The Lord of the Rings: Overture
New Age, Lord of the Rings, music, mp3
A New Age group that blends modern rock and traditional Western orchestra.
Story behind the song
In 1971, at a location very near the site of the discovery of the now-famous Red Book of Westmarch by Professor J.R.R. Tolkien, a wooden box, apparently made from the legendary mallorn tree, was unearthed.
In it a cache of strange-looking manuscripts was discovered by the Ardic Bardic Philharmonic.
The next 33 years saw countless hours of fruitless efforts, arguments, and despair as the manuscripts defeated attempts at translation.
Suddenly, finally, in 2004, a break came.
Due to the recent popularity of Professor Tolkien's work a fortunate circumstance occurred: one of our researchers was able to recognize the title of the first manuscript in the box, and pointed out its similarity to the frontispiece page of The Lord of the Rings: The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and The Return of the King.
After long and painstaking research the manuscripts finally revealed themselves to be, not just writing, but musical writing...a system of notation for playing music compositions!
Apparently we had discovered an entire suite of Middle Earth music.
More study showed that many of the lyrics to these compositions were actually quoted in the Red Book by Professor Tolkien, notably Galadriel's lament and Gandalf's chant of her, the Lord of the Rings Elven lore stanzas, and Sam's song of the fall of Gil-Galad.
Several were what we would call "New Age" compositions, in that no lyric was sung; these pieces perhaps were used in meditation...
The musical notation system is dissimilar to the one we use today; it may most be said to resemble the pre-baroque notation of the Catholic Church.
In consultation with my linguistic, mystical and musical mentors and betters, we have, at last, produced what is believed to be fairly faithful renderings of 12 of these lost manuscripts.
Among the things we noticed compositionally were:
the Mannish/Hobbit and Dwarvish compositions are in either 2/4 or 4/4; but
the Elvish melodies are all in 3/4 time; this was apparently the meter of what the hobbits would call 'magic', though the Elves did not use (nor indeed understand) that term, as it also seems to apply to the deceits of the Enemy, as Galadriel said.
the Sauron/Ring theme is similar to Professor Tolkien's description of Melkor/Morgoth's theme in the Music of the Ainur: just a few notes, brayed out and endlessly repeated
the Lord of the Rings piece itself is also different from the other compositions in that it varies between 4/4 and 3/4; perhaps this was an attempt to show Sauron's domination of all peoples of Middle Earth
the exact same notes are used in the Dwarfish Khazad-Dum theme as are in the Nine Walkers theme, but in different sequence and rhythms; a marginal note from an elvish hand states "this was the theme of mortality but its strength was its endless adaptation to circumstance..."
