Middle-earth Music: A thank you and giving back
 

Hello!

I registered here to say a big thank you to all the great authors who contributed to the Music in Middle-earth book! I wrote my M.A. paper one year ago about the way in which Tolkien's description of music in his works was brought to life by contemporary artists.
I mainly discussed the work of the Tolkien Ensemble (for whose assistance during the writing process I am incredibly grateful), but also the LotR stage show as well as (a bit) the motion picture scores.
A few weeks back I decided to make the whole paper available for everyone to read as a way of giving back to all the people whose research tremendously helped me. I pondered long and hard whether to post this link, because I'm not a huge fan of self-promotion. So if this is out of line, please simply delete this topic. The site can be found at www.middle-earth-music.info

I just wanted to say thanks! Of course I'd love to hear what you think about the website, if you decide to have a look :)

Tanks!

Tobias

Welcome and your M.A. paper
 

Welcome to the Downs, Novatlan (or Tobias)! :D

Thank you for posting the link to your M.A. paper, which I've downloaded and will read. I'll certainly let you know what I think of it. I can't speak for the other contributors to Music in Middle-earth who are members of the Downs, but can speak on my behalf to say that I'm glad my research 'tremendously helped' you with yours! :)

Thank you for your link! I will most certainly read your paper and let you know how I like it! I'm glad our book was helpful to you.

I see that you're located in Germany, as I am - perhaps we will have an opportunity to meet and discuss Tolkien and music sometime! If you're interested - maybe even in presenting a paper there - the next Tolkien Seminar will take place in Aachen in April 2013. The topic is "Adaptations of LotR"; here is the call for papers . The deadline is November 30...

Thanks both of you for having a look. I'm dying to hear what you think.
I sent the DTG an email and hope they will find the topic interesting enough to warrant a presentation at the seminar.
I've started work on a revised version of the website, which will also contain audio samples to illustrate the points dealt with. The Tolkien Ensemble really was extremely helpful during the whole process and I'm happy that I am allowed to use audio samples from their productions. That should make the whole thing much more approachable.

Not sure if you're still around, Novatlan, but I've read your paper and enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing it. I'm very pleased that you found my essay helpful. And I'm rather envious of the fact that the Tolkien Ensemble provided you with score manuscripts!

Hi!
Of course I am still around :) Glad you like it!
I will be speaking about the paper at the Tolkien Seminar in Aachen end of April - I'm very excited!

That's wonderful! I just checked the schedule and saw that you're lecturing right after me on Sunday! I very much look forward to meeting you there.

By the way, I'm lecturing on the fifth major category of music composed for Tolkien's poems - the radio plays. (I'm currently reading your paper concerning the other four...)

That's awesome! Good I didn't include the radio plays in the paper. I originally wanted to, but there just was no space.

I hope I can someday continue writing on this and vastly extend it. My biggest gripe is that I just wasn't able to take into account that after all we are dealing with fiction. In the paper, I basically pretend that everything Tolkien writes is "real", which isn't particularly good form. It makes no difference for bringing across the point, because all I am after is discussing in which ways real music differs from what Tolkien wrote. But it means that most people object to the whole idea of the paper because I had to leave that out...

Looking forward to meeting you!