ABSTRACT
This chapter takes the premise that in order for a fantasy world to attract inhabitants it must invite inhabitation by portraying itself as ‘homely’ in some respect. Thus, it identifies the primary homespaces within each franchise (the Shire in Lord of the Rings and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter) and analyses the ways in which they are musically depicted, constructed or announced, as well as highlighting the different cinematic and extra-cinematic tropes that aid their portrayal as homely. Analysis here focuses largely on motivic systems of musical language, and looks at ways in which certain themes are altered or adapted in different contexts, particularly in Howard Shore’s music for The Hobbit trilogy, and in different episodes of the Harry Potter franchise where different composers provide their own take on the musical world of the series. The chapter borrows terminological distinctions from the work of Hamid Naficy (1999) in the form of ‘house’, ‘home’ and ‘homeland’, and thus distinguishes the Shire and Hogwarts from their wider contexts, interpreting the wizarding community and the fellowship as forms of ‘homeland’, and by identifying secondary homespaces as ‘houses’ including Rivendell, Lothlorien, the Burrow and 12 Grimmauld Place. Further musical similarities and differences are identified and theorised as sonic extensions of an existing musical world.
