🎶Music for Middle Earth

[Aldarion]

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

A nice version!

I've always been partial to this simple one, sung by Sam, as the party approached Weathertop:

That's from the BBC Radio production.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Here's another from the BBC production. I've sung it often, while roaming through the woods:

 

[Aldarion]

A story of Sauron and Finrod Felagund. There is full explanation in the description of the video.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

 

[Halasían]

I stumbled (again) across this young lady's video and cover of Misty_Mountain_Cold...

I came upon her work back in 2013 but have forgotten about it until now thanks to the Youtube algorithm. I think I quit following her channel when she got into posting diet and workout clips.

 

[Halasían]

I know it's bad form to post twice in a row, but in this case I can't help it...

Lament for Boromir by Karline... what a voice!

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Somewhere in the upper Vales:

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I came across this old essay thread, and thought it might be of interest, so I'm linking it here:

https://thetolkien.forum/threads/a-speculative-history-of-music-of-arda.14562/

 

[Matthew Bailey]

[Note: This thread was originally titled "Music for Rohan?", and my OP reflects this. I changed the title because, as you can see, things quickly got out of, um, han! ]

Maybe -- At least I can imagine it at Meduseld. See what you think:

THAT is beautiful.

But it is likely to be closer to the Music of the Earlier Edain and First Age Easterlings than to the Rohirrim.

There is a legitimate debate to be held regarding the applicability of Icelandic, Norse (including Ancient Sweden, which tended to dominate the region prior to the 18th and 19th Centuries), and Danish (Closer to Norwegian than Swedish, but still a part of the Germanic Related Nordic Populations) to the Early-Saxon and Gothic Cultures which were the Template for the Northmen of Rhovanion, and then subsequently the Men of the Vales of Anduin (Where we would have seen some intermarriage of the existing population that was swelled in the 19th Century of the Third Age by the Wainriders and subsequent Balchoth Invasions of Rhovanion beginning in 1850 Third Age, when by 1855 the Northmen were in pretty-much full flight after the defeat of the Northmen and Narmacil at the Battle near the Dagorlad).

Another more likely application would be the Dale-men and Laketown.

Tolkien’s usage of loose cultural templates for the various Racial and Ethnic Populations¹, with Middle-earth having a super-category of “Saxon” Myth that is applied to all of the “Good Guys²,” does tend to make it ‘fuzzy’ in what is applicable to which Population, Race, or People.

But given the overall similarities in the Cultures as they diverged from the Ancient Germanic Populations from which all of these Cultures (“Races” in Middle-earth) emerged, this is a pretty decent example of what it would most likely sound like (even if variations existed).

I have LONG thought about what Númenórean, and thus Gondorian, Arnorian, and the Southern Númenórean Cultures in Middle-earth who occupied the cities of Umbar and South in Harad,³ music would sound like.

The “Ancient Númenórean” would likely be pretty different to that of the later diaspora.

MB


1. Where Middle-earth does have “Races” that are hierarchical, making it an explicitly Racist (In the Academic Sense, not in the “White Supremacist/Racial Bigot” sense) world where these Races have some structural and genetic component.

2. Where the Elves have a kind of “Nordic and Briton/Celtic” association or template, as the “Neighbors” of the Ancient English/Saxons/Anglo-Saxons of the Númenóreans and “Middle-Men” of Middle-earth. While the remaining “Peoples/Races” of Middle-earth are based upon a “Cultural Template” of the various Historical Enemies of the English. … Which includes the Vikings for the “Easterling” Enemies of the Edain in the First Age, in the exact same way that The Venerable Bede describes in his The History of the Anglo-Saxons in England the Viking Invaders of that time as “Easterlings.” The Aenglish of Engla-lond/Engla-Land/Aenglalond/etc. of the 9th Century, which saw the translation of St. Bede’s The History of the Anglo-Saxons in England translated to Anglo-Saxon/Old English as The Ecclesiastical History of the English in Engla-Lønd/England, likewise referred to the Danes of Harold Bluetooth who conquered the North of England during the Danelaw as “Easterling Invaders” as well.

But overall Tolkien referenced most of the “Bad Guys” as being either Enemies of the Saxons/English, or as Enemies of Christendom as a whole.

That tends to cause a LOT of people unnecessary outrage and reactionary, defensive hostility in not understanding that Tolkien’s work is not just “Fiction,” but is, as Tolkien himself makes clear: Mythology. Meaning that just like Chinese Mythology depicts people like the Ancient Koreans (Khitan Liao in most cases), Ancient Indians and Afghanis, Ancient Japanese, and the Ancient Mongolians as the “Bad Guys” (and ESPECIALLY the VERY FEW “Westerners” they ran across); just like the Viking Myths depict the traditional enemies of the Nordic People’s as “Bad Guys;” just like the Navaho, Hopi, and other Native American Cultures of the Four Corners Area of the “American West” treated the Apache, Cheyenne, and even the Sioux as the “Bad Guys” (And ESPECIALLY their few, more ancient interactions with Meso-American Natives who wrought destruction upon the more ancient ancestors of these people as the REALLY BAD-GUYS)… That’s how Myths work.

3. The Southern Númenórean Cultures would have had influences from the Cultural Templates Tolkien used for the Various Haradrim Populations: The Arab Maghreb; Ancient Libyan, Moorish — Where the Ancient Moorish Populations had Sub-Saharan [Black] African influences — and Berber — The Moors were descended from Berbers who had Migrated far westward in North Africa during the Islamic Maghreb to mix in the areas of Morocco and South to produce the Moors who briefly conquered Spain… Which Tolkien very likely used as an example of the People of Cardolan prior to the arrival of the Númenóreans. The history of Arnor is quite Similar to both Carolingian Franks/Germanics and the Spain prior to the Moorish/Islamic Conquest, and then subsequent Reconquista.

The Variags/Varyags of Khand might be influential to Gondorian Music at some point, but we do not have specifics as to when they settled in Khand, and thus whether such peoples‘ Musical Influences would have been transmitted to the Early Númenórean or Gondorian Cultures in Harondor and Harad. But the Variags/Varyags were the Volga Bulgars (which were a people who were connected to both the Steppe Nomads/Hunnic Cultures and the Germanic).

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

But it is likely to be closer to the Music of the Earlier Edain and First Age Easterlings than to the Rohirrim.

If you go through this thread, you'll find a number of musical styles "assigned" to the various peoples -- especially by me. 😁 All completely arbitrary, of course.

You might be interested in the essay I linked above. I haven't finished reading it, but it's at least thought-provoking.

Tolkien undoubtedly had his own ideas, though he confessed to a lack of musical training. IIRC, he supplied a sort of Gregorian chant to Donald Swann, which.is reproduced on the recording. My conception was always that the Elves would have developed polyphony, in thousands of years. I "heard" the music in.the Hall of Fire at Rivendell as something from the High Renaissance -- Orlando di Lasso, for example. But again, that's simply how I saw -- or heard -- it.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Meanwhile, in the Last Desert:

 

[Aldarion]

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

With this as a title, placing it in the "right" location shouldn't be difficult. 😁

 

[Halasían]

 

[Halasían]

 

[Erestor Arcamen]

Listening to classical music and this popped up from one of my favorite sci-fi films. This always gives me chills.

 

[Peter86]

I always thought that the track for Forest Temple from the video game "The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time" was perfect for the Old Forest in "Lord Of The Rings".
It has the exactly same type of hauntingly peaceful and creepy atmosphere;
the kind of feeling that you are being watched by something mysterious that tries to steer you onto the wrong path.
In the game, this is pretty much the enemy "Wall Master", which is a huge hand that falls from the ceiling and grabs you, which then forces you to teleport back to the main entrance (the first game had it come out from the walls instead, which is why it is called "Wall Master").

"Forest Temple - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time"