The various places this theme is heard:

1. As Gandalf the White is revealed in Fangorn Forest. TTT-TE DVDs (4 'lines' of lyrics)

2. As Gandalf the White is revealed in Fangorn Forest. TTT-EE DVDs (6 'lines' of lyrics)

3. CR-TTT, Disc 1, Track 13, Gandalf the White (2:10 – 3:00) (4 'lines' of lyrics)

4. CR-TTT, Disc 3, Track 11, The Nazgûl Attack (1:45 - end) (11.5 'lines' of lyrics - they seem to drop the last few triplets)

5. OST-TTT, Track 16, Forth Eorlingas (12 'lines' of lyrics) (0:00 - 0:58) (

6. In the TTT Credits (11.5 'lines' of lyrics - the last few triplets may be dropped)

 

For more info regarding which scenes each of these iterations were intended for, jump HERE.

Lyrics for Gandalf the White in Nature (Succinct Version):

What follows is a true and good example of my meticulous attention to detail (which seems to shut itself on and off) and my obsessive nature. My intention is always provide the reader with the information I've found so they can decide for themselves what they think. And many times, I've used these detailed sorts of notes to remind myself of what I was thinking or where I got that idea. But most people probably don't care. The Cliff Notes version is:

 

The choir is singing from one of these two lines (syllables in parenthesis are not sung):

Hwær cwóm helm? Hwær cwóm byrne? Hwær cwóm feax flówende?

Hwær cwóm hand on hearpestrenge? Hwær cwóm (scir fýr) scinende?

   or alternately for this second line:

Hwær cwóm hand on hearpestrenge? Hwær cwóm (scir) fýr (scin)ende?

There is a second choir singing slowly under the primary voices. One source says they're singing first in Sindarin

Tul cui ta ya tu o ol ya ló an rin mau ya

and then in Rohirric

hwær cwóm helm hwær cwóm byr-ne hwær cwóm scir fyyr

Another source only lists the Rohirric. I cannot determine definitively what the second choir is singing in any iteration. And the exact syllables the primary choir is singing varies. To find timestamps for particular iterations (when available), follow links above (in numbered list).

Lyrics for Gandalf the White in Nature (Verbose Version):

There is, perhaps, a slight discrepancy between the lyrics as found in the MusicNotes sheet music and the CR-TTT Liner Notes.

FIRST: MovieNotes' sheet music

When I first tried to determine the lyrics as heard in Forth Eorlingas, I bought the MusicNotes sheet music.

At the beginning of Forth Eorlingas, the sheet music contains these lyrics:

Hwær cwóm helm Hwær cwóm byr(ne) Hwær cwóm feax flówende
Hwær cwóm helm Hwær cwóm byr(ne) Hwær cwóm feax flówende

 

Hwær cwóm hand on hearpestrenge Hwær cwóm scínende
Hwær cwóm hand on hearpestrenge Hwær cwóm scínende

This entire phrase gets repeated 3 times and goes from [0.00 - 0:58] (Actually instead of the word ‘scíenende’, it is once ‘soínende’ and once 'sonende’. If these aren’t legitimate words in OE then I would assume that they are misspellings) As I said, they are sung in triplets. There are 4 beats per bar, at a speed of about a beat every second. If you 1-2-3 for every beat you get triplets.

There is a syllable for every count of the triplets making the phrasing thus:

 

Hwær	cwóm	helm	Hwær	cwóm	byr	Hwær	cwóm	feax	flów	en	de
Hwær	cwóm	hand	on	hear	pe	strenge	Hwær	cwóm	scí	nen	de

While the chorus is singing the rapid triplets, alternate lyrics are being sung very slowly.

Tul cui ta ya tu o ol ya ló an rin mau ya

hwær cwóm helm hwær cwóm byr-ne hwær cwóm scir fyyr

In each bar (4 beats per bar, as above) the sheet music shows two syllables/words (with one exception - ya tu - see below)

The chart below corresponds with the chart above.

 

Tul	cui
ta	ya	tu
o	ól
ya	ló
an	rin
mau	ya
hwær	cwóm
helm	hwær
cwóm	byr
ne	hwær
cwóm	scir
fyyr

The last half is the Rohirric translation of:
Where is the helm? Where is the hauberk? Where is the red fire?

 

But I didn’t off-hand recognize the first half:

Tul cui ta ya tu o ol ya ló an rin mau ya

(I’m not a student of languages of any kind... I only dabble in the Tolkien language to decipher the soundtrack lyrics.) I wasn’t even sure how the syllables might be arranged to make words. It didn’t look like Old English. I started searching and very quickly found ‘mauya’ (translated = compel, force). Then I found ‘tul’ as a fragment in ‘tulta’ (send for, summon). I found ‘cui’ as a fragment in ‘cuiva’ (awake) and I started thinking about Philippa Boyen’s poem, “The Fight”. At first glance, it didn't seem to come from the poem but the math master in me started to sense a pattern. I took the syllables and started to move them around a bit. This is what I created.

 

tul

cui

ta

ya

tu

o

ol

ya

ló

an

rin

mau

ya

tul

ta

tulta : summon

cui

ya

cuiva : awake ?

tu

ol

ya

tuolya : strength

o

ló

rin

olórin : Olórin

an

an : for

mau

ya

mauya : must

(The only snag I ran into was ‘cuiya’ but it made sense if I made it ‘cuiva’ and I was assuming that the sheet music had misspelled ‘scíende’ so it was possible 'cuiya' was ‘cuiva’ misspelled.) These words were all in Philippa Boyen’s poem. I know that Howard Shore has cut words short, left words out, etc., so this odd order didn’t seem too far fetched. The only possible explanation I could think of doing it this way would be if there was a sense of two voices singing whole words over one another.  So, for example, lines 1 - 3 - 5 - 6 (in the chart above) would be sung by Voice 1: Summon strength for (you?) must fight. and Voice 2 would sing lines 2 - 4: Awake Olórin. (Olórin being one of the names of Gandalf.) 

NOTE: The choir's phonetic lyrics for the TT Live Symphony does not include the 'tu' found 3rd line above (between 'ya' and 'o').

NEXT: music notation in the CR-TTT liner notes, pg 33

Although the lyrics for the primary choral part are in a different order from the MusicNotes' version, this doesn't worry me. The liner notes may be showing lyrics for a different cue than Forth Eorlingas or it may be showing notation for only part of a cue. The possible discrepancy may be found in the choir singing the slower counterpoint. The liner notes show only the Rohirric lyrics:

hwær cwóm helm hwær cwóm byr-ne hwær cwóm scir fyyr

But not the Sindarin:

Tul cui ta ya tu o ol ya ló an rin mau ya

However, this may be because the liner notes only show the second half of what MusicNotes shows. The liner notes are not 100% comprehensive and often display information representing the first time a cue is heard. It is very difficult to hear these syllables so I will go under the assumption that the Sindarin syllables are present in the Forth Eorlingas cue. Since both notations end with the 2nd choir singing 'fyr', I will assume that the shorter versions have only the Rohirric counterpoint.

As to the other cues, I can't be certain.

Matching music to scenes (or intended scenes)

1. As Gandalf the White is revealed in Fangorn Forest. TTT-TE DVDs (4 'lines' of lyrics)

2. As Gandalf the White is revealed in Fangorn Forest. TTT-EE DVDs (6 'lines' of lyrics)

3. CR-TTT, Disc 1, Track 13, Gandalf the White (2:10 – 3:00) (4 'lines' of lyrics)

4. CR-TTT, Disc 3, Track 11, The Nazgûl Attack (0:00 - 0:58) (11.5 'lines' of lyrics - they seem to drop the last few triplets)

5. OST-TTT, Track 16, Forth Eorlingas (12 'lines' of lyrics)

6. In the TTT Credits (11.5 'lines' of lyrics - the last few triplets may be dropped)

It would make sense to me that numbers 1, 2, & 3 are the same piece of music. They are all shorter in length and in a sound editing program, one can see that the volume of the music remains fairly constant throughout the length of the piece. Numbers 3, 4, & 5 are all longer, and in a sound editing program, one can see a very gradual increase in volume for the first half of the cue, a very short drop in volume and then a dramatic increase in volume for the second half of the cue. But in both the sound editing program and by ear, it seems clear that the cues 3-5 are different in some way. It's harder to tell for 1 & 2 since we have dialog covering the music for 1. (To see how the cues look in an audio editing program, go HERE.)

I wanted to think that number 5 was the music recorded for Helm's Deep and that the decision to replace it with the Nature Theme -- and the decision to record a similar piece for the White Wizard's reveal -- came after the TTT-OST was prepared. But Doug Adams seems to indicate that number 5 was actually intended for Fangorn Forest.

Théoden Rides Forth on the OST uses the Gandalf the White theme that’s heard when Gandalf appears in Fangorn. The WR(in) theme heard for Théoden’s ride on the CR (and in the film) is a different performance altogether, not a remix of the earlier performance.

moviemusic.com

I guess it says something about me that I'm not actually convinced... but in the end, it doesn't really matter much which music was actually used where. At least... not in terms of what I want to accomplish for this site.