Thanks for starting this first thread on an article from
Music,
Bêthberry!
Like her, I came across Steven Linden's article online; and it's nice to see it in book form, something I thought would suit it, when I finished reading it the first time.
Mr. Linden bases his speculative history of what music in Arda was like from the source materials in Tolkien's works, something I respect. He also has the humility to admit the fundamental difficulty he and anyone else like him faces:
Middle-earth is our Earth, but not our Medieval earth. Middle-earth is supposed to be ancient. It seems more than a little strange, then, that its music should be the sort of music that is peculiar to the Dark Ages and Middle Ages. Of particular note is the matter of polyphony, or contrapuntal music. In the real world, polyphony was not really developed until the latter half of the Middle Ages; yet there does seem to be polyphony in Middle-earth....The musical situation in Middle-earth appears to be something of roughly the thirteenth or fourteenth century. (p. 76)
When I read this, I smiled; because it is a musical equivalent of the hobbits, in a supposedly 'medieval' Middle-earth, having such nineteenth-century items as umbrellas and aneroid barometers.
Like
Bêthberry, I liked his possible explanation for this problem, that music in Middle-earth was declining, and his speculation as to what that meant for the evolution of musical styles in Arda, which I'm going to let other readers find out for themselves.
One thing I particularly liked in his speculation was what the dwarves of Belegost in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears in the First Age might have sung when they took away the body of their dead lord, Azaghâl:
Then the dwarves raised up the body of Azaghâl and bore it away; and with slow steps they walked behind singing a dirge in deep voices, as it were a funeral pomp in their country, and gave no heed more to their foes; and none dared to stay them. (
The Silmarillion, Chapter 20, p. 233.)
He speculates that the 'dirge', which 'must have been quite chilling',
was probably a melody similar to those of the Elves, though undoubtedly lacking in certain Elvish subtleties; perhaps it was in a mode peculiar to the Dwarves. It seems likely to have been monophonic: a great unison chanting by deep Dwarvish voices. It would have sounded roughly like Gregorian chant, but undoubtedly deeper, and probably with more use of formal repetitive figures. (p. 85)
If any attempt is made to try and write such music I would
love to know. After all, it's not any kind of music that can so scare Morgoth's foulest minions!
I agree completely with his conclusion here:
While there is a great deal of music about Middle-earth, there have been very few attempts at writing the music of Middle-earth - that is, the sort of music that was actually heard in Middle-earth....Perhaps, then, it is time for someone to have a try at writing the "real" music of Middle-earth. (p. 89)
I would certainly support any person or group who tries to do this.