DESCRIPTION:
The solo alto flute is joined by interplaying string lines as Arwen, still in Rivendell, grapples with her difficult decision. Prompted
by her father, she decides to forsake her love for Aragorn and depart Middle-earth with the rest of her kind. The score tenderly
pauses, then enfolds the Rivendell theme in the most elaborate setting heard since Fellowship. Yet despite the female voices intoning
"Hymn to Elbereth", the harp glissandi and robust arpeggio figures, the Rivendell theme moves slowly and softly, almost receding.
After a single rhapsodic statement of the line it evolves into a sadder, more linearly expressive shape that draws the stylistic
tendencies of the "Evenstar" and "The Grace of the Valar" music closer to Rivendell.
Over a lingering shot, the monochord reappears in clarification of its appearance in the music of Rivendell: Elrond has been in
telepathic communication with Galadriel. The Eastern-tinted Lothlórien theme—sarangi doubled with female chorus singing
"Footsteps of Doom" —makes its debut appearance in The Two Towers as Galadriel peers into the future of Middle-earth. "In the
gathering dark, the will of the Ring grows strong," she tells Elrond. Violins nimbly trickle in The Nameless Fear passage, subtly
rising like Sauron's mounting power, over irresolute minor chords. This same passage plays under Galadriel's narration in The Fellowship
of the Ring's opening, and conditions have improved little since then. The Ring still seeks to reach its master. To that end, it
has now entered the susceptible World of Men.
Will the Ring be changing hands again? In its classic A minor cor anglais guise, the History of the Ring sighs across the score
while Faramir and his Rangers take Frodo and Sam to their hidden outpost of Henneth Annûn.