Johan de Meij returns to Middle-earth

[Jeff Tanyard]

Back in the early 90s, I had the good fortune of playing one of the movements from Johan de Meij's Symphony No. 1, "The Lord of the Rings."  I think the movement I played was the fifth one, "Hobbits," but I'm not certain.  It was a long time ago.  Here are the symphony's movements:

I.  Gandalf
II.  Lothlórien
III.  Gollum
IV.  Journey in the Dark
V.  Hobbits

Here's the entire symphony.  See if you can recognize which scenes from the book are being portrayed at various times.

(Or you can cheat and read de Meij's explanations in the spoiler tag.)

Spoiler: ShowHide

Explanation of the five movements:

I. GANDALF (The Wizard)
The first movement is a musical portrait of the wizard Gandalf, one of the principal characters of the trilogy. His wise and noble personality is expressed by a stately motiff which is used in a different form in movements IV and V. The sudden opening of the Allegro vivace is indicative of the unpredictability of the grey wizard, followed by a wild ride on his beautiful horse “Shadowfax”.

II. LOTHLORIEN (The Elvenwood)
The second movement is an impression of Lothlórien, the elvenwood with its beautiful trees, plants, exotic birds, expressed through woodwind solo’s. The meeting of the Hobbit Frodo with the Lady Galadriel is embodied in a charming Allegretto; in the Mirror of Galadriel, a silver basin in the wood, Frodo glimpses three visions, the last of which, a large ominous Eye, greatly upsets him.

III. GOLLUM (Sméagol)
The third movement describes the monstrous creature  Gollum,  a slimy,  shy  being  represented  by  the soprano saxophone. It mumbles and talks to itself, hisses and lisps, whines and snickers, is alternately pitiful and malicious, is continually fleeing and looking for his cherished treasure, the Ring.

IV. JOURNEY IN THE DARK
The fourth movement describes the laborious journey of the Fellowship of the Ring, headed by the wizard Gandalf, through the dark tunnels of the Mines of Moria. The slow walking cadenza and the fear are clearly audible in the monotonous rhythm of the low brass, piano and percussion. After a wild persuit by hostile creatures, the Orks, Gandalf is engaged in battle with a horrible monster, the Balrog, and crashes from the subterranean bridge of Khazad-Dûm in a fathomless abyss. To the melancholy tones of a Marcia funèbre, the bewildered Companions trudge on, looking for the only way out of the Mines, the East Gate of Moria.

V. HOBBITS
The fifth movement expresses the carefree and optimistic character of the Hobbits in a happy folk dance; the hymn that follows emanates the determination and noblesse of the hobbit folk. The symphony does not end on an exuberant note, but is concluded peacefully and resigned, in keeping with the symbolic mood of the last chapter “The Grey Havens” in which Frodo and Gandalf sail away in a white ship and disappear slowly beyond the horizon.

That was my first-ever exposure to Tolkien's story.  I would go on to read the book a couple of years later, and my interest in the book was inspired--at least in part--by playing de Meij's music.  To this day, LOTR remains my favorite novel.

Now, some thirty years later, de Meij has revisited this material with his fifth symphony, "Return to Middle Earth."  It's in six movements (copied from de Meij's site, so spelling/syntax is his, not mine):

I) Mîri na Fëanor (Fëanor’s Jewels)
II) Tinúviel (Nightingale)
III) Ancalagon i-môr (Ancalagon, The Black)
IV) Arwen Undómiel (Evenstar)
V) Dagor Delothrin (The War of Wrath)
VI) Thuringwethil (Woman of Secret Shadow)

As you can tell from the titles of the movements, the material covers events from all three ages of the legendarium.

There's singing in Elvish for those who are interested in that. 

In Dagor Delothrin, there are some orc-chants in the Black Speech of Mordor.

Anyway, here they are: