I've always loved both metal and classical music. The first classical album that captured my imagination was Peer Gynt. I was taking piano lessons, and Morning Mood was my favorite song. I loved the awakening narrative it evoked. It felt like walking through a snowy landscape in the morning light, just after the snow. It was also about that time that I became an avid reader and fan of fantasy and J.R.R. Tolkien.
As a hobby, I enjoy practicing the piano, and I use my current repertoire as leitmotifs for the narrative of my own life. Every day I live is a tiny story of my own life. The book of JRR Tolkien's poems set to music by Donald Swann has become the soundtrack to my inner imagination as I entertain myself with music and singing.
While browsing the stacks of the Providence Athenaeum, I came across a tall, thin book by J.R.R. Tolkien. To my delight, it was an original first printing from 1967, not a recent re-imagination. As a fan who has read Lord of the Rings multiple times and pored over Karen Wynn Fonstad's maps of Middle Earth, I was astonished to discover a Tolkien book I didn't recognize. When I opened it, I was delighted to discover it was a songbook with nine songs, some from Elven (Quenya).
I enjoy reading this text through music because it strips away the modernized fantasy world and gives us an authentic version of Tolkien. While I love adaptations, I get so much from a traditionalist approach, where I can examine the depth, spirituality, and mythology of the original Tolkien and then extrapolate to another interpretation.
There is something uniquely pure and artistic in looking at the music made from Tolkien's poetry to appreciate the work and then appreciate the movies, the TV series, and the role-playing games as something separate and derivative.
Here is an older recording of the first four songs in the cycle.
Along with metal crossover, how would these lieders be recast as metal? I'm exploring singing with vocal fry, partly because I have a raspy and not-that-great voice, so why not lean into it?
I'm most fascinated by the Elven chant, Namárië. It's a short Elvish song, vowed like Italian. I envision it whispered or growled like a metal song with a rumbling drum and distorted guitar accompaniment.
I enjoy this modern version of the central theme of the song cycle.
I've thoroughly enjoyed watching the Rings of Power episodes, but I agree that they change the intent and character of Tolkien's books. So much of Tolkien's Middle Earth was the purely thoughtful product of his work in linguistics, and we live in a world where every creation is repackaged for consumption and entertainment. It is more entertaining to live in our world. However, it is less thoughtful and less profound. In the scene between Elrond and Durin,
Elrond says, "We do not say goodbye, we say 'Namárië.' It means more than simply farewell. It means 'Go towards goodness.'"
It's my favorite scene of the series and captures the spirit that resonates with me in Tolkien's work. It's a rare moment when the words behind the images become more powerful than the production's visuals.
I set myself accountable for continuing this project by telling my chorus director I'm practicing singing in Elvish. She said, "Oh, you're one of those people." I told her of this book by Donald Swann, and she, of course, knew of him and was delighted because she is a massive fan of The King's Singers, who published an album of his funny songs. I didn't know of him outside of the book I just found, but he's a 1950s British version of Tom Lehrer or a Weird Al Jankovic for those with more recent musical tastes.
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