Over The Misty Mountains Cold (Original Song for Tolkien's poem from "The Hobbit")

[Squirtyfire]

Isnt this from the 1970s move?

[GlenHoban]

@Squirtyfire

The poem (lyrics) is by Tolkien & is from much earlier than 1970's, but probably appeared in the movie you are thinking of; the melody is my own (so far as I know), as is the recording and performance. (I think I've heard the version from the 70's movie & it's not the same as mine.)

[Squirtyfire]

@GlenHoban No , i know all that, what i mean was i thought this specific song was the same variation from the 70s Movie but they are completely different. Yeah i know that it was poem written by Tolkein , as well as the Full LOTR poem and the small short ones from silmarillion

[deadlytoque]

This sounds a little like a Tom Waits version. A little more "werewolf voice" and it would be perfect.

[GlenHoban]

@deadlytoque

I wasn't familiar with Tom Waits, so I had to go and listen..... I think I'm flattered, though I don't think that his voice would be considered conventially 'beautiful' in the songs (Bad Like Me; God's Away on Business) I listened to, but...... what a voice nonetheless, and very intelligently written songs.

I don't know if my next version will have more werewolf, but I definitely want it even more resonant, and hopefully lower by about a fourth.

[Arnkh]

Honestly, this doesn't seem to be the kind of song that should be played on a piano and harp and what have you. A flute, or maybe a drum - and that should be it. I mean, this is something dwarves would sing by the camp fire, not in an opera house, and you don't lug a harp with you if you truly intend to go to far over the misty mountains cold.

Anyway, I already said that I loved the previous version and that I loved this one even more, just trying to add something to the discussion.

[GlenHoban]

@Arnkh

Now that I could manage, actually, as I play the panflute & already do play this piece on the pipe. Hopefully my place of work will stop asking me to do overtime sometime soon & I can work on my ever-growing list of projects... I'm also intending to see what I can do with MIDI. It would be cool if I could convince some musical friends to help.

I highly appreciate the suggestions, comments and praise, & I hope that I will be able to post something you will like soon. :-)

[Xerdocreisson]

You should get some instruments like in the book.

[GlenHoban]

@Xerdocreisson

Someone whose comment is below was kind enough to draw up a list of the instruments, so I might give it a try; I could play the flutes, drum & maybe the harp, but I'd have to get help (or use MIDI) for the other instruments. Soon as I stop having to work overtime I might start in on it! :-)

[Xerdocreisson]

@GlenHoban You could get some people willing to play with you, they don't need to sing. But MIDI can work fine.

[Zenxuna]

It needs to be a lot deeper my friend, dwarves have brutally deep voices

[GlenHoban]

@Zenxuna

Workin' on it...I love deep voices & have been trying to increase my bass range for the last year or so (I can get some very deep notes - much deeper than in this video - but not enough volume yet). You might like to check out the posting I did of the Howard Shore melody; it's rather deeper than this. :-) I've added the link to the video description.

[6471917]

This does sound dwarvish enough. Perhaps it is not what we humans would find epic, but that's dwarven culture, what can we do. It brings images of actual good old-school dwarves.

[GlenHoban]

@6471917

Thank you! With this version I made a bit of an attempt to put myself in a dwarvish mind frame (i.e., the word 'gold' would be a special one, things like that) & I'm glad that came through.

It's not epic in the way the Harold Shore's version is, but more intended as a kind of 'rally the troops & get their blood going' type of thing. :-)

[shtetldik]

Great work!

[GlenHoban]

@shtetldik

Thank you! :-)

[shtetldik]

@GlenHoban And I like that you put out the MIDI to test it out :)

[shtetldik]

@GlenHoban Though for some reason in the MIDI it's basically a duplication now (bass duplicates solo plus adds one lower octave).

[GlenHoban]

@shtetldik

In this version that's really all the MIDI is - the melody duplicated in the bass, with perhaps a little rhythmic deviation. I've worked out a much more involved classical treatment of this song for piano solo, but I still need to learn to play it & tweak it before I post (I think it's around grade 9 or 10). I'll be posting the MIDI for that as well. :-)

[shtetldik]

@GlenHoban Would be interesting to render it closer to the spirit of the book, where dwarves used various instruments for that song. You can review that part for details. Good luck!

[GlenHoban]

@shtetldik

In theory I could do something like that, as I also have many other instruments (mostly flutes & other woodwinds, but some percussion and even a glockenspiel); I don't have a lot of experience doing multi-track work, so it would be a challenge!

[shtetldik]

@GlenHoban Here is a list from there (for 11 dwarves, I guess the rest were just singing):

2 violins (Fili and Kili), 3 flutes (Dori, Nori and Ori), 1 drum (Bombur), 2 clarinets (Bifur and Bofur), 2 violas (Balin and Dwalin) and 1 harp (Thorin).

[GlenHoban]

@shtetldik

There's a challenge for me indeed. I could cover the flutes, the drum, the clarinet (with much, much work on my clarinet playing), the violin (with years of work!) and even the harp if I substituted a little psalter-like instrument I have. I'd still need a viola player or two. Maybe there are some LOTR geeks at the school of music. :-D

(I could cheat and use an electronic keyboard, if I had one, but though I have over 100 instruments in my house, not one is electronic! )

[shtetldik]

@GlenHoban Well, to experiment with MIDI you can use the software synthesizer in any decent MIDI editor, where you can easily pick all of those instruments. It's enough to get a good idea how it can sound. Of course if you want a live performance, you'll need to get a real band (of dwarves hehe ;)

[GlenHoban]

@shtetldik

I'm a purist. :-D

But there's no harm in trying out what the MIDI can do; I will probably do something rather different than my piano solo, however, which is a recognizably 20th century piece & not at all something dwarves would have played. (Not sure what I'd have to to do to be recognizably 21st century. Quote 'Madonna' maybe. :-P )

[shtetldik]

@GlenHoban I'm not so much of a purist for live vs synth, but I'm not for the 20(1)th cent. style for this. Dwarven thing is the key ;) Anyway, thanks for your attempt.

[Arnkh]

Ah, this one is even better! Thank you for keeping up the good work.

[GlenHoban]

@Arnkh

You're very kind! :-)

I like it better as well, even though the drum is a little shaky at the beginning & hope my next attempt will be even better.

I'm presently 'working up' sheet music for a full classical style piano solo for this piece which I hope to have completed in a few days (might take me a few more to learn it) & that will hopefully give me some ideas for scoring as well, should I decide to be more ambitous with the next attempt at multi-tracking.

[tommynemec2]

Very neat! Thanks for posting!

[GlenHoban]

@tommynemec2

I'm glad you liked it; thank you! :-)