"The Music"

Phillip Menzies

Phillip Menzies

Moderator
Staff member
I have been thinking a lot about "the music" and how it would sound. This is how I envisage it.
  • It begins with one note as we are introduced to Iluvatar the ONE.
  • As the Ainur are born from his thought other single notes (or two notes for those that are siblings ie. Manwe and Melkor, Orome and Nessa) sound as they come out of Iluvatar with a flourish of notes at the end as multiple lesser Maiar take form with all the while the one note plays, continuing after the Ainur are born.
  • We then get a time where each of the Valar play their individual themes as they express themselves, with a few combining together in harmony.
  • Then the theme of "the music" is stated in simplicity something like Elgar's Nimrod
    with everything in harmony and gradually more and more Ainur join the harmony and the music builds
  • until Melkor starts with his own interpretation
  • The second theme is started, a variation on the first
  • As the discord gains in momentum it sounds something like A Day in the Life by the Beatles
    from 1:45 to 2:16 and again from 3:50 - 4:20
  • The third theme begins played by a cello and this time you do not realise it is playing for 15 to 30 seconds because of its depth and slowness, a bit like Apotheosis by Austin Wintory from the Journey soundtrack.
    The first time I heard this I didn't realise the main theme was playing because I was fixed on the higher notes being played. Listen from 1:10 and the theme starts to play from 1:20 and continues through the track. By the way Journey is a great exploration of a single theme which has the sadness and depth that the third theme needs. While the third theme is playing the cacophony gains momentum and becomes the blare of trumpets similar to the Mordor theme in FOTR
    from 5:49 - 6:17
  • The way the third theme plays initially without being noticed is also similar to the way the Isengard theme is played in the White Council in An Unexpected Journey (has anyone else noticed that?). It is played when Saruman first appears to Gandalf and you are too busy listening to another part of the music to notice it at first.
    listen at 2:14 - 2:26.
  • The final chord is like the end of a Day in the Life with the intended harmonies played deep and long and the discord gone completely.
Can anyone write this?
 
Last edited:
Thanks for writing this up Phillip. It helps to put everything into an accessible context. It is very helpful.
 
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