The Words and Magic of Music in The Rings of Power
Sep 11, 2026 · 31 min · 12 segments
So, what’s with that kiss between Elrond and Galadriel. Showrunners, please don’t make them fall in love. That’s just wrong. What if I told you that the music tells us exactly what happens in that…
Phillip MenziesHost
Welcome back to Episode 2 of The Words and Magic of Music in The Rings of Power.
My name is Philip and I'm a musician and amateur composing, creating music inspired by Tolkien and The Silmarillion.
If you haven't already done so, go and watch or listen to my first episode, which was an introduction to themes, leitmotifs and Bear McCreary's score, with a description of the many soundtracks available to listen to and how to decode them.
I also shared a link to a YouTube playlist which I created called Rings of Power, Just the Themes, to help you become more familiar with the musical themes in the show.
This is my first session where I pull apart a theme and today's theme is the most played theme in the whole show, Galadriel.
We are going to pay close attention to one little part of her theme because this little part says a lot about her trajectory so far and her continuing story arc in seasons 3, 4 and 5.
I'm going to analyse two scenes and discuss the score that plays in those scenes.
The score, besides being beautiful and evocative, is another source of information to help us understand what is happening in a scene.
I will talk about the significance of the music, draw some conclusions about how the scenes may be interpreted with the music, and what elements of the music we can expect to hear in Season 3 and beyond.
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