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What is meant by 'Source' Text
These are the entire
bodies of text from which were drawn the
lyrics as sung in the movie's
soundtrack. Sometimes, the source text
exactly agrees with what is sung.
Sometimes,
only select lines are sung. Sometimes,
only syllables are sung. A particular
source text might be drawn upon for more
than one instance of singing.
I use the
terms Source Text, Source Poems, and
Source Songs interchangeably. Sometimes
the piece is a song from the book.
Sometimes it's a poem from the book.
Sometimes it's just text from the book
or something written by Fran Walsh or
Philippa Boyens. So one of those terms
doesn't quite cover the entire body of
work. I just use what seems most
appropriate at the moment.
There were many
origins for lyrics sung in the Lord of the Rings
movies. Some are taken right from the books, either a song or
text directly quoted or used as inspiration. Many lyrics were
written by Philippa Boyens. Fran Walsh wrote a couple. If the source wasn't already in a Tolkien language but needed to be,
David Salo would translate Tolkien's, Boyen's or Walsh's words into
Quenya, Sindarin, Adűnaic, Neo-Khuzdűl, or Old English.
Where do the
Source Texts presented on this site come from?
Originally, many places:
the
liner notes of the standard jewel case edition soundtracks and
the limited edition soundtracks
online content
available with certain
standard or limited
edition soundtracks
Sheet Music
Sometimes, fans worked backwards. They listened to the singing,
tried to imagine what the Elvish words were and then translated
those back into English.
But
the Annotated Scores that have been released with the
Complete Recordings
Sets provide the most recent and most complete resource for
Source texts. However, numerous mistakes have been found in
these Annotated Scores. So I still try hard to cross reference
any information I can find. It's always been my habit to provide
my references and you'll often find a statement such as:
Title, Original English and
Sindarin Translation found on the DVD that came with the ROTK
Special Edition Soundtrack CD. The English Original and the use of the Sindarin translation in the lyrics are found in
the
MusicNotes sheet music.
...so
the reader can determine, for themselves, how accurate the
information is.
What
info can be found on these pages:
composer
(who wrote the music, usually Howard Shore)
lyricist
(who wrote the words, usually Philippa
Boyens, Fran Walsh, or J.R.R. Tolkien
translator
(David Salo or J.R.R. Tolkien)
vocalists:
choirs and soloists
language
used for sung version (in
blue)
what portion of the text
was used in the movie's soundtrack and
what wasn't
Text in green indicates
that text
was used for lyrics somewhere in the
movie
Text in brown indicates
that text was not used for lyrics
anywhere in the movie
English translation or
original text (text in black)
textual connections to
the LOTR book
How to find what is
being sung in any particular place:
This information comes under the category of
Lyrics.
What's
the difference between Lyrics and Source text?
How can one figure out what is being
sung in a particular scene?
Naming the Songs, Poems
or Source Text:
This was more of an issue before we
started getting 'official' names for the songs. Even so, there's one
way in which the organization of my site is at odds with the
'official' naming of songs. I strove to create a resource that would
provide a source poem, song, or text for any singing. It was
conceivable, and in fact a reality, that one particular source text
could (and was) used for more than one incidence of singing. I
wanted to name the source song, and then provide the incidences in
which it was used.
The official protocol has been to create
a named song for every instance. The same text might have different
names. And when more than one source text was used for a song, it was
lumped under the same name. I'm trying to use the official names as
much as possible to allow an easier interface between my site and
official material. I've done my best to integrate both ways of
thinking about a 'song'. Hopefully I haven't been too confusing.
Languages:
Most of the lyrics are in one of
Tolkien's constructed languages - Elven Quenya or Sindarin - Dwarven
Khuzdűl - Adűnaic, the ancient language of Men, Black Speech of
Mordor - or in Old English, the representative language of Rohan.. The only English songs were Hobbit songs, Gollum's Fish Song and the
songs used at the end of each movie. (oops... it seems that
isn't true. Arwen's Prayer and Arwen's
song at the House of Healing are both in English.) David Salo
needed to extrapolate on Tolkien's own work, since the construction
of the languages only went so far. The source texts are sorted by
language on
THIS PAGE with a small amount of
information about each language.
The
Choirs:
The London Voices - under the direction of Terry Edwards,
this 60 - 85 member adult choir of mixed voices sang in all
three movies. In the
FOTR Annotated Score,
Doug Adams mentions a female chorus... or female voices. I haven't
heard anything about recording a particular all female choir, like
the all male choir for Moria. I suspect it was just the female members
of the London Voices.
The London Oratory School Schola - this 30 piece boy's choir
also sang in all three movies. Edward Ross was their soloist in
FOTR and Ben Del Maestro was for TTT & ROTK. The boy's choir
sang during the wounding
of Boromir, the Seduction of the Ring, and
Bilbo's Song.
The Maori Samoan Choir - under the
direction of
Inglese Ete,
a 60 member all male choir, sang in the Moria scenes in FOTR.
HS COMMENT
The Soloists/Artists:
Bayrakdarian,
Isabel
- Evenstar,
The Missing
Chandra, Sheila
- Grace of the Valar (Breath of Life)
Cole, Aivale
(nee Mabel Faletolu) - Hymn for Gandalf
del Maestro, Ben -
The March of the Ents,
The Mearas,
The White Rider,
The Eagles
Enya -
Aníron,
May It Be
Faletolu,
Mabel - now Aivale Cole
Fleming,
Renée
- The Evening Star,
The Destruction of
the Ring, The Eagles,
The Song of Lúthien
Elizabeth Fraser
- Lament for
Gandalf, verses, Haldir's Lament
(Namárië),
Kyrkjebř, Sissel
- Grace of the Valar (Breath of Life)
Lennox, Annie
- Into the West,
Use Well the Days
Plan 9
(Janet Roddick, David Donaldson, Stephen Roche and David Long) -
The Elvish Lament
Ross, Edward -
A Moth in Isengard ,
In Dreams
Sissel - see Kyrkjebř, Sissel
Stockley,
Miriam -
Footsteps
of Doom (Lothlórien Theme in TTT)
Summers, Hilary -
Gilraen's Song
Torrini,
Emiliana
- Gollum's Song
Cast Performers:
Boyd,
Billy
- Hey, Ho! To the Bottle I Go,
Green Dragon Beer,
Edge of Night
Holm,
Ian -
The Road Goes Ever On
McKellen,
Ian
- The
Road Goes Ever On
Monaghan,
Dominic -
Hey, Ho! To the
Bottle I Go, Green
Dragon Beer
Mortensen,
Viggo -
Song of Lúthien,
Elessar's Oath
Otto,
Miranda -
Lament for Theodred
Rhys-Davies,
John
- Song of the Entwives,
Bregalad's Song
Serkis,
Andy
- Gollum's Fish Song
Tyler,
Liv -
Arwen's Song
Thanks:
Besides the
Annotated Scores,
this site contains a compilation of what I've found at
Gwaith-I-Phethdain,
Elfling,
official soundtrack sites and closed captioning of the movies --- conversations I've had with numerous individuals, most specially
Danijel,
Kurt,
Jelle, Gwen Lloyd,
Sabsi Fronek, Zigur, minasmorgul, Elvenscribe07, Angela "Aty" Ferreira, Imladir, Ainu Laire, and
Lisa Graves* --- and stuff I've teased out on my own, with the help
of my son who's ears are better than mine. It was a labor of love. I hope you enjoy.
~Magpie
*As I am able to slowly replace some of
these fan speculations with official lyrics, I pull off those tags,
"taken from the work of ____". Remarkably, many of these
speculations were pretty spot on, especially Danijel's. I almost
regret removing these credits since the work they did was
monumental. Please know that, even if we're using their work for
fewer and fewer songs, their contribution was invaluable. I believe
that the interest and work of the fans have guided the sorts of
material we are finding in the Complete Recordings information and I
truly believe that all that we've collectively done will endure
beyond any mention of it.
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