The second film of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers, produced a compelling soundtrack of beautiful yet melancholy music, the most popular song being “Evenstar.”
Symbolizing the love between Arwen and Aragorn, it imbues a timeless passion and unbreakable bond. Arwen, an elf maiden from Tolkien’s Middle Earth, was given the name Evenstar for her exquisite beauty. The song that bears her name also radiates an ethereal grace and other-worldly sentiment.
Piano Sheet Music: https://www.mymusicfive.com/marisasmusicstudio/324701
Composer Howard Shore’s creation masterfully combines angelic vocals, of Isabel Bayrakdarian, with string and flute layers creating a gentle and hauntingly beautiful soundscape. As a piano solo, the stunning elegance of the song is not lost. Piano can possess the same ability of a voice to carry a melody with gentle and full expression.
The piece has a time signature, yet it seems to freely float, untethered by a musical meter. The rise and fall of the dynamics mirror the hope and struggles of Arwen and Aragorn’s romance, at times crescendoing with hope, at other moments falling in diminuendo with despair.
The song is in a minor key, contributing to its melancholy and somber sound. In my piano arrangement, the arpeggios in the left hand mimic the gentle strings of the orchestral original, while the right hand carries the melodic line in 3/4 time.
Arranged in the key of E minor, the song primarily moves between the i, VI, and VII chords, bringing in the iv and v chords at times. Commonly the v (dominant chord) in a minor key is raised to a major chord for emphasis and persuasion, but this composition maintains a subdued minor effect, as if it speaks of a world thinly veiled from our own.
You can find my complete, in-depth piano lesson on how to play “Evenstar” here: marisamusicstudio.com/evenstar
The lyrics suggest a message of hope and trust, echoing Arwen’s urgency to Aragorn to not give up. The theme is of encouragement to carry on, believing that it is “Not the end, it is the beginning” of purpose, hope and love.