Has The Lord of the Rings ever influenced your musical choices or preferences?

[Lisztianwagner]

Who's Howard Shore?

The composer of the soundtracks of the Trilogy movies.

[Karl Henning]

The composer of the soundtracks of the Trilogy movies.

Thank you.

[vandermolen]

I need to hear the Sibelius anyway, and you've now supplied extra motivation. 

Excellent! It's very Tolkeinesque 

[Karl Henning]

Tangentially ... I think I remember reading a remark that Tolkien modeled his High Elven language, Quenya on Finnish. Separately, the mischief-maker in me wants to prounce Quenya, "Kenya."

[LKB]

Tangentially ... I think I remember reading a remark that Tolkien modeled his High Elven language, Quenya on Finnish. Separately, the mischief-maker in me wants to prounce Quenya, "Kenya."

You're correct regarding Quenya. And l think Renee Fleming's brief contributions to Return of the King are sung in it, but I'm not positive...

[Florestan]

No

[DavidW]

Nope.

LKB did you used to sing the songs to yourself?

[Karl Henning]

Nope.

LKB did you used to sing the songs to yourself?

I like that question, though it wasn't directed at me. Some of the songs I hummed a bit, but never to an extent that might reach to a setting at all ....

[LKB]

Nope.

LKB did you used to sing the songs to yourself?

No, but l whistle and hum them from time to time. I probably should try singing those in Quenya, l used to be fairly comfortable with Finnish, years ago.

[LKB]

It certainly has; reading The Lord of the Rings made me fond of Norse mythology and Middle Ages legends, so when I started listening to classical music and, after some time, I discovered there were operas based on Norse myths (Wagner's Ring), I was irresistibly curious to explore them; good thing, because it made me discover and fall in love with Wagner, that is now my favourite composer.

Cause and effect from Tolkien to Wagner... as one of my TV role models used to say, " Fascinating. "

[LKB]

Just an ancillary comment...

I do think Howard Shore's work in the films is extremely impressive. Most film composers don't wear the three hats of composing, orchestrating and conducting in the studio. John Williams, for instance, historically composed and conducted, but left the orchestration for others.

In the orchestral soundtrack for the LotR trilogy, Shore does it all. The only instances where others make creative musical contributions are when Pippen sings at Denethor's command ( Billy Boyd both composed and performed quite effectively ), and when Aragorn sings the Lay of Luthien in the first film, and at his coronation in the last film. ( Viggo Mortensen is in fact a fairly accomplished musician.)

Note that I'm not counting the end credits, where some terrific contributions occurred: Annie Lennox in RotK and Emilíana Torrini in TTT. Gollum's Song, in particular, always makes me sorry for the little bastard.

[Karl Henning]

Intéressant.

[Florestan]

A thought that just crossed my mind: much to the dismay of diehard Wagnerites and "classical music" snobs, The Lord of the Rings might be the closest contemporary approximation to Gesamtkunstwerk yet. The only historical precedents were Meyerbeer and his lavishly produced grand-operas in Paris, preceding Wagner's own efforts by years, if not decades.

No, really, we today can't even begin to imagine, let alone feel, the impact the very first night of Robert le Diable in 1831 had on the audience. It was most probably the 19th century equivalent of the Lord of the Rings --- and thus we're coming full circle. 

Feel free to disagree and/or lambast me. 

[LKB]

Somewhat off-topic, but if any of my fellow Tolkienists haven't seen this, it is most assuredly worth a watch:

https://youtu.be/LWxnHuVEwUg

[relm1]

Somewhat off-topic, but if any of my fellow Tolkienists haven't seen this, it is most assuredly worth a watch:

https://youtu.be/LWxnHuVEwUg

That was very cool.  Made it feel like history.

[Karl Henning]

Somewhat off-topic, but if any of my fellow Tolkienists haven't seen this, it is most assuredly worth a watch:

https://youtu.be/LWxnHuVEwUg

Delightful!

[BasilValentine]

Not in LOTR but in Silmarillion the world (the same world as in LOTR) is created through Music of The Ainur.

Not only is the creation myth a musical one, but chaos and strife emerge in the world when a rebellious being (Melkor?) introduces new harmonies and melodies discordant with the divine music and his followers take them up.

[Karl Henning]

Not only is the creation myth a musical one, but chaos and strife emerge in the world when a rebellious being (Melkor?) introduces new harmonies and melodies discordant with the divine music and his followers take them up.

We musical modernists don't like to read too much into that, but at a guess, our revered Don did not care much for Schoenberg ....