Daily update: I am in the middle of Finrod's second stanza. Remember the time I was complaining that translations were getting harder instead of easier? I think I reached that point of exhaustion with the music, which delayed me further, but I think I'm past the nadir now. Sauron's second stanza was hard! And still needs work. Ironically, musical inspiration failed me completely on Sauron's "How can such as you hope to restore a single line".
It is currently bare of accompaniment, to be filled in later. I swear Sauron is mocking me. Finrod, on the contrary, is easier to imagine music for, but the music itself is more complex and takes more fiddling with. You can tell I do his part one instrument line at a time because you can hear them fall off one by one at the end.
As usual, suggestions and comments are most welcome.
I was hoping to be done before the weekend, but I am afraid I won't make it at my current pace. I will be away from the computer on the weekend but will continue to work on it the moment I'm back! I am sorry for being so slow. Unfortunately the score is the rate-limiting step in the process, and I write music a lot slower than I wrote lyrics!
The next song should be something less complex. Something with fewer instruments involved. Or something where I wouldn't feel guilty breaking my "no exact repetitions" rule and just using the same accompaniment for multiple stanzas. I wouldn't quite say I bit off more than I can chew with the Duel, but it's more than I can chew without a break.
PS: making the music made me see certain things in the lyrics I didn't notice previously. For instance, I only realized a couple days ago that Sauron's first stanza is longer by an extra couplet. But some things are about the actual content:
1. The music lends itself very well to an extra syllable in Finrod's repeated final lines. They could become "The curses become songs!" and "A strength to counter you!". What do you think?
2. "Heeding the song of memory" - when I hum this to myself, half the time I change "song" to "call" unconsciously. My brain is still in translation mode, replacing the lyrics with the most literal translation it can find that fits into the line. o.o
PPS: listening to it without seeing the notes in front of me gave a couple of ideas. I changed "left with bitter memories" to make "memories" go faster and have a pause afterwards, and a couple other minor changes. But I won't re-record for now.