The Prophecy

There is an anecdote about a 19th century opera critic who used to leave the theatre as soon as the overture was over. When someone at last dared to ask him about his habit, he simply answered that he had already mentally finished his review of the whole opera, judging from the quality of its introduction, and felt no need to listen to the rest. And the opening track of any movie soundtrack album can be certainly compared to the overture of an opera – it, too, sets the mood for the story, determines the style of the background music, brings important themes into play, and may offer further glimpses at what is to come.

So what do we learn from listening to the The Prophecy, the first track of Howard Shore’s score for The Fellowship of the Ring? First of all, its use of both a symphonic orchestra and a choir in order to suit the need for musical grandeur makes it unmistakably clear that Shore has chosen to create a bombastic pseudo-Wagnerian soundtrack for an epic adventure music (instead of opting for folklore or medieval music, which would have been two equally valid possibilities in the case of The Lord of the Rings), following in the footsteps of other famous Hollywood composers, like his predecessors Max Steiner (Gone with the Wind) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Sea Hawk) or his contemporaries John Williams (Star Wars) and Jerry Goldsmith (First Knight).

But, what is more important, Shore manages to capture the listener’s attention by making The Prophecy a worthy equivalent to the Prologue sequence of The Lord of the Rings — the track on the album is obviously not exactly the same score as the background music in the film, for the Prologue is about ten minutes long, whereas the first piece of music on the soundtrack takes barely four minutes to listen to. However, its melancholical, strangely intriguing opening chords and its eerie atmosphere would perfectly suit Galadriel’s Tolkienesque tale about the forging of the Great Rings and even introduces the subtly menacing Ring motif itself; then a slow, dramatic crescendo leads up to a loud orchestral climax that is supposed to reflect the Battle of the Last Alliance.

Moreover, the choir whose singing is interwoven with the orchestral parts gives the whole track a distinctly “Elvish” feel, for the ethereal background voices announce the impending doom in Quenya: Hlasta! Quetis Ilfirimain. – Listen! It speaks to those who were not born to die… But the Elves are not the only race of Middle-earth that is musically introduced by Howard Shore. Before the rather majestically sounding opening track with its gothic mood fades out, it presents the light-hearted, pastoral Shire theme (which is mainly played by woodwinds), already hinting at the “time when hobbits would shape the fortunes of all.”

Written by Aervir