An Evening in Rivendell

Tolkien Ensemble | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 1, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Olufsen
• ASIN: B0000267TK
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #436,632 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Evening!, January 27, 2002

By 

"tiranor" (Cleburne, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Evening in Rivendell (Audio CD)

This CD is an absolute delight! I bought it, hoping to find a decent musical interpretation of Tolkien's magnificent words, but didn't expect great things. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. The music is beautiful and fun, and the melodies are often as I imagined they might sound. The voices of Aragorn, Goldberry, and Galadriel are especially notable. It often swings from a solemn operatic singing style to a silly Irish romp, and back again. The only drawback is the occasional (very infrequent) slight Danish accent. This album is just magical. It isn't for everyone, but it's worth the money if you enjoy beautiful voices and great instrumental music. After listening to only a few songs, I was in love! I especially enjoyed Galadriel's Song of Eldamar, Tom Bombadil's Song, the Song of Beren and Luthien, and Sam's Rhyme of the Troll, as well as There is an inn, a merry old inn...
I enjoyed MY Evening in Rivendell!

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not what you'd expect, but a welcome surprise, December 5, 2001

By 

Jeffrey A. Hinzmann (Tampa, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Evening in Rivendell (Audio CD)

It seems many people who heard this CD were expecting something very exotic, middle-earthy, magical, even new age. These it is not. It is however, a very excellent traditional rendition of the beautiful poetry found in Lord of the Rings. Rather, the music is drawn from a variety of traditional European sources, from Celtic to Lieder. Considering that Lord of The Rings itself is intended to be a kind of modern homage to the European and western traditions of myth and legend, I find it very appropriate to use music of this idiom. All that aside, it is simply very beautiful music, and much of it holds up well regardless of the origins of the text. The song of Beren and Leuthien is a gorgeous Lied, and very appropriate for an epic love poem of Wagnerian intensity. Similarly, The song of the inn has a nice Celtic fiddle tune feel, which nicely captures the spirit of the British Isles underlying Middle earth. The old walking song has a nice folksy sound, accompanied only by solo gituar, appropriate for a traditional traveling song. In all, it will not sound like music from middle earth, but it is beautiful music in the European tradition that is surprisingly appropriate to the texts used. Definately worth it for fans of the books.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serious Settings of Tolkien's Poems & Songs, December 24, 2002

By 

Jisetsu "beancurdsbooks" (Rivendell) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Evening in Rivendell (Audio CD)

An Evening in Rivendell
With The Tolkien Ensemble
Caspar Reiff & Peter Hall (Composers)

This is the first in a series of recordings by Danish group The Tolkien Ensemble in their quest (as quoted on their website) "to make the worlds first complete musical interpretation of the poems and songs from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien". And a magnificent collection of settings it is.

The Tolkien Ensemble is a chamber ensemble composed of conservatory-trained musicians anchored by guitarists Caspar Reiff and Peter Hall, who have also composed the musical realizations of Tolkien's poems. The settings lay within the "classical" and "folk" traditions: that is, only acoustic instruments are used, and the songs are sung in these traditional rather than popular styles. The result is one of great beauty and respect for the texts that inspired the music, but may present difficulties for listeners not accustomed to these styles.

The music itself is first-rate. Reiff and Hall vary the mood of each song in relation to the text as well as with sensitivity to the character that sings the song. Styles range from the traditional "folk" style used for songs sung by the hobbits to the more lyrical and serious (romantic and post-romantic) styles used for songs sung by men and elves. A variety of instrumentation is used to great and sometimes unusual effect: for example, the opening recitation of the "Verse of the Rings" combines oboe, vibraphone & marimba, guitar, and double-bass with an unsettling dissonance; Galadriel's songs (sung by Mezzo-soprano Signe Asmussen) combine a very plaintive solo violin with marimba, harp, guitar, and double-bass in front of a string quartet and a wordless male choir with an otherworldliness evocative of Tolkien's Elves. Folk-band Polkageist makes guest appearances on "Tom Bombadil's Song", the positively boisterous "There is an inn, a merry old inn...", and "Sam's Rhyme of the Troll" (all sung with humor and warmth by Peter Hall).

Conceptions for the musical settings seem to vary in focus: in some cases, one may easily imagine the singer and accompaniment as representative of the character and the song almost springing out of the book; the use of a different singer for each character helps sustain this kind of identification. In other cases, the focus is from a greater distance: the listener is more aware of the artists presenting an interpretation. This is most apparent in the songs with piano accompaniment (which are particularly beautiful settings); somehow songs sung this way cannot help but evoke the nineteenth-century Lieder tradition.

The recording itself is excellently produced, and is accompanied by a booklet featuring the lyrics of each song with an excerpt indicating its context within the book, beautiful line-drawings by the Queen of Denmark (!), and photographs of the musicians.

Highly Recommended!