"Concerning Hobbits" is a piece by composer

Howard Shore Howard Leslie Shore (born October 18, 1946) is a Canadian composer and conductor noted for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Hobbit'' film trilogies. ...

derived from ''The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' soundtrack. It is a concert suite of the music of the Hobbits, arranged from the music heard in the film during the early Shire scenes, and features the various themes and

leitmotif A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglici ...

s composed for

the Shire The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in ''The Lord of the Rings'' and other works. The Shire is an inland area settled exclusively by hobbits, the Shire-folk, largely sheltered from the goings-on in the ...

and

Hobbit Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, ...

s; it is intended to evoke feelings of peace.Marillyn Miller
A Magpie's Nest
, Concerning Hobbits. It is also the title of one of the sections of the

prologue A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...

to ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'' by

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

. Excerpts of the piece can be heard during an extended scene in the 2012 film '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'', where it was tracked intentionally. The piece has become synonymous with the Shire and Hobbiton themes.

Orchestration

The piece uses a large symphony orchestra (originally, The

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

), including an on-stage band consisting of various Celtic instruments including

tin whistle The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...

and

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

. Although both instruments have solos and carry the main melodies throughout the piece, it is equally noted for Shore's distinctive use of the

bodhrán The bodhrán (, ; plural ''bodhráin'' or ''bodhráns'') is a frame drum used in Irish music ranging from in diameter, with most drums measuring . The sides of the drum are deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side (synthetic heads or othe ...

to create a heartbeat-like sound. Other accompaniment instruments include a

celtic harp The Celtic harp is a triangular frame harp traditional to the Celtic nations of northwest Europe. It is known as in Irish, in Scottish Gaelic, in Breton and in Welsh. In Ireland and Scotland, it was a wire-strung instrument requiring grea ...

hammered dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...

, musette-type

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, drones,

classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

low whistle The low whistle, or concert whistle, is a variation of the traditional tin whistle/pennywhistle, distinguished by its lower pitch and larger size. It is most closely associated with the performances of British and Irish artists such as Tommy Make ...

and recorders. Live performances may feature an

and/or a

concertina A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front. The ...

Themes

One of the chief tracks of the trilogy, it is one of the happiest tracks, with others invoking feelings of heroism or foreboding. It show-cases the Shire theme or Hobbits' theme, in its main, "pensive" orchestral setting: A stepwise melody played by strings, a solo fiddle or a tin whistle in the key of D major. The B-section of the theme is often played by strings tutti to a very expansive effect, arguably forming a separate theme altogether.Eric Rawlins
Musical themes in the Lord of the Rings
. Also in the piece is a "rural" or "folk" setting or variation, labelled by the

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

Doug Adams as a separate theme for

Hobbiton The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in ''The Lord of the Rings'' and other works. The Shire is an inland area settled exclusively by hobbits, the Shire-folk, largely sheltered from the goings-on in the ...

, played by solo fiddle and various Celtic instruments in accompaniment. The chords of the third main shire theme, the "hymn" variant (which later serves mostly as Frodo's theme), also play briefly under the melody. The melody is accompanied by several motifs: * Hobbit Outline Figure: This simple figure, often heard in the cellos and double basses, is used as an expectation of things to come. It is heard quite a bit in the early

Shire Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...

scenes, portraying the hobbits' playful sides. * Hobbit Two Step Figure: This short figure appears frequently during the introduction of the Shire, and it often concludes with the End Cap figure. * Hobbit Skip Beat: This

ostinato In music, an ostinato (; derived from Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces include ...

figure is heard throughout the Shire material, usually as an accompaniment, but sometimes more prominently. * Hobbit End Cap: A graceful rim-shot that plays to the good-humoured hobbit lifestyle. * The Heartbeat of the Shire: played on

Bodhrán The bodhrán (, ; plural ''bodhráin'' or ''bodhráns'') is a frame drum used in Irish music ranging from in diameter, with most drums measuring . The sides of the drum are deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side (synthetic heads or othe ...

. Also in the piece (about a minute into the track) is a coda that closes a statement of the Hobbiton theme, which coincides with the putting up of Bilbo's "Happy Birthday" sign.

The music

The piece begins with the Hobbit outline figure motif in the strings before moving into a light statement of the main Shire theme on a solo tin whistle as the outline figure continues to play in accompaniment. as the solo concludes, the outline sounds twice before moving into a solo fiddle performance of the Hobbiton theme, played over the two-step figure (transitioning into the skip-beat accompaniment and back repetitively) in pizzicato strings, dulcimer and guitars. As the fiddle pauses, a musette adds "short sustained chord drones" Adams, Doug
The Annotated Score: Fellowship of the Ring
. and continues under the fiddle as it rounds up the phrase. Strings tutti then perform a lush variation of the B-phrase of the main shire theme over the skip-beat accompaniment; the fiddle then returns with the Hobbiton theme over the two-step accompaniment, and concludes it with the "fiddle fanfare" that accompanies the "Happy Birthday" sign. A slow variation of the Skip-beat plays in the strings over slow chords and the orchestra quiets down. Guitars return with the skip beat, the strings enter with the two-step figure over the guitar before a celesta joins the latter, the bodhran heartbeat pattern which underlines the whole sequence is very noticeable here. Now, the low whistle plays the B-phrase of the Hobbiton theme before strings tuti play the lush B-phrase of the Shire theme again, ending with the end-cap figure. The fiddle than returns with the Rural Hobbit theme (over the two-step motif in the guitars) and concludes with the end-cap leitmotif. The Hobbit two-step continues in strings, moves into the skip-beat before the orchestra quiets down and the tin whistle returns, book-ending the suite with the Shire theme.

Alternate versions

The piece has alternates in the Complete Recording tracks "The Shire" and "Bag End" (in the Extended Edition recording), in the Fan-Credits of the Fellowship of the Ring (where the fiddler is allowed to improvise more around the Hobbiton theme) and in The Lord of the Rings Symphony, which features the whole suite.

Reception

Rosie Pentreath, reviewing the piece on Classic FM, wrote that "The airy, syncopated passages evoke sprightly, nimble Hobbits, jumping up and down the rock steps in front of their Hobbit holes, and dancing around merrily at Bilbo Baggins' 111th birthday party."

References

{{The Lord of the Rings film trilogy The Lord of the Rings (film series) music Compositions by Howard Shore