Marches

I've been listening to the Lord of the Rings sound tracks lately. The music is one thing I don't complain about when it comes to the LotR movies. Howard Shore did a good job. I haven't listened to them in a really long time though. I like Return of the King best. I liked it so much it almost made me want to watch the movie. Almost.
This time I noticed that there are a lot of marches in those sound tracks. I used to think of marches as those happy, grand pieces of music that one hears at parades. None of the Lord of the Rings marches are like that. What a wide variety of moods a march can have. I knew that all along but I've just never really thought about it. I had one stuck in my head and with it went a few little bits of script from the Two Towers.
Theoden saying

"If this is to be our end, I would have us make such an end as to be worthy of remembrance."

Or something like that.
I think the march is actually from The Return of the King (Pelennor Fields I think but I can't find a good recording of the bit I'm thinking of) but it brings those lines to mind because Howard Shore did an amazing job of putting that sentiment into his music. Whoever is marching to that music knows they will probably not come back but they go on with as much honor and spirit as they can muster.
That's why I want to study music composition in college.