| Leaving Rivendell | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 2005 | |||
| Recorded | Germany | |||
| Genre | Classical | |||
| Length | 69:00 | |||
| The Tolkien Ensemble chronology | ||||
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Leaving Rivendell is the fourth album by the Danish groupThe Tolkien Ensemble, withChristopher Lee as additional vocalist.[1] It features songs composed to the lyrics found inThe Lord of the Rings byJ. R. R. Tolkien and forms the end part of a complete musical interpretation of all lyrics in the book.[2]
The composer Stephen Eddins describes the music as "largelymodal and melancholy".[3] In his view the album has the correct tone for accompanyingTolkien's poems, but the music is not in the main "strong enough" to attract listeners who are not already Tolkien fans. He prefers Peter Hall's settings to those byCaspar Reiff [es], and considers Hall's "Song of Eärendil" to be the most successful track in the album. That setting is played on guitar by Hall and sung by the Scottish musicianNick Keir, and to Eddins it "sounds authentically rooted in Celtic folk music, with occasional eccentric and unexpected but effective harmonizations".[3] He admired the singing and playing of The Tolkien Ensemble, theDanish Radio Sinfonietta, and the Danish National Chamber Choir on the album; the conductor was Morten Ryelund Sørensen.[3]
