Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King seemed to have a lot of Classical Hollywood traits, while still seeming to fit into the modern movie era. To start off with, the movie had basically wall to wall music, a trait of classical Hollywood film scores, and also used a full orchestra. It also sounded like more modern instruments, like a synthesizer was used. In one scene, when the hobbits in the beginning are fighting over the ring, the eerie wailing sound sounds exactly like a theremin (it might have been a synthesizer but could have also be a theremin). The sound is used several times in the movie when the "ring" is present almost like a motif. The instruments used also seemed to represent the "emotions," just like in the Classical Hollywood film scores. In the herioc scenes, the music played ususally included brass and horn intruments to represent the bravery. For exmaple, when there is a speech about bravery given before the war, the instruments used in the music is brass and horns. These instruments are also used when they attack/war happens because the men are showing bravery, even though they know that there chances of winning, and even living, are slim to none. The romantic scenes are also represented by the steroetypical intruements: the violin, and sometimes the harp.

One difference is that the their were not leitmotifs like in most classical Hollywood film scores. While there seemed to be a few leitmotifs, like the "lady singing to represent the "good" such as when the white night scares away the evil birds, they were not as pronounced, or as frequent as, Classical Hollywood film scores. Another difference was that the music wasn't as "melodious." The music seemed to fit the mood of the scene more than trying to be harmonious. For example. a lot of the music was harsher, darker, and more dijunct to match the scenes like during the war scenes, or when the scenes were focused on the "evil/dark" side.

The music was also noticeable and dramatic in many of the scenes to match the drama of the scene and add more suspsense to the movie. For example, when Frodo reaches the "dead city" the music is loud and dark with low drum beats to add intensity and suspense to the scene...these drum beats then go on to match the marching of the evil army.

All-in-all the movie seems to carry some of the classical Hollywood film score traits while still having a current, modern feel.