The Lord of the Rings: Complete Songs and Poems - Christopher Lee - Tolkien Ensemble

Peter Hall Caspar Reiff (Composer), The Tolkien Ensemble (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: The Tolkien Ensemble
• Composer: Peter Hall Caspar Reiff
• Audio CD (April 7, 2006)
• Number of Discs: 4
• Label: Membran International GmbH
• ASIN: B000FBGA80
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,559 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Malbeth the Seer's Words

2. Lamnet For Théoden

3. Théoden's Battle Cry

4. At Théoden Death

5. Snowmane's Epitaph

6. Éomer's Song

7. Songs of Mounds of Mundburg

8. Athelas

9. Song of Lebennin

10. Sam's Song in the Orc-tower

11. Long Live the Halflings!

12. Legolas's Song of the Sea

13. The Eagle's Song

14. Burial Song of Théoden

15. The Old Walking Song III

16. A Walking Song II

17. Elven Hymn to Elbereth Gilthoniel III

18. There is an inn, a merry old inn...

19. The Riddle of Strider I

20. The Fall of Gil-galad

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

p>Music by Caspar Reiff & Peter Hall

The Tolkien Ensemble with
The Danish Radio Sinfonietta/DR
Danish National Chamber Choir/Dr
Copenhagen Young Strings
The Chamber Choir Hymnia
The Copenhagen Chamber Choir Camerata

Soloists:
Christopher Lee
Peter Hall
Nick Keir
Tom McEwan
Pocl Dissing
Morten Ernst Lassen
Kurt Ravn
Singe Asmussen
Mads Thiemann
Ulrick Cold
Jörgen Ditlevsen
Ole Norup
Malene Nordtorp Windekilde
Caspar Reiff

Morten Ryelund, director

This 4 CD-box contains the world's first complete musical interpretation of all the poems in the J.R. Tolkien's masterpiece 'The Lord of the Rings' set to music by Caspar Reiff & Peter Hall. 14 soloists, among these the world-famous actor Christopher Lee, and more that 150 professional musicians, have taken part in the ambitious project, which took 10 years to complete.

The songs help one relive 'The Lord of the Rings' in an entirely new way, as they range from happy and funny hobbit folk-songs in the beginning of the book, to evocative and dramatic highlights towards the end.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Beautiful!, May 24, 2006

By 

Niere (VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lord of the Rings: Complete Songs and Poems - Christopher Lee - Tolkien Ensemble (Audio CD)

A complete collection of all the poems from the "Lord of the Rings" put to music. This box set includes 4 cd's and a very nice book that gives information on the performers, the history of the project, and lyrics for all the songs/poems, including illustrations and little descriptions and excerpts from the book to get a feel on where you are in the story.

The Tolkien Ensemble and Christopher Lee did a wonderful job pulling together the atmosphere of the book into each song. It really makes me want to re-read The Lord of the Rings and play the songs when I reach the poems in the book.

Just a "for example" on how well the songs fit the context of the book, on Disc 3 #13"Galadriel's Song of Eldamar" is sung in a beautiful soprano in Quenya. Now in the book, Frodo heard Galadriel singing this song as the Fellowship was leaving Lothlorien, but he did not understand Quenya, so didn't know the meaning of the song. In later years, Frodo is able to translate this song from memory. So the next song on the CD is the same song repeated but this time with a male singer(Frodo)in English, with the soprano, Galadriel, humming in the background. Very nice!

My one complaint with some of the songs are those in the book that were spoken by Legolas. The songs "Nimrodel" and "Legolas's Song of the Sea" are both sung in a deep baritone. They are nice, but, just didn't catch the flavor of the book. Do elves do baritone? Ummm, maybe, but surely not Legolas.... ;-)

The tone of these CD's take you from happy, clap your hands walking songs, to beautiful and sad elven songs, to the deep and scary - Christopher Lee does an awesome Ring Verse in Black Speech.

I guess the best compliment I can give this set of CDs is I was trying to pick out some of my favorites to burn on a disc for the car, and ended up having to burn all four CDs complete. That's a first for me. Thumbs up to the Tolkien Ensemble for a job very well done!

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Collected works of the Tolkien Ensemble, August 10, 2006

By 

Arturo Magidin (Lafayette, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lord of the Rings: Complete Songs and Poems - Christopher Lee - Tolkien Ensemble (Audio CD)

First note: as of this writing, Amazon also offers an import version of this collection, called simply "Lord of the Rings [BOX SET][IMPORT]". It is the same product, with two small differences: the import's booklet comes in both English and Danish, and (again, as of this writing) the import costs only slightly more than half as much as this version. Now on to the review (this is the same as my review of the import version).

Over ten years ago, the Tolkien Ensemble formed to put to music the poems that appear in The Lord of the Rings. These are not "songs inspired by" or "music inspired by." This is the text of the poems as they appear in the books, put to music. Receiving the blessings of the Tolkien Estate after performing some of their results in concerts, their first disc was "An Evening in Rivendell", which contained all the lighthearted hobbit songs, and a few others (such as Galadriel's song of Eldamar, and a couple of versions of the Hymn to Elbereth). A few years later, "A Night in Rivendell" tackled some of the darker poems: the lament for Boromir, the funeral hymn for Theoden, Frodo's rememberance of Gandalf, etc. Then came "At Dawn in Rivendell", which also enlisted the great Christopher Lee to make readings of some poems that are clearly meant to be spoken rather than sung, and songs like Legolas's "Song of Nimrodel". And finally came "Leaving Rivendell", with all remaining songs and poems.

This set contains all the material that was included in the previous four discs; the difference being that in this set the poems and songs appear in the same order as they occur in the books. The first two CDs contain the songs and poems that occur in "Fellowship of the Ring", the third contains the ones from "The Two Towers", and the fourth and final the ones from "Return of the King". Except for a few repetitions that occur in the book, all the poems and songs from the trilogy are in the CDs. Even so, some repetitions receive reworked treatment (there are three versions of the Elven Hymn to Elbereth, for example).

The style of music varies as much as the style varies in the book. From a great choral arrangement for the Burial Song for Theoden, to aethereal voices singing to Elbereth, through a more bardic style for the Song of Nimrodel; a great piano arrangement for the Lament for Boromir, lively renditions of "There is an inn..." and Sam's troll song, and stately readings of the Rhymes of Lore by Christopher Lee (who also provides the voice of Treebeard in some songs). No doubt the style of some songs may strike some listeners as odd or a false note (I for one imagined the Burial Song in a more traditional, single bard, style than a choral arrangement; and one might certainly debate how appropriate the sounds of a piano might be in the context of the fantasy tale); but by and large, it just sounds right.

The Tolkien Ensemble has done an outstanding job in translating the poems to actual songs, and in providing ambient music for the dramatic readings where appropriate. Next time you read the trilogy, you will find yourself singing the poems and not merely reading them.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty much perfect, except for one minor flaw., October 24, 2011

By 

TotallyTolkien - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lord of the Rings: Complete Songs and Poems - Christopher Lee - Tolkien Ensemble (Audio CD)

Firstly, I would like to say that this dvd set is a wonderful masterpiece. However just one irritaing flaw. The titles of the songs dont match the order that they appear in the book when listened to on your computer. If you listen to the songs and look at the book they all corespond in the order they should, but for some reason, when played on a computer the titles are in the wrong places. I know for this set the producers have put the songs in the order that they appear in the books. These cds where innitially produced seperately and the songs were not in the proper order when initially produced . Setting that aside,this cd set evokes the spirit Tolkien's books perfectly. It gives the reader yet another dimension to absorb, making reading The Lord of the Rings books even more enjoyable. The musical skills of the participants are unsurpassed. Hearing Christopher Lee and the others reading and singing the poems and the musical accompanyment makes this a treat to be savoured by any Tolkien enthusiast. The only other project I would like to see is all the actors from the theatrical version getting together to do an audio book of the lord of the rings series. All in all, I would recommend this set to anyone whom wants something a little different and special for their music collection.