Tolkien Music Reimagining

Way back when The Hobbit trailer aired, they sang "Over the Misty Mountains." I quite loved the interpretation of the song from the book, and it gave me this new sense of how good the songs from the books could actually be if care was put into executing them well.

I've written my own interpretation of the tune that fits the poem Over the Misty Mountains. For this entry, I'm submitting "Under the Mountain Dark and Tall." It is a variant of my version of "Over the Misty Mountains."

In the books, "Over the Misty Mountains" has a tune that actually has to fit a lot of different themes because as Tolkien calls out, it is the same melody that gets used for a few songs in the book. "Under the Mountain Dark and Tall" is a version of "Over the Misty Mountains" that the Dwarves sing when they are in Erebor, when the Elves and Men have amassed outside of their fortress, and the Dwarves are becoming increasingly stubborn, greedy and belligerent. At first, the Elves play a song outside, which bothers Thorin, so the Dwarves sing a song in return. This song cheers up Thorin, but it depresses Bilbo because it sounds warlike.

I use a cello to emulate the sound of the bass Viol - two of the instruments called out for Over the Misty Mountains. He doesn't explicitly call out bass viols, but he specifies "viols as big as themselves," an instrument that can be nothing other than a bass viol. Viols have a wide variety of shapes, and likewise the sound of the viol is quite up for interpretation; a cello sounds so close as to be indistinguishable in many cases, so I've used the cello as a viol, and pitched it down an octave for the bass register.

I have been unable to find a virtual harp that satisfies my taste for what I want to hear. At some point I plan to purchase (or build myself) a harp and spend a lot of time writing music with it. One thing the movies do not do is use harp - but Tolkien makes extensive references to harps especially as it relates to Dwarves. 

Farewell We Call to Hearth and Hall is the other song submitted here. Tolkien also describes this song as going to "the same tune as the Dwarf tune that set Bilbo off on his adventure" which is "Over the Misty Mountains Cold." The context in The Fellowship is that they are being hunted by the Ringwraiths and are preparing to leave The Shire.

Under the Mountain Dark and Tall:

https://soundcloud.com/alkan23/under-the-mountain-dark-and-tall?si=f42881b019664...

Farewell We Call to Hearth and Hall:

https://soundcloud.com/alkan23/farewell-we-call?si=f42881b019664a7b9f55cfacce68e...

My cover art is an hour sketch I did of my interpretation of Thorin Oakenshield as I picture him from the books. Referenced the crown and the flowering stars (as they appear on the Gate of Durin, and reference that drawing heavily in my image).

This entry is both an homage to J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as Cloud 9 - the group who actually wrote Over the Misty Mountains for The Hobbit. They also did the Hobbit party music in Lord of the Rings. Howard Shore did not actually write the tune - he adapted it to the movie. But, this is also an homage to him, because the music of Lord of the Rings is perhaps the first thing that got me into classical music and early music. This wouldn't be happening with all of these people. The love they've poured into their work has touched my life, and I can only aspire to one day doing the same.