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Leaving Rivendell
''Leaving Rivendell'' is the fourth album by the Danish group The Tolkien Ensemble, with Christopher Lee as additional vocalist. It features songs composed to the lyrics found in ''The Lord of the Rings'' by J. R. R. Tolkien and forms the end part of a complete musical interpretation of all lyrics in the book. The composer Stephen Eddins describes the music as "largely modal and melancholy". In his view the album has the correct tone for accompanying Tolkien's poems, but the music is not in the main "strong enough" to attract listeners who are not already Tolkien fans. He prefers Peter Hall's settings to those by , and considers Hall's "Song of Eärendil" to be the most successful track in the album. That setting is played on guitar by Hall and sung by the Scottish musician Nick Keir, and to Eddins it "sounds authentically rooted in Celtic folk music, with occasional eccentric and unexpected but effective harmonizations". He admired the singing and playing of The Tolkien Ensembl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tolkien Ensemble
The Tolkien Ensemble (founded in 1995) is a Danish ensemble which created "the world's first complete musical interpretation of the poems and songs from ''The Lord of the Rings''". They published four CDs from 1997 to 2005, in which all the poems and songs of ''The Lord of the Rings'' are set to music. The project was approved by the Tolkien Estate. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark gave permission to use her illustrations on the CD covers. Permanent members are Caspar Reiff and Peter Hall (composition, singing and guitar), Signe Asmussen (singing), Øyvind Ougaard (accordion), Katja Nielsen (double-bass), and Morten Ryelund Sørensen (conductor and violin). The ensemble have been described as elves, Tolkien's refined Middle-earth race, in contrast to the more rustic hobbit-like groups such as Brocéliande and the Hobbitons. Scholars have praised their settings as among the most atmospheric recordings of Tolkien's poems. History Composer Caspar Reiff founded the Tolkien Ensemb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also applies to non-Western art music. Classical music is often characterized by formality and complexity in its musical form and harmonic organization, particularly with the use of polyphony. Since at least the ninth century it has been primarily a written tradition, spawning a sophisticated notational system, as well as accompanying literature in analytical, critical, historiographical, musicological and philosophical practices. A foundational component of Western Culture, classical music is frequently seen from the perspective of individual or groups of composers, whose compositions, personalities and beliefs have fundamentally shaped its history. Rooted in the patronage of churches and royal courts in Western Europe, surviving earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
At Dawn In Rivendell
''At Dawn in Rivendell'' is the third album by the Danish group the Tolkien Ensemble. It featured a guest appearance by the actor and singer Christopher Lee, who voiced the spoken word tracks and sang the part of the Ent Treebeard. The album was broadly welcomed by critics, though they felt that many of the more serious settings were too modern and discordant for Tolkien's more traditional words. They enjoyed the cheerful hobbit-songs, and the final song, the Elvish hymn to Elbereth, sung by the mezzo-soprano Signe Asmussen, was admired. Album ''At Dawn in Rivendell'' is an album of twenty tracks by the Tolkien Ensemble. All have lyrics from J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''; some of the tracks are spoken word; the remainder are songs with musical settings composed by Peter Hall or Caspar Reiff, the Ensemble's founders. The album forms the third part of what became a complete musical interpretation of all poems and songs in the book. It is the first of the Tolki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Complete Songs & Poems
The Tolkien Ensemble (founded in 1995) is a Danish ensemble which created "the world's first complete musical interpretation of the poems and songs from ''The Lord of the Rings''". They published four CDs from 1997 to 2005, in which all the Poetry in The Lord of the Rings, poems and songs of ''The Lord of the Rings'' are set to music. The project was approved by the Tolkien Estate. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark gave permission to use her illustrations on the CD covers. Permanent members are Caspar Reiff and Peter Hall (composition, singing and guitar), Signe Asmussen (singing), Øyvind Ougaard (accordion), Katja Nielsen (double-bass), and Morten Ryelund Sørensen (conductor and violin). The ensemble have been described as Elf (Middle-earth), elves, Tolkien's refined Middle-earth race, in contrast to the more rustic hobbit-like groups such as Brocéliande and the Hobbitons. Scholars have praised their settings as among the most atmospheric recordings of Tolkien's poems. History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimately playing the role nine times. His other film roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film '' The Man with the Golden Gun'' (1974), Count Dooku in several ''Star Wars'' films (2002–2008), and Saruman in both the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' film trilogy (2012–2014). Lee was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009, received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011, and received the BFI Fellowship in 2013. He credited three films for making his name as an actor, ''A Tale of Two Cities'' (1958), in which he played the villainous marquis, and two horror films, ''The Curse of Frankenstein'' (1957), and '' Dracula'' (1958). He considered his best performance to be that of Pakistan' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lord Of The Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'', but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, ''The Lord of the Rings'' is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold. The title refers to the story's main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who, in an earlier age, created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power given to Men, Dwarves, and Elves, in his campaign to conquer all of Middle-earth. From homely beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land reminiscent of the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the quest to destroy the One Ring mainly through the eyes of the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. Although often called a trilogy, the work was intende ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modal Music
In music theory, the term mode or ''modus'' is used in a number of distinct senses, depending on context. Its most common use may be described as a type of musical scale coupled with a set of characteristic melodic and harmonic behaviors. It is applied to major and minor keys as well as the seven diatonic modes (including the former as Ionian and Aeolian) which are defined by their starting note or tonic. ( Olivier Messiaen's modes of limited transposition are strictly a scale type.) Related to the diatonic modes are the eight church modes or Gregorian modes, in which authentic and plagal forms of scales are distinguished by ambitus and tenor or reciting tone. Although both diatonic and gregorian modes borrow terminology from ancient Greece, the Greek ''tonoi'' do not otherwise resemble their mediaeval/modern counterparts. In the Middle Ages the term modus was used to describe both intervals and rhythm. Modal rhythm was an essential feature of the modal notation syste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Song Of Eärendil
The Song of Eärendil is the longest poem in ''The Lord of the Rings''. In the fiction, it is sung and composed by the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins in the Elvish sanctuary of Rivendell. It tells how the mariner Eärendil tries to sail to a place of paradise, and acquires a Silmaril, a prized sun-jewel. Eventually he and his ship are set in the heavens to sail forever as the light of the Morning Star. The work is described by the philologist and Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey as exemplifying "an elvish streak ... signalled ... by barely-precedented intricacies" of poetry. This corresponds to the tradition of complex poetic mechanisms seen in the Middle English poem ''Pearl''. The "Song of Eärendil" was written to contrast with another of Tolkien's poems, "Errantry", which uses the same mechanisms to quite different effect. In the narrative, the Hobbit Frodo Baggins, recently healed from a dangerous wound, listens to the poem in Keatsian style. History of composition The longest poem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nick Keir
Nick Keir (14 March 1953 – 2 June 2013) was a Scottish musician from Edinburgh, Scotland, who is best known for his work with The McCalmans. More recently Keir emerged as a singer-songwriter, producing three solo albums and performing as a soloist with The Tolkien Ensemble. Keir regularly played in both Scotland and Denmark at folk festivals and on tours, both with The McCalmans and also at solo gigs. Keir studied at Stirling University, where he founded Finn MacCuill, a folk-rock band, which for a while expanded into The Finn MacCuill Folkshow, a small touring theatre group, for which he wrote the scripts. In the late 1970s, Keir joined 7:84 Theatre Company Scotland as a writer and musician, and soon after joined The McCalmans Folk Group. Keir later played with Stephen Quigg (a former member of The McCalmans) in a duo as well as being a soloist. Other collaborations included work on ''The Complete Works of Robert Tannahill'' and appearing regularly with the Holbaek Ense ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danish Radio Sinfonietta
The Danish Chamber Orchestra ( da, Danmarks Underholdningsorkester) is a chamber orchestra in Denmark. It was the Danish National Chamber Orchestra from 1939 to 2014, when it was under the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). Since 2015, it has been funded privately. The roots of the orchestra date back to 1927, with the formation of an orchestra to perform light music at the Hotel Phoenix by Louis Preil. By 1933, (Louis Preil's Dance Orchestra) consisted of 22 musicians and attained great popularity in Denmark via radio transmissions. In 1939, DR then formally established the ( "Danish Radio Entertainment Orchestra") as the national broadcaster's in-house orchestra. It focused on lighter, popular repertoire. Teddy Petersen took over direction of the ensemble in 1943. The repertoire of the orchestra included classical repertoire such as Mozart, to modern musicals and more recently, collaborations with rock groups. During the tenure of chief conductor Ádám Fischer, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter
Shakespeare's influence on Tolkien was substantial, despite Tolkien's professed dislike of the playwright. Tolkien disapproved in particular of Shakespeare's devaluation of elves, and was deeply disappointed by Shakespeare's prosaic explanation of how Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane Hill in ''Macbeth''. Tolkien was influenced especially by ''Macbeth'' and ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', and he used ''King Lear'' for "issues of kingship, madness, and succession". He arguably drew on several other plays, including ''The Merchant of Venice'', ''Henry IV, Part 1'', and ''Love's Labour's Lost'', as well as Shakespeare's poetry, for numerous effects in his Middle-earth writings. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey suggests that Tolkien may even have felt a kind of fellow-feeling with Shakespeare, as both men were rooted in the county of Warwickshire. Shakespeare as a source Tolkien's dislike of Shakespeare J. R. R. Tolkien, a philologist and medievalist as well as a fantasy author, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhyme Of The Rings
The One Ring, also called the Ruling Ring and Isildur's Bane, is a central plot element in J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'' (1954–55). It first appeared in the earlier story ''The Hobbit'' (1937) as a magic ring that grants the wearer invisibility. Tolkien changed it into a malevolent Ring of Power and re-wrote parts of ''The Hobbit'' to fit in with the expanded narrative. ''The Lord of the Rings'' describes the hobbit Frodo Baggins's quest to destroy the Ring. Critics have compared the story with the ring-based plot of Richard Wagner's opera cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''; Tolkien denied any connection, but at the least, both men drew on the same mythology. Another source is Tolkien's analysis of Nodens, an obscure pagan god with a temple at Lydney Park, where he studied the Latin inscriptions, one containing a curse on the thief of a ring. Tolkien rejected the idea that the story was an allegory, saying that applicability to situations such as the Second W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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