DESCRIPTION:
Gandalf and Aragorn confer during the night, eyes eastward
towards the glowering threat that will soon be upon them. Low
string writing surrounds the pair, ceaselessly plies fields of minor
harmonies in their uncertainty. But out of the chill comes an
unexpected moment of warmth as violas and celli embrace an accordant
line in D major. Gandalf reminds Aragorn that for all his
cunning, Sauron still does not know that Frodo carries the Ring.
Here Shore presents a new theme for the One Ring—the Fate of
the Ring—a theme that will be heard in The Two Towers in only
this incomplete statement. This fourth Ring theme is melodically
similar to both the History of the Ring and the Evil of the Ring,
though it is cast in a rich major mode, eschewing the respective
minor and Eastern-tinged harmonies of the others. What's more,
The Fate of the Ring begins with a direct quote of the Evil Times
theme, but again, shifted into a major key. Though the new melody dissolves before revealing its significance, it seems, in its fleeting
moment, to answer the Ring's negativity with a plenary, all-encompassing beauty. But these answers are not yet to be articulated
and, with an inlaid statement of the Shire theme's three opening pitches, the comfort abates, and we join Sam and Frodo just
as they arrive at the Black Gate.

Here in the depraved heart of Sauron's empire, the music of Mordor abounds. Cinders of the Evil of the Ring theme pollute the
air, passing from muted trumpets and rhaita on to low French horns, bassoon and contrabassoon. Martial field drumming indurates
the music under an exacting setting of the Mordor Skip Beat—Sauron is amassing his army.
The Gate opens to admit a troop of armored Easterlings, and Frodo sees his opportunity. He gathers himself to rush the Gate as
violins cluster, dividing the section 12 ways. Abruptly, Frodo is stopped by Gollum, weeping and pleading, "Don't take it to him."
High strings and oboe solicit the proceedings with an entreating line that subtly segues into the History of the Ring in its closing
moments. In an astute turn, Shore's score quietly reveals Gollum's self-satisfying motives before he offers to lead the hobbits on
another more secret path to Mordor.