NFB Re-Watches The Lord Of The Rings: The Music Of “Very Old Friends”

Previous entry: Gandalf’s Introduction In “The Shire”

I’m old Gandalf. I know I don’t look it, but I’m beginning to feel it in my heart…

Forget Bilbo’s notice, we’re barging on in to Bag End.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Rings – “Very Old Friends”

Wherein Gandalf bangs his head; Bilbo has problems with butter; and we have to wonder what “pipeweed” is exactly

Music is important to film, which I acknowledge is pretty much the most obvious sentence that a person could come up with. You can have all of the flashy cinematography that you want, the most perfect CGI, Hoyte van Hoytema himself setting up all of your shots, but for a production like The Lord Of The Rings, the musical element is really just as crucial. I suspect that many entries of this series will probably talk exclusively about the music that is contained within scenes, but I wanted to open up that discussion here, because the score for “Very Old Friends”, a chapter of the film that sees us establish Gandalf and Bilbo’s relationship, some of Bilbo’s hidden problems and some of the “fun” to come, is one where the music is actually pretty understated, but crucial all the same, the kind of thing that you don’t really notice until it is not there. Howard Shore had already done a commendable job with his music in the first 15 minutes or so of The Fellowship Of The Ring, and he wasn’t letting up as we move on.

We start with that meeting scene, as Gandalf announces himself and Bilbo opens up the door. Shore’s score – also “Very Old Friends” in the complete recordings – for this section is a recitation of the Shire theme that we have already heard, this mostly stringed piece that invokes feelings of nostalgia and contentment. This particular section of it is a little slower perhaps that the others we have heard in the previous few minutes, and in so doing perhaps emphasises the nostalgic nature of the reunion scene, as if Shore wants the viewer, already familiar with the Shire through this piece of audio, to now consider it from a more hazy perspective. It’s like you are imagining the kind of adventures that Bilbo and Gandalf got up to in this very spot years before, when a different version of this tune might have been playing. The multiple instruments used also adds to a communal feel, as opposed to the solo piece of the same melody that will play later. This particular leitmotif is going to prove to be one of the most versatile of the entire story, and will pop again and again, even just within The Fellowship Of The Ring.

Into the hallway after, where the script, the cast and the score gets a chance to engage in some humour. It’s something of a set-up moment for the remainder of the scene at the same time, and the score for these few seconds sort of reflects all of that. It’s a very simple collection of strings beats as Bilbo welcomes Gandalf into the porch and takes his cloak, the repeated nature of the tune giving us a sense of routine and familiarity, an audio version of the kind of feeling that a host might want to impart onto a guest like Gandalf. As the wizard is left alone and then unfortunately wallops his head off the bolster the music stays the same in terms of general rhythm but additional strings get added, with a very, very slight augmentation thrown in, that gives the immediate feeling of something minor going wrong even as the general scene evolves to now include that bit of comedy: the repetition itself has been altered just enough to reflect that the initial welcome for Gandalf has gone a tiny bit wrong, even if we are passing over that moment very quickly.

As Bilbo potters about trying to put together some tea and nibbles for Gandalf, the wizard steps into the living space, where he focuses in on a map on the table, which just so happens to be the map from The Hobbit, in what amounts to another subtle non-expository reference to that story. The score turns sharply for this moment, the punctuated strings now becoming more long-winded, with an additional backing strings and the faint hints of a choir accompaniment. The mood is suddenly and very decidedly dark, with the previous feelings of nostalgia becoming instead something shadowy and mysterious. We are meant to infer I feel that the placement of this map is an indication of something darker affecting Bilbo than might be obvious, an auditory refrain for distant adventures and dragons. As Gandalf stares at the map, the music helps with the impression that his focus is being sucked away from Bilbo and onto this object and what it might mean. Of course the map isn’t anything evil or anything to be concerned about really, and with a larger understanding we might take the music as underlining the reality that strange and dark things, or references to them, can be found in such spaces as Bag End, if only for a moment.

Into the kitchen, Bilbo and Gandalf share tea and continue their conversation. We briefly go back to the same short strings that characterised the moment in the hallway, reflecting the turn back to a certain kind of light-heartedness, as exemplified by Bilbo comedically hiding from the Sackville Bagginses. But things turn serious quickly enough, as Bilbo outlines his feelings on his longevity and his plans to leave the Shire, and Frodo, behind. In this moment we get a new form of the previous theme, something slower, with a few moments of simple harp accompaniment behind it. The tone is again wistful, but slightly more melancholy, and a crucial key change occurs when Gandalf spots Bilbo with his hand in his pocket. There, the piece gets darker for a few crucial seconds, helping to make the point. As Bilbo announces that he intends to not return from his “holiday”, the strings change into a series of ever higher notes, giving Bilbo’s decision that sense of finality and fateful that the scene needs to really get the point across.

The last scene of this chapter offers a rest of sorts, for both the plot and the music. We cut to outside at night, with Bilbo and Gandalf amusing themselves with smoke rings. The score here reverts back to the Shire leitmotif, but a fuller one than that which we heard earlier, with a flute now giving the bones of the theme. The music seems to be saying in essence that the dark moment has passed, and now we are back in the peaceful land of the Shire again. As Bilbo contemplates how “this will be a night to remember”, the music swells slightly, giving the Shire theme an unexpected ending, one meant to act as something of a full stop on this sequence, and to set-up the sudden turn of the immediately following scenes, as the audience is woken up by the sudden flash and bang of fireworks. Even here the music is somewhat understated, but always helping to accentuate the mood: “Very Old Friends” is unlikely to ever rate very highly on anyone’s list of The Lord Of The Rings‘ tracks, but the four minutes and change is still an excellent example of what Howard Shore brought to the table. We’ll be talking about him again.

Ow!

Notes

-What a moment it is at the very start of this chapter, as Bag End comes into view. It’s a wonderfully realised space, an enticing, colourful looking abode, that eschews any concern that you might have about the idea of living in a hole.

-I love the manner in which Bilbo’s joy at seeing Gandalf is portrayed by Ian Holm, that surprise turning to a verbally expressed explosion of feeling, the kind of thing only reserved for dear friends who have not seen each other in some time. Without anything else the intimate nature of this friendship is established firmly.

-Gandalf again lets the mask slip just a little bit, as he betrays his curiosity at Bilbo’s longevity: “One hundred and eleven years old…you haven’t aged a day”.

-I think it’s oft been said that Gandalf banging his head on the bolster was an unintentional thing that occurred on set that they decided to keep in. I’m assuming it was something that happened that they then replicated, as the actual moment looks just a little bit too practised to be off the cuff.

-You have to love the details of Bag End. One of the first of the sets to be constructed, it’s overflowing with the sense of being an old, lived-in space, from the cluttered table to the respectable fire burning in the hearth.

-Bilbo hides from some visitors banging on the door, the pretentious sounding “Sackville-Bagginses”. We only need Bilbo’s annoyed reaction and that surname to get the picture. It’s the very first indication that life in the Shire has some downsides, and comes with a curious line from Bilbo where he acknowledges some of his own peculiarity: “They’ve never forgiven me for living this long”.

-Gandalf tells Bilbo that Frodo “suspects something” and there’s lots to like in Ian Holm’s delivery of Bilbo’s response: “Course he does. He’s a Baggins!”

-In a nice mini-monologue, Bilbo comes up with reasons not to bring Frodo with him, remarking that his nephew is “still in love with the Shire” and its natural beauty. The tone is wistful, even melancholy: it’s clear that Bilbo is perhaps regretting that he himself no longer finds such joy in his homeland, and it all foreshadows Frodo’s own sense of ennui at the conclusion of the story.

-Perhaps there is no better line in the scene than Bilbo’s “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread”, recited with a brilliantly evocative sense of weariness, the mask falling again for a brief moment.

-So, “pipeweed”. Of course Tolkien always intended for it to be analogous to tobacco, but it’s an unfortunate descriptor really. The scene here where Bilbo and Gandalf play with smoke rings doesn’t help with that impression.

Final Thoughts: The Lord Of The Rings was always going to need to nail the various aspects of its score, and it absolutely did that. Howard Shore’s task was to provide the bombast when it was needed, such as in parts of “Prologue: One Ring To Rule Them All…” but after giving us something much more appropriately soothing in “Concerning Hobbits” and “The Shire”, he weaves his instruments to imbue different kinds of mood in “Very Old Friends”, from nostalgia to comedy to mystery, and leaves room at the end to reset it all. It’s simplicity itself, some of these themes and notes, but that’s all they need to be in the end.

Next entry: “A Long-Expected Party” As A Major Setpiece

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