The Tolkien Ensemble feat. Christopher Lee

[shinjitakeyama]

Truly talented musicians. Sometimes, while listening to various low-fi underground bands, one forgets how talented componist one might find among the ranks of those properly educated. Although Christopher Lee, from what I know of, is hardly the leading spirit in this ensemble, his voice and integrity adds so much. The woman (Katja Nielsen?) who perfoms Galadriel's song has such a remarkable voice.

[vidar0205]

I will not tell my kids tales, I'll play this while they are falling asleep.

[sandorsbox]

I could so listen to Christopher Lee speak for hours on end. Such a marvelous timbre and so precise in his pronunciation. Not to mention that he's 90 years old and still eight feet tall. That man is awesome!

[Cassimfan]

Is he playing the piano?

[AutumnHippie]

That is one big moustache.

[zorland876]

Fun fact: Christopher Lee's microphone is just for show.

[dirkwearswhitesoxx]

Beautiful. This is truly, truly beautiful. It has left me speechless and at a loss for words, but it has also left me with the same magnificent and fantastic feeling that The Trilogy itself left me. Your work is just simply magic, and I thank you a thousand times for creating it.

[paghob]

My goodness why has nobody told me about this Ensemble before? The timbre of the music sounds so totally Elvish!!!! Awesome!!!

[eiricmacbean]

I love their settings. Though there are other settings of Tolkien's songs. I did a song cycle for my senior voice recital, "The Road Goes Ever On" by Donald Swann. Granted, he's known more for being half of Flanders and Swann, but he did alright with it. ;-)

[Gundryn]

Seriously, the most amazing group ever. Their music never fails to inspire me, any time I need to get the creative juices flowing. So Amazing.

[actorianknight]

Tolkien did have music for some of his songs. A video can be found here on Youtube of him singing "Troll sat Alone".

[Arkheno]

Just hearing his voice gives me the creeps. Certainly one of the most talented and charismatic artist of this century. Sire Christopher Lee you're one of my mentor in many ways !

[EinherjarAngantyr]

The Tolkien Ensemble always puts a hex on me. Truly enchanting.

Fans of Tolkien's books on Middle-Earth, these are CD's you would like to own.

[G0sPelMan]

Wow! It´s amazing...

[mbe102]

Oh man, freaking goosebumps. Amazing.

[hannigan06]

Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,

Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

[peacecanhappen27]

@torhjelm, I agree, he's freakin' awesome

haha! pirzol89 :-D

[pirzol89]

One Christopher to rule them, all

[EllethwenEldarwen]

yeah, it is true=)

[mezzogal]

i got shivers when christopher lee recited the Ring verse. there isn't a word to describe it.

[hannigan06]

@mezzogal

[askikibu77]

Behold the all mighty and powerful voice of Christopher Lee, truly unique and as old as time it's self, I say now that only one in the world today who can speak the words of the lore of the ring of power with such a sound as to here it and FEEL it as well.

[zachiswayposi1]

Man, I bet you get laid all the time.

[MaglorTheMinstrel]

@askikibu77

Cant agree with you more. :)

C.Lee was the only one from LOTR movie crew Who meet Tolkien in person.

[peacemtn]

Wow

[TheDeviousDeception]

I love all of the people in this clip! And Cristopher Lee... ah, such perfection!

[SystematicChaos6]

1:59 what a superb mustache

[torhjelm]

God bless Christopher Lee. I want him to live for 1000 years.

[kl4ng]

he just might! :)

[nuvemcaos]

@torhjelm He is in the right path for that :D

[LogiBlack125]

@torhjelm

They should give Christopher the one ring ;)

[oOGaladhrimOo]

@torhjelm or more.

[kngfsh256]

I have to take issue with Mr Lee's statement that on one has ever set Tolkien's poems and songs to music. A number of artists have done so, and most notably by Colin Rudd, whose musical adaptation of some of Tolkien's works is absolutely masterful.

[Nazgul001]

@kngfsh256 you left out him saying

(paraphrase) "...approved to do so by the Tolkien estate and family."

[sylarfan1]

woah.. sir Cristopher lee is sutch a amazing actor.

[hazza120]

Yes, he's an expert in the dark arts and has connections with the myterious Tolkien Enneagon, a secret society led by an appointed nine.

[Alishondra]

Lee is such a good actor.. amazing

[Konekosan01]

It's Ansem the Wise! 8D

[TheSymmachus]

Christopher Lee is an awesome actor. One of the greatest.

[Pink3064]

@ShizzlaNo1 Ich war da es war toll"

[RANDOMNAMEISRANDOMQQ]

Christopher Lee is so cool. (Tolkien too of course, but no one ever mentions Lee).

[ShizzlaNo1]

Gonna see them tomorrow in Oberhausen in Germany, i'm looking forward to it so much !!!

[ThiefOfTime01]

J.R.R Tolkein created a masterpiece, these people help make it that. The movies were foolish for missing out the songs, but then it'd be a musical. I take my hat off to you, Tolkein Ensemble!

[kngfsh256]

I agree, of all the egregious liberties that jackson took with Tolkien's work, leaving out all the marvelous poetry and song may have been the worst.

[spomajom]

no way the missing twist in the tale

[triumphelf]

Check Out -AUTUMN TEARS-The Widow Tree..

[Glanllyn]

(pt1)I love the music of the T E (regrettably have only been able to get hold of 1 of their CDs) but they weren't the first to put Tolkien's words to music.  The first was Donald Swann who worked with Tolkien and put selected songs to music. The score is published in "The road goes ever on". Personally I don't particularly like Swann's interpretation but Tolkien approved. The other major musical setting of Tolkien's words is..

[OleBentsen]

Glanllyn, I have all 4. Write me. :-)

[Glanllyn]

(pt2) in the BBC radio adaptation of TLotR by Brian Sibley & Michael Bakewell, music by Stephen Oliver. Broadcast in 1987 it is available as a 14 CD box set. I am torn between the two, TE and BBC. In most cases I feel the Ensemble capture the mood perfectly but for one or two songs (In Western Lands and Forth Rode the King) my opinion lies with the BBC getting it better. Of course it's all just personal taste. The world'd be a boring place if we all had the same favourites.

[TearsOfAnAngel6]

Christpher Lee has the unbelieveble voice can't stop listening it/him

[Curucuar]

This band makes me proud to be Danish.

[leaflessbranch33]

Beautiful!! especially Galadriel's song! Headed to amazon.

Beauty is about us if we know where to look.

My heart is truly warmed.

Christopher Lee's voice!!!!! I thought that was an audio trick in the movie...It's real! WOW!!!

[proteus1935]

Hail!

[doctorballbuster]

A toast to Christopher Lee and the Tolkien Ensemble! My their voices be heard for ages to come and may Christopher Lee be the beacon of acting we have searched for! I beleive he is because I'm Landon Forbes!

[admin1728]

I love Christopher Lee in this. You can tell he has a deep love of Tolkien's works. Not to mention he was born to play Saruman.

[krakhaid]

Yeah, he originally wanted to play Gandalf, but he was perfect for Saruman.

[mlupercus]

The Tolkien ensemble is the most decent and remarkable attempt to put Tolkien's poems into music - plus, their music can appeal to very broad specturm of auditors. However, just for the record, I have to state that Tolkien's poem have inspired countless folk / black / epic metal bands of the underground for many an album. There are bands like Valar, Summoning, Dol Amroth, Uruk-Hai etc who do the same thing since the mid 90s...

[GirlWithAPearlEarrin]

love Christopher Lee

[VaterAbrahanf]

His voice is great!

[AngelofMusic2006]

"The Old Walking Song." This is absolutely beautiful. I have tears in my eyes. Oh, man. I've recently discovered that it wasn't only Howard Shore who created beautiful music to go along with the world of Middle Earth. Absolutely beautiful.

And as many of you below said, I concur wholeheartedly: Hail John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.

[Tyrfingr]

As stated many times before, Christopher lee's voice is the mightiest.

[karloffornia13]

Oh...and btw...what is this from?

[karloffornia13]

I love Mr. Lee! ^_^ This video is loverly!

[colinjohnrudd]

It's been done well before Mr Lee....I did it before these guys ever heard of Tolkien!

[farscape1]

He didn't hear Summoning...

[VicTolkien]

Tolkien was a genius.

I love reading his books, esp. The Lord Of The Rings and The Silmarillion.

Hail Tolkien!!!!!!

[AngelofMusic2006]

Hail!

[CaptainObsidianKilo]

Hail!

[pppfffgg]

Aiya Tolkien!

[AngelofMusic2006]

Elven! Yes! Nice one.

[TheFacelessWarrior]

Tak. I have your album "At Dawn in Rivendell" and I often listen to it mixed with the movie soundtracks. A lovely in-road to another dimension of Tolkiens world.

btw, are you gonna make available any more footage from these shows?

[Angel2807]

As well as Caspar is a good guitarist he's a good guitar teacher as well =)

[0jerd]

Hail Tolkien, the greatest light the world has ever seen.

[k2vaja00]

All hail Tolkien, Christopher Lee and The Tolkien Ensemble! 5 stars!

[Lenoba94]

all hail Tolkien!

[freshdarkstar]

hail hail hail hail

[0jerd]

Hail!

[MarieEtOlivia]

Wow..I Bow in awe! Godbless Christopher Lee, he apparently met Professor Tolkein you know. Hes a genuine heart-felt enthusiast of Tolkeins work, and it is beautiful to see that these people care so much for Tolkeins work without being involved with those monstrous movies. Galadriel's song here is haunting, and so true to Tolkeins work. Thats what i love about this! It is so faithful to Tolkein.

[Kress512]

Troll sat alone on his seat of stone,

And munched and mumbled a bare old bone;

For many a year he had gnawed it near,

For meat was hard to come by.

Done by! Gum by!

In a cave in the hills he dwelt alone,

And meat was hard to come by.

Awesome:D

[arwendon]

I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew:

Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.

Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,

And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.

so imhumanly beautiful .

[paigereeder]

You know you've "made it" when you have a tribute band and you're not even a musician. lol. Bravo, Tolkien.

[pcw78]

I bow my head!!! This absolutely awesome!!!!

[dragoons9009]

I am bit of a music aesthetic-tist myself, but I don't see how the guitar is necessary. It doesn't fit with Lord of the Rings. The rest of the instruments are fine. I'll have to see this live myself, but in video, it just doesn't go, IMO.

[JakubNo]

I love the voice of Christopher Lee. And she strings..... :-))))

Did you hear "The Riddle of Strider"?? When he lowers his voice while saying: "The crownless A-GAIN shall be king". Great! I'm out of words!

[dragoons9009]

Well, he REALLY does sound like Saruman. Scary.

[Lisihaldir]

wonderful

[quintaldo]

Great job. It's inspiring to see how artists are giving a second life to tolkien's work. I was impressed by the graphic artists' work in the movies. Now I see there are gifted musicians who are giving us beautiful fruits as well.

To me the most amazing piece of tolkien-related work remains Angus Mc Bride's pencil-portraits of the main LOTR characters. This guy is a perfect psychic and he captured the real figures of the characters.

[cuchulain55]

I bet thats why they cose him to be Saruman because Saruman is known for his powerful munipulating inspireing voice. And Christopher lees is alot like that.:)

[Kathaarsis]

Hearing Christopher Lee recite the verse of the ring just makes your hair stand up. I've heard him speak it in the black speech as well.

[Camurgladius]

Really?! That'd be so awesome...I quite envy you.

[CrunkChipmunk]

Haha, Christopher Lee's voice is so fucking awesome. As he's narrating its just like we're in a new movie and Saruman the White is casting another spell on us. "Do not let him speak he will put a spell on us!"

[adrianaparker]

PERFECT!!! I love them!!

[Aresevil]

I love their songs!

Too much feeling in musics and a nice work.

They pass me exactly the spirit of the books. Wonderful.

[traningday]

Some of it is good, some is sentimental, some is corny. Not every poem is set, especially the Lays. I'd like to see the songs of Earendel and Durin done right.

[tolkienensemble]

Dear Traningday, Thank you for your comment. The Song of Durin & The Song of Earendel is on our 4th album called "Leaving Rivendell" and also on our 4CD box "Complete Songs & Poems from The Lord of the Rings" published last year. Both publications are available on amazon & ebay. - so yes: every single poems from is set to music and published by The Tolkien Ensemble. With the best wishes, The Tolkien Ensemble

[melyrn]

Is this really the Tolkien Ensemble? If so, do you have plans to release a DVD of the concerts? And do you have sheet music available?

[mizukami999]

What they did is awesome!

They became more then classics for me.

I buried Tolkien in my heart when the films were released. But now they revived the spirit in me.

[Hobbitska]

HE has very very beautiful voice... *dream*

[Blazkovicz]

I guess, it´s from this year

[Blazkovicz]

perfect... I think that Mr. Lee´s voice is the best for reading the Lord of the Rings.

Thanks for this video.

[Hobbitska]

Fascinating! What year it is?