut to them swimming in a re-entering with a much more
bioluminescent-lit pool. delicately instrumented
– 3. Cut back to human world, aesthetic; a piano motif
where Jake has fallen asleep. replaces the drum pattern,
01:03:47 Grace half-carries him to bed. and use of xylophone and
woodwind take over the
melody.
01:03:48 “I’m trying to understand this deep 1. A more intimate shot Same statement as above is
connection the people have with captured of Neytiri teaching transposed up a tone.
– the forest.” Jake how to shoot an arrow. Strings played in a high
2. Cut to Moat hosting a Na’vi register double the melody in
funeral. the second phrase.
3. Jake and Neytiri hunt down Once melody ends, the
an antelope-like creature. delicate piano motif fades out
gradually.

Table 2: Avatar, montage sequence [01:00:22 – 01:04:27].

In this montage sequence, a number of various cinematic elements therefore serve the

combined purpose of presenting the narrative culmination of Jake’s induction into the Na’vi

culture. Jake’s continuous self-reflecting voice-over promotes what Veracini describes as a

‘sustained attempt to establish a special bond between [him and the viewers]’39 via linking his

comments to the diegetic events within the sequence. Although this level of narration offers a

direct insight into Jake’s own thought processes which verbally confirm his developing

39
Vera i i, “ ie e Fi tio a d “ettler Colo ialis , p. 359.
 58

understanding of the Na’vi culture and way of life, it could be argued that the musical

contribution provides a poignant and enhancing insight into the transitional process which is

communicated through the different musical timbres relating to the narrative binary. Indeed, it

not only lends its rhythmic temporality to the sequence which regulates the flow of images and

unifies the various threads of information, 40 but also provides a musical reflection of Jake’s

narrative change through the I See You theme’s melodic statements which undergo various

musical developments throughout the sequence. The different settings of the theme parallel the

progressing diegetic clips in the sequence by gradually adding timbral and textural elements to

the soundtrack in tandem with Jake’s developing understanding, such as the layered use of the

Na’vi style singing, percussion and woodwinds in phrase b). This concept of musical/narrative

progression is especially enhanced in phrase c) as the cut to the lab draws out of the natural

world and consequently momentarily interrupts the musical process from developing; it is only

upon re-entering Pandora through Jake’s avatar eyes that the music resumes its progressive

function by enriching audiences with the Na’vi musical presentation of the world.

Audiences are therefore able to appreciate Horner’s representative utilisation of music

most effectively by focalising our perspective of the world through our protagonist’s eyes. By

audio-visually analysing the montage sequence, we are able to fully appreciate how the music

gradually unveils the Na’vi musical sound world in tandem with Jake’s increasing

understanding of Pandora and its inhabitants’ way of life; thus constituting a condensed version

of how this same musical/narrative process occurs throughout the entire film on a larger scale.

Horner’s processual utilisation of linking the world’s musical construction so tightly to

Jake’s perception therefore contrasts Shore’s approach, where he only referenced the Shire

theme at rare moments of significance in the trilogy rather than constantly fluctuating alongside

40
Kalinak, The Classi al Holl ood Fil “ ore , p. 82.
 59

the primary character(s). Overall, this second level of hermeneutical analysis allows us to

develop a deeper appreciation of the way both composers engage with their respective

narratives when constructing their fictional worlds. As a result, we become emotionally tied to

our protagonists’ narrative threads, which subsequently encourage us to adopt morally invested

perceptions of place.
 60

Chapter 3:

Reading Fictional Worlds

The previous two chapters addressed the various ways in which Shore and Horner scored

their respective films in relation to each fictional world’s musical construction of place. The

adopted analytical methods in both chapters focussed on how, firstly, the composers produce

preliminary conceptualisations of place through music, and secondly, the varying extents in

which the musical constructions rely on focalized narrative perspectives. This final chapter,

by contrast, offers the opportunity to interpret the films on a broader level. Music is part of

how the film creators articulate power dynamics in the respective fictional worlds, which

enables the audience to conceptualize the broader thematic level of the films, helping to

engage viewers through encouraging this interpretative investment. In Lord of the Rings this

level of interpretation lies in the film’s religious connotations, while in Avatar it can be

perceived through the film’s post-colonialist lens. This broader and more symbolic level of

analysis therefore illuminates how music uses audience affiliation to support and encourage

viewers to make interpretative readings regarding these virtual worlds by assimilating our

identifications on a broader scale. 1 By supporting and encouraging viewers to make readings

of the power dynamics in these virtual worlds, music is part of these audiences’ engagement

with fictional places. The fact that these films manage to avoid stretching the boundaries of

credibility and coherence to breaking point – that we do not reject them out of hand despite

their narrative departures from established realities – is therefore arguably due to the

1
Kassabian, A., Hearing Film (New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 23
 61

verisimilitude which comes from replicating real-world power dynamics, such as those of

post-colonialism and notions of moral struggle. While offering a musical consideration of the

way our composers construct both Pandora and Middle-Earth on a larger scale, this chapter

therefore also endeavours to summarize some extent to which music contributes toward

immersing audiences in (and consequently convincing them of) the credibility of these

fictional worlds.

The most effective way to grasp a sense of the real-world influences prevalent

in the respective storylines and how they affect audience perception is by appraising the

films’ critical reviews. Avatar was censured by some critics as ‘a souffle of left-wing

attitudes’2 while others condemned it for its ‘brutal racist undertones’. 3 James Brooks

identifies the film’s central plot structure as neo-colonialist by perceptively observing how

the narrative promotes Jake as ‘White Messiah’ who must lead and inspire the peace-loving

natives in a battle to save their homeland 4 – a concept which is further developed by Slavoj

Žižek who, in his article about the film, describes how the indigenous ‘can choose either to be

the victim of imperialist reality, or to play their allotted role in the white man’s fantasy.’5

Many right-wing critics defined the film as anti-capitalist and anti-American, some even

comparing the corporate company’s mission with the Iraq war.6 LOTR faced similar

criticisms issued on racial constructs contained in the narrative. Sue Kim notes how goodness

correlates to whiteness in the trilogy; the heroes of ‘the West’ are led by the ‘good’ wizard

2
D. Boaz, The right has A atar ro g , Los Angeles Times, http://goo.gl/doQNh5 (accessed August, 2016).
3
“. Žižek, A atar: ‘etur of the ati es , New Statesmen, http://goo.gl/T91p (accessed August, 2016).
4
D. Brooks, The Messiah Co ple , The New York Times, http://goo.gl/YjLC9A (accessed August, 2016).
5
Žižek, A atar: ‘etur of the ati es .
6
M. Macdonald, K o i g Pa dora i sou d: a ouste olog a d e o usi ologi al i agi atio i Ca ero s
A atar i B. Ta lor, Avatar and Nature Spirituality (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2013),
pp. 261 – 276.
 62

Gandalf the White, while Mordor is ‘the Black Land’, under the rule of the ‘evil’ Dark Lord

Sauron.7 Indeed, Hunter furthers this conceptual opposition:

It is arguable that, colour aside, the novel is intensely multicultural in celebrating the coming together

of many peoples against an evil monoculture. But, transferred to screen, LOTR becomes one of the

most racially suspect films of recent years, with its Aryan Elves and pitch-black Orcs and Uruk-Hai. 8

In both instances, critics therefore address the political and racial disparity embedded within

the respective narratives, disputes which are influenced largely by both the critics’ and

viewers’ human subjected understanding of real world conflicts. The following appraisal will

explore how these enhanced readings contribute towards positioning audience subjectivity

within the films’ dichotomous structures by providing moral impetus, a notion which invests

them in the fictional worlds on a macro level.

The primary way in which we can interpret music’s broader contribution toward

constructing LOTR’s Middle-Earth is by explicitly binding the controversial colour binary

(dark vs. light) to a broader allegorical significance. Rather than offhandedly deducing the

compartmentalized racial characteristics as ‘unthinkingly racist’, 9 one could argue that the

audio-visual constructions of each place and race comment just as much on the individual

characteristics of each conjoined spatial and racial entity as they contribute toward the all-

encapsulating Good vs. Evil narrative binary. The villainous and impervious snarl of

Mordor’s music strikes a similar chord to the industrial wanton brutality contained within

Isengard’s theme because of the conventionally identifiable connotations of evil displayed in

its instrumentation. 10 Indeed, Collins describes how the use of lower range brass, pounding

7
S. Kim, Be o d Bla k a d White: ‘a e a d Post oder is i The Lord of the ‘i gs Fil s , Project Muse, vol.
50, no. 4 (2004), 875 – 907.
8
I. Q. Hunter, Post-classical fantasy cinema: The Lord of the Rings in D. Cartmell and I. Whelehan (eds.), The
Cambridge Companion to Literature On Screen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 154 – 166.
9
Hunter, Post-classical fantasy cinema , p. .
10
D. Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings (Van Nuys: Alfred Music Publishing, 2010), p. 93.
 63

rhythms and minor keys all demonstrate a traditional use of sound in creating a sense of a

horrific, hellish aesthetic.11 Kalinak describes how this use of music enforces ‘the power of

collective associations to create the time and place represented in the image’ which, in these

two cases, produce a very threatening quality of sound.12 The music therefore encourages the

audience to subjectively categorize their perception of place through associating evil spatial

constructs with both audible and visual depictions of darkness. While the associations

between Good and lightness are forged through slightly different means on the opposing side

of the binary (in part due to the sheer number of spaces and races which defer evil in the

trilogy), it is within this category in which we are able to witness music’s profound power in

morally investing viewers into the world.

Interestingly, it is not our protagonist’s race or place which provides the greatest

embodiment of Good in LOTR. Rather, the forces of Evil are matched by what Doug Adams

describes as a ‘shrouded spiritual reality beyond Middle-Earth’.13 The way this supreme

guiding force manages to escape concise explanation throughout the film trilogy (arguably

enforcing its supernatural power through its very ambiguity) means a degree of dependence is

placed on the entity’s audio-visual construction in order to communicate its otherworldly

power to the audience. The music therefore adopts a unique aesthetic in the rare scenes

featuring this spiritual concept in order to translate the aspect of the oppositional colour

binary through to sound.

The most powerful audio-visual manifestations of the Good side of the binary are witnessed

in the scenes involving Gandalf the White, a character whose wizard status positions him as a

11
K. Colli s, Like ‘azors through Flesh : Hellraiser s “ou d Desig a d Musi i P. Ha ard ed. , Terror
Tracks (Sheffield, Equinox Publishing, 2009), pp. 198 – 212.
12
K. Kalinak, The Classi al Holl ood Fil “ ore , Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992), pp. 66 – 112.
13
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 118.
 64

mediator who is able to influence Middle-Earth through his supernatural interventions.14

These rare mediations are all accompanied by a specific musical aesthetic which references

the spiritual nature. For example, the scene in The Two Towers, in which Gandalf returns

from the dead engulfed in an intense white light, is accompanied by high strings consolidated

into octaves while female voices chant in repeating triplet figures – ethereal music which

Adams describes as ‘[dissolving] into clear, pure brightness’ (see Figure 24).15

Figure 24: The Two Towers, Gandalf the White makes his first appearance in his new form [53:15].

A second example occurs at the end of The Two Towers where Gandalf and the Rohirrim

descend from the heavens on their horses and plunge into the depths of the Uruk-Hai army

below, blinding them with light in the process. Here, descending horn triads accompany a

melody sung by boy soprano (Ben Del Maestro) and delicate motivic string movements,

before merging into a more emphatic theme on the strings, percussion and brass as the two

armies collide (see Figure 25).

14
Ibid, p. 218.
15
Ibid, p. 217.
 65

Figure 25: The Two Towers, Gandalf’s army descend upon the Uruk-Hai [03:16:38].

A final example of this audio-visual pattern is witnessed in Return of the King, where

Gandalf rides out from Minas Tirith to ward off three Nazguls as they swoop in on Faramir’s

army (see Figure___). As the pure beam of white light emanates from the wizard’s staff, Del

Maestro graces the visuals once more as he sings the text of “The White Rider” [see Figure

26]:

Mennen nored dȋn Their race was over;

Gwanwen i ‘ûr bân All courage gone.

Sílant calad Dûn A light shone in the West –

Tollen Rochon ‘Lân. The White Rider had come.16

Figure 26: Return of the King, Gandalf gallops toward the Nazgul wraiths [01:13:15].

16
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 297.
 66

All three of these examples therefore effectively prompt an understanding in terms of religion

through promoting a combination of cinematic elements. Significantly, it is the music which

connects them to the largest degree: poignant use of voice, lightly underscoring strings,

relaxed rhythms and slow-moving tempos all combine to musically refer to this notion of

divine spirituality. The way that the non-diegetic music is prominent in the mix in each

audio-visual spectacle seems to promote its aptitude in conveying an element of truth. Indeed,

the text sung in the last example directly comments on how Gandalf’s ‘light shone in the

West’, thus cementing the music’s representative powers of light syntactically as well as

musically. The delicate timbres of the music therefore provides the ethereal quality to each

scene which enhances the dramatic effect of the colour oppositions, promoting music’s

ability to enforce notions of spirituality in the world and subsequently creating an element of

dependence on the music to communicate its power to the audience. Adams effectively

summarises this power:

While the [spiritual] veil is seldom lifted, the character of this power is clearly defined in its musical

voice, which opposes the metallic jabs of [Isengard’s theme] and the abrasive, clotted wails of

[Mordor’s theme] with an authoritative purity. 17

This symbolic utilisation of music therefore further contributes toward Shore’s insistence in

presenting a coherent musical construction of Middle-Earth, although here he enforces the

narrative binary’s contrast on a broader level which is open to interpretation by the audience.

The fact that we are gradually encouraged to rely on this spirituality to ‘save the day’

throughout the films therefore encourages the audience to forge a dependence on the music in

confirming the presence of the supernatural. The audio-visual constructions of religion

17
Adams, The Music of the Lord of the Rings, p. 118.
 67

therefore firmly encourage the audience to position themselves on the Good side of the

binary.

Although the concept of religion is also manifested through music in Avatar through

the Na’vi deity, Eywa, the audience’s moral standpoint rests more on defying the colonialism

inherent within the limited human understanding of the world. The audience’s subjectivity is

positioned through a process built on a combination of two cinematic concepts. The first,

discussed fully in Chapter 2, consists of the co-dependent narrative and musical development

which inducts the audience into the world through Jake’s eyes in the first half of the film. The

I See You theme aligns our perception with the protagonist and subsequently encourages us to

gain an appreciation of the Na’vi way of life from an outsider’s perspective which distances

us from the human side of the binary. The second concept, however, concerns how the music

positions the audience against their own race externally to Jake’s narrative position in the

second half of the film. The following analysis will explore the two ways in which the

audience’s moral standpoint is moulded through music’s referential power in order to adjust

our perception of the world.

The first way in which the music contributes toward distancing the audience even

further from the human race occurs when the bulldozers advance through Pandora’s

landscape [01:24:47]. Here, the human timbral setting of the I See You chords are

reintroduced for the first time since the beginning of the film. When audibly introducing us to

Pandora in both the spacecraft and helicopter scenes (see pp. 6 – 8 and table on p. 39), the

restricted human musical aesthetic was delivered through synthesized-sounding strings to

represent the cold and mechanical human world. Here, however, the harmonically

manipulated chords crescendo through a diminished seventh arpeggio, giving the effect of a

disconnected texture which reflects the equally violent act of uprooting the Tree of Voices

[see Figure 27].

 68

Figure 27: Avatar, bulldozers rampage across Pandora’s landscape.

The diegetic man-made sound effects emitted from the machinery appear even more alien as

they double the non-diegetic score in audibly representing the machines’ merciless purge

through the foliage, thus reinforcing mankind’s imperialist motives of destruction through the

soundtrack. The use of the disturbed human setting of the I See You theme therefore

effectively represents the human’s forceful manipulation of the Pandoran landscape.

This same concept is developed in a different manner in a later scene depicting

missile planes on their mission to destroy Hometree [01:37:57]. Here, the human setting of

the I See You chords is abandoned and in its place features a body of music which merges the

human and Na’vi musical palettes into a distorted representation of this amalgam of both

cultures. Samples of Na’vi singing are severely sculpted into a percussive, modal theme

played by brass and strings, which is accompanied by the diegetic sound effects of the

engines as the aircrafts surge through the atmosphere. This attempt at forcing Pandora’s

musical voice to converge with the human aesthetic produces an incredibly unsettling

combined presentation of the two –audibly suggesting that these worlds simply cannot co-

exist. The distorted timbral manipulations in these two scenes therefore pushes the audience

even further away from wishing to identify with the human race.
 69

The most powerful scene which solidifies the evil nature of mankind while

simultaneously confirming the audience’s subjective shift to identifying with the Na’vi race

over their own occurs after the actual destroying of Hometree itself [01:44:30]. After the

sentient tree falls after being violently blown apart by the human missiles, the music responds

with a lament-like accompaniment to reflect the shock of grief felt by the indigenous. A

mournful string sequence is repeatedly punctured by a four-note motif in the woodwinds and

brass after each phrase – a musical identifier of immense grief which imitates the Na’vi’s

own cries of despair (see Figure 28).

Figure 28: Avatar, A musical lament accompanies after Hometree has fallen.

The intermingling connotations of grief permeating both the diegetic and non-diegetic

spheres therefore implore the audience to not just empathise with the Na’vi people, but to

share their devastation over the loss of their home. It is therefore at this point in the narrative

where the audience develops a strong loathing for humankind.

A further element which enhances this shift in audience subjectivity is the fact that

this scene witnesses the first instance of the Na’vi musical palette breaching the narrative

binary’s border into the human realm – thus reversing the typical power hierarchy of

‘manmade power over nature’ which has been upheld until this point in the film. The

instrumentation employed to enact this intrusion is led by a low microtonal voice which

begins to fluctuate uneasily in the score as Neytiri banishes Jake from the land [01:46:15].
 70

What sounds like an Eastern double-reed wind instrument enters in counterpoint to the voice

which follows an equally unsteady tone-bending melodic line and mingles with Neytiri’s cry

of anguish. At this point, a cut to the science lab depicts Corporal Parker ordering his troops

to ‘pull the plug’ in the middle of Jake’s avatar process, drawing him out of the Na’vi world

and back to the grey ‘reality’ of the human world. Although the change in setting is reflected

by the score adding typical cold human timbres to the texture (high-pitched strings and

soprano voice), a second microtonal voice is layered onto the original which, in an intense

imitative climax between the two, completely overpowers any hint of the human side of the

binary [see Figure 29].

Figure 29: Avatar, “sooner or later though, you always have to wake up”.

The prevalence of this musical breaching of the binary even affects the visual sphere; the

colour scheme switches to greyscale when Norm punches one of the troops [01:47] and the

rest of the scene is shot in slow-motion, thus blurring out every other cinematic construct in

order to emphasise the Na’vi’s devastation communicated best through its distinguished

musical palette. A cut back to the Omaticaya solemnly leaving their home with the raging

destruction of Hometree burning behind them concludes the scene, and the cascading

microtonal voices gradually fade out into silence.

 71

This collection of scenes can therefore be interpreted on a scale relating to the

overarching power struggle embedded within the human vs. Na’vi binary. The fact that the

music manages to detach itself from its referential links to Jake’s perception of the world not

only demonstrates its ability to promote the contrasting worlds and locations with clarity (a

concept which Horner was forced to refrain from doing at the beginning of the film), but also

means that the music is able to encapsulate the essence of Pandora on a larger scale without

streamlining the audience’s perception through one limited perspective of the world. Indeed,

this is realised to the greatest extent through the Na’vi musical palette’s response to the

human invasion of their world. The I See You theme is violated to such an extent when the

bulldozers trample through the landscape that the Na’vi palette is silenced for most of the

remainder of the film, almost to suggest that the destructive human presence inflicts

extinguishable consequences on the score; as a result of being scorched, the music can no

longer enrich Pandora’s landscape. Because of this, the Na’vi musical voice changes its tone

to one of hopeless sorrow, manifested most poignantly through the non-diegetic microtonal

inflections of what could reasonably be interpreted as an indigenous voice. 18 A columnist in

the Russian newspaper Vedomosti traces Avatar’s popularity to how it gives audiences a

chance to make a moral choice between good and evil, and that by emotionally siding with

the Na’vi we are able to relieve our own collective guilt for the cruel and unjust world we

have created.19 Horner’s music therefore aids in dispelling this moral weight from our

consciences; it gives us the freedom to decide which side to fight for.

The way in which viewers are encouraged to position themselves against their own

race is, thus, a concept heavily enforced by the non-diegetic implementation of the Na’vi

voice which propels the audience to empathise with the victimised indigenous over the

18
W. Bryant, Creati g the Musi of the Na i i Ja es Ca ero s A atar: A Eth o usi ologist s ‘ole ,
Ethnomusicology Review, vol. 17 (2012).
19
V. Panyushkin, I – o e of the illai s , Vedomosti, http://goo.gl/mpfKEV (accessed July, 2016).
 72

unforgiving and relentless human musical aesthetic. This broader level of musical

signification, and how it is capable of directly affecting audience subjectivity relating to

narrative hierarchy, therefore differs to LOTR’s allegorical symbolism which, despite shaping

our moral consciences, retains a more functional overall narrative purpose. This more

widespread consideration therefore provides audiences with a more contextually-enhanced

way of thinking about how music relates to the narrative binary, and how the composers

conceptualise notions of place on this broader level.

 73

Conclusion

This thesis has provided an in-depth exploration into the various applications of music

utilised in Avatar and LOTR which contribute significantly toward building their fictional

worlds. Not only were Shore and Horner able to meet the specific contextual requirements

placed on them by their directors, but they produced two colossal scores which went far

beyond merely accompanying each films’ dramatic narrative events – feats which are

recognised by film music theorists and fans alike.

The first chapter sought to outline how composers use music to introduce audiences

into the worlds. While LOTR’s complex narrative led Shore to adopt the seemingly

straightforward approach of paralleling the visual inductions with musical themes in order to

coin each one with their own musical character, Horner adopted a compositional approach

which initially seemed to deliberately distort the audience’s understanding of the contrasting

worlds. The way that the Na’vi musical palette failed to announce itself alongside Pandora’s

visual introduction threatened to obscure the way audiences deciphered their first impression

of the world. This preliminary misconception was realised in Chapter 2, however, upon

adopting the next level of analysis. Indeed, Horner’s musical intentions became clear when

focalizing our perception of the world through the eyes of Jake Sully, an act which revealed

the intrinsic links between musical and narrative development. The restrictively definitional

nature of Shore’s themes meant the music struggled to maintain pace with the diverging

narrative threads throughout the trilogy. However, narrative cohesion was upheld through the

referential nature of the Shire theme which managed to evoke the hobbit’s nostalgic longing

for the sanctity of home at significant moments in the trilogy, thus successfully grounding the
 74

audience with a sense of that place despite being contextually situated leagues away from it.

The final chapter offered a more extensive exploration into how both composers musically

shaped their worlds in a way which offered interpretative opportunities to evaluate music’s

relation to the power dynamics embedded within both narrative binaries, a method which

revealed how this level of engagement ultimately altered audiences’ moral investment in the

worlds.

Each of these inextricably linked hermeneutical levels of analysis therefore offer

separate propositions which engage with how music can contribute towards creating notions

of place in fictional film worlds. The enforced credibility of these worlds therefore resides in

a multitude of cinematic elements which, only through their combined contribution, are able

to immerse audiences into the respective settings. By adopting an analytical approach which

appraised this musical construction of place alongside other cinematic constructs (as opposed

to only exploring musical identifications from a narratological perspective), I was able to

demonstrate the extent of music’s representative power through these connections.

The arguments made in this dissertation therefore provide an assortment of unique

contributions which can be applied to the wider topic of space and place and the film music

discipline as a whole. We are able to realise these claims, to some extent, by briefly

considering how musical conceptualisations of place are conceived of in the film’s sequels.1

The fact that the first instalment of the The Hobbit trilogy opens with a near-replica thematic

statement of the Shire theme immediately confirms the exact notions of spatial identity

established throughout the LOTR trilogy.2 The way that Shore reuses his previously

established material to re-equate audiences with the same sense of place therefore promotes

1
The Hobbit trilogy is, actually, the prequel to LOTR in terms of narrative structure.
2
Ale a dru Morti er [s ree a e], The Ho it – Opening Scene – Full HD , YouTube, http://goo.gl/reb84b
(accessed August, 2016).
 75

the unchanging identity of Middle-Earth. Avatar 2, on the other hand, is set to release in

August 2018. James Horner’s sudden early demise in June 2015 means that we can only

make assumptions on the compositional style and musical palettes which may underscore the

undoubtedly even more exotic setting. We can only hope that the newly-positioned composer

will homage Horner’s profoundly significant musical depiction of Pandora’s atmosphere with

a similar aptitude of developmental intention. Howard Shore ‘gave us perhaps the most

complete and complex exploration of Leitmotifs in the history of cinema with a score that is

alive with the world Tolkien gave us’.3 Avatar, on the other hand, gave us a musical score

that provided enough substance to be able to emanate straight out of Pandora’s nature itself.

Both composers therefore bring to film a unique musical power; one which not only proves

music’s fundamental contribution in evoking conceptualisations of place, but one which can

ultimately affect and change the way we think about an entire film.

3 Nerd riter [s ree a e], Lord of the ‘i gs: Ho Musi Ele ates “tor , YouTube, http://goo.gl/EUV3nO
(accessed July 2016).
 76

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Avatar. Dir. J. Cameron. Twentieth Century Fox, 2009.

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Adamson, J., ‘Indigenous Literatures, Multinaturalism, and Avatar: The Emergence of

Indigenous Cosmopolitics’, American Literary History, vol. 24, no. 1 (2012), 143 – 162.

Adams, D., The Music of the Lord of the Rings (Van Nuys: Alfred Music Publishing,

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Brownrigg, M., ‘Hearing place: Film music, geography and ethnicity’, International

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