The Most TERRIFYING Scene In The Lord Of The Rings Used ONE Chord

[00:00:00]The most utterly terrifying scene in all of the Lord of the Rings is not a battle, it's not a villain, it's not even an evil place like like Mordor or Isengard. It's in the woods seeking help. About three-quarters of the way through the Fellowship of the Ring, one thing is abundantly clear. Middle-earth is filled with darkness and evil and threats lurking around every corner. So, it's not the obvious expectation that a place where we go to seek help would wind up having one of the most horrifying encounters in the entire trilogy. But, the music tells us that we should be on our toes from the very start.

[00:00:37]>> [music] >> What a line. Hold on, I got to stop it right there.

[00:00:48]>> [music] >> Wow.

[00:00:57]We know that if it's like F based, which clearly it is because that's what we hear [music and singing] there, and we get F flat seven, flat two, flat six. [music] I mean, there's so much in here. The only thing that I want to listen for is what's going on with our >> [music] >> third. Is it minor or major? Cuz that that would that'll make a big difference. But, listen to how dark and like unsettling this is right from the very start.

[00:01:28]>> [music] >> Minor third.

[00:01:46]Okay, so there's our scale. We have We now know what we're working with [music] in terms of a harmonic palette.

[00:01:57]Actually, that's really interesting. Now that I I didn't even notice that before, but we use a regular second, but we also use a flat second. Hmm. But, if we were to take the variant of it that is the flat second, that's F Phrygian. And then if we use the version that has the regular second, well, now it's just F natural minor.

[00:02:21]Either way, these are two extremely dark sounds, and the whole thing like like Galadriel whispering to Frodo through his mind. I mean, so many things right from the get-go are telling us, "Hey, you got to be on your toes because we have no idea what we're walking into. We don't know if this is safe. We don't know if this place is going to help us."

[00:02:45]Ooh.

[00:02:47]Yeah.

[00:02:49]Oh.

[00:02:53]Right there, we get a transition to an F-sharp minor chord.

[00:03:04]Doesn't that sound familiar?

[00:03:12]That That interval is all over the place in this entire trilogy. But, now we're being held at Arrow Point, I guess. So, that brings us into Lothlórien.

[00:03:25]Oh.

[00:03:27]>> [music] [music] >> Wow.

[00:03:40]That Wow, that rising brass line right there. That was insane. So, what was just introduced as this minor sound, we now get Now it turns major, but the next note that the choir sings goes down to the minor third. This is all over the place. There's this combination of feelings. On one hand, we are seeking help. We've just watched Gandalf presumably die, and so everyone is in this crazy high emotional state.

[00:04:10]So, you can imagine this situation. It's like they came here to seek help, but yet there's no indication that that this is a place that's going to be safe. And everything we're hearing reflects that.

[00:04:21]We get this beautiful F sharp, this this sharp 11 note going down to the major third, but then that major third immediately becomes a minor third.

[00:04:32]And we're like, what what are we supposed to feel?

[00:04:35]>> [music] >> Yo, the the low brass, we get this >> [music] >> That's so bizarre.

[00:04:50]>> [music] >> Aw, man.

[00:05:03]>> [music] >> It it switches. Listen to how it switches between minor and major. We have no idea which one it's supposed to be.

[00:05:26]>> [laughter] >> That whole sequence there. Listen to some of that. So, as we're coming up to But ah, we're getting this flip between minor and major all over the place. But then watch this.

[00:05:52]>> Like what? We were We were right [music] there on C. Like it was it was kind of felt like a C. Uh I don't know, just kind of a fifth. And then we got this C down to [music] B natural down to G. And for a second you're going, "Oh, is that just like this beautiful thing?" But then no, we go down to the flat five.

[00:06:10]>> [music] >> And we drop a half step down to B.

[00:06:12]There's so much harmonic information here that is meant to just skew your perspective of what's happening.

[00:06:19]Oh, it's so full of dissonance. And then we get the lament for Gandalf. Like I was saying, the whole concept here is that you don't really know whether we're supposed to feel safe or whether we're supposed to to be in grave danger. It's not abundantly clear. There's some things that indicate that, okay, this is we're here for help. And Galadriel says, "Okay, stay the night, rest, you're safe here."

[00:06:47]I think so, but nothing about the the the harmonic space that the score is is giving us is saying that. Everything is saying like be on edge. And even the lament for Gandalf that we're about to hear, we have to ask like, "What is this?" At which point Legolas tells us it's it's a lament for Gandalf, but you wouldn't know that because it is so strange, but in a beautiful way.

[00:07:11]Kind of like a D lament for Gandalf.

[00:07:23]>> What do they say about him?

[00:07:25]>> I have not the heart to tell you.

[00:07:28]>> [music] >> Oh, that note right there.

[00:07:33]>> [music] >> Notice that it is neither of those things. Listen again. Watch this.

[00:07:42]>> What do they say about him?

[00:07:43]>> I have not the heart to tell you.

[00:07:46]>> Watch this. Ready?

[00:07:47]>> [music] >> Ah, it's it's not either one. It's in between.

[00:07:53]It's It's as if we're going to do this D major chord, but the major third [music] is detuned by, I don't know, a number of cents. And that is such a wild choice here because again, this whole time we're being told we should be a little uneasy. We don't know We don't know what's going on. And then the lament, despite the fact that it is a lament for Gandalf, still has us feeling on edge because it's unusual. Complete with a detuned, like, atonal version of some type of D major-ish chord. It's It's beautiful, but it's also disorienting.

[00:08:31]Oh, there's that detuned major-ish third again.

[00:08:41]This is pretty straightforward. [music] It's minor. It's sad.

[00:08:45]Now it's major.

[00:08:47]Watch this.

[00:09:01]>> [music] >> Did that sound familiar to anyone?

[00:09:06]Let's go back into the to the beginning and listen to that again.

[00:09:12]Huh.

[00:09:13]Did that sound a little bit like this?

[00:09:18]>> [music] >> Anyways, that was just a fun fact that I noticed. But, that's the beginning of the Mirrors of Galadriel, and what ensues is the most terrifying scene in the entire thing. And this is part of the confirmation that despite this shelter that we've been given, we're still not sure if it's actually safe.

[00:09:38]And [snorts] Frodo's encounter with Galadriel coming up only dives into that deeper. And before this gets any scarier, I just got to tell you that these videos are made possible by you guys and your desire to learn how to do basically what I do here on the channel.

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[00:11:59]It helps that she just kind of looks like a ghost, you know?

[00:12:10]There's that [music] same So, that same thing that we started with at the beginning of Lothlórien, we were kind of an F and then we went up to Remember we went to that F sharp >> [music] >> flat five minor chord?

[00:12:32]We continue that same type of vibe here, but check out what we get right right at this spot right here.

[00:12:47]It's even weirder than it was.

[00:12:50]It's that F sharp major except there's a minor third, but we get the dominant seventh too back to F.

[00:13:00]>> [music] >> Now we go to C [music] sharp minor.

[00:13:21]Oh, that's interesting. Oh.

[00:13:24]>> [music] >> It's our Everything dark is just the Imperial March, I guess. It's like the go-to chord. Drop a major third, make both chords minor, boom, you've got ultimate darkness.

[00:13:40]Oh.

[00:13:42]>> [music] >> That was so cool.

[00:13:50]We want a tritone. Hey, here's a new one. Go from the [music] chord you're on, jump a tritone, and play the minor chord there as well.

[00:14:00]That's exactly what Howard Shore just did here.

[00:14:02]>> [music] >> Over its thirds, so that we get a minor third movement as our root. Oh, this is so brilliant.

[00:14:15]Ooh.

[00:14:16]Back to F minor.

[00:14:19]Ooh.

[00:14:20]>> [music] >> There is our major third descent, the Imperial March. And he looks in, and he sees >> [music] >> Oh, oh, we almost got I feel like we almost got the Fellowship theme there for a second.

[00:14:43]Now it's just dissonance.

[00:14:48]Low brass moving around.

[00:14:52]>> [music] >> Low percussion.

[00:15:00]Ooh.

[00:15:07]>> [music] >> Oh, man, we got the Mordor Sauron theme right in the middle of this whole thing as we look into the eye of Sauron. That is so sick. But, that's It's the most terrifying part.

[00:15:21]>> What will come to pass if you should fail?

[00:15:24]>> Okay, now it sounds like she's [music] guiding.

[00:15:27]>> The fellowship is breaking.

[00:15:30]>> Oop, listen look look listen to what >> [music] >> We've we're getting that same ultra dark minor [music] triad separated by major thirds, okay?

[00:15:45]>> He will try to take the ring. [music] >> Oh, wait what is that? So we went from D minor [singing] to B flat minor back to D minor [music] up to F minor. This is just the epitome of darkness.

[00:15:56]>> You know of whom I speak.

[00:15:58]>> Oh, and now she's warning Frodo about who?

[00:16:00]>> It will destroy [music] them all.

[00:16:02]>> In this case Boromir, right?

[00:16:05]>> If he lost it [music] to me I will give you the one ring.

[00:16:10]>> Woo!

[00:16:12]>> [music] >> You would do me freely.

[00:16:14]>> I don't think so. It's almost like she put some type of spell on him and now he's like, wait am I am I supposed to give you this? And she's like, oh really? Would you you would? You would do that? No.

[00:16:28]>> I do not [music] deny that >> F minor >> I have greatly desired this.

[00:16:35]>> Ooh, what's going on in the lower brass?

[00:16:39]F sharp minor [music] chord arpeggiated up with the flat six. What's it going to be?

[00:16:48]>> Not as a dark lord, but as a queen.

[00:16:51]Not dark, but beautiful [music] and terrible as the dawn.

[00:17:03]>> [music] >> Oh.

[00:17:08]>> [music] >> Oh, man.

[00:17:17]I cannot look at her face without literally getting chills. That is the most disturbing uncanny valley thing and I don't know if it's because we're looking at 2001 VFX here or if it's just that good, but whatever it is, it has stood the test of time because I don't know about you guys, but I cannot look at that without being like uh It is so utterly terrifying, far scarier, I think, than anything else in the entire trilogy. The fascinating thing that Howard Shore does here is nothing. Watch.

[00:17:48]We started with that arpeggiated [music] F sharp minor chord going to adding in the minor sixth and then what do we get?

[00:17:59]>> [music] [music] >> Nothing. You know what I mean? Like this is such an interesting move because we have spent so much time deriving such depth out of harmonic movements that tell us how dark and and [music] uneasy we're supposed to feel throughout this whole thing.

[00:18:35]Right? And yet in the scariest moment of all, we get an F sharp minor triad and nothing else. It's orchestration, it's dynamics, it's a gigantic swell that only uses >> [music] >> inversions of one chord up and back down again and that's it. [music] And I think that that is the most brilliant move you could possibly do here. Why? Because how much is going on right there? Galadriel has gone into demon mode and her voice is like we've done the whole demon voice thing where we replicate it way down here and it's just it's awful and disturbing and creepy. There's enough going on from an audio perspective. We don't need to muddy that up with doing a ton of complex harmony and going all full-blown John Williams on it. We can let it sit there and let that moment just just bake the way it is. And I think that was one of the most brilliant choices here and one of the things that makes this the most terrifying scene in all of Lord of the Rings. But as always, I want to know your thoughts in the comments down below. And by the way, this is going to lead us beautifully into another pair of themes that are also meant to give you multiple signals at once. But luckily for us, it's not going to be terrifying and instead it's going to be romance, but with a twist that leaves you not sure how to feel. So stay tuned next time for that. We'll see you then.