The relationship betwen Music/Singing and Magic

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Eönwë

I think that Men are part of the Music, but it's just that not all they do was decided beforehand, or something like that. Anyway, the main point I was trying to get across is that it seems that Elves are more in tune with the Music than Men.

I think that this is often most people's understanding (and was mine for quite some time). It is easy to read of Bilbo's love of elven song in Rivendell and assume that the elves had some kind of higher ability at aesthetics.

However, it is also possible, given the passages in The Silm regarding the creation of the Children, that men sang the form of song which the Music intended them to sing, and that only by the long passage of time would they come to harmonise better, so that their choir would sing triumphantly at the end of days. After all, even the Ainur needed practice before they could harmonise.

Originally Posted by Morth

Music and magic have been closely associated throughout history. Music as a source to draw closer to a deity is a very biblical point of view, which Tolkien obviously drew from. The O.T. abounds in song/prayer -- the Psalms of David, for instance, and Solomon's Song of Songs. From a more Pagan point of view, incantations are often rhymed and hummed or sung (Santería, aboriginal tribes, New Age Wiccan dimestore variety witches, etc.). There is a cadence to Buddhist chants, as well as Islamic prayers. Music abounds in Religions, most of whom eschew the term 'magic', yet who practice the same liturgical spells in their rituals as did the first Shamans of the Cro-magnon.

Tolkien merely harnessed this age-old process as a fundamental tenet of Middle-earth's creation and its ongoing creativity. In fact, Tolkien reaches the point of lunacy when folks start singing or reciting poems at the drop of a hat, sometimes at the most inopportune times throughout the story.

Originally Posted by Skip Spence

Haha, I must admit that I cringe at times when the singing reaches the point of absurdity. Though I suppose that if we are willing to accept dragons and Elves, we should also be able to accept a bit of, to our modern sensibilities, inopportune singing.

It isn't just accepting dragons and elves, but a culture of respect for words where even inanimate objects like swords and knives are given special names which seem to hold their power.

But it isn't just ancient cultures or religious cultures which use non-verbal forms of communication such as music and rhythm. Music is exceptionally important to adolecents of our age and woe betide the teenager whose musical choice matches that of mum and dad!

But other than Tom the Bomb, who, it can be argued, functions as Tolkien's Holy Fool, just where are these inopportune, cringeable moments of song?

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

However, it is also possible, given the passages in The Silm regarding the creation of the Children, that men sang the form of song which the Music intended them to sing, and that only by the long passage of time would they come to harmonise better, so that their choir would sing triumphantly at the end of days.

Well we obviously haven't got to that stage yet!

[Durelin]

Skip mentioned the Barrow-wight's song in his first post. I did not read over the previous thread very carefully, so I don't know if this was discussed over there, or if it has been discussed on another thread about Barrow-wights, but this thread made me think of some things I looked at for a paper I wrote for a mythology class. I wrote it about the "draugar" of Norse/Icelandic folklore, and discussed at the end a bit about the continuation of a lot of the aspects of draugr in Medieval Europe and even modern times, and talked a bit about Tolkien's barrow-wights.

One of the main things was the connection with verse. Of course as has been pointed out from the beginning of both threads, music/verse is often related to magic, but one of the types of magic its related with is that of the "undead." I dunno, I thought it was cool when I did the comparison.

Frodo does not see the Barrow-wight, but he does hear it, as it sings a verse. The connection of song or poetry with the draugar is not an uncommon one. Nora K. Chadwick notes in "Norse Ghosts: A Study in the Draugr and the Haugbui" that there is a “constant association” between the draugar and the barrow, and “skaldskap and music.” The draugr of a king named Ögváldr in Hálf’s Saga is heard chanting in his barrow, declaring his former kingship; and the draugr of Gunnarr in Njál’s Saga is seen sitting in his barrow staring at the moon and singing. In Hervarar Saga, Hervör converses with the draugr of her father, Angantýr, in verse. There are magical happenings involving draugar in which a person receives the gift of poetry or eloquent speech from a draugr. In a story contained in the Flateyjarbók, the shepherd Hallbjörn wishes to compose a panegyric for a skald buried in a barrow he often sleeps on at night. One night the dead skald visits him, and recites a verse to the shepherd while holding him by the tongue, granting him the gift of poetry. In another story in the Flateyjarbók, a man spends a night on a barrow, and “dreams” that he enters the barrow with the two draugar who occupy it, and fights one of the draugr for “gold which had the power to bestow the gift of speech” to give to his mother, who is dumb.

Tolkien’s Barrow-wight displays strongly these supernatural aspects of draugar and their connections with song or verse. The power of verse is especially clear in the rescue of the Hobbits by Tom Bombadil. After Frodo cuts the hand off of the crawling arm, “there was a shriek and the light vanished,” and in his desperation Frodo remembers Tom Bombadil and “the rhyme he had taught him.” He sings the rhyme, and Tom Bombadil answers it with his own verse and suddenly enters the barrow with a rumbling of stone. Tom then drives away the Barrow-wight with a verse. The power of “dreams” is touched upon when Merry, one of the four Hobbits, wakes, and remembers what has happened, he “clutche[s] at his breast,” believing he had been stabbed, but then says, “No…I have been dreaming.” Apparently the dreams were vivid and powerful enough to seem like very real happenings. (That last part was related to the topos that draugar would sometimes appear to people in a dream-like state, but would leave a physical token or sign behind, proving that they were there.)

It wasn't the best paper (it never is), or best researched (I would love to do more, but you know...), but I really had fun writing it.

When it comes to song and magic, you could talk about Tom Bombadil all day...

[Pitchwife]

Thanks, Durelin, that's an interesting connection between the draugar and singing - considering that the Elves seem to have made the most use of musical magic, and Celtic folklore closely associates (sometimes even identifies) the elves or fairies with the spirits of the Dead, as both kinds of beings are said to dwell in hills/mounds/barrows.

Originally Posted by Ibrin

the piece was titled "Geographical Fugue" by Ernst Toch, and was first performed in 1930, I believe

That one! Yes, it sort of rocks in a way. Here's a link to a good performance, if anyone's interested in what it sounds like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b59Tpi_tDYo
The funny side is that the 'lyrics' consist entirely of place names from all over the world (hence the title).
Toch probably got some inspiration from the German and French Dadaists' experiments with Lautpoesie (sound poetry) - rhythmic recitations of nonsense or half-nonsense words/syllables for musical effect (e.g. Hugo Ball's famous Caravan or Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate, probably the most elaborate attempt in this direction). Some of these things can sound very much like incantations.