—Prim
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WHAT??????????????????????????????????????????????????Aravar wrote: Losing Howard Shore wouldn't bother me that much. I've never understood the enthusiasm for the score.
WHAT??????????????????????????????????????????????????Aravar wrote: Losing Howard Shore wouldn't bother me that much. I've never understood the enthusiasm for the score.
I just have never found it particularly moving. The onmly memporable them is the 'Fellowship' one and that's pretty short.JewelSong wrote:WHAT??????????????????????????????????????????????????Aravar wrote: Losing Howard Shore wouldn't bother me that much. I've never understood the enthusiasm for the score.
So, you're saying that something of the tone of the Introduction and Allegro, or Cockaigne, or Nimrod wouldn't work?axordil wrote:Trying to imagine Elgarian music for LOTR---
Sorry, my head exploded. Gotta tidy up my cubicle now.
But something like Vaughn Williams Tallis Fantasia is so appropriate (so appropriate that I recall a BBC documentary which included interviews with JRRT that used it as the ending credits: it fits so well in tone).truehobbit wrote:ROFL, kams!
Aravar, I think the Celtic elements in the score were meant to convey the idea of down-to-earth characteristics. I think what people connect with the Celtic culture (rightly or wrongly) is the idea of an uncorrupted, communicative relationship with nature - such as you might say Hobbits have, too.
Highly stylised classical music like Elgar, no matter how "English" it is, might have appeared too sophisticated.
Plus, I guess one could say that in the ancient past, the Celtic culture was all over England, and the age of the Shire is definitely in the ancient past.
But I loved reading of your taste developing from bombastic to more subtle.
Plainchant would fit the hymn to Elbereth.Alatar wrote:Tolkien liked the Elves to sing in something that sounded like Latin plain chant. I strongly suspect that I would have hated a movie made with Tolkiens choice of music. Bear in mind, he liked the Donald Swann arrangements.
Tolkien wrote:Do not laugh! But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen)I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story--the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths--which I would dedicate simply to: to England; to my country. It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our 'air' (the clime and soil of the North West, meaning Britain and the hither parts of Europe: not Italy or the Aegean, still less the East), and, while possessing (if I could achieve it) the fair elusive beauty that some call Celtic (though it is rarely found in genuine ancient Celtic things), it should be 'high', purged of the gross, and fit for the more adult mind of a land long now steeped in poetry. I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. Absurd
Hmmh - cool and clear and Nordic. I can imagine what he means, but I think that in terms of music, the Shire itself should be represented by simple music - northern European folklore style more than that folklore style sublimated by classical composers.It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our 'air' (the clime and soil of the North West, meaning Britain and the hither parts of Europe: not Italy or the Aegean, still less the East), and, while possessing (if I could achieve it) the fair elusive beauty that some call Celtic (though it is rarely found in genuine ancient Celtic things), it should be 'high', purged of the gross, and fit for the more adult mind of a land long now steeped in poetry.
Michael Flanders and Donald Swann did comedy revues in the 1950s, mainly of comic songs. The lyrics of the chorus of the Hippo Song are:truehobbit wrote: What's the Hippo song?
Aravar, have you heard the recording where Tolkien sings the Hymn to Elbereth in plainchant?Aravar wrote:Plainchant would fit the hymn to Elbereth.
I've heard Swann's arrangement of 'The Road Goes Ever On'. I didn't like it at all! It's terribly Noel Coward.I still haven't picked up Swann's arrangements: they have them now and again in my local Waterstone's, but I've never taken the plunge. I am curious to see what the composer of the Hippo Song made of Middle-Earth.
No what I'm saying is nothing to do with the use of folk instruments, it is about the feeling that the music evokes. That's why I'm banging on about Elgar and Vaughn Williams.TheTennisBallKid wrote:Shore's Shire music has a Celtic feel to it because of the folk instruments, yes...
I haven't. Is it on one of his readings from the books?PearlyDi wrote:Aravar, have you heard the recording where Tolkien sings the Hymn to Elbereth in plainchant?
For “The Lord of the Rings,” Shore said it was not necessary to look for inspiration from other composers. Instead, he read the books and immersed himself in the visual world that Jackson had already begun to conjure. Shore then developed more than 80 separate themes for the three sound tracks, which were inspired by each character’s development throughout the novels.
“The story was interesting, but I love the smaller relationships within it, and I like the things the book said about friendship, honor, courage and sacrifice,” Shore said. “There were so many wonderful human characteristics in the book, and those really spoke to me.”
Good call - to me, the man is the English countrysidepractically anything by Vaughn Williams will send me into raptures.
I recently discovered this group, and love their sound. As you probably know, Christopher Lee highly rates them too, and has worked with them.I, again, highly recommend the Tolkien Ensemble's work, esp. in their recording An Evening in Rivendell, which combines hobbity folk ballads with the most gorgeous, ethereal music for the Elves.