The Lord of the Rings: The Complete Songs & Poems - Revi

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From: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/sound/sfw12606.html

It's tempting to say that this boxed set does as much for the Lord of the Rings saga as Peter Jackson's movies. That would be wrong. What Jackson did was to re-envision (and in some cases edit) the trilogy in order to smooth out the dramatic flow and, of course, simplify the story. The degree of his success is arguable, and beyond the scope of this column. One thing, however, is obvious: In seeking to trim the action down into manageable chunks, Jackson saw fit to omit certain things, including most of the songs and poems. This four-CD set breathes new life into the poetic and lyrical material, not by re-purposing it but by bringing it to literal life as Tolkein wrote it. The release represents a most impressive achievement.

The discs comprising this set were originally released separately over a 10-year period by the Tolkien Ensemble, a six-person group founded in 1995 by Danish musician Caspar Reiff and Englishman Peter Hall. The Ensemble has performed live as well as on disc, occasionally with Christopher Lee himself. The first album, published in 1995, was titled An Evening in Rivendell. This was followed by A Night in Rivendell in 2000, and Dawn at Rivendell in 2002, which was the first disc on which Lee appeared, partly as narrator and partly as Treebeard. (In the current set his offerings are interspersed throughout all four discs.) Leaving Rivendell, the final disc, was released in 2004. The song selections and order on the original releases have been reworked here to follow their placement in the Lord of the Rings narrative, mirroring the narrative flow.

As to musical influences, Caspar Reiff has said he was inspired by "above all the British classical tradition, composers such as Britten, Elgar, [and] Vaughan." This is a sophisticated presentation to say the least, with a variety of musical styles across the four CDs.

The tone of the first disc, one of two devoted to material from The Fellowship of the Ring, tends to be somewhat lighter, ranging from up-tempo hobbit drinking songs to Tom Bombadil's doggerel, with a splendid interpretation of Bilbo's "The Old Walking Song," not to be confused with the up-tempo "A Walking Song" as sung by Frodo and Sam. The Elvish material is more thoughtful, though, as might be expected.

There is simply too much here to adequately discuss in this space, but other highlights on the first disc include Ole Norup's splendid baritone rendition of the "Elven Hymn to Elbereth Gilthoniel," and "There Is an Inn, a Merry Old Inn," which retells the tale of the cow who jumped over the moon.

The second disc, also devoted to The Fellowship of the Ring, opens delightfully with "Sam's Rhyme of the Troll." What's best about this song, as is also true about many others here, is that the time slows down and speeds up according to the needs of the lyrics, so that the songs aren't nailed to a given time signature. This has the effect of making it seem as if the pieces are really being performed. "Sam's Rhyme" certainly would be perfectly at home in an Irish pub. Someone's even playing spoons!

Surprisingly moving, occasionally beautiful

Things soon grow more serious as the Fellowship begins to disintegrate and the scope of the adventure opens up. Among the most moving pieces are "Frodo's Lament for Gandalf," "Galadriel's Song of Eldamar" (with some surprising single-chord key changes), and "The Song of the Elves Beyond the Sea." The mezzo-soprano work of Signe Asmussen stands out here, and the production moves back, so to speak, by adding some reverb to her voice, giving it a spacy quality.

The third disc, ostensibly covering The Two Towers, opens with a tour de force, "Lament for Boromir," sung by Aragorn and Legolas. This is followed by one of the finest pieces of music on the entire four-disc set, the short and unutterably enchanting "Song of Gondor," which hearkens back to, of all things, "Bali Hai" from South Pacific. This is followed with the songs of the ents, making good use of Christopher Lee's thrilling bass. He has a most effective singing voice, which may be no surprise, given his years of training as an actor. His performance in "The Ent and the Entwife," with a simple solo piano accompaniment backing him and Asmussen, is a genuine highlight. The disc is rounded out by the lovely "Sam's Invocation of Elven Hymn to Elbereth Gilthoniel."

Disc 4, the longest at 1:04:19, is further distinguished by its choral work, far more than on the others. It opens with an extended instrumental passage leading to Malbeth the Seer's prophecy as rendered by Christopher Lee. This is followed by a lovely choral a capella rendition of the "Lament for Théoden." Other highlights on the disc include the oddly dissonant "Éomer's Song," Legolas' highly melodic "Song of Lebennin" and his "Song of the Sea."

Yes, completists, it's all here—even the barrow wights' chilling ode, Gollum's paean to fish and Sam's song about the oliphaunt. And for just over four hours of music, there really isn't a clinker in the bunch.

Given that Tolkien said little about what sort of scales were used in Middle-earth or what sort of instruments its inhabitants played, some folks might cavil a bit about some of the choices Reiff and Hall have made about instrumentation and notation. A lot of the music here, despite Reiff's proclaimed British classical propensities, sounds Celtic in nature. Some is performed on piano or harmonica. But it's silly to quibble—this is simply outstanding work. (Tolkien himself had to correct a few boners—Bilbo and friends used tobacco in The Hobbit but in the trilogy they were smoking "pipeweed." And so on.)

The packaging is impressive as well, with the CDs being housed in a fold-over display card fitting into the slipcase, accompanied by a beautifully printed plate-finish 110-page bilingual booklet describing the musicians and the selections and presenting excerpts of Tolkien's prose as lead-ins to the selections themselves, plus the lyrics. The whole is illustrated by HM Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, with whose work, apparently, Tolkien himself was familiar. (A superb marketing ploy, at least among the Danes, but Her Majesty shouldn't quit her day job.) Now, I'm one of those readers who tended to skip over the trilogy's longer poems in favor of the action set pieces. But the performances here, and their careful attention to mood and flavor, really won me over.

I don't give out many A+ ratings, you'll notice. I can't imagine anyone will better this production soon, if ever. Save your pennies and buy it.

[Primula Baggins]

<starts saving pennies>

[truehobbit]

There's some really beautiful stuff there!
All my favourites are from the first CD, though. After Night in Rivendell wasn't as pleasant as An Evening in Rivendell (for my taste), I didn't bother with "Dawn in Rivendell" - I thought that as the Elves get tired, their music probably gets stranger.
I didn't know the third already had Christopher Lee on it - I have another CD which has him reciting the Ring-verse, which is great - I can't remember it to have been one of the "Rivendell" series, though. (I haven't looked at the stuff in almost a year, I think.)

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

I have all four of The Tolkien Ensemble's CDs and enjoy them immensely. (They were originally released individually.) Some of the compositions are extraordinarily beautiful. However, I don't think anyone not connected with the recordings would consider them "authentic", meaning that they could not be construed for performances by the actual characters. For instance, the songs in Tolkien's book would very likely all be performed a capella. Very few of Hall's or Reiff's songs could be.

I differ from Hobby in that I feel that the first CD, An Evening in Rivendell, is by far the Ensemble's weakest effort. There is one song, "Elven Hymn To Elbereth Gilthoniel, Snow-White! Snow-White!" (track 7), that I find difficult to listen to. The instrumental intro is very nice, but the singer is so awful that I cannot listen to the rest of it.

Evening features some strange instrumentation as well. Marimba is strongly featured. (No, I'm not joking.) The electric bass guitar also seems out of place. I believe there is also an electronic piano or some other sort of electronic percussion instrument. (My CD is at work at the moment so I cannot confirm the instrumentation.)

Highlights of the first CD are “Song of Beren and Lúthien” performed by Ernst Morten Lassen (beautiful if a bit monotonous) and “Sam's Song in the Orc-Tower” performed on guitar, Irish whistle, and guitar by Peter Hall.

I very much like the second CD, A Night in Rivendell. The first two songs feature bass Ulrik Cold in the role of Gandalf. The second of the two, "Gandalf's Song of Lórien", is particularly enchanting. Mezzo Signe Asmussen's harmonizing with Cold is wonderful. (Asmussen sings the Galadriel role throughout the CDs.)

Following these two pieces is "Lament of the Rohirrim" performed by baritone Ernst Morten Lassen. You will hear few baritones with a voice more beautiful than Lassen's. He sings the role of Aragorn throughout the first three CDs. I read somewhere that Lassen studied with famed German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Unfortuantely, Lassen does not appear on the fourth CD, Leaving Rivendell. I also read not too long ago that Lassen was retiring. I assume that's why he does not appear on Leaving.

The 3rd CD, At Dawn in Rivendell, features the vocal talents of actor Christopher Lee. Despite his advanced age he has strong singing voice. It's worth the purchase price if only to hear him sing Peter Hall's wonderful composition, "Treebeard's Song". The delightful "Drinking Song" is another of the highlights. Ho! Ho! Ho! to the bottle I go!

Lee is also featured on the 4th and final CD, Leaving Rivendell. Bass Jørgen Ditlevsen's strong performances almost makeup for the absence of Lassen. My favorites on this recording include "Ents' Marching Song" and the stately "Song of Durin" featuring Ditlevsen and male chorus.

Miscellaneous comments:

Peter Hall's superb musicianship is one of the highlights of the recordings. He plays guitar and Irish whistle with great skill. His singing voice, which is sometimes marked by hoarseness and noisy breathing, is not nearly so strong, particularly in the upper register. He is one half of the composing duo.

That being said, I did not care for Hall's Bombadil songs. I thought they were far more complex than they should have been. The duet featuring Hall as Bombadil and Malene Nordtorp Windekilde as Goldberry was particularly overly ambitious. Windekilde has a pleasant voice, but she is not quite up to the difficult singing required in "Tom Bombadil's Song, Hey Dol! Merry Dol!" on the Evening CD.

Caspar Reiff, the other half of the duo, is a gifted composer, arranger, and guitarist. He also provides some backup vocals.

Tenor Kurt Ravn performs the role of Legolas on the CDs. He is obviously a bit long in the tooth for Legolas. His voice is raspy and lacking in power. This is particularly brought to light when juxtaposed with Lassen in their duet, "Lament for Boromir" on the Night CD. Despite his vocal shortcomings, Ravn gives an excellent performance in "Legolas' Song of the Sea" on the Leaving CD.

[truehobbit]

Highlights of the first CD are “Song of Beren and Lúthien” performed by Ernst Morten Lassen (beautiful if a bit monotonous) and “Sam's Song in the Orc-Tower” performed on guitar, Irish whistle, and guitar by Peter Hall.

Those are my two favourites, too!

I don't mind the presence of instruments at all - it would be pretty drab if everything were solo voice a capella, I think.
Of course Aragorn or Sam wouldn't have had an instrument with them when they sang the songs in the book, but the title of the CD gives you an idea of the Elves performing songs in Rivendell, and I think there would definitely have been accompanying instruments there.

It's been very long that I last listened to anything but the two songs mentioned above (which I copied to a CD with a selection of favourite songs of all sorts to which I listen pretty often), I just remember that there were lots of songs without enough of a tune for my taste.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Evening features some strange instrumentation as well. Marimba is strongly featured. (No, I'm not joking.)

Why would that be a bad thing? Marimbas are beautiful instruments.

[Pearly Di]

I have An Evening in Rivendell and really like it.

My two favourite tracks: the two Galadriel songs sung by Signe Asmussen, track 6) "I Sang Of Leaves" and track 10) "Ai! Laurie lantar lassi surinen". Absolutely gorgeous.

The two Hobbit songs, "There is an Inn", and "Sam's Rhyme of the Troll", are great - rollicking English-style folk ballads with some wonderful folksy instrumentation!

"The Song of Beren and Lúthien" is elegant and melancholy. Tolkien might have appreciated the solo piano accompaniment! (He liked Donald Swann's piano arrangement of "The Road Goes Ever On" ... a curious fact about our beloved Professor that will forever make me wonder about his taste, bless him. Because, frankly, and )

I also think that "Tom Bombadil's Song, Hey Dol! Merry Dol!" works very well. I particularly like the soprano who sings the part of Goldberry.

Less successful: the "Elven Hymn to Elbereth".

But all in all, a lovely and atmospheric musical rendering of the poems.

And very much worth getting.

And hey! I really like those pen-and-ink illustrations of LOTR by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark!

I tried listening to A Night in Rivendell but I'm afraid, Tom, that I didn't like it at all. The music is too strange and dissonant for my taste.

PS. I love Stephen Oliver's music for the BBC LOTR radio dramatisation (1981). Oliver's settings of the poems and songs have a wonderfully Elgar-ish feel. His haunting melody for "Bilbo's Last Song" (lyrics by J.R.R.T himself), sung in the very last episode, makes me So does "Into the West", for that matter, but "Bilbo's Last Song" got to me first ... (I gave Wildwood the book version of this, illustrated by Pauline Baynes, when I met her in Leeds. )

PPS. I also have this CD, The Starlit Jewel. It's a bit odd, like Lorenna McKennit on speed but I like it!

http://www.flowinglass.com/sjewel.html

[Pearly Di]

for the love of Mike ... sorry.

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

Evening features some strange instrumentation as well. Marimba is strongly featured. (No, I'm not joking.) The electric bass guitar also seems out of place. I believe there is also an electronic piano or some other sort of electronic percussion instrument. (My CD is at work at the moment so I cannot confirm the instrumentation.)

I checked it at work today and found that it is "some other sort of electronic percussion instrument". A vibraphone, to be specific. It just doesn't work for me.

I don't mind the presence of instruments at all - it would be pretty drab if everything were solo voice a capella, I think.

I didn't say I minded it. I was just making a comment for those ultra-purist folk who might be out there whoe believe the songs and poems should be performed as they would by the characters.

Why would that be a bad thing? Marimbas are beautiful instruments.

They are. It's just that for some pieces a marimba may not necessarily be appropriate. The marimba does work nicely for the Ent pieces.

I tried listening to A Night in Rivendell but I'm afraid, Tom, that I didn't like it at all. The music is too strange and dissonant for my taste.

Oh well, to each his or her own, I suppose. From some of your other comments I see that we don't agree on some of the pieces but that's okay. (I encourage you to go back and listen to track 2, "Gandalf's Song of Lórien". It's really beautiful.) I do agree with you about the music for the BBC LOTR dramatization. It's superb!

That being said, I did not care for Hall's Bombadil songs. I thought they were far more complex than they should have been.

I have to amend this comment. I listened through all four CDs at work today. I have to admit that I'm least familiar with the last CD, Leaving Rivendell, simply because I've had it the least amount of time and, therefore, have listened to it fewer times. Anyway, I do very much like the Bombadil songs on that CD.