#172 Music Magic

I am obsessed with The Lord of the Rings. I could spend the rest of the year blogging about how great of a story I think it is. I love the books. I love the movies—not quite as much, of course. I think the best thing about the movies is Howard Shore's incredible musical score. Here's a pretty good sample piece: "The Journey to the Grey Havens" from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King—The Complete Recordings.

Listen to this piece as you read the rest of this blog. At the beginning we get a recap of a couple of the main themes from the series. In the middle there's a bittersweet section as some of our heroes say goodbye. Then the piece ends with a quietly hopeful and triumphant melody.

I have the complete recordings of the soundtracks for all three movies on my laptop. There's about 10 hours of music all told. The music covers everything: action, despair, reflection, fear, joy, longing, hope. There are so many themes, and they are all amazing. Howard Shore is brilliant. (He's so good he won the Academy Award for best original score for two movies in the same trilogy, both The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King.)

Over the past few years I've repeatedly found myself listening to the complete recordings for The Lord of the Rings as Good Friday and Easter approach. As I get busy I find it soothing to listen to such familiar instrumental music, and having 10 hours of it comes in handy when I'm juggling the work for multiple services. But I also find this listening to be fitting. See, The Lord of the Rings is all about the triumph of good over evil, paving the way for the world to be set right. Each year during Good Friday and Easter we celebrate the triumph of good over evil in the climactic death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, which paves the way for the world to be set right.

I chose "The Journey to the Grey Havens" above because it's one of the last pieces on the last soundtrack, and the ending always get stuck in my head. But I think it's a fitting piece for the season of Easter in this very upside-down world. There's a lot of obvious bitterness and brokenness and pain right now, but because of Jesus' resurrection we have hope. Hope that the new heavens and the new earth are just beyond the horizon of this tired old world. Hope that all will be made right. Hope that, as Sam Gamgee says in The Return of the King, everything sad is going to come untrue. Jesus is risen! And because He lives, we also will live.

Grace and peace,
BMH