Track-by-Track: Soundtrack Discussion and Analysis

[Encaitare]

Thanks, Saphy; glad you've come to join us.

By the way, Aiwendil, I read your essay over on the Tolkien Forum about music in Middle-earth -- wonderful job on that. I really enjoyed reading it.

A note to all readers: you don't have to have any great musical knowledge to post here. You can post your favorite parts of the track, what emotions it evokes in you, why you think it evoked said emotions, the effect you think was trying to be achieved, the relations to the movie events, the tie-in to the cultures we see, etc. All you have to do is have opinions and a sense of observation, which I know we've all got here! And if you do happen to have a more technical knowledge of music, please share it!

[Aiwendil]

Encaitare wrote:

Would you care to explain this for a poor confused soul?

Well, il- was at one point a negative prefix, but later on Tolkien seems to have been using al- instead. Of course, it's very difficult to try to take the massive body of Tolkien's linguistic material and try to formulate a single unified version of either Quenya or Sindarin, so differences of opinion are to be expected.

By the way, Aiwendil, I read your essay over on the Tolkien Forum about music in Middle-earth -- wonderful job on that. I really enjoyed reading it.

Thanks. I think perhaps the number of musical terms that I used scares some away, even if I'm not really saying anything too complicated.

Sapphire_Flame wrote:

Another nice bit is the emphasis of the strings at 0:37; a sort of "Hey, look, the title!" piece, but very delicately arranged.

Yes, this is a very nice little moment, and somehow very evocative (I think) of the sense of ancient history being presented.

Again Encaitare:

first, D major. Second (not completely sure about this one) a minor, and third is C major.

This sounds about right to me. I think it's the D - a change that I was thinking of. Not, in fact, distant at all, but the fact that the A is minor makes all the difference (and is accentuated by the fact that the melody climbs here to a C (the note that makes the chord minor)).

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Encaitare

By the way, Aiwendil, I read your essay over on the Tolkien Forum about music in Middle-earth -- wonderful job on that. I really enjoyed reading it.

A wonderful idea for a thread, Encaitare. Once some of the seasonal hubub slows down, I hope to have time to contribute to this. (And once I've proverbially spread a bit of jam around on other yeasty posts, I can return to 'give a toast' to yours again! Honestly, I dislike that expression, "spread some rep around.' It sounds so crudely suggestive for such a high-minded forum. )

Could either you or Aiwendil provide a link to this essay? Much appreciated ifyou could!

[Encaitare]

The essay may be found hither. Enjoy!