Microphones in Middle-earth...the BBC Lord of the Rings

[Mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by Brian Sibley

I remember the recording of this scene very vividly: two actors standing at a microphone, holding scripts and wearing ordinary clothes and specs. Suddenly, when it came to THAT line, Peter seized Ian's hand and forced it into his mouth. Fantastic! So when I hear those lines, that's what I see in my mind's eye!!

Oh my gosh... thanks so much for this tidbit, as I'm never going to get that out of my head...

Glad you're finishing off this epic! Well done!!!

Actually, davem, thanks for the delay, as if you had finished this on time I would never have been able to jump on board.

I also like the track division, as the copy I finally managed to buy is the 2003 recut version (after all this is over, might we go back and discuss the extra narrational bits recorded to tie the new cuts all together?) and I'm pretty sure the tracks line up. Unfortunately, I can't check, as this week I lent out my copy to a friend who's never heard it before. Which is a great reason to not contribute aside from reactions based on memory, but still.

PS: Unlike Estelyn, I could have done without counter-tenor for eagles!!

Oh, good... I thought it was my youth and/or Americanism that made that so off-putting for me. The notion of a singing eagle is already difficult to dramatize without it sounding silly, but the notion of his being a counter-tenor (and I'm imagining the bells attached to his talons, too) just kills my secondary belief with one hit.

As I recall (it's been a long time since I've heard the episode in its one-hour context) this entire episode just exuded awesome. Even though I know it's coming, I can never fail to get chills whenever Ian Holm lets out the Evil Chuckle (in case we hadn't yet gotten the picture that he was completely gone at this point). Good stuff--limited only, I think, by the fact that it's really difficult to adapt the last moments of the Sammath Naur for audio.

[davem]

I like the eagle! Honestly, the way the song intercuts the action is perfect as far as I'm concerned. I love the whole episode, & its a perfect example of how radio drama, done right, is a true art form. Actually I've just come across a book (searching on Amazon) Life on Air: A History of Radio Four by David Hendy http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Air-His...687902&sr=1-14
which speaks of the

'fanfare of publicity for Radio Four's new serialisation of The Lord of the Rings, adapted by Brian Sibley & Michael Bakewell, directed by Jane Morgan, & starring Ian Holm as Frodo, John Le Mesurier as Bilbo Baggins, Bill Nighy as Sam Gamgee, & Michael Hordern as Gandalf.....there were twenty-six episodes, original music - & plenty of coverage in the press. Like Vivat Rex, this was a production on the epic scale. But equally satisfying for many inside Broadcasting House was that The Lord of the Rings played it straight. It was sumptuous but not flash, & satisfied the Tolkien aficionados as well as those new to the work. Crucially, the calibre of the acting had spoken for itself. As one senior editor suggested, the impact of their performances 'would raise the morale of the whole directorate'. And, indeed, it was now in the early 1980's, that critics wrote more insistently of acting on Radio Four being 'infinitely' better than ever before, & about a self-confidence having returned to Radio Drama.

Found that on the search inside option, btw, so don't ask me who the 'senior editor' was, but I'd have to agree - & with the passage as a whole. We won't ever see the like of this series again, & thank God we were so blest in the team that brought it together. Its one of the jewels in the BBC's crown.

Mnemosyne You can lead the discussion on the 'extra' narration - I haven't heard it! I'm curious - is there a lot of it?

[Mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by davem

Mnemosyne You can lead the discussion on the 'extra' narration - I haven't heard it! I'm curious - is there a lot of it?

Ehh... not more than a couple minutes at the beginning and end of each "Book" (except for the last one since the rest are all set in Frodo's study as he's trying to compose everything). They are, by and large, excellent mini fanfics--especially the one that brings up the potential plot hole of Frodo and Sam not hearing Boromir's horn! What I find most fascinating about it, honestly, is that you really can't tell that over 20 years have elapsed between the narrations and the drama.

Anyway, the recut is worth listening to at least once... I love the bonus narrations, but it's a lot harder finding four-hour chunks to listen to each "book" and you don't get all the fun mini-cliffhangers that basically created the original format. (Well, you get them, but then they're immediately spoiled.) But that was what Barnes and Noble had, and since they had it, I had to buy it. Previously I'd used interlibrary loan for the thirteen-hour sets and you could probably do the same pretty easily with the recut.

[davem]

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

Anyway, the recut is worth listening to at least once... I love the bonus narrations, but it's a lot harder finding four-hour chunks to listen to each "book" and you don't get all the fun mini-cliffhangers that basically created the original format.

The best way to experience the series if to set aside a full day & listen to it right the way through (which I've done twice), setting out with the Hobbits in the morning, & returning to Bag End with Sam as the day ends. If anyone hasn't done that I'd recommend they try that at least once - you'll be amazed at how powerful the experience is. (I find the existence of three different versions of the series quite intriguing. Bit like the books, in a way - we have the First Edition, the slightly different Second Edition & then the new 50th, with its 300-400 changes authorised by CT. )

[Estelyn Telcontar]

The different versions of the radio play do make in difficult to join in specific discussions. Mine is on 10 CDs, cut differently than the one davem is using. I'm fortunate to be able to get it in English here in Germany, but it's published by a German audio publisher, and the original episodes are hard to locate.

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

Oh, good... I thought it was my youth and/or Americanism that made that so off-putting for me. The notion of a singing eagle is already difficult to dramatize without it sounding silly, but the notion of his being a counter-tenor (and I'm imagining the bells attached to his talons, too) just kills my secondary belief with one hit.

I love the countertenor voice and David James is one of the best but this isn't my favourite piece of music - the other counter tenor tracks were a revelation and turned me into a bit of a "falsetto fancier" . I think singing eagles were always going to be difficult but there is an operatic convention of using the voice for supernatural and otherworldly characters (eg Oberon and Voice of the mask in Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream and Death in Venice) or the alienated Refugee in Jonathan Dove's "Flight" .

More interesting I think is his use of a countertenor for Galadriel's song. I wonder if it were for practical reasons or for the purer timbre. The range may be the same as a mezzo but even going easy on the vibrato the tone isn't.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

In Music in Middle-earth, Paul Smith (himself a counter-tenor) writes of Galadriel's song:

...it is interesting that this solo is assigned to a counter-tenor rather than a contralto; perhaps, since the music plays in the background of the narration, an evocation of other-worldliness associated with the male alto voice was considered to be more important.

Smith also assumes that the counter-tenor voice is used for Gwaihir

...to evoke the otherness of the Eagle.

and goes on to say:

Dramaturgically, the short episodes of the aria move the action forward by framing the discovery of the sapling on Mindolluin and the acclamation of Aragorn as Elessar.

That is interesting - normally, it is the recitative in an opera, not the aria, which moves the story forward!

[MerryinRealLife]

Yeah, I've just been reading this thread. Pretty good stuff. So yeah, I listened to the radio series on YouTube, although recently it's been taken off but...oh well. I thought it was pretty good.
Yep.
That's all I have to say, really.
I thought it was brilliantly adapted, though I admit I was saddened by the loss of Tom Bombadil but the rest of it, and the fact that the Scouring of the Shire, one of the most important parts of the book, was included felt like quick and efficient painkillers given for a wound rather than rubbing salt on it. I loved the acting and...
Yeah.
I can't really think of anything else to say.
It feels strange to be answering a thread that really hasn't been answered for such a long while.
But yeah, for me so far, this was the best adaptation of The Lord of the Rings that I have heard so far.
Though one day...
I really hope to actually do it and do some kind of adaptation, radio or TV series, where I can include as much as I can-Tom Bombadil, Scouring, and all-and stay true to the spirit of Tolkien.

[Mithalwen]

HI-ing for Pervinca!

[Pervinca Took]

Thanks, Mithalwen! Am I correct in deducing that the last chapter of all, "The Grey Havens," was never discussed in this thread, or at least, not in its entirety?

IIRC, the episode called "Mount Doom" ends with Hordern's Gandalf saying "Though I am uneasy as to what we shall find, when we come to the tower of Saruman," or something like that.

I have to say that I loved this line:

"The first and second-born of the races of Middle-earth salute you!"

[Mithalwen]

Yes... though I remember listening to Mount Doom and being startled that for years I had missed a short but significant section of the destruction of the ring because I had flipped the tape too soon - either that or I was listening to a superior cassette player in teh car I might have said more but looking at the dates it is about the time RL meant I was largely absent from the Downs for several months. It would be nice to complete. I am long due a relisten and I need to reread whole thread,