Music that reminds you of LotR

What music reminds you of LotR? This topic also doubles as help for my website :P I hope to include music for each section of the site. Help me decide what to use I've found that game music seems to suit my needs so far . Please note that GeoCities may be tempermental about letting you hear these... you may need to cut and paste the url and enter it in or reload or something to get it to work. Here's some thoughts I had, tell me what you think: <a href=http://www.geocities.com/bmilder.geo/Kuntamon.mid>Kuntamon.mid</a> from Jill of the Jungle 2 for Isengard. It sounds mysterious, and I just love the part that starts at 1:12 <a href=http://www.geocities.com/bmilder.geo/ff3over3.mid>ff3over3.mid</a> from Final Fantasy 3 (I think) for Lothlorien... it sounds ancient, and also sad. <a href=http://www.geocities.com/bmilder.geo/Hocus007.mid>Hocus007.mid</a> from Hocus Pocus for the Shire. It sounds busy like the bustling Shire, and is kind of Hobbitish <a href=http://www.geocities.com/bmilder.geo/7elitefour2.mid>7elitefour2.mid</a> from Pokemon (don't sneer until you hear it ) for Rivendell. I'm not entirely sure about this one, but it does sound kind of like Rivendell. And finally, <a href=http://www.geocities.com/bmilder.geo/Hocus006.mid>Hocus006.mid</a>. I'm not sure how to use this one... maybe I'll have two for Isengard, since this sounds like magic Comments on my selections? Have any of your own?

This is brilliant, bmilder. I can only opine that the only music from my gaming years that I'd favor is the entire soundtrack to Final Fantasy II. That's what I grew up on and it will always haunt me. From the dynamic trumpet marches to the slow sad lays to the suspenceful strings, it had it all imo. If SuperNES Zelda weren't so recognizable, I'd cite that also, as it surely has an industrial-size medeival adventure feel. Were I to have the resources to do a Tolkien site, I might include music from artists (Celtic/Medeival/Alternative/Classical) who had that unique feel.

Cool Hey, do you have ICQ, Hernalt? I looked for your account but couldn't find it...

Bmilder, For the moment, no. I post in from work and don't want to load anything up on these pcs. But I'll get my own pc soon.. ish.. I hope..

actually the LOTR music on the still pic trailer sounds kinda like the ten commandments...

The links don't work for me for some reason, I get an unavailable message from Yahoo! Anyways, anything from the Chieftains would probably be good. There music always reminds me of Middle Earth.

Yeah, at the "Not found" page you need to go to the url box and hit enter. It should work from there. Not sure why it doesn't just work automatically...

I like "The Hall of the Mountain King"--very dwarvish-sounding. Am I the only one who makes up their own melodies to the songs, though? I'm always fiddling around with various melodies, writing them out, and singing them. They're not very good, but I can't just read a poem that's supposed to be a song without making up something, or at least imagining how it might sound.

Well, I had to download them, but it was worth it! Great selections Ben!

How exactly did you do it Tater? I am having problems too....

I agree, Hall of the Mountain King sounds Dwarvish... and now it's stuck in my head...

For some reason Sauron reminds me of Darth Vader so whenever I hear the Imperial March I think "That's Sauron!" John Williams ought to do the LOTR soundtrack...

That would be cool! The greatest composer of all time meets the greatest story of all time... After Star Wars AND LOTR he'll be more famous than Mozart!

One composer who has always reminded of the Lord of the Rings, not surprisingly, is Richard Wagner. After all, LoTR takes a lot of ideas from his Ring Cycle. The plots are very similar indeed. Anyway, several selections of his are particularly appropriate. One is the prelude to Die Valkyrie, which I'm sure you've heard. Another is the Magic Fire Music, from the same opera. They're both great for the Black Riders, and evil stuff in general. Use the orchestral versions, as opposed to the version with the vocals.

Another great composer that fits well is Richard Strauss. In particular, some bits of Ein Heldenleben (especially the battle scene) and Also Sprach Zarathustra(there's a lot more to it than the famous 2001 opening) are very dramatic. There's some other good stuff too, by him.

Ummm..... Rachmaninoff (the piano concertos), Tchaikovsky (1812 overture), and Mussourgsky (Night on Bald Mountain always sounds very Sauron-ish to me) are good on the Romantic Russian side, and Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev are just as good, though slightly more modern. Stravinsky's Firebird Dance and Shostakovich's Symphony #5 in particular. From Holst's Planets, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus are all very dramatic. Khachaturian's Saber Dance from Gayne is also well-suited to LOTR. Oh, and how could I forget Rimsky-Korsakov and his amazing Scheherazade. Truly an excellent piece. Hmmm.... I'm sure there's tons more but that's all I can think of for now.

I'd say that I could certainly read LOTR and augment my experience by playing Wagner's Ring in the background... even though this is a different type of ring we're dealing with

Nice iedeas everybody! I think Pakobel's (sp) Canon would be great for any area having to do with elves.

Nice time to bring up the topic

For The Tolkien Trail, I'm trying to stick to unusual and lesser-known songs, especially video game music, and some original compositions.

The only thing that Pachbel's (sp?) Canon reminds anyone of today is weddings......trust me.


Ben, are you going to use MIDI's? I have never been able to hear them for some reason (and no Tater, it's not because I am deaf :P). Anytime a site has MIDI's I get two windows that pop up everytime a page loads....quite annoying. I know that you are very fond of them, but is there not another way?

Because Zeppelin used Tolkien in some of their songs, I always think of the Middle-Earth when I listen to them.

For some reason, the 'Immigrant Song' always makes me imagine the ships of the Numenoreans landing on the coasts of Middle-Earth or Aman.

Ahh, stupid Mac compability issues

Don't worry, I won't have them load automatically, but rather have the songs be a link or something similar. The advantage of MIDI's is that they are tiny files, so even for people still with slow modems, it doesn't take forever. MP3's are generally better quality; however, video games don't really have fully orchestrated songs and most aren't in MP3 format in any event. Plus, as the owner of a 56k modem up until last month, I know it can take forever for even the smallest MP3 to load.

Try installing a MIDI plugin for your browser, like Crescendo (that's what I have.)

Pachelbel's (Correct spelling. I promise. I work in a music box store and play piano.) Canon is one of my favorite pieces of music, but I've never thought of it as Tolkien-ish. Now that I think of it, though, I kind of like the idea...

I agree with the choice for John Williams, though. That would be cool for the movies.

Back in September, a thread was started to discuss Williams doing the music for LOTR......thought you might find it interesting.