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Post by Fredeghar Wayfarer on Dec 5, 2016 23:11:13 GMT -6
Has anyone else heard this soundtrack? I don't recall if we've talked about this before. For those unaware, there was a Lord of the Rings musical produced in London in 2006. As you guys may recall, I do community theater. So a show like this that combines two of my passions (musicals and Middle-earth) makes me deliriously happy. I've been listening to it on my iPod a lot lately. I'm not familiar with the songwriters (A.R. Rahman, Christopher Nightingale, and a Finnish band called Varttina) but they did a very nice job capturing the feel of Tolkien's world. The music is quite beautiful and many of the songs are loosely based on songs and poems from the book. There are even a few lyrics in Quenya. The story has been compressed (Rohan and all related characters seem to have been cut) and from what I understand, the show got mixed reviews from critics. But I enjoy it a lot. The best songs, in my opinion, are The Road Goes On (based on Bilbo's walking song), The Cat and the Moon (the lyrics are quite a tongue twister! I don't envy the actors that had to learn this), and Now and For Always (a duet of Frodo and Sam out in the wilderness). Here's a playlist of the soundtrack: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4ZwE7dIMNo&list=PLC15BA24798B05CD4
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Post by Stormrider on Dec 9, 2016 12:32:16 GMT -6
WHAT! ROHAN GOT CUT! No way! LOL! I ave not heard about this before. Your favorites sound like they'd be good ones. I see some others listed in your link that would also be good. I'll listen later after I get home from work.
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Post by Fredeghar Wayfarer on Dec 22, 2016 22:45:44 GMT -6
Did you ever get a chance to listen to this, Stormrider? Or anyone else on here? This show has become a minor obsession of mine so I'd love to hear what other Tolkien fans think of it.
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Post by fanuidhol on Dec 23, 2016 4:20:29 GMT -6
Sorry, Freddy, no I haven't....
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Post by Stormrider on Dec 23, 2016 7:17:12 GMT -6
Freddie: Not yet. I have been so busy with Christmas shopping, cookie baking, present wrapping, planning, etc. since you posted it. My time at LOTRO has even been much less. But I do plan to listen ... I promise! Stormy
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Post by Andorinha on Dec 24, 2016 23:41:32 GMT -6
SPOILER ALERT! Youse others should write up your reviews/ sentiments before you read mine! *Found the Gollum scene, starting at 5 minutes into this video : www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHMwqLfGO6AMixed feelings on the LotR musical. Some of the tunes were "overly-familiar" to my ear, Irish pub-music, and standard "epic-musical" -- nonetheless, taken as stage-musical genre-music, I found it enjoyable, and a few of the cuts I quite liked. "LotR Prologue" was fine, the "Road Goes On," I liked because it both used, and deviated from the book version poem. "Star of Elendil" seemed too much like "musicale" music, found it boring… "The Golden Wood" I found interesting, reminded me of 1970s experimental music until it left the opening phrases to meld into "Lothorien." "Siege of the City" was "fun," stirring… Viewing "Now and Forever" as a "pub-ballad" worked for me, liked the finger-plucking… "Gollum and Smeagol" actually got me uncharacteristically enthused! I would really like to see the stage performance of this one!* It actually impacted me enough to allow me to imagine how I would direct/ present it (were I doing this show) -- that was fun! This was the highpoint of my experience with the entire opus. The next several tracks I found too derivative, kept seeing Mitzi Gaynor (Gainor?) and Doris Day… "Epilogue, Farewells" was what I expected, but even though somewhat saccharine to my ears, I found I still liked its sentimentality -- go figure? "Finale" did what it was supposed to -- gives the audience an uplifting, dancing exit from the performance -- more fun to sing and dance to than just listen to it? Overall -- A-, interested enough to want to see the show, but probably would not buy just the music as an album...
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Post by fanuidhol on Dec 26, 2016 14:25:56 GMT -6
I am not a fan of soundtracks, though some of my favorite movies are musicals (which surprised me when I noticed). I haven't listened to the music and sorry to say, probably won't, but, like Andy, I'd go see the musical if I had the opportunity. I'd buy the movie if it came out on DVD. The YouTube video was interesting to watch and I LOVED the Gollum scene.
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Post by Fredeghar Wayfarer on Jan 12, 2017 0:32:04 GMT -6
Hmm. Fair enough. I know musicals are not everyone's thing.
Thanks for giving it a listen, Andorinha. The Gollum/Smeagol song was indeed pretty cool. That actor did a nice job portraying the conflict of the two personalities. Kind of reminded me of the Jekyll and Hyde musical where the lead has to duet/argue with himself at the end.
I would love for the LOTR show to have a revival so I could see it. There was talk of a world tour back in 2015 but it never happened. I'm sure the show is quite expensive to produce so chances are the tour was either canceled or indefinitely postponed. A shame. Due to a combination of the source material and the music, this has earned a place on the list of my favorite musicals.
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Post by Stormrider on Jan 12, 2017 7:39:19 GMT -6
Sauruman sounds very Elvish and mysterious. I would have thought it should have a sinister theme to the song. I like the fiddle in the Cat and the Moon--I'm a fan of violin, fiddle, strings in general. Flight to the Ford seemed to build in intensity as it played but I thought there should have been sort of a pounding of hooves in the background but I did like the eeriness of it. The Golden Woods and Lothlorien were pretty but I keep trying to picture LOTR as a musical and for some reason orchestrated sound tracks rather than singing appeals to me more. I liked The Siege of the City of Kings because there was not any singing (only voices doing oooos and aaaahs, if you know what I mean). Gollum/Smeagol is a difficult challenge and I think he did a pretty good job of it. His Smeagol was whiny and his Gollum sounded evil. I liked The Final Battle, it was powerful and I liked the trumpets. I loved the wooden flute and violins in the Final Epilogue Farewells.
I do have trouble with a musical for LOTR, but it would have been something I would go to see if it was in my area. I think I am kind of biased because of the musical scores of Howard Shore. But there is the haunting elvish singing in this sound track like some of the movie tracks have, too. Thanks for sharing the link. It is another interesting twist to our favorite professors works.
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Post by Fredeghar Wayfarer on Jan 12, 2017 20:49:49 GMT -6
The idea of a LOTR musical does sound odd at first. But Tolkien's books are filled with songs and poems. The Music of the Ainur brought Arda into existence and music has always been important in the professor's work. Plus the old Hobbit cartoons were technically musicals. I don't think it's that big of a stretch.
The term "musical" seems to carry some baggage for non-theater people. Some folks hear it and expect cheesy old-fashioned showtunes or lines of dancing chorus girls. But modern musicals have embraced a variety of music styles and sometimes tackle pretty dark or serious themes. At the end of the day, it's just another form of storytelling. As long as you have a style that fits the story, musical adaptations of unlikely sources can be quite good.
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Post by Stormrider on Jan 13, 2017 9:15:27 GMT -6
You are right, there are many poems in Tolkien's works and, of course, the music of the Ainur! How could I forget that! Didn't someone here post a link to a visual and musical clip of the creation of Arda? It was pretty good, too. But I don't have any negative feelings for musicals. I like some of those oldies: Oklahoma, Music Man, Sound of Music, West Side Story, (Gypsy Rose Lee with Natalie Wood, I can't remember the name ... was it just Gypsy?) And tons of others I've seen over my lifetime.
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Post by fanuidhol on Jan 14, 2017 7:38:38 GMT -6
Some of my favorite movies are musicals. I have Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story, Camelot and The King and I on DVD. It's just that I don't care for soundtracks.
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Post by Stormrider on Jan 14, 2017 8:37:38 GMT -6
Fan, Those are all great musicals, too! I do like my Howard Shore sound tracks from the movies while driving to and from work!
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Post by Fredeghar Wayfarer on Jan 14, 2017 21:53:29 GMT -6
You are right, there are many poems in Tolkien's works and, of course, the music of the Ainur! How could I forget that! Didn't someone here post a link to a visual and musical clip of the creation of Arda? It was pretty good, too. But I don't have any negative feelings for musicals. I like some of those oldies: Oklahoma, Music Man, Sound of Music, West Side Story, (Gypsy Rose Lee with Natalie Wood, I can't remember the name ... was it just Gypsy?) And tons of others I've seen over my lifetime. Yes, it's just called Gypsy. And I think that was me that posted the animated clip of the creation of Arda. Those are definitely some great musicals you both listed. I've been in productions of Fiddler on the Roof and JC Superstar. Camelot is one of my favorites too and I would love to be in it some day. I'm a big fan of Arthurian legend.
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Post by Stormrider on Dec 2, 2020 9:47:15 GMT -6
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