# Tolkien and Music



## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

Has any of his Books inspired anyone here to compose music based on them?

I have read the Trilogy, and most of his other major works. Truly beautiful and great writing and stories, I found them inspiring.

If your'e answer is yes, it would be nice to share these works here...

Thanks

Saul

This is called 'Evenstar' the other name of Arwen. The piece is like a conversation between her and Aragorn.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

There's always the _Symphony No. 1, "The Lord of the Rings"_ by Johan de Meij. I've never heard it, but you can certainly evaluate it for yourself:





And of course, there's the music by Howard Shore. If you like that sort of thing.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

practically all of Blind Guardian's catalog is a 



.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Tolkien and music don't get along very well. All he seem to inspire are awful metal genres like power metal. This symphony by Johan de Meij isn't anything special either, I think it's his most well-known piece and it got famous only because some people are actively looking for Tolkien-inspired classical music and it attempts to meet these expectations


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I have performed the symphony and I thought it was pretty good. It is not Beethoven's Fifth but it is far superior to anything I have played by Middendorf. As I have stated in other posts I have played some real dogs.

One of the nice features of the work is that each movement is a mini tone poem. I will be performing one of the movements in an upcoming concert with the City of Fairfax Band. Nice contrabassoon part.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

Musician said:


> Has any of his Books inspired anyone here to compose music based on them?
> 
> I have read the Trilogy, and most of his other major works. Truly beautiful and great writing and stories, I found them inspiring.
> 
> ...


Wow, I really liked it!


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## Classical Saxophonist (Oct 11, 2013)

Johan de Meij's _Symphony no. 1_ for concert band is based off of the book trilogy.


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## Musician (Jul 25, 2013)

Thank you everyone for your comments.

About De Meij, I don't give it much value. I don't think the music matches the grandeur and depth of the story. I believe that Howard Shore did a much better job, with his LOTR Symphony.

Here's another piece I have composed based on LOTR:

*The Song of the Dwarves*


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Musician said:


> Thank you everyone for your comments.
> 
> About De Meij, I don't give it much value. I don't think the music matches the grandeur and depth of the story. I believe that Howard Shore did a much better job, with his LOTR Symphony.
> 
> ...


Thanks for sharing Musician, it's really good!  I like it.


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Musician said:


> Has any of his Books inspired anyone here to compose music based on them?
> 
> I have read the Trilogy, and most of his other major works. Truly beautiful and great writing and stories, I found them inspiring.
> 
> ...


Very romantic sound, reminds me a bit of Liszt . I really like it.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Yeah, but do you know how hard it is to find a distributor in Middle Earth?
Also, the Wagner estate keeps trying to sue me


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## mchriste (Aug 16, 2013)

*Patrice Deceuninck*

A French musician by the name of Patrick Deceuninck had a nice project going with music inspired from the Ring trilogy. I even seem to recall signing a petition for the use of his music in the LOTR movies - obviously it failed.

His LOTR-inspired music is very easy to listen to. Even if there's a distinct "soundtrack" feel to it, I find his music very pleasant nonetheless.

There used to be synthesizer versions of many songs on his website but sadly they were all pulled. 

He also issued an audio CD called "The Ring Bearer 1" in collaboration with the Saint Petersburg State Academic Symphonic Orchestra. Looks like it's become very hard to find, amazon.com currently only has one item for sale. In spite of the title, AFAIK no other CD was ever recorded.
Mr. Deceuninck has obviously moved on with new projects. Pretty sad actually.

I did find a few music videos on youtube though, albeit of the "draft" synthesizer versions:
















*EDIT*: You may also like this.

I do wish there were a true, romantic-era opera of the Lord of the Rings... yeah I know. Dream on.

On a sidenote, I know of two musicals. The first one was a German effort in the 90s, which was called "Der Herr der Ringe" but was in fact about the Hobbit. I saw it when I was a teenager but it was quite awful tbh. Can't even find any information about it anymore!

There's been another, more successful "Lord of the Rings" musical in 2006-2207. Has anybody seen it?


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

Couac Addict said:


> Yeah, but do you know how hard it is to find a distributor in Middle Earth?
> Also, the Wagner estate keeps trying to sue me


The Tolkien Estate will try to sue you first. A legion of orcs are guarding their Black Gates.


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## motoboy (May 19, 2008)

Has anyone read the beginning of "The Silmarillion?"? It likens the creation of its world to music. I have always wanted to hear that composed.


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## Guest (Oct 17, 2013)

motoboy said:


> Has anyone read the beginning of "The Silmarillion?"? It likens the creation of its world to music. I have always wanted to hear that composed.


Yes, I've read the Silmarillion. I think there are already extant works that fulfill the desire you express, though perhaps not in direct reference to Tolkien's work. Three such examples to my mind are:
a) *Bernard Parmegiani*, _La Création du Monde_;
b) *Giacinto Scelsi*, _Aion_;
c) *Anton Bruckner*, first movement of his _9th Symphony_.


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## julianoq (Jan 29, 2013)

motoboy said:


> Has anyone read the beginning of "The Silmarillion?"? It likens the creation of its world to music. I have always wanted to hear that composed.


Hello motoboy!

I also have this curiosity and I opened a thread a few months ago asking exactly that, you may want to take a look  Music for Tolkien's creation of the World

My first suggestion would be the Adagio of Nielsen 5th symphony.


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## Guest (Oct 17, 2013)

Oh, I missed that thread Julianoq, I'll have a look now, thanks for the heads-up.


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## Guest (Oct 17, 2013)

And I did check that out, Julian, thank you. I think it is as I said, each of us has music we know that we feel would suit as a sort of 'accompaniment' to the opening passages of the Tolkien work mentioned above. I think this is probably one reason I am generally disappointed with the music I have heard that sets out explicitly to portray 'the music of Eru' - it never coincides with how *I* imagine that music should be. And no, I have no intention of putting pen to mss paper on that one, I assure you! In the final analysis, isn't it better to read the passages in the Silmarillion and imagine our own music?


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## julianoq (Jan 29, 2013)

TalkingHead said:


> And I did check that out, Julian, thank you. I think it is as I said, each of us has music we know that we feel would suit as a sort of 'accompaniment' to the opening passages of the Tolkien work mentioned above. I think this is probably one reason I am generally disappointed with the music I have heard that sets out explicitly to portray 'the music of Eru' - it never coincides with how *I* imagine that music should be. And no, I have no intention of putting pen to mss paper on that one, I assure you! In the final analysis, isn't it better to read the passages in the Silmarillion and imagine our own music?


I totally agree! That's analogue for example with how I felt years ago when they started filming the Lord of the Rings movies. I loved the books for a long time and I knew for sure that any idea of the director of the movie would be the perfect way for _him_. He tried to show how he imagined the events, and everybody imagine them in different ways, so it would never be "perfect" to me. I had to lower the expectations and I found the movies to be quite good, even if not exactly what I had in mind when I read the books.

I think it is the same with the music from The Silmarillion, we can find some pieces that could represent it in some ways, but it never will be the "perfect" music that played on our minds. Maybe if we were composers we could find a way to put it on paper, but them it would be perfect only for each of us


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