Elves and Music

[Thinlómien]

I don't really see what's so Elvish about Irish Music and Enya. Or maybe, yes, I see why it's associated with the Elves, but to me it's sounds too "clichéish" or "ordinary" or "soapy" to be truly Elvish. (But I actually liked the Enya bit Guinevere linked. ) Elvish music should be something less familiar to my (western) ear, in a way something not stained by the clichéishness that now stains this Enya-style music, something that sounds more "original"...

I can't really explain, but maybe you can listen to this. It's something I have found and associate with Elves thanks to my father, but I find it incredibly beautiful and definitely somehow Elvish (maybe more Wood Elvish than High Elvish, though.) I'm well aware that the song lasts around ten minutes, but it is really worth it to listen all of it, you can do something meanwhile and have it as background music or something, but listen to it!

[mark12_30]

Frodo began to listen.

At first the beauty of the melodies and of the interwoven words in elven-tongues, even though he understood them little‘ held him in a spell, as soon as he began to attend to them. Almost it seemed that the words took shape, and visions of far lands and bright things that he had never yet imagined opened out before him; and the firelit hall became like a golden mist above seas of foam that sighed upon the margins of the world. Then the enchantment became more and more dreamlike, until he felt that an endless river of swelling gold and silver was flowing over him, too multitudinous for its pattern to be comprehended; it became part of the throbbing air about him, and it drenched and drowned him. Swiftly he sank under its shining weight into a deep realm of sleep.

There he wandered long in a dream of music that turned into running water
...

I think that would be hard to find no matter how hard we looked.

However... I think there are other musical connections in Middle-Earth; the long, hard, sad journey tugs hard at us, and it is that, I think, that connects with Enya's "Exile". In that sense, and also in the sense that "Exile" is low on synth and high on celtic melody-- and I don't think in this case that the echo hurts either.
Enya has a few things I enjoy trmendously, and some other things that I enjoy much less. Most of the ones I really enjoy are not dissimilar to "Exile".

For me, it is not just any celtic music., but the haunting echo coming from across the hills, that tugs at Middle-Earth for me. And the tug is less from the artist than from the echo, and from the longing. Even Tchaikovsky has occasionally brought me to Middle-Earth... Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Nutcracker all have elvish moments in them. It's the longing.

[Andsigil]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

I can't really explain, but maybe you can listen to this. It's something I have found and associate with Elves thanks to my father, but I find it incredibly beautiful and definitely somehow Elvish (maybe more Wood Elvish than High Elvish, though.) I'm well aware that the song lasts around ten minutes, but it is really worth it to listen all of it, you can do something meanwhile and have it as background music or something, but listen to it!

That's a nice piece of music.

I've listened to quite a bit of Jewish Baroque music (how's that for obscure?). A piece by the French-Jewish composer, Louis Saladin, contains a very nice melody and chorus, beginning in this video at about 03:05.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFkJu9bBiAs

[Pitchwife]

Sticking with the Celtic connection, many of Robin Williamson's songs, with the Incredible String Band and solo, have an elvish (or maybe rather 'faerish') feel for me, both the music and the lyrics - e.g. The Dancing of the Lord of Weir on his solo album Myrrh, a story of (quite un-Tolkienesque) elves in medieval Britain taking revenge on a (presumably Norman) knight or baron for kidnapping an elvish maiden.

[skip spence]

Elvish music is good and all, but of course, it's like fingernails on blackboard compared to Elvis music.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Originally Posted by skip spence

Elvish music is good and all, but of course, it's like fingernails on blackboard compared to Elvis music.

I've heard of this book called Return of the King: is it in any way related?

[Eönwë]

Originally Posted by skip spence

Elvish music is good and all, but of course, it's like fingernails on blackboard compared to Elvis music.

In the movie, am I the only one who hears Aragorn say "He needs Elvis medicine?"

[skip spence]

I should perhaps put it on record that my post was a reply to a spammer post now deleated that expressed a great appreciation for "Elvis' music"...

It was hilarious.

[Andsigil]

I just discovered a band called Corvus Corax.

This music is awesome and could fit into a number of places in Middle Earth. But one has to listen to appreciate it- any description of mine won't do them justice:

Corvus Corax "Filii Neidhardi"