The importance of music component in constitution of stratified narrative in movie trilogy Lord of the Rings

Abstract

The movie trilogy The Lord of the Rings of Peter Jackson is based on the eponymous literary achievement of J. R. R. Tolkien and represents one of the most screened literary work of epic fantasy genre. Here, the narrative presents a kind of stratification of the basic story that is related to the main character, so that by the end of the first part of the movie/book polyphonic structure forms. Poly-structure involves setting of synchronic events of 'main' character and his assistants, who will be reunited only at the end. The constitution of the narrative elements of the movie is completed with music component. Auditory role is related to the characters through the use of leitmotifs and expressionistic narrative complements. This paper shows the importance of musical components, primarily thru analysis of the leitmotif that constitute elements of narrative in movie and the overall presentation of the characters. Featured motifs belong to non-diegetic music role and there are nine of them. They are drama-motivated and they are transformed in accordance to the appearance in the movie, but they still remain recognizable. These elements of musical components are deeply involved in shaping of the narrative of movies. Music is often presented as a combination of several musical topics (mostly modal coloured), which point to the temporal determinant of the story i.e. the imaginary middle Ages (as before tonal music era). In addition, the frequent sound imaging without difficulty evoke characteristics of the characters. Great connection between audio and visual components in this trilogy makes storytelling extraordinary and offers the audience an insight into absolute magical world of Tolkien.