Soundtracks that Make You Cry: Gandalf's Fall in Moria is Why Tear Ducts Exist
The LOTR Soundtrack is powerful throughout the trilogy but peaks as Gandalf MMA-grapples a balrog.
A Cinematic Atmosphere commentary.
We could literally pick from six or eight or 15 Lord of the Rings scenes where the soundtrack gives you the kind of chills you usually only get bathing nude in an ice bath in Prague in November. But we’ll pick one.
Gandalf’s Fall AKA “Khazad-dum”.
I know, I know! There’s Faramir’s Song in The Return of the King, where Billy Boyd sings along as the mad king eats yummy cherry tomatoes. There are the power horns as the orcs bro-stomp their way along the river, and “The Council of Elrond” when Aragorn meets Liv Tyler in the wooded glen to meld their auras and Eskimo kiss. But as Lord of Soundtracks, I have chosen Gandalf’s fall in Moria.
Howard Shore composed the scores for all three of the LOTR films and saying “he nailed it” doesn’t really do that masterpiece threesome appropriate justice. Any of the songs featuring Enya alone are enough to make you break up with your girlfriend just so you can put on “Evenstar” in your earbuds then run after her sobbing and distress-peeing in the pouring rain.
“Gandalf’s Fall” is technically a composition called “Bridge of Khazad-dum” from The Fellowship of the Ring score. We say “composition” because it’s too elegant and masterful to just be a song. Songs are for peasants. Not all of “Khazad-dum” will bring you to your knees – the opening to the song is when the Balrog approaches and you feel like Satan has sat down on a barstool in your ear canal.
The next couple minutes are – “get on with it, what’s the atmosphere?!” you say. Be patient! The first 5+ minutes are a rollercoaster. You seesaw through adrenaline and triumphant orchestral swings as in the background the Satan choir chants. Heavy kettle drums. Gandalf fights. The stringed instruments grow tinny. The horns resound and build and sweaty Gandalf so desperately needs a Gatorade or a glass of kombucha as he angrily flirts with the fire demon.
And then it happens.
“Fly, you fools.”
Yeah, I get that we are chest deep in a mild to moderately obsessed element of LOTR nerd fandom here. If you’ve made it this far, you’re not turning back. So here it is again for those of you who just want to listen to infinite sadness while you read:
I was 14 when I first saw The Fellowship of the Ring with my neighbors on Christmas weekend in theaters. The moment Gandalf falls in Moria and the Fellowship exits the dwarf cave like gerbils fleeing a housefire – that sealed the entire film in an amber aurora of memory. I bought the score, as a 14-year-old, to listen in my cd player.
The atmosphere the Moria scene wraps you in so accurately is dramatized grief. At the 5:48 mark of an eight-minute orchestral demon fight epic, the innocence of hobbits is shattered to the mourning voice of an ethereal angel. Peter Jackson puts everything in slow-motion for all of 66 seconds, to immerse you in their moment, and provoke tears from your eyes and into your open movie snack bag of White Cheddar Cheez-its.
It’s a masterful feat to portray grief in a film and have it resonate with the audience. The director and composer walk a burning tightrope between emotional impact and cloying inauthenticity. I can think of a few that have done it well – Manchester by the Sea comes to mind. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Finding Nemo? Yeah, I said it. Fish grief is real.
The Lord of the Rings is a cinematic achievement on so many levels: its technical elements, the CGI, the scope, the acting, the execution of the source material.
Where Lord of the Rings really exceeds is the soundtrack. Howard Shore seamlessly shifts from moments of brute battle intensity to delicate voices singing in strange tongues, filled with sadness and depth of memory.
Does everyone love Lord of the Rings? Nope. Some people think Harry Potter is better, and those people are the ones who lick their finger before turning the page on an iPad. Does everyone understand the common knowledge that Elrond was born in the First Age, son of Earendil the Mariner and Elwing the half-elf, father to Arwen and carrier of the Vilya ring? No, not everyone is aware of this common grade-school knowledge.
But do you know what I say if you watch the “bridge of Khazad-dum” scene, and feel a prickle of emotion run through you?
I’d say I damn sure told you so.
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Artist Links:
Howard Shore website
News on upcoming LOTR Amazon Prime series
Howard Shore scores to get you bothered:
Maps to the Stars
The Departed
Honestly, just put the entire LOTR soundtrack on from start to finish and drift off into Middle Earth.
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