Embedded Files
October 25, 2022: The Road Goes Ever On
Hey-o, mellyn! Welcome back to Halfling Hymns, the UNM Hobbit Society-sponsored column for all things musical in the realm of Middle-earth! I’m your host, Jude Harb! Sorry about the long wait between posts; summer and college decided to get in the way with just how busy things got, but I'm here to post a brand new discussion on all things Middle-earth Music!
Gotta say, LOVE the poster design here, though!
Now, the landscape seems to have changed a bit in regards to Tolkienian research and adaptation! By that, I mean that we have a new adaptation for the world of Middle-earth, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime! Of course, you can always catch the latest episodes on your own or through our watch parties, and I recommend giving it a look and judging for yourself how well it represents the world of Middle-earth and its history! (I don't think it does very well, but that's just me.)
"But Jude!" you may be wondering. "Are you going to discuss or analyze any of the music here?" Calm down, patient readers, it WILL happen at some point, just not now, sadly. While I would like to devote the time and effort to analyzing the WONDERFUL score by Bear McCreary, composer for things such as Battlestar Galactica, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and the PlayStation 4 video game God of War (https://bearmccreary.com/featured-projects/), I simply don't have the time right at the moment to devote to such a massive undertaking. It'll come, just a bit later, so please understand and thank you all for your patience!
Now, what WILL we be looking at today? Well, this is a bit more of an obscure choice, but today, we'll be taking a look at one of the more interesting curiosities in the realm of Middle-earth music, that being a song-cycle written by the composer Donald Swann. The song-cycle, titled The Road Goes Ever On, takes poems written by J. R. R. Tolkien in English and Sindarin. To the right is a video recording of a performance of this cycle by the tenor singer Richard G. Leonberger, accompanied by the pianist William Phemister.
Above is a picture of Donald Swann back when he was still alive (Picture taken from: http://www.donaldswann.co.uk/)
Composer Spotlight: Donald Swann
Donald Swann (1923-1994) was a British composer and pianist who, in his earlier years, specialized in composing revues and musicals, funnily enough, such as "In the D'Oyly Cart" and "The Bright Arcade." He would later gain musical fame through his work in performances alongside his colleague Michael Flanders.
It was during this time that he would compose the song cycle The Road Goes Ever On in 1967. (http://www.donaldswann.co.uk/)
Now, one thing that was striking (to me, at least) regarding this song-cycle in particular is that Tolkien himself had some input into the creation of The Road Goes Ever On, not just in the form of providing the text but also providing notes on the creation of the music!
According to Swann in the foreword to the second edition of this cycle, he was able to get in contact with Tolkien after composing six of the pieces that would form the basis of his song cycle. "...the Professor [Tolkien] approved five but hesitated over my music for 'Namárië,' Galadriel's farewell in Lorien. He had heard it differently in his mind, he said, and hummed a Gregorian chant [a style of church music]. I made a note of it, and in the following week I played it over many times to the Elvish words." (Swann, v-vi)
A greyscale picture of the cover, provided to me by Prof. Leslie Donovan (Thank you so much, Dr. D!)
Now, I won't be going too much into the structure of the song cycle, as, stylistically, a song cycle is a group of art songs (songs set to poems for voice and piano) that share a common theme or lyrical writer (for example, if someone wrote a bunch of pieces for voice set to the works of Shakespearean sonnets, that could be compiled into a song cycle). There are nine texts in this particular set, so that's basically nine songs in one!
However, there are some cool things I'd like to touch on regardless. Specifically, the way that these pieces are notated (or written on the page). Earlier, recall that Swann mentioned his song "Namárië" was written in the style of a Gregorian chant. Chants in this style were popular in the 9th and 10th centuries within the Roman Catholic Church, and they were generally just a melodic line without any accompaniment from instruments or other voices (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_chant). To hear some good examples in media, I recommend the background music for the Temple of Time in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, written in the style of Gregorian chant by Koji Kondo.
Anyway, back to Swann; the way he decided to notate "Namárië" was to have the piano go back and forth with the singer, who would sing the text out of time (senza misura, as we in the biz call it). Often, as shown in the score tot he left, multiple syllables will be attached to one particular pitch. As such, the singer will just continue on until they finish the text, and then go back into particular rhythms.
Anyway, I just wanted to get the word out about this cycle a little more, as I feel it's very underappreciated thanks to the impact that Howard Shore and Bear McCreary's scores have had on the realm of Middle-earth, and since Tolkien himself helped with the compositions, that's all the more reason to check it out, right?
Anyway, I've provided to the left an interview by Donald Swann for the piece "Bilbo's Last Song," before the composer's own performance of the piece. I really enjoy his own raspy performance of the piece, as it helps create a tenderness that wouldn't be present in a younger voice.
Give it a listen, tell me what you think, and, as always, take care of yourselves, mellyn, and blunt the knives on the way to dinner!
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse