Songs of Middle Earth: Inspired by The Lord of the Rings

Rick Wakeman | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 23, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bmg Special Product
• ASIN: B00006CYAT
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,972 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Shire

2. The Old Forest

3. Rivendell

4. The Great River

5. Lothlorien

6. The Misty Mountains

7. Helms Deep

8. Rohan

9. Minas Truth [sic]

10. The Grey Havens

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Music Not Inspired by Lord of the Rings, August 24, 2002

By 

"claxmurdoch" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Songs of Middle Earth: Inspired by The Lord of the Rings (Audio CD)

This CD purports to be a collection of songs inspired by The Lord of the Rings, but if one turns to the back cover, one may see that the music is made up of tracks previously released on Rick Wakeman's Heritage Suite and The Seven Wonders of the World. These songs, then, are obviously NOT inspired by Lord of the Rings but have simply been retitled (incorrectly in the case of Minas Tirith which has here been called Minas Truth) with names from Tolkien's triolgy. While it is interesting to listen to these old songs in their new conceptual connotations, this is still old material, and the musical styles of the original two albums don't always blend as nicely as one might hope. One would do far better to purchase both Seven Wonders and Heritage Suite and experience the songs in their proper form.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you love music, this is it., February 12, 2003

By 

Timothy R. Brown (Huber Heights, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Songs of Middle Earth: Inspired by The Lord of the Rings (Audio CD)

I was drawn to this cd as a fan of Rick Wakeman and the Lord of the Rings books. Anyone who is a fan of fine instrumentals and some fabulous piano playing should really check this one out. Many of the tracks have appeared on previous Wakeman collections, but they all seem to fit very, very well. Lothlorien, Rohan and the Grey Havens have some of Wakeman's best piano playing. The music is as relaxing as it is inspiring. It makes me want to start playing the piano again.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bland and uninspired, November 18, 2006

By 

Randall Eicher "RE" (McKinney, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Songs of Middle Earth: Inspired by The Lord of the Rings (Audio CD)

This album does not seem in any way related to Middle Earth. All of the tracks seem bland and very similar to each other, there is nothing to distinguish one track from another. Having read the books many times, the areas associated with each track are significantly different. I have liked some of Wakeman's other theme albums, particularly Six Wives of Henry VIII, where each track had a distinct character. This album is not up to that standard and the tracks seem to be a mish mash of bland compositions that was thrown together and had titles slapped on them to associate them with LOTR. Given the well developed character of each area in LOTR, I would have expected tracks with distinct character, much as Holst's Planets compositions each have very distinct characters that strongly evoke the character being portrayed. Not so the tracks on this album, they evoked only boredom in this listener.