"Bring Out the Instruments!", Heidi Steimel

[Bêthberry]

Like Guinevere and Shadowfax, I know Heidi's chapter in its earlier incarnations, although for me in print rather than in lecture at Jena. This is as much a pleasure to read as the earlier versions were.

Heidi's writing is a delight for me, for she can provide rhythm, vary sentence length, add rhetorical asides, and develop exposition in a very entertaining way. Her writing has rhythm and movement, as one perhaps would expect of a musician. One thing in particular I want to point out is the very interesting style of her first sentence.

Originally Posted by Bring Out the Instruments!

Music is more than mere entertainment in Tolkien's Middle-earth.

I don't know whether Heidi planned that consciously or not, but the alliteration, using both stress and first placement, although not exclusively, immediately brought to mind Tolkien's love of Old English poetry.

While I'm not a musician myself, I have had a course in drumming and wanted to add a few observations about the power of drums. They have a long history of military use, in both eastern and western warfare, so perhaps it is not surprising to hear of orcs and drums in Moria. Think of how those sounds must have reverberated in that deep chamber!

Yet drumming is more than this, and more than simply keeping a beat. Drums and drumming have a therapeutic effect, inducing deep relaxation and reducing stress and anxiety. They also provide an experience of connectedness, creating unity and synchronicity. The experience Bilbo has of the dwarven concert is something I have experienced simply through drumming. It was a creative experience that brought the twelve of us who were drumming together in a very unique feeling. It is thus strange for me now to think of orcs drumming, for that must have been a powerful form of social connectedness for them. Or possibly for the Druedain also.

I thought I'd add a comment, too, concerning Heidi's footnote about the Anvil Chorus in Verdi's Il Trovatore. I know she knows this, so it's not new to her, but perhaps will be to others here. Here's a rather entertaining version of The Anvil Chorus . Note, no beards!