I
started what I thought would be a fairly
straightforward, minor update of some themes to
incorporate info from . But it grew (as
everything I take on seems to do) into a more
thorough sweep of the site to add some basic
information (for referencing purposes) and cross
linking between pages. I also reorganized and
expanded some sections.
I
started out trying to document all edits to the
site I was making this go around. But to be
honest, at some point, the cross referencing,
interconnected nature of some of these changes
absorbed so much of my attention that the
"What's New" page just got forgotten. I think
I've got a lot of the changes below but don't
assume these are ALL of them.
State of the Site - updated
Official
Information & A Magpie's Nest : How
does my site interface and support official information?
- updated
A Magpie's Nest : A History
- (I am
currently rereading Harry Potter & the Deathly
Hallows. Catch the reference?)
- I've been doing a lot of researching and
documenting of 'history' in many areas of my
life. I had some bit of info I wanted to provide
or point I wanted to make that belonged in a
history of this site and/or my involvement in
the LOTR score. I can't remember what that point
or bit of info was now.
Odds & Ends
- I had this information indexed in the theme
area. I think the music in this section started
out to be what I had called 'small themes' but
it had grown to include observations beyond
themes or even music. So I gave it it's own
section (which probably isn't so apparent to the
reader) and each item now has its own page.
CD EDITIONS - I reduced the size of the
images in this section. Larger images are
available in
Picasa Albums. I realized that I now had all
the collectible character cards available with
the TTT editions (after buying a used copy of
the TTT-ILE on ebay - thanks for the heads up,
Earl). So I
scanned in these cards at a larger size than
the previous images I found on the web.
LINKS
ADDED: Guillaume
Schneider's account of: Singing The Lord
of the Rings :
Part 1 --
Part 2 --
Part 3 --
Part 4 --
Part 5 --
Part 6
ADDED: Audio of
lectures by Doug Adams (also added to
Official
Information section)
Luzern Lecture I: Rhythm and Percussion
Luzern Lecture II: Ethnic Instruments
Luzern Lecture III: Choral Music
Wheaton Overview
ADDED: Robbie F.'s
discussion of singing/lyrics in the FOTR
Live to Projection concert :
What Are Those Elves Singing?
LINKS CORRECTED : Melson's
Score Analysis site - Melson's
site--which provides time stamps for
when to hear themes in the Complete
Recordings--moved... which meant the
links on my site to his haven't worked
for awhile. Those are all fixed now.
REMOVED : Earl's "House
of Eorl" and John's "Music of the LOTR"
- On each of
my theme pages, I provided links to
other sites that also discussed themes.
Since these two sites are now gone, I have
removed all my links to them (on both
theme pages and in the LINKS section)
OFFICIAL INFORMATION (was Howard Shore
Comments) - when I first started providing
'official information' it all came (pretty much)
in the form of a comment by Howard Shore -
especially since the bulk of this area was
comprised of dvd extras transcripts. Over time,
'official information' became available in many
different forms. So I renamed the section and
revamped it to include information about more
sources. I did an extensive accounting of the
content and
design of The Music of the
LOTR Films. My
review of the book is yet to come.
SOURCE TEXTS
Arwen's Song:
The complete version
of this song as heard on the Rarities
Archive has two additional lines not heard
before.
Frodo's Song: The first information
for this song (back in 2003) use the name
"The Grey Havens" which is what I called it.
It's now switched to Frodo's Song to bring
it into alignment with
The Music of the LOTR Films.
THEMES -
changes unrelated to
The Music of the
LOTR Films:
Shire B: I
had a note regarding two uses of the Shire B
theme made by FarFromHome. But I've since found
the original comment made by Estelwyn (which
FarFromHome had mentioned) regarding these
scenes. So I'm now providing the original
comment (which is a bit more developed than the
one I had) here:
Pensive Setting of the Shire Theme --
Shire
B
Thanks to N.E. Brigand for
bringing this old conversation from
TheOneRing.net to my attention.
Lothlórien: I supplied a link to Eli Bildirici's musings on the Lothlórien theme
and the maqām hijāz.
THEMES -
changes related
to
The Music of the LOTR Films:
New Themes:
All the themes listed in "The Music of
the LOTR Films" that I did not have were
only heard a few times. That was not the
type of music I ever intended to cover. I
did add them to my indexes along with an audio
sample, but for any other information, I'll
refer you to Adams' book. They include:
An Elvish Pledge
Riders
of Rohan
Battlefield
Heroism
Drive of the
Fellowship
Orc Crawl
Uruk-hai in
Battle
Footsteps of
Doom End-cap
Treebeard's
Stride
Small Stones
Organization:
The organization of themes in
The Music of the LOTR
Films is a little different than in
the Complete Recordings liner notes. I've
reorganized mine here to reflect that. Changes include:
Overall, many of
the subcategories of 'thematic
relationship' and 'thematic
counterpoint' have been dropped. The
music in those categories remain listed
as themes under their culture (Elves,
Shire, Rohan, Nature, etc) heading.
The cultures
of Rohan and
Gondor are no longer sub categories
within the category, World of Men. They
are now each their own category.
Éowyn is not
presented as a category distinct from
Rohan. Instead, her three themes are now
listed in the category of
Rohan.
Name Changes:
Arwen
Revealed : I had originally called this
theme simply, Arwen's Theme. The liner notes
referred to it as Arwen Revealed as did "The
Music of the LOTR Films". I've now joined
the club.
Aragorn's
Theme & Strider's Theme : The music
discussed previously as "Heroics of
Aragorn" is now divided into these two
themes. I had originally used the name,
Aragorn's Theme, and (other than in the
main indexes of themes) retained that
name even after the release of the CRs
that designated it as Heroics of
Aragorn. The distinction between the two
themes is fine enough that I just kept all
instances of both on the same page and refer the
reader to
The Music of the LOTR
Films for more information.
The White Rider... previously The White
Rider (in the Fellowship) : The primary name
dropped the parenthesis for 'in the Fellowship'
but gained an alternate title - found completely
inside of parenthesis - of 'Gandalf the White in
the Fellowship'.
Gandalf the White... previously The
White Rider (in Nature) and occasionally
Gandalf the White (in Nature) : The
White Rider name was dropped completely
for this Nature theme, as was the
parenthesis that encompassed 'in Nature'. But
the theme now has an alternate title - found
completely inside parenthesis - of 'Gandalf the
White in Nature'.
Fellowship
of the Ring : Within the CR liner notes,
this name served two purposes. One was
to describe a main 'culture' (similar to
Shire, Elves, Nature, The One Ring,
etc.). The other was to describe the
predominate theme within this culture.
Now the
main culture retains the full
name and the
theme name is shortened to
just 'Fellowship'. 'Fellowship' was my
first name for this theme and (other
than in the main indexes of themes) I
retained that name on the site even
after the release of the CR.
Removed:
I started
trying to 'explain' themes with the
advent of this website in 2003. As more
and more info became available, I
attempted to 'keep up'. At some point, I
knew that I would give over this
explanation to Doug Adams. I am now
refocusing on the strengths of this site
to give basic info and support (with
additional resources) to the published
official works. On a case by case basis,
that means I streamlined information by
removing, from my site, what is best
left to the musicologist. I won't list
every case here. If you follow the
score, buy the products, and participate
in discussions... you won't miss
anything I remove. You already have know
or have access to that info. If you are
merely a casual fan and have stumbled on
my site and want more info... I suggest
you'll really enjoy owning the Complete
Recordings and/or
The Music of the LOTR Films.
Other: I
identified a body of music I called the Weakness
of Men and I connected it to the Rivendell
Theme. For the most part, that body of music
(with some additional music) is now known as the
Weakness & Redemption theme. I removed it
from the Rivendell page and put my own thoughts
about this music at the bottom of the page -
labeled as 'incorrect but interesting
nonetheless'.
Unchanged:
I quoted
Doug extensively from the Complete
Recording liner notes. It's highly
likely those same quotes are in his book
but I'm not going to find them and
switch the quote attributions from the
liner notes to the book.
I wouldn't
be me if I didn't assert my
individuality in some manner. One
'theme' has two names: 'Sauron' / 'Evil
of the Ring'. Although it means that I'm
doing it differently than Doug, I still
use Sauron as the primary name for this
theme. I suspect most people reading
this site get that they're the same. My
apologies to anyone who doesn't. :-)
