Emily Shank is a sophomore Music Education and Performance major participating in the McNairy Library Music Research Program. She began this project in the Spring of 2024 with the hopes of being able to research a topic that she loves. Inspired by her admiration for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and her love for music, she came across a topic for her research project. While researching the films, she found a niche interest in the specific good and evil motifs (musical themes) throughout the film score and decided to study the audience’s emotional reactions to these particular motifs. With this, she hoped to discover more data on the way audiences react to film scores, specifically certain motifs with and without the scene being played. Studying their responses to these motifs and working thoroughly on gathering research, Emily’s passion for music and the Lord of the Rings has only grown. After this achievement and upon graduation, Emily hopes to pursue her passion for teaching music at any level of education. She is grateful for this research opportunity and finds many skills she has learned useful and helpful for possible future projects.